The debate will be continued on Friday, and we shall
therefore reserve what we have to say on the subject as a whole till next week. We may point out here, however, that if the Government are honest in their declarations that the Franchise Bill should be followed by an equitable Redistribu- tion Bill they can have no possible objection to inserting a clause in the Franchise Bill declaring that such Bill shall not come into operation till a Bill redistributing seats in England, Scotland, and Ireland shall have been passed through Parliament. Nothing less should or can satisfy Unionists. If the Bill is passed on the Government promise and then a sudden dissolution were decided upon, the Government's pledges must prove perfectly worthless. But if a dissolution took place after the Government's franchise scheme was law but without redistribution we might have to wait twenty years for justice to England. The only engine we possess for remedying the great wrong which England now suffers electorally by the shortage of forty votes is refusal to allow an alteration of the franchise to take place without redistri- bution. We sincerely trust that the Opposition will pledge themselves that when they return to power they will deal with the question of "One Vote One Value" on the amplest lines.
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