The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-03-19 00:00:00

perty and leave real estates free,"—thin leavirf
it to be inferred that the institutions of despotic

France were preferable to those of free and cos-
stitutional England. So much, then, for the
estimate of patriotism and rational liberty which
such flaming democrats as Messrs. Cobden and.
Bright really entertain. But the fact is, that
their feeling in these respects is one under which

they are ever ready to exclaim, " Perish patriot-
ism, perish rational liberty, only give us a larger

- -
and more profitable market for our cotton and

calicoes ! "

The Times continues to manifest its uneasiness
at the parliamentary prospects which the Minis-

terial Reform Bill shadows forth—should the

measure pass into 'a
law with its lowered town

franchise unaltered.

It is evident that there is a

deep-rooted feeling of apprehension and alarm at
the thought, more particularly, of such a House
of Commons as the Bill is likely to produce
having to deal so immediately and so largely as

it will doubtless be called upon to do with the

finances of the country. And, although our con-
temporary does not confess it, in so many words,

yet the feeling is obviously there--tlutt it were

"Better bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of." 4 '
"We have drifted," it observes, " into Parlia-
mentary Reform. The great'ressel, tacking first
towards this shore, then that, shoved onward first
by Liberal, then by Conservative hands, finds
itself at last by an almost imperceptible current

entering the great sea of change. It has passed
the bank, the rock, and the, shoal; now for the
tide, the breaker, and the storm." And then,- •
without reckoning the perils of " the tide, the
breaker and the storm," the time is anticipated
when " the great books of the nation, its enormous
stock in trade, its title-deeds and rent-roll, #.B
debtor and creditor accounts, its innumerable staff
of functionaries, its plant, its copyright, and
patent, and all that it has, from its style and title
downwards, is to be handed over to whomsoever
a new body of electors shall send up to West-
minster to take charge of and administer this
colossal concern." It is presumed that they will
be men " hopeful, inexperienced, and insolent ;"
and it is apprehended that the change will tar*
out to be " a risk," and be. felt by the nation to
be " a wrench !" And all this to enable Lord John
to recover the smiles, and enjoy again the "sweet,
voices." of the democracy ! To have to confesi
that it will thus be a Parliament " with a veri.
large infusion of the democratic element," and
that "it, will have to deal with an almOst
unexampled deficit, with resources already fore=
stalled, a treasury swept clean," is nothing more:
or less than to have to acknowledge that there.
are already men who can find their way to the
highest . offices of the State, who scruple not to
imperil its very existence as a monarchy, through
a love of popularity, and for the sake of a party.
- •
iumph:

TO-NIGHT the Ministerial Reform Bill is to be
submitted to the House of Commons for a secondl
reading. What reception it wilt meet with at
the hands of the Conservative party, there is. '
nothing as yet, but a general idea of their feel-
ings on the subject of i'arliamentary. Reform, to' -
enable one to judge ; for we are not awarethat,
there has been any party movement upon the'
subject. They appear, indeed, to be rather dis-
posed to let the thing take its own course. The
measure is a Government one ; and if her M-
ajesty's Government can make itself responsible
for a measure calculated, as this undoubtedly is, '
to produce great and hazardous organic changes
in the Constitution, why of course, having doubt- -
'less a majority at their back, they cannot be.
prevented from doing so. If, on the other hand,
Ministers have brought forward a measure more
democratic and more revolutionary than their
own sober judgment could approve, but trusting
to Conservative interposition, to modify it, \
thereby throwing all the odium of a ref4sal to
extend the franchise as far as they have promised,
upon the Conservatives,—if this, we say, is the,
course they intend pursuing, and the Conserve-;
tives do not choose to be made cat's-paws' offer
such a purpose, why Ministers themselves must
just bear the consequences of their own actand
deed. Now, we have heard much, within the
last week or ten days, from certain, Liberal
journals, of the great modification of the S 6 reit-
tal franchise which will be sure, in practice, to'
arise from the condition attached' thereto of the
payment of poor-rates. Were this likely to te,
permanently the ease, all we can say is, tliat the,
new Reform Bill would be a gross fraud upon`
those paying rents under £lO a-year, whom it,
yet professes to enfranchise. But we are deci-
dedly _of the opinion of an able and independent - --
contemporary, who declares, that " the hOpelhat
the measure 'will be inoperative in the great body
of boroughs is a flagrant delusion of its promOters
and supporters,"—since "the addition of sixty
per cent. exclusively taken from the poorest ,
classes will, in the majority of cases, diminish
the chances in favour of the more respectable
candidate; and, even where the individual mem-
ber remains the same, he will be exposed to new
influences and to a pressure operating wholly in
one direction. The shopkeeper who pays a rent
of £S, or t 7. will be less intelligent and more cor-
ruptible than his comparatively substantial neigh-
bour who is at present at the bottom of the cow--
stituency." There can be no doubt whatever of this.
And yet, notwithstanding the increase of bribery
it cannot fail to produce—opening, as it will, a:
new market for the commodities which it offers-1.
it is not improbable that there will be more danger
to be apprehended from the popular ignorance and
injustice which it will bring into play, than front
the probable spread of pecuniary corruption.
There is another consideration,—that, namely,
which has regard to the exclusive power of the
House of Commons to deal with the finances of
the country. We believe it is quite true that
" even in the present _House of. Commons only the
enlightened minority understand the principle,on ,
which all kinds of incomes ought to contribute
equally to the necessities of the country,"--SO
that it will come to pass, that " members eleCted-
by uneducated constituents will participate in
their prejudices without sharing in their exemr
tion from the tax,"—and we may depend upon
that "if the impost is once transferred to capita'
there will be no limit to the extension of a burden
from which the great body of the constituency
entirely relieved ; but of five or six hundred
thousand new electors, there will perhaps not be
a dozen who pay tax on incomes of a hundred
a-year." In a word, there will only too !or-- -}
pnerwactßiceaflelyrmpßroilvlevid,ililt, - t ios
at o
greatbe feared,extent,
pt
atte
the
er
pthoewe
handsr of raising
t ho s
ewho and P
s g public money in
are not conscious of any
contribution to the national exchequer.
Were there no other considerations than these,
surely they should be sufficient to make the
Imperial Parliament pause, ere it committed itself
to the adoption of a measure so obviously fraught ,
with mischief to the national finances, and through
them,inte-
rests. A
s more
any
reor lteissm,e t,
suchoa an issuegreatlloura
national
this
ionnteki
be most detrimental and dangerous to the
,pros-
perity and security of those interests. But at
the present moment, it would be more than mai"
narily perilous, from the state in which the finan- '
cial arrangements of the country are being placed
by the Chancellor of the ExeheqUer. There
is very little doubt entertained, it appears, by
those who have calculated most minutely our

prospective financial course, that one of the first

things the Reformed Parliament will have to deal
with, will be a deficit in the revenue of the coup-:' -i
try of some twelve millions sterling. And how
will a House of Commons like that which, there