There
stands the anomaly, with the stamp of repeated re-enactment upon it.
Some very strong ground must therefore be found on which to attack it.
Liberals may think that there is a very strong ground in the fact that
University representation tends to strengthen the Conservative interest,
and not only to strengthen it, but to give it a kind of credit, as
stamped with the approval of the most highly educated class of electors.
But this is a ground which could not be decently brought forward. It
would not do to propose the disfranchisement of a particular class of
electors merely because they commonly use their franchise in favour of a
particular political party. From a party point of view, the
representation of the cities of London and Westminster is as great a
political evil as the representation of the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge. But we could not therefore propose the disfranchisement of
those cities. The abstract question of University representation may be
discussed some time. It may be discussed in our own time on the proposal
of a Conservative government or a Conservative opposition. It may be
discussed on the proposal of a Liberal government on the day when all
University members are Liberals. But the disfranchisement of the
Universities could not, for very shame, be proposed by a Liberal
government when the answer would at once be made, and made with truth,
that the Universities were to be disfranchised simply because most of
them return Conservative members.

We may therefore pass by the alternative of disfranchisement as lying
beyond the range of practical politics. I use that famous phrase
advisedly, because it always means that the question spoken of has
already shown that it will be a practical question some day or other.
The other choice which is commonly given us is to confine the franchise
to residents. After every University election for many years past, and
not least after the one which has just taken place, we have always heard
the outcry that the real University is swamped by the nominal
University, that the body which elects in the name of the University is
in no way qualified to speak in the name of the University, and that in
point of fact it does not speak the sentiments of those to whom the name
of University more properly belongs. Reckonings are made to show that,
if the election had depended, not on the large bodies of men who are now
entitled to vote, but on much smaller bodies of re