MR. PLUNKLT ON T1HE IRISH FRANCHISE.
ere TEE EDITOR OF THR " SPECTATOR.") Six,—I have only to-day found time to read tho Spectator of the 22nd inst., but I hope it is not too late to point out a very serious misapprehension of an important part of Mr. Plunket's Shrewsbury speech contained in your short note on it.
You say, " What Mr. Plunket really argued for, is to hide from ourselves, so far as we can, the real condition of popular opinion in Ireland, and to keep Ireland misrepresented or un- represented, while we accord a fall and fair representation to England and Scotland ;" but Mr. Plunket gave figures of un- doubted correctness to show that between Protestants and edu- cated and propertied Catholics there were a million and a half, or upwards of a third of the population of Ireland, opposed to Mr. Parnell and his policy ; and that this million and a half, which has, with the present franchise, something like its share of representation, would, with a reduced franchise, and without re- .distribution, be able to return less than one-tenth of the Mem- bers ; so that, in addition to all other serious practical Objections to the reduction of the Irish franchise at the present time, it would cause this country to be much more seriously misrepre- sented, and a more numerous and important class to be unre- presented, than the present arrangement.
Everything hitherto said and written in favour of the inclu- sion of Ireland in the coming Reform Bill seems to me to go directly against Burke's maxim that, "The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious." Every one of the circumstances which makes an .enlarged franchise at present desirable in England is either absent or reversed in Ireland. Surely the argument that you will deprive Mr. Parnell and his followers of a grievance is
[We have never urged the argument suggested in the last sentence. We have urged that to give Ireland as fair a repre- sentation as England, will deprive Ireland of a real grievance, which is a very different thing from depriving Mr. Parnell of one. Our correspondent's objection appears to be aimed at a mere extension of the franchise, without suitable and just re- -distribut In. But we contend for that extension with a suitable and just distribution of seats. And that this shall be applied fairly to Is land, the Liberals and Conservatives may properly combine to insist.—En. Spectator.]
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