MR. CHAMBER GAIN AND THE BATTERSEA RADICAL ASSOCIATION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
Sma,—Allow me to suggest that Mr. Chamberlain did not refer to the question of a Redistribution Bill in his letter to the Bat- tersea Association noticed in the last Spectator. The Association sent Mr. Chamberlain a resolution in favour of universal or manhood suffrage, and he replied that the first step must be the assimilation of the county and borough suffrage. He said : —" Public opinion must ripen considerably, before it would be possible for any Government to go further [than that assimila- tion], and the final settlement of the franchise question [not of redistribution] must of necessity be postponed until there is evidence of a sufficient general agreement on the subject." It may be better policy to keep the Redistribution Bill for a later Session, or even another Parliament ; but it can hardly be said that the one question is less ripe than the other, nor is there any indication that Mr. Chamberlain was thinking of redistribution
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