Lord Elcho is going to move for a commission to
inquire into the state of the franchise, and how it may be possible to give a practical representation to the working clam without any further lowering of the franchise. This last limitation will probably ruin his object. Those who wish to see all the working class substantially represented and not predominant do not care whether it is brought about by a measure which involves lowering of the suffrage or not, so long as means are taken to secure a full representation for the education, and capital, and other interests of the country, that are morally, but not numerically, as important. A Mr. Cayley, writing to The Times, proposes to enfranchise all workmen receiving a certain high rate of wages. But then the difficulty would lie with the legal qualification. Who is to show that a man gets 60/. or 70/. a year in any manner that will not be liable to all sorts of abuse ? A man may work with twenty different masters during the year. Is he to get certificates from all of them, and deliver in the bundle—tied, as Mr. Lowe says, "with a dirty string "—at the poll-booth as his qualification ?
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