society is such that no one will pay the slightest attention to a demand for manhood suffrage. The strong point of the Electoral Reform programme is that we base our demand upon a suffrage which is theoretically conceded. Household suffrage in the counties—which forms a portion of it—is the mere complement of the present system. I confess, however, that I am not very sanguine as to the effect of the peasant vote: when men are in a necessitous condition and are not sufficiently educated to form an independent judgment, they will be under the influence of those who can relieve their immediate wants; and I bear in mind the effect of the peasant vote in France and the oppression of the towns by means of it. Mr. Arch's movement has not, I fear, affected the great bulk of agricultural labourers. I maintain that a radical alteration of our representative system will have a far greater result than any mere extension of the suffrage, though the least we can ask is that the lodger franchise shall be made into a genuine one. At present, I believe, not 2 per cent, of the lodgers in the metropolis have obtained the franchise, which has been nominally accorded to them; we advocate the compulsory registration by the parochial officers of all voters, and the limitation of the residential qualification to six months. It strikes me that if we obtain this, the suffrage in the metropolis will approximate closely to manhood suffrage. It may be necessary here to make some remarks upon a subject which is likely to be one of serious dissension:—I refer to woman suffrage. I think that some of those who pretend to lead the Democracy have been singularly at fault upon this question.
Woman Suffrage.
The only form in which the Woman Suffrage question is before the country consists in a proposal that propertied widows, spinsters, or detached ladies shall have the vote. I have always said, and all the figures I have been able to study have confirmed my statement, that the effect of this will be largely to increase the representation of the Upper and Middle Classes, and that the representation of the Working Classes will be proportionately diminished. There is a still greater evil behind it which appears never to have been considered by some of our simple-minded democrats. If Mr. Jacob Bright's Bill, or Mr. Forsyth's, were to become law—as non-residence does not in county constituencies create a disqualification—not only would the Working Class be placed at the disadvantage I have mentioned, but
