servative statesmen, and Lord Hartington
himself undertook the duty of moving the second reading of a Bill
containing provisions which a few weeks before he had described as most
unwise. By this Act the enfranchised inhabitants of Ireland were
multiplied more than threefold, and the share of Ireland of the "two
million intelligent voters" who were added to the electorate was
200,000. In the redistribution of seats which accompanied the Franchise
Act of 1884 the representation of Ireland was, by an arrangement between
parties, left unimpaired, and this leads me to a matter which serves, I
think, to show with what speed events move and how true was that remark
of Disraeli's to Lord Lytton that "in politics two years are an
eternity." It is little more than two years since the burning political
question was the redistribution of seats on the lines proposed by Mr.
Gerald Balfour. The Unionist Press has for some years been endeavouring
to rouse public opinion on this question of the alleged
over-representation of Ireland in the House of Commons, and in view of
the share of attention which the matter received in the closing days of
the last Parliament it is as well to devote some attention to the topic.

By the Act of Union, which our opponents hold so sacred, Ireland was
given 100 members in the House of Commons, and in the House of Lords 28
representative Peers, together with Bishops of the then Established
Church, and it was further enacted that this should be her
representation "for ever." On the population basis, which to-day is
urged by Unionists as the only fair mode of apportioning
representatives, Ireland was entitled at the date of the Union to many
more members than in fact she obtained. Her population at that time was
nearly five and a half millions, that of Great Britain was less than ten
and a half millions, and so, though she could claim more than a third of
the inhabitants of the three kingdoms, her representation was less than
one-sixth.

By the Reform Bill of 1832 the Irish members were increased to 105. Two
seats have since been disfranchised, and we thus arrive at 103--the
figure at which the representation of the country stands to-day. The
disproportion from which Ireland suffered at the time of the Union had
become still more acute by the time of the great Reform Bill, and no one
can seriously suggest that the addition of five seats redressed the
inequality. According to the Census of 1831 the populatio