On the subject of the county franchise, Mr. Forster pro-
duced some striking statistics. It was objected, he said, that you could not admit another million of voters into the counties with- out giving the counties a larger proportion of representation than they have at present, since the counties would then have 57 per cent. of the voters, and without a redistribution of seats, only 38 per cent. of the Members. Nor did he object to the plea so founded for redistribution. Still there are greater anom- alies than this would be, even in our existing system. There are seventy-one boroughs in England and Wales which contain only four per cent. of the voters, while they return sixteen per cent. of the Members ; and again, there are ten other boroughs (outside London) which, while they contain sixteen per cent. of the voters, return less than five per cent. of the Members; and in London, the matter is even worse. As regards anomalies, then, the anomalies of the existing system offer quite as much reason for redistribution as the anomalies introduced by granting county suffrage would offer. With regard, too, to the prospects of the'Liberal party, Mr. Forster men- tioned some striking facts :—" A change of five per cent. (that is, of one in twenty in the votes of only sixty-seven English constituen- cies) would turn our present Liberal minority of 115 into a majority of 39, and a change in 1,900 votes throughout 34 boroughs, would turn the whole majority of the Conservatives into a minority of 58. That certainly shows how very susceptible a balance the English representative system is ; how slight a change in the current of feeling will produce a great effect on the delicately-balanced lever of national representation. Certainly, if any one man in the Liberal party could be expected to initiate such a revulsion of feeling, that one man would be Mr. Forster.
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