Mr. Fowler's illustration of the unfairness of the distribution of
representative influence in Staffordshire, is remarkable only because it expresses neatly and succinctly what might be easily matched in any populous county of England and Wales :—" In Staffordshire, there are eight boroughs that return thirteen Members to Parliament; four of them return seven, and four others return six. You would think that the four boroughs which return seven Members comprise a majority of the popula- tion and a majority of the electors. Let us see. The four boroughs sending seven Members, all told, have a population of under 60,000; the four boroughs returning six Members, all told, have a population of over 500,000 people. But I hear some cautions Conservative say, That is a striking contrast, so far as numbers are concerned. But property must be represented, as well as population. Those who pay taxes must have the larger voice in deciding how the taxes are to be spent.' Very well, Sir, without stopping to argue whether 60,000 mouths can consume more than 500,000 mouths,—and the bulk of our taxes are raised upon what the people eat and drink,—let us take the property test. In the four boroughs that return the seven Members, the income from all sources, from trade, from rents, from profits on which they pay income-tax, is £643,000, and the income of the four boroughs that have only six Members is B4,700,000. Com- ment upon these figures is superfluous." That is good political pemmican. But Mr. Fowler is no indifferent orator, as well as no feeble politician. His comment on the Conservative gathering at Birmingham, which was to be supplied with light, as the adver- tisements previously informed Birmingham, from" Chinese lan- terns," told most happily on his audience. " Chinese lanterns,' he said—" apt symbols of the light and leading of Conservative Cabinets "—were to decorate the Conservative assembly, while .."the whole was to conclude with a display ef fireworks." But they did not only conclude with fireworks, " they commenced with fireworks, and they had nothing but fireworks all the way through." Here Mr. Fowler did the Conservative orators at Birmingham something more than justice. At least, if it was all fireworks, a good deal of the gunpowder was damp and the result a sputtering devoid of brilliancy.
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