Mr. A. Balfour, the head of the Local Government Board,
introduced on Tuesday the Medical Relief Bill of the Govern- ment, which goes a good deal farther than Mr. Jesse Collings's Bill. The latter only suspended disfranchisement for receiving medical relief for a single year. Mr. Balfour maintained that if it is just to suspend it at all, it is just to prohibit such dis- franchisement altogether ; and this his Bill proposes to do, not only for Parliamentary, but for Municipal and School-Board elections,—indeed, for all elections, except the election of Poor- law Guardians, who ought not to be elected by persons in receipt of medical relief. We cannot see the force of Mr. Balfour's statement that, if it is unjust to disqualify for the first year of the new Act, it is unjust to disqualify at all. The ground of a suspensory measure is, that labourers have been receiving medical relief from the parish who would never have consented to do so, had they known that they were sacrificing their vote by doing so, and that the knowledge of this great political disappointment has come upon them by surprise. If this be so, delay is perfectly justifiable. But it does not follow that it is desirable to advertise electors that for all time they may obtain their medical attendance at the public expense, without in any degree forfeiting their political independence.
