In the House of Commons on Thursday, when the Franchise
debate was resumed, Mr. Burns reiterated Mr. Harcourt's declarations that it was the Government's intention to pass a Redistribution measure before the next General Election, which he thought would not take place before 1915. Regard- ing the predictions of evil which were made when the Franchise Bills of 1867 and 1884 were before the country, he declared that events had falsified those predictions and that they would also falsify the prophecies of evil which were now heard. Mr. Burns is very much behind the times. We can assure him that we are not in the very least afraid of a just Franchise Bill. What we are afraid of is a system under which electoral power is distributed with such monstrous un- fairness as it now is, and will be even if the Home Rule Bill were to be passed. The pluralist voters of Ireland would then not merely send representatives to the Dublin Parliament to deal with their own affairs, but would send representatives in large numbers to Westminster to tax Englishmen and Scots- men and to control purely British legislation.
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