NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. GLADSTONE moved on Monday for leave to introduce the Redistribution Bill, expressing his satisfaction that it was possible to do so without much fear of raising controverted principles or great party issues as between the different sections of the House of Commons. The great object of the Bill was to give a fuller representation to the counties. At present the counties, with a very restricted electorate, had but one Member to every 78,000 of population ; while the boroughs, with a much wider electorate, have one Member to every 41,200 persons. But as the Franchise Bill will widen the county electorate to the same point as the borough electorate, it becomes necessary to give the counties a much larger share of electoral power. The second point is to transfer power from the small boroughs to the large, which have not nearly their fair share of electoral influ- ence. The first proposal is to disfranchise entirely, as boroughs, i.e., to merge in the counties, 79 boroughs in England and Wales, 2 in Scotland, and 22 in Ireland. Besides this, two rural boroughs in England and two in Ireland are merged in the counties; and two, Macclesfield and Sandwich, lose their separate representation for corrupt practices. Farther, 34 boroughs in England and 3 in Ireland lose one Member each. These arrangements place 160 seats at the disposal of the House,— in 1832 there were only 143,—and of these 160 seats, 96 will be given to the counties and 64 to large towns. New boroughs taken out of counties will receive 8 seats.
