The Ulster Liberal Unionist Association are in favour of the
Irish Local Government scheme under strict conditions, and no doubt Mr. Balfour's approaching visit to Belfast is meant to fill his sails for the great and dubious enter- prise of the coming Session. They propose a scheme of County Councils resting on the Barony as a unit,—the average number of baronies in a county is, they say, about ten, and they propose to give the Local Government Board power to divide or combine baronies, so as to bring the actual number of constituent baronies in a county to ten,—and they would give the suffrage to all ratepayers, but give a larger number of votes to the large ratepayers, as in English Poor-Law elections. Each barony would elect eight baronial Councillors, and the four highest on the poll would become County Councillors ; so that if there were ten baronies in the county, the number of County Councillors would be forty. The County Councillors so elected would co-opt one-third of their number of Aldermen, or in such a case as this, thirteen Aldermen. The County Council would have all the power of the present Grand Jury, except that of presentments under the Acts making provision for malicious injuries and riotous outrages, which would be left to the present legal tribunals. The Baronial Councils would deal with the local improvements of the barony, and would be on the same footing as the District Councils proposed for England. The Association propose to keep the County Councils in order by the help of a strengthened Local Government Board, consisting of eight official members and eight more nominated from the County Councillors,two from each of the four provinces of Ireland. This Board would exercise all the powers of veto, and ultimately of dissolution of recalcitrant Councils, which the official Local Government Board exercises at present. Eiidently the Ulstermen are by no means confident that the right time for Irish Locil Government has yet arrived in three out of the four provinces of Ireland ; but they would like to have it ' in Ulster, and to try it under very powerful checks elsewhere. But where would the checks go to if Mr. Gladstone won the General Election P
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