The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

794

things is required. We know of no remedy but
the creation of a new order of constituencies by
enfranchising the learning and education of the
country. Let all lawyers, doctors, clergymen,
registered Dissenting ministers, artists, members
of learned corporations, retired officers of the army
and navy, certificated schoolmasters, &c., have
bestowed upon them a separate qualification to
enable them to choose their own representatives.
We should thus have a fitter clan of men for
legislation sent to Parliament—men of trained
minds, of reflective habits, free from popular
control. We have the less difficulty in advocating,
this scheme, because we feel it to be impossible
to foresee, with such a mixture as Dissenting
ministers with clergymen, and doctors and law-
yers with retired army and navy officers,
how it would affect the balance of political
parties. For it is not proposed to give to
these different professions separate members, but
to combine all of the different learned profes-
sions within a given district in one constituency.
It is a false argument to say that learning, office,
position, is not property : it is a species of pro-
perty. Many a man has invested a fortune in
securing his attainments. And, apart from this,
learning, office, and position are important social
elements in a State, which ought not to go un-
represented. The advantages we think certain
to accrue from giving these influence in
the councils of the nation are, that they
would provide a corrective and counterbalancing
element to the purely popular one in the Legisla-
ture—that the character of the House of Com-
mons would become elevated by the class of men
thus chosen—that all the interests of the com-
munity will then be represented, and no one class
will unduly predominate over the other.
To carry out this scheme without increasing
the members of the House of Commons, it will,

of course, be necessary to disfranchise some of
the smaller boroughs ; or, if not to disfranchise
them altogether, either to reduce the representa-
tives to one where they have now two, or to com-
bine two or three adjacent boroughs in one
constituency, as is done in Scotland. This would
create a number of vacancies, to be filled up by
the new-created constituencies. And it cannot
be denied that the number of members for the
smaller boroughs is altogether disproportionate
both to the property represented and to the ag-
gregate of the persons.
The scheme we have here advocated rests upon
much higher recommendation than our own. It

was suggested in a memorial which was laid be-
fore Lord PALMERSTON a few months ago, signed
by about 230 of the most distinguished men in
the country for learning and science, selected
from all the liberal professions and of all shades
of politics, including such men as BROUGHAM,
BREWSTER, BRODIE, ALISON, EVERSLEY, MUR-
CHISON, PEACOCK, &c. &c. Both of the late
Speakers' names were put to this memorial in
favour of an Educational Franchise ; and no one
could know better than the last Speaker, who
had presided over the House for eighteen years,
the defects in the constitution of the present
House of Commons.
There can be no reason why the poor should
not also have their representatives in Parliament.
At present no one represents them. A few
members might, we believe, be given to the
mechanics and labourers of our country with per-
fect safety to the State; for, their number being
few, they could never exercise any overpowering
influence; and we have, moreover, a strong con-
fidence that these would elect better members

than the busy, bustling, little shopkeepers in our
large boroughs. It is (Ally to restore the old
franchise of " Scot and Lot," known to the Con-
, stitution, by which every adult man would have
a vote, who was not otherwise enfranchised, and
the most desirable result would be accomplished
of uniting the rich and the poor in the common
object of promoting the welfare of their country.
We advance these views upon no other
authority than our own, and not in any way to
commit the Conservative party. They spring
out of our zeal for good government.

To elevate the character of the representatives,
and at the same time greatly to extend the
franchise, are the two oltjects at which, in our
opinion, the Conservatives should aim in any
scheme of Reform which they may propound.
They need not fear, we are tzinvinced, largely to
extend the franchise among the people, so long
only as they secure a counterbalancing element

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