SCOTLAND.
Dr. Begg, Mr. Duncan M‘Laren, and other supporters of the new franchise-extension movement in Scotland, waited on the Lord-Advocate on Saturday, at his chambers in Edinburgh, to bring their scheme officially under his ken. In reply to their statements, Mr. Monereiff said, ho would frankly state his own views—" nobody's views but his own." He seemed to be in favour of the registration of county voters ; but with regard to the other points, he was not sure that the forty-shilling franchise would not work into the hands of the large proprietors. Moreover, approving of an extension of the suffrage, he does not wish to see the working classes of the towns buying county franchises.
"I have as great a desire to see the working classes raise themselves in the scale of society as any man can have ; but I wish a county constituency to be a county constituency, and a town constituency to be a town constituency. Moreover, it seems to me that there is a want of consistency, in abstract principle at least, in the purchase of land for the express purpose of acquiring the franchise. That is what I always objected to in the ease of the Conservatives, who were in the habit of clubbing together and buying estates, and dividing and parcelling them out into 10/. qualifications. liven when this is honestly done, I think it is not the spirit of representative government at all, because the franchise is taken as the test of the intelligence of the particular voter and his interest in the locality in which he has a vote. Now, without saying that I would adhere very stringently aud strictly to that doctrine in the adjustment of the franchise, I must plainly say that it is not an object that weighs much with me, that the working classes of Edinburgh, or the professional classes of Edinburgh—its journeymen, or doctors, or lawyers, or any other body of men—should be buying land in the county for the purpose of having a vote. Quite the reverse. Whene villages have
grown up within a county—villages of a in the mining character —it is quite right that such a constituency should vote tho county. But, on the other hand, it seems to me that the persons who ought to vote for a county or burgh are the persons who live in the county or burgh, and have their interest there I think it would be out of the question to give votes in counties to persons residing in burghs. I know no principle on which that can possibly be maintained."
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