The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

from the effects of arsenic, and that there is no
reason to believe he committed suicide, are matters
undoubted. The event has created much excitement
in Glasgow; but it is more generally supposed that
L'Angelier in despair poisoned himself.
A MERCHANT OF BRISTOL, one Danger, a person
carrying on an extensive general business, was tried
at the Bristol Assizes last week, and found guilty of
fraudulently obtaining a bill of exchange for 184/.los.
from a gentleman named Latham, under pretence of
negotiating a sale of 300 butts, when he had not one
in store. Mr. Recorder Kinglake postponed sen-
tence till next session.
AN ADJUDICATION OF BANKRUPTCY was made this
week against the well-known Colonel Waugh, late of
the London and Eastern Bank. The petitioning
creditor is Mr. William Samuel Price Hughes, of
Worcester, gentleman. Colonel Waugh is described
in the petition as follows :—" William Petrie Waugh,
of Branksea Island, in the county of Dorset, and of
Little Abingdon-street, Westminster, trading there
under the style or description of The Branksea Clay
and Pottery Company,' and lately residing at 10,
Upper Grosvenor-street, brick and tile maker, lime-
burner, trader, dealer and chapman." Colonel
Waugh is said to be indebted some 200,0001. to the
Eastern Bank.

Corrtsponttnct.

THE COMING REFORM BILL.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—Amongst the different schemes of electoral
reform there are none of which a large increase of
the electoral body does not form the most conspicu-
ous feature, and there is but slight difference of
opinion as to the way in which it is to be effected.
All reformers contemplate a lowering of the property
qualification ; and the only difference is, that while
some propose in addition educational or professional
qualifications, others consider these projects as
Utopian and unworkable.
Now, since the large majority of the members of
the present Parliament are rerormers, or at least
pledged to support a Reform Bill, we may assume
that it is certain a Reform Bill will be carried, and
that the franchise will be lowered, and we may there-
fore, without presumption, speculate on the conse-
quences.
We are indeed all called upon to do so, for there
can hardly be a graver question in a representative
country than the propriety of admitting a new class
of men into the electoral body. Such a change,
sooner or later, ramifies into every interest of the
kingdom, and effects social revolutions much more
thorough and complete than those resulting from war
and insurrection.

Now, the experience of the past permits us to pre-
dict with certainty some of the consequences which
will :result from the change in our representative
system with which we are threatened. Under the
present system political power is in the hands of the
ten-pound householders, and amongst the ten-pound
householders themselves, those who occupy the
lowest social po3ition enjoy the monopoly, to the
practical exclusion of the rast. That this is the-
actual state of things must have been vividly brought
home during the late elections to the candidates, all
of whom were made aware—we hope painfully aware
—that it was not to the higher orders of intelligence
among the voters they had to appeal, but to the
prejudice/ and ignorance of the lower orders. In
plain English, they, one and all, found that their
elections depended on obtaining the votes of the
lower class of shopkeepers, and they moulded their
profession of political opinions accordingly.
There is no mystery in this, and no necessity for
any recondite reason to account for it ; the ten-pound
householders have political power because they are
the majority of the electors, and the lower orders
amongst them have appropriated it simply because
they are the mikjority of the ten-pound householders.
An adulterating grocer, or the tenant of a low public-
house, is as important at an election as a high princi •
pled merchant or an accomplished professional man;
but there are more grocers and public-house keepers
than honourable merchants or gentlemen with diplo-
mas, and therefore the grocers and publicans rule
the roast.

We will admit, in order to keep'on;terms with the
Liberals, who are so soon to be our companions in
political ostracism, that these classes know fully as
well what is for the benefit of the nation as the
others; but then, if the Liberals lower the franchise
they must be prepared to make the same admission
with respect to the five-pounders, who will then
occupy their enviable position as the depositories of
political power, for, as surely as the !lower orders of
the ten-pounders now sway the destinies of England,
so surely will the five-pounders secure to themselves
the monopoly of power under the new Reform Bill.
And for precisely the same reasons—namely, that
they are the most numerous body. Society is a
pyramid, and as you descend the base widens.

