The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-11-29 00:00:00

Etc ,Stourbribge ebortler,

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29th, 1884,

REDISTRIBTJTION OF SEATS.

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No part of the question of Parliamentary
reform can possibly be of greater importance
than that which relates to the allotment of
seats to constituencies new or old, affecting
as this so materially does the balance of
political power. It is a subject from which
the House of Commons shri ,ks, and post-
pones dealing with as long as it possibly can.
After the long French war and the final over-
throw of Napoleon, the attention of the
people, which had so long been devoted, and
necessarily so, to foreign affairs, became
gradually directed to the expediency of in-
ternal reforms. The bribery and corruption
practised by some little boroughs were so
notorious that disfranchisement had to be
resorted to; but even then any proposal to
allocate the seats to some of the rapidly
growing constituencies to the north and
I the midlands was resisted, and it was not un-
til the Reform Bill of 1832 that the matter
could be dealt with comprehensively under
the pressure of the wave of popular feelinc,
which passed over the public mind.

The -difficulties which surround the re-
distribution of seats are not wholly of a
party character. Some of these strangely
enough may almost be described as senti-
mental in their nature. For instance, there
are some boroughs in the south and West
of England which have returned members
to the House of Commons almost as long as
Parliaments have existed in this country.
If they cannot go back to the time of Simon
de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who issued
the first writs of summons in the reign Of
Henry 111. they can claim a separate politi-
cal existence from the time of Edward I.
For 600 years places which at the period of
their original enfranchisement were towns
of considerable importance, but wnich no
longer retain that position, have shared in
the law-making of this realm. Dynasties
have risen, flourished, and decayed; Plan-
tagenet and Tudor, Lancaster and York,
Stuart and Hanover, have in succeeding
centuries, in the Houses of those names, ex-
ercised the power of the Throne and Sceptre
in this kingdom, and still have little com-
munities been represented in the House of
Commons, unaffected by the passing vicissi-
tudes of the hour. They do not, of course,
send as many members new as they were
formerly accustomed to do. The balance be-
tween the north and the south was to some
extent re-adjusted in 1832, when fifty-six
little boroughs were disfranchised altogether
land many which retained their political ex-
istence did so by having only one representa-
tive each assigned to them. The last Re-
disttibution Bill in 1867 merely touched the
fringe of a great question. The deeper the
House of Commons went into it, the more
complications arose. Besides, the Legislature
was then at a considerable distance from the
previous census, while in 1832 there was the
census of the previous year to work on.
The members of the towns proposed to be
dealt with naturally objected to the process
of extinction, while there could be no
counterbalancing support f-om the constitu-
encies which it was proposed to create. It
was tacitly understood between the two
great parties in the State that a time would
probably come when the household suffrage
then given to the boroughs would broaden
into the shires as a matter of course, and
that whenever this period arrived the county
household franchise must be accompanied by
a more sweeping re-arrangement of seats
than it was possible then to undertake.
That time has come. Both parties concur
in the extension of the franchise; but the re-
distribution of seats is a matter which may
well tax all the patience, and'

try the states-
both sides. -

The r-eluctance of the House of Commons
to deal piecemeal with a great question, has
more than once been illustrated within the
past generation. The seats forfeited by
and St. Albans remained unappro-
priated for several years, and were then
allotted one each to South Lancashire and
Birkenhead, and two to the West Riding of
Yorkshire, which up to that time had been
an undivided constituency. Bat we may
come down to later times and show the
hesitation of Parliament in even touching,
this question. In the session of 1870 Bever-
ley, Bridgwater, Cashel. and Sligo were de-
prived of an independent political existence,
and the six seats thus vacant have never
siuce been allocated. Half a generation
has rolled over our heads, and the House of
Commons has all that time remained six
rn,-?mbers short of its nominal strength. The
late Government brought in a bill allotting
these seats, or rather gave notice of its in-
tention to do so, when the sudden dissolu-
Ent put an end to any such ideas, and it has
never since been revived. But let the House
once make the plunge, and it may not find
the work so very difficult after all. It had
to be faced by a Parliament which sat more
than half a century ago, which had the
claims of conflicting interests to meeb, and
to reconcile, if possible, the sentiment en-
gendered by prescriptive right in the
b,)roughs of the south and west, with the
active strides and progress made by unen-
franchised communities in the midlands and
the north.