Whether the minority of electors should be represented by a majority in the House of Commons?/Appendix
APPENDIX.
Mr. Disraeli's Lodger Franchise.
A return recently laid before the House of Commons classifying the Parliamentary electors on the registers of the several boroughs in England and Wales in 1873, shows how few persons were on the registers as lodgers, though it was six years since the lodger franchise had been introduced. Of the 198 boroughs in England and Wales sending members to Parliament, there are 128 for which the return shows either no lodger voters at all or a number less than ten. Of the remaining 70 there are 48—again the majority—in which the number, though not less than ten, is under 50. There are but 22 boroughs in which the number is stated to reach or exceed 50, and they are as follows:—At Gloucester the return shows exactly 50 names on the register in respect of the lodger qualification, being rather more than one in 100 of the entire constituency; at Windsor, 51 of the whole 1,800 electors; at Cardiff, 52 of the 6,000; at Gravesend, 61 of the 2,800; at Hastings, 65 of the 3,000; at Southampton, 68 of the 6,500; at Hull, 73 of the 20,000; at Nottingham, 103 of the 15,000 at Cheltenham, 107 of the 4,400; at Devonport, 111 of the 3,400; at Bath, 127 of the 5,000; at Plymouth 205 of the 5,600; at Bristol, 213 of the 22,000 at Liverpool, 316 of the 55,000. In the Metropolis the numbers are these:—In the City of London, 548 lodger voters in a constituency of 22,000; in Westminster (by far the largest number in any borough), 3,361 of the whole 20,000; in the Tower Hamlets, 152 in the whole 31,000; Hackney, 35 in 39,000; Finsbury, 517 in 37,000; Marylebone, 508 in 32,000; Chelsea, 1,275 in 23,000; Lambeth, 223 in 38,000; Southwark, 160 in 19,000; Greenwich, 47 in 16,000. There are very few lodger voters in the great towns in the North. At Manchester, only 29 in a constituency of 59,000; at Leeds, 13 in 44,000; at Sheffield, 2 in 34,000; at Bradford, 43 in 24,000; Oldham, 6 in 18,000. At Birmingham the return shows 10 in 51,000.