Mr. Butt has also sent a second long letter to
the Times on the reform of the borough constituencies, and threatens a third. He proposes to disfranchise five Irish boroughs, and with the two seats already forfeited for corruption to redistribute seven seats. Ile would give a seat to Kingstown and another to Queenstown, a second seat to Derry, a seat to Lurgan in the county of Armagh, and a seat each to Newtownards, Fermoy, and Ballymena, uniting Downpatrick to Newtownards and Mallow to Fermoy. Mr. Butt objects to the minority members, so he will not give a third seat to Dublin; but really his whole notion on the Borough representation of Ireland is a plan for the representation of constituencies much more artifically constituted, and much leas defensible in principle, than the minority-party in a great city like Dublin. The whole drift of his letters may be described in a word ; he sees that Ire- land is chiefly an agricultural country, and yet dreads the conser-
vatism of agricultural populations voting with the ballot, so he tries to devise a system in which those-of -the agricultural popula- tion who are more under-town influences tham the class in general, shall have more than their fair share, of electoral power. That - won't do.
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