As regards the method of election, the three-cornered system is
swept away absolutely and everywhere, and the general prin. ciple adopted will not be to treat the great cities and counties as entities at all. They will be subdivided into wards or dis- tricts, each one of which, with certain few exceptions, will return two Members. The single-seat system is not re- jected, for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorsetshire, and some other counties will be divided into single-seat districts; but it is sparingly applied, and the approach to equality is only roughly and approximately made. Still, the gross anomalies, if we leave out London, will become very few, and a singular little step is taken towards equal electoral districts, it being suggested that the new subdivision or ward should be called after the most important place within it. The effect of that scheme will be that the apparent connection with the county or city will be lost, as it must be if equal electoral districts are ever adopted. We shall be curious to see if that proposal will cause irritation, or if the local conviction that everybody must know where, say, Edgbaston is, will overpower municipal and county pride. It will be observed that the plan of grouping boroughs, which finds favour with Tories from their hatred of urban feeling, is almost entirely discarded, though no grouped boroughs except Radnor and Brecon are swept away.
