THE RESIDENTIAL FREEHOLDER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your article on the county franchise, last week, you question if the freehold qualification, with a condition of resid- ence attached to it, is worth contending for; because it matters little whether a man votes in respect of the occupation of the house he lives in, or the ownership of a house he does not live in. But you overlook the case of the man who does not legally occupy, but who, nevertheless, resides,—the younger member of a family who, by gift or by purchase, has acquired a freehold qualification -within the limits of the constituency where he
resides. The advocates of manhood suffrage claim in favour of their measure that it would enfranchise this, a better educated class than the average : the opponents of the faggot system do. not fear residential faggot votes, whilst all parties would be- anxious to retain or enfranchise those who acquire a qualifica- tion by their own exertions. The out-voter of humble means is= alreadydisfranchised by the operation of the Corrupt Practice& Act of last Session; therefore, to disfranchise the wealthy out-- voter, is only an act of justice ; but to disfranchise the resi- dential freeholder, is to raise an unnecessary obstacle in the way-
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