Now, to keep on terms with the Radicals, as veil
as with the vanishing Liberals, let us grant that our
five-pounders are fully as competent judges of
political questions as the ten-pounders—and we make
this admission from conviction as well as from
politeness—but they have not the same interests ;
and we think our present oligarchy of ten-pounders
might consider this before they gave a vote similar
to that which merged the different orders of France
in the Tiers Etat.

A ten•pound householder is a big man, and looks
down with natural superciliousness on his five-
pound neighbour. The five•pounder, on his part,
feels no gratitude to the ten•pounders. As yet,
being a working-man, and not corrupted by retail
trade or the possession of a vote, he thinks himself

an honest man ; but with all his honesty he bas
certain queer notions on politics. He has not much
to lose in the event of a division of property, and
therefore dues not look upon Communism as so very
absurd a thing as it seems to those who have some-
thing to divide. The sacredness of vested rights is
not the most prominent feature of his religion. His
ecclesiastical *predilections are not very strong, and
be sees no magic in the word " Established." More-
over, like all other Britons, he has the very natural
wish to shift taxation entirely off his own shoulders
and put it on those of his wealthier neighbours.
Why tax tobacco, or tea, or beer, or spirits, when
there are landed gentry and ten-pound householders
from whom the revenue could be so easily col-
lected?

We merely throw out these hints for the considera-
tion of the present monopolists of electoral power.
To such of them, moreover, who know history, we
would ask how long is it since a memorable April
morning in 1848, when the present Emperor of
France, with his constable's staff in his band,
showed his remarkable instincts on the side of
order; and how many of the rank and file who that
day marched to Westminster with " The People's
Charter" would be entitled to votes under a five-
pound franchise? We would also direct attention
to that remarkable document itself—the confession
of faith to which the great majority of five-pounders
are to this day prepared to swear. The five-
pounders like the five points, and they certainly will
try to carry them ; and, being the majority of voters,
it is probable they will succeed.
Perhaps these remarks may awaken some to a
sense of the frightful precipice on which we stand,
and down which we seem so quietly to have made up
our minds to plunge.

And in case there may be some who wish to pre-
serve the Monarchy, and who are not prepared for a
Republic one and indivisible, we beg to point out the
only way in which the peril can be avoided. And,
first, it cannot be avoided by refusing to lower the
suffrage—that would simply engender bitter agita-
tion, mobbing, intimidation, and ultimate conces-
sion ; second, it cannot be avoided by an educational
or any other qualification to the exclusion of a
property qualification, because such qualifications
are unworkable ; third, the danger cannot be ob-
viated and probably would be increased by the
ballot.

But there is one way in which the danger might
be obviated and the Monarchy preserved, and that is
by adopting a graduated suffrage. Balance property
against population; prevent the lower orders from
having the uncontrolled sway of the nation ; and we
may yet escape from that democratic torrent which
has hitherto seemed so resistless.

What the graduation should be is a question of
expediency, not of principle or of arithmetic. The
object is to ballast the Constitution to provide a
check to democratic passions, and this does not
suggest any arithmetical scale. One vote to the
five-pounders, and three votes to the thirty-
pounders, a class which would embrace the great
majority of merchants and professional men, and the
result would probably be effected without any fur-
ther graduation.

In conclusion, let me state another consideration,
which at once shows the peril of our position, and
suggests the expediency of a remedy. The five-
poiind franchise is only a step in a certain direction.
Reform Bill No. 3 will be a three-pound franchise,
or perhaps a two•pound franchise, to be followed in
due time by universal suffrage, and that by the
Napoleonic system. Is it not of importance to
check, or at least to control, this tendency ?

-J. A. G.

Sri; CHARLES TAYLOR, BART., expired on Good
Friday, at his seat, Hollycombe, Sussex. Sir Charles
had attained the great age of eighty-seven years, and
sat in Parliament for a considerable time. He mar-
ried a sister of the late Right Hon. Charles Poulatt
Thompson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, and leaves
issue one son, now Sir Charles Taylor, who inherits
the family estates in Sussex and Somtrsetshire, asd
one daughter, who is married to Mr. Williiim
Brougham, brother of Lord Brougham, and formerly
one of the Masters in Chancery.