The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-05-03 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, MAY 3rd, 1884.

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

When the Legislature has disposed of the
Franchise Bill now before the House of
ICommons, with its necessary corollaries—
measures for a redistribution of seats, a re-
' arrangement of boundaries, and providing
for the new registrations—there can be
• little doubt that the question of Parliament-
ary Reform will have been disposed of for a
long time to come. .In fact in that
I particular direction tlligre will have been
Idisposed of for a long time to come. In fact
i in that particular direction there will be no
I worlds to conquer. Granting that the Legis-
lature, whether this year or next, or five or
ten years hence, decides to establish a uni-
formity of rate-paying franchise in the
counties and boroughs of the United King-
dom, with a fresh re-arrangement of seats
according to revised boundaries, so far as
human prescience can judge an agitation
which has lasted intermittently for more
than half a century, will at length be at an
end. Equal electoral districts and universal
manhood suffrage stand a long way off in
the dim and distant future.

The representation of the people is, indeed, j
a subject which once settled upon an in- I
telligible basis ought not to come before Par- j
liament every fifteen or twenty years. It is
only half a generation ago that the lifetime
uf a llotibe or Commons was expended on
this very question ; yet here it is again.
Lord Palmerston died in Oct., 1865, before
he could meet the new Parliament which
was elected in the previous July. In the
session of 1866 Mr. Gladstone, as the
Ministerial leader in the House of Commons,
brought in a Borough Franchise Bill and
subsequently a Redistribution Bill. The
Government was defeated on their measure
and resigned office. The Conservatives
came in, and the whole of the session of
1867 was occupied in shaping the details of
the scheme of Reform laid before the House.
In the session of 1.868 the Scotch Reform
Bill was settled, and at the end of that year
Parliament was dissolved and a new one was
elected. Therefore three sessions of an
entire Parliament were taken up in deciding,
upon the best way of working the constitu-
tional machine, in taking it to pieces, and
putting it together again. Legislation of all
descriptions had to stand aside while this
was being done. The consideration of the
interests of a vast empire gave way to the
mode of election which should prevail in the
United Kingdom. After so much time had
been devoted to a single topic there ought
to have been no room for a reopening of the
suhject for at all events thirty years. The
point is, of course, whether the Parliament
of that day efficiently did its work with the
materials before it. Since then the decennial
census has been taken twice, showing a
gradual but certain gravitation of the people
from the country to the town. On one side
of party politics it is declared, that this
demands an alteration in the balance of
power; on the other it is contended that the
matter could well afford to wait until we
had cleared off some of our legislative
arrears. The licensing question, the laws of
marriage, fiscal reForms the prevention of
floods, or rather the prevention of damage
by floods, the thorny subject of religious
equality, the relations of the mother country
to the colonies, the government ol India,
the reform of local administration, the
amendment of the Merchant Shipping Laws,
all these and many others have been sug-
gested as reasons why Reform might have
stood over for a few years to come.
Mr. Bright has told us that the strong
men who helped to carry the Reform Bill of
1832 are now white with age. Indeed,
comparatively few of them can be now
surviving. That measure was carried with
the very material assistance rendered by the
outbreak of a Revolution in Paris. Practi-
cally, the franchises and Parliamentary
privileges of successive reigns, from Henry.
111 to William IV., had never been over-
hauled ; and it was naural enough that amid
the varying changes of between five and
six centuries, abuses should have crept in.
These it was determined to reform ; and for-
tunately for the Reformers, the revolution
which drove the Bourbons from the Throne
of France broke out at the very best time
to help their cause. The demand for an
amendment of the laws relatirg to the re-
presentation of the people became irresistible.
Such excitement over a domestic question
has never since been witnessed in this country.
There had been reform bills since, but
never any agitation at all approaching to
that. The reason is obvious. There are
no such abuses to be reformed. There are
no ()Teen mounds like 0 atton and. Old Sarum
returning members to Parliament—no vast
constituencies like Manchester and Birming-
ham totally unrepresented, The continu-
ance of such a system as that which was
swept away by the whirlwind and the storm
of more than half a century ago was of
course, impossible. It was stoutly defended
then, but no one would defend it now. The
Reform Bills of 1852, 1854, 1860, and 1867
were considered in quieter times, and so is
that of 1884. And it may fairly be hoped
that once the question is out of the way, an
effectual settlement will have been made,
and Parliament left free to deal with the
various interests of the empire included in
the lands and seas of England.