The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-12 00:00:00

does not 4 in t1y4,.,1kirci#11.,,.. There are
external distitring .ififfi.i.o6-teV''Nv'lifell paralyse
the efforts bOtii of Whigs and Conserva-
tive..
All', parties are agreed: that Reform is
waisted, and the tiooner7.it is, enacted the
better.,. Alli:partiep, how. ever; -do
,u$ regard the
suljeCtyfrof4oe7anie point ofvew. 'All are not
promlited to action on it by the same motives.
With :"Mr. '.BRIGHT, Reform 'is revolution in
disguise ;i*ith Lord JOHN RUSSELL it is a tradi-
tional party-cry and a factious stepping-stone to
-office ;-while, in the hands of Lord DERBY; it is
a remedial agency for the purifying and strength-
ening of the Constitution. Mr. BRIGHT'S ill-
concealed treasonable designs were harmless in
-themselves,. but Lord JOHN RUSSELL feared that
his occupation was gone when the traditional oppo-
nents of Reform became its champions, and Lord
DERBY found that a sound measure of
_Reform
could be prevented by coalition between the
enemies of the constitution and the lukewarm
friends of progress,. who treacherously

"Gave up to party what was meant for mankind."
Now that the Reform Bill is dead, we have

little inclination to hold a lengthened post mortem
examination on it; but we may here briefly advert to
the great vital defect in the late bill, hoping that
the benefits of experience and observation may not
be entirely lost to us in the future. The necessity
for a measure of reform which shall admit the work-
ing classes to the exercise of the franchise is univer-
sally admitted. Lord DERBY and Mr. DISRAELI
admit it. The Conservatives are not the enemies
of the working classes, as has been industriously
asserted by those who have sought to delude,
those classes for selfish purposes. The Conserva-
tives believe in a law of progress, the development
of which we may wait upon, but cannot wisely
?attempt either to anticipate or to annihilate. They.
recognise the progre§s that has beeh made by
society, and are ready and anxious to amend our
great constitutional forms of legislation and admi-
nistration to suit the times we live in. They are
prepared to accept and promote any measure of
Reform which will confer the franchise upon the
working classes upon a clear, intelligible, and
sound basis. The real question at issue, and upon
which alone the Conservatives. take their stand is,
how can this principle be most wisely and
judiciously applied. Universal suffrage would
admit the working classes, no doubt, to the fran-
chise ; but even Mr. BRIGHT repudiates that mode
of Reform; and yet he is not accused of being
Opposed to all change. Why, then, should the
Conservatives be accused or suspected of a secret
opposition to all change, because they withheld
their concurrence with the late measure framed

upon a scarcely less erroneous basis ? Who are
the £6 householders, it has been asked, and the
question has not been satisfactorily answered ;
except so far as to enable us to infer that such
an extension of the franchise would give a decided
preponderance to one class of society—the class
which has the least valuable stake in the country.
The objection to the bill, and its fatal blunder, there-
fore—which will be equally fatal to any measure
in which it may be repeated—is, that it sought to
extend the franchise by degrading it. It would have
lowered the franchise without reforming the pre-
sent admittedly imperfect system of representation.
We must, in justice to those who are entitled to a
vote, greatly increase the number of electors; but
we must beware of an increase which would,
after all, not include the majority of those for
whom an extension is chiefly wanted. We must
beware of disfranchising property and intelligence
by enfranchising poverty and passion—of substi-
tuting for the representatives of all classes the
delegates of one only—of destroying the essential
virtue of that, Constitution_ which has been,
through so many trials and difficulties, the
strength, the happiness, and the proudest boast,
of England and Englishmen.