A writer who signs himself " Cato," and to whom
the Times gives a most prominent position, contends that a mere franchise bill does not deserve the name of a Reform Bill. He gives a list of twenty-nine boroughs which return fifty-one members, but have only an average register of 192. These boroughs, containing 160,000 inhabitants, return nearly as many representatives as Scotland, half as many as Ireland, nearly'three times as many as London, which has a population equal to one-tenth that of the three 'kingdoms. The anomaly is too monstrous, and the twenty-nine boroughs, Abingdon, Arundel, Ashburton, Bab-lain, Buckingham, Caine, Cirencester, Dartmouth, Devizes, Evesham, Honiton, Knaresborough, Leominster, Ludlow, Lymington, Marlborough, Marlow, Richmond, Ripon, Stamford, Tamworth, Tavistock, 'Tewkesbury, Thetford, Totnes, Wallingford, Wells, Woodstock, Wycombe, and we will add, Harwich, Petersfield, and perhaps one .or two more, ought to be swept away. To make the representation decent, no borough should be retained with less than 500 electors. -Grouping those we disfranchise, so that all in a county shall form one, there will still be seats enough for a generous but not -dangerous representation of working men.
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