But we are not at all prepared to agree to the proposed assimilation of the town and county franchise. It is a direct and dangerous innovation on the principle of the British constitution, which is, that the county representation shall be kept apart from that of the towns and boroughs. The Act of 1832 admitted the proprietor of a £10 house, not situated within the boundaries of a borough, to a county vote; and the result of that, in some localities, has been, that the voters in villages and small towns which were not boroughs, have been numerous enough to swamp and overpower the proper county constituency. That was bad enough; but it is now proposed that _occupiers_ shall have the franchise; and, as we remarked last month, it is not by any means necessary that the house which the voter occupies should be of the yearly value of £10. We must again quote the words of Lord John Russell: “We propose, with respect to the county right of voting, that—with the exception of a dwelling-house, _which may be of any value, provided the voter lives in it_—in all other cases the building must be of the value of £5 a-year. Supposing there is a house and land, the house may be rated at £1 or £2 a-year, provided the voter resides in it; but if the qualification is made out by any other building—a cattle-shed, or any other building of that kind—then we propose this check, that such building shall be of the value of £5 a-year. This, then, is the franchise we propose to give in counties for the future.” Thus the English counties are to be inundated, 1st, By £10 occupiers, not resident within borough boundaries; and, 2dly, By the voters of sixty-six disfranchised boroughs, who are to be thrown loose upon them! We are confident that, in any case, such a proposal as this will be rejected. The counties do not want additional members at the expense of the boroughs; and we think it is, on principle, most important that the two kinds of representation should be preserved distinct. Indeed, but for the crotchet of giving representation to minorities, by assigning to as many constituencies as possible three members each, we should probably have heard nothing of this transfer of borough representation. That the county franchise may be advantageously lowered as regards tenants, we are ready to admit. Let them be enrolled from £20 upwards, provided they pay property and income tax, which, according to our view, ought to be made an indispensable condition to the franchise.