The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-23 00:00:00

3tonttribg Otystrber.

SATURDAY. MAY 23, 1868.

THE SCOTCH REFORM BILL.
The country which is now watching the efforts
M Parliament to get through its necessary work
preparatory to dissolution, may be congratulated
on so much progress having been made with the
Scotch Reform Bill. Representative Reform
having been implied to England, it is absolutely
necessary that the work should be extended and
adapted to Scotland and Ireland • and as there
Is not too notch time for the work, considering
that there is other work that Inuit be done, we
may congratulate ourselves that so muchwau
accomplished in a single night as was done on
Monday last.
The House of Commons were pri paring to go
Into co:no-little on the hill, when M Baxter
moved that it be an instruction to the committee
that, instead of adding to the members '1 the
House, they have p over to disfranchise borough's
In England, having, by the census return of
1861, less than 5,001 inhabitants. It is to b.

regretted, perhaps, that there wad any occasion
to move such an amendment as this. It is
scarcely too much to say that for n:twards of
thirty years the country had front thrie to time
discussed the question of the over representa-
tion of small boroughs. among the other ques-
tions that bear upon representative reform ;but
at all events the question was fully entered into
when the English Reform Dills were severally
discussed during the last few years. Such
questions as that which Mr. Baxter has rdisorl
ought to have been answered then. The House,
however, has, throughout the Ref am struggle
laboured under the disadvantage resulting front
that piec-meal legislation which appears to be
regarded as a sacred principle. We hope that
ere long this principle of legislative action,
which has no firmer foundation than mere ens-
torn and precedent, may be abandoned, and that
the United Kingdi 1111 may be legislated for in its
integrity. The Parliament is supposed to be
the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland :
the three parts of the United Kingdom are re-
presented in the same House; and whatever ninny
be the theory, no legislation can be decided on
Without affecting, directly or indirectly, the
whole kingdom. The passing an Act of Parlia-
ment, which atoll have reference to England
only, and then in process of time extending this ,
Act to icotland or Ireland, or both, is a waste
of legislative power, while the conflict of laws
which is produced in the interval, or, still worse,
if the iuloptiou to all parts of the Kingdom be
Lot effected, is always to be regretted, and is
sometimes serious. The English, Scotch, and
Irish Reform Bills ought never to have had any
meliorate existence. They ought to have been
introduced in one comprehensive measure, and
then the entire subject could have been treated
on broad and imperial grounds. The House has
now decided on pollifig to pieces that part of its
work which has been accomplished, and doing it
over again. We repeat that it is to be regretted
that this should ever have been neeess try; but
we must look at matters I's they exist, and the
House has done well to ratify by majority 1..1
21, the proposal of the hon. member for Mon-
bvee. . . _ . . . .

The motion of Mr. Baxter Lad two principal
,1
Ojeda, negative and positive—the preventing
an increase in the number of members of the '
ROtl,te of Commons, and the (Air representation
of Scotland.
That the HOUR 6 of Commons is already large
enough for all practical purposes U. universally
admitted, aad an opinion that it ia too large is
pretty general. It it considerably larger than
other representative assent:dies. 'Waite the
&Well House of Gimmout has Ca memberA,
France hat oras 8741 'a-leathers in her correspon-
ding assembly ; Austris has but 20d, the Parlia-
ment of the North German Confederation (ion-
aids of 2SO members; Spain has 330 ; and the
American House of Representatives has only
ail. The great legislative assemblies of the
world thus only 'timber 290 on an average,
while our House of Commons is more than
double the numerical strength. There has
hitherto been an argument against reducing this
number, inasmuch as this large force was conve-

nient in providing members to sit upon election
and private hill committees ; but it has been de-
cided that there shall be other machinery for
dealing with election petitions, and an indepen-
dent tribunal for private bills will probably be
seoner or later instituted. It is quite true that
the number 653 is not a malic or cabalistic
number, and that, could there have been disco.
vered a sufficieut reason for altering it, the
Mattes and Persians who would have opposed all
change would soon have got the worst of the
argument; but the interest of the empire most
certaiuly lie in the direction of increase, sal if
any change be made, a decrease would rather be
for the general benefit.
The member for Montrose wisely took advan-
tage of the prevailing disiuclination to extend
the number of members while he endeavoarml to
extend the representation of Scotland. The
Government proposal was to effect the latter by
giving her aeven additional members ; kit Mr.
Baxter proposes that she shall have tem more,
and that those ten members shall be obtained by
diafranehising those English boroughs which
have less than 5,000 Mil:Lb:tants. We will not
here cute on the general argnment against the
over-representation of small boroughs. Admit-
ting that they are not necessarily pocket consti-
tuenciea, and that they often return good men
to Parliament, the principle of representation
relative to large constituencies is confessedly
wront, and no 4 loverninent whatever would now
dream of proposiug such an arrangement for the
first tinie. We could have wished that the Eng-
lish Reform Bill, which it %Vali thought had after
ialinite labour and dispute been settled, could
'MVO remained undisterbed, but we have now at
least the satisfaction of ft dieg, an anomaly in
the procesa of removal which will prevent fur-
ther agitation. Sir R. Kuightley's amendment
--to take away one member from boroughs of
less than 12,000 poptilation—woula have gone
in the right direction, but not so straight to the
point as Mr. flaxbis, which is more definite in
principlo, and remedies a greater unoinaly than
the amendment proposed by Sir It. linightley
would have done.
Mr. Mlearen did not want for arguments in
endeavouring to push the tion:e beyond the
point to which it had decided to go on Mr. itax-
tor'a Invitatiou. The member for Edinburgh
nrgod thAt, with rag Ari to revenne, Scotland is
entitled to lei more tomb r, unit OA on the
Soule of population she ought to have 14 woks
but wo lie Noted wisely in withdrawing his
motion, The change which Bo House it votti•
Wow+ lies now ilecidlod, by 2/ ro.hjority, to ;nike,
Ii a very large one, and will produce quite
enough trouble and work, and will sufficiently
unsettle the English repreaentation. The mo•
lima of Mr. M•Lareu would have carried the
labour of re.arrauguLueut hey uud the bounds of
pradanee.