Mr. Forster delivered a very important speech to the Leeds
Liberal Club on Thursday, the drift of which was that he desired to see a strong Redistribution Bill, and not a mild one; that he inclined to a very considerable step in the direction of equalising electoral districts ; that, if some protection for minorities were needed, he would rather see it given in the shape of dividing constituencies into smaller sections, and giving one Member only to each section,—no voter having more than one vote,—than in the direction of any more complex scheme for the representation of minorities ; and, that he is more and more convinced, the longer he lives, of the soundness of Liberal principles, and the safeness of fully working them out. Mr. Forster was not much disposed to take the value of property separately into account, in considering the question of redis- tribution; and he was not much disposed to take special indirect representation, such as it is said that London enjoys in Parlia- ment, into account. He would base the redistribution mostly, if not entirely, on numbers.
Previous page
