Mr. Fawcett, who spoke after Mr. Lefevre, and who bore
testimony to Mr. Lefevre's admirable administration of the Post Office during his own serious illness last year, made some- criticism on our own columns in relation to the representation of minorities. He hardly, however, seems to have under- stood us. What we said was that the present " three- cornered" system, though it gives a better representation of opinion in the particular constituencies to which it is applied, positively injures the representation of English opinion as a whole, and will do so, unless it be enormously extended -to the re- presentation of minorities in small places as well as large,—and that it is simply hopeless to ask for such a large extension as this, without remedying the defects which make it so annoying to the constituencies to which it is applied. On the Socialist question,—on the taxing of the industrious and able to remedy the evils which the indolent and the slovenly have brought upon themselves,—Mr. Fawcett spoke with very great vigour and effect._ Radical as he is, Mr. Fawcett will never be found on the side of increasing the difficulties of life to the good, in order to diminish their pressure on the bad.
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