The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-08 00:00:00

Cic toutii,ribze 0125crinr.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1808.

THE RECESS AND THE ELECTIONS.
We will spare our readers that most dreary of
dreary performances, en elaborate review of the
past session. Most people have had enough of
the session, and do not require a r,chriulA of
Parliamentary dishes. Bat we may cast a hasty
retrospective glance, nevertheless, at a session
which has been perhaps the most important of
any since the Reform Bill of 3832.

The great work of the session of 1868, has
beeen Parliamentary reform, and all the other
legislation put together does not equal the
changes effected by the Reform Bill for Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland. The great ques-
tion which has agitated the country for some
thirty-five years is now set at rest—we will not
say for how long, hut at all events for a consid-
erable time. Minor questions relative to the
electoral franchise may arise at any moment;
but the main question has been answered,
whether for good or evil we will not speculate.
As corollaries to the electorial franchise bills, .
we have had at least a partial settlement of two
other difficult questions—that of electoral bonn•
daises and that of electoral corruption. That
either the Boundary Bill or the Bribery Bill la
a final settlement of the subjects severally dealt
with, we du not affirm ; but it is generally ad-
mitted that in the one case a needfal rectillea-
tiou has been Cte-ted, and that in the other
snch wholesale bribery and corruption as that
which election committees have recently revealed
will henceforth become impossible. Among
other reforms which the defunet Parliament has
nisa effected, is a further reform of that ever-
listing difficulty—the proper management and
relief of the poor. The British sea fisheries
have alm been better requlat,d. Onr public
schools have been further adapted to the wants
of the age. mic improvements have been ef-
feete I in the uumagement of railwaye, though
we are raying dearly for them in several of them
having just raised their fares. And finally, we
have a plan for transferting the telegraph. , from
, the companies to the control of Government. a
1 measure which bids fair to be for the public
1 good. These are the principal measures which
1 stand out in bold relief among the Acts of Par-
liament passed during the session which has
just closed. But, with the exception of the one
great subject which has engrossed so much at-
tention, and those to which we have referred,
no very important laws have been passed, and
many have been the futile attempte at legisla-
tion. Among the subjects which have not been
dealt with as we might have hoped for, are
India, Foreign Cattle Importation, sod Bank-
ruptcy Reform. These, with many other more
or less pressing subjects, are left over as a leg-
acy to the New Parliament.

We can scarcely say that we are now in recess
for political activity has only been transferred
from legislators to constituents. On every side
there are signs and sounds of party warfare, and
the din of the electoral battle may be said to
have commenced. There is every reason to be-
lieve that the coming general election will be of
more extended interest than any that has come
before it. We are not desirous of exaggerating
the importance of the times in which we live,
nor do we maintain that the country is now in s
crisis. Bat the times are somewhat critidal
neverthelesm. The constituencies in Great Bri-
tain and Ireland have been largely extended,
' while the lodger franchise imports an entirely
new element into the electoral battle. This ex-
tension will in itself add considerable public in-
terest to the approaching elections, inasinuch as
many will have a direct interest in them that
they never have had before, find inasmuch also,
as stanneh politicians of either of the two great
I political parties will be unusually anxious to
I know how the elections will " go " and what will
oe the political characters of the new House.
There is another circumstance also which will
give piquancy to the coming elections. The
anneal to the country chiefly arose out of the
ministerial defeat on the Irish Church question,
and this question involves other pelitieo-religi-
oas qnestiona which will be prominent in the
controversies of the time. Now, "not to put
too fines point on it," there is nothing like dif-
ference of opinion on a religious subject to give
zest to a political battle; and wheal this is added
to the differences of opinion on national and on
local topics. we may fairly expect the general
election of JAGS to be unusually exciting.
The duty of the electors is now pretty clear.
A very great change has been made in the elec-
toral constituency of the kingdom. Classes
hitherto excluded from a vote have been admit-
ted to the franchise, and an extension of electo-
ral power has been legalised, which is beyond
what even the Liberals themselves at first pro-
posed. We have gone quite far enough in this
direction ; and it is the duty of the electors to
return such members to Parliament as will pre-
serve the constitution in its integrity, and give
check to men who would burry us on to demo-
cratic government, with all its terrible dangers
and concomitant evils. There will be a tend-
ency among those who now have a vote for the
fir4t time to abuse the powerthat has been given
them, and to send to Parliament men of extreme
views, who would overthrow Crown and Church
and Americanise our institutions. Conserva-
Cain was never more needed than it is at the
present day; not that conservatism which would
maintain everything that exists, whether bene-
ficial to the country or not, but that sound poli-
cy which would reform only to preserve, which
would modify only to improve, and which would
shun change for the mere sake of change.
Such a policy will maintain and extend Eng-
land's greatness.