rvice franchise was created for those who were qualified
neither as householders nor lodgers, and the principle of single-member
equal electoral districts--on a basis of 54,000 inhabitants--was adopted.
Only twenty-three boroughs, the City of London and the Universities of
Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, retained double-member representation. The
membership of the House of Commons was increased from six hundred and
fifty-eight to six hundred and seventy, the present total; and the
franchise remains as it was fixed in 1885--occupation and ownership giving
the right to vote.
From time to time, for more than a hundred years, a plea has been put
forward for universal or adult suffrage for men on the ground of an
abstract right to vote, but it has met with little encouragement.[84] There
is, however, a wide feeling in favour of simplifying the registration laws,
so that a three-months' residence, instead of, as at present, a year's
residence from one July to the next, should be sufficient to qualify for
the franchise. There is also a strong demand for "one man, one vote." At
present, while no elector may give more than one vote in any constituency,
he may, if he has property in various places, give a vote in each of these
districts, and some men thus give as many as a dozen votes at a general
election. This plural voting by property and residential qualifications in
different constituencies is not customary in other constitutional
countries, and a Bill for its abolition passed the House of Commons in
1906, but was rejected by the Lords.
While Liberals urge "one man, one vote" as the more democratic arrangement,
Conservatives reply by asking for "one vote, one value"--that is, a new
redistribution of seats, for in the last twenty-five years there have been
deep and extensive changes in the distribution of populations, and Ireland
in particular is over-represented, it is maintained. But then the
representation of Ireland in the House of Commons was really guaranteed by
the Act of Union, 1800.[85]
WORKING-CLASS REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT
With the extension of the franchise the change in the _personnel_ of the
House of Commons has become marked. The more wealthy of the middle class
entered in considerable numbers after 1832; the Acts of 1867 and 1884 made
the entry of the workman inevitable. The miners were the first to send
Labour representatives to Parliament, and to-day their members outnumber
those of any other trade
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