The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

There is great discussion at the present day as to
what is the proper element of representation. Some
tell you that population is the element of a repre-
sentative system ; others tell you property is the
proper element; a third party tells you that pro-
perty and population should be taken together ; and
a fourth tells you that population and property
always go together, and cannot be separated, But I
think there is one element in a representative Go-
vernment which is still more firnportant than even
population or property. I mean prescription. (Hear,
hear.) An old European country, and especially
England, obeys the authority to which it is accus-
tomed. But no country of the antiquity of our own,
no country where so artificial a system of society
and of credit exists as in this, ever can sustain per-
petual ehenges of Government, and will always have
a bias for obeying the authority which is traditionary.
(Hear, hear.) Therefore, supposing the Minister
next year brings forward a scheme of Parliamentary
Reform.l shall, though adverse as a general rule to
political change, give to his proposition a candid con•
sideration ; I shall ask myself whether the proposi-
tion which he makes is one that is calculated to
concede that justice which I think has been hitherto
denied to your claims, but which I would not have
disturbed society by demanding, and yet which, if by
the act of the Government themselves the country
is called upon to investigate' the question, I think it
the duty of the classes connected with the land
clearly and earnestly to place before the Legislature.
Let me illustrate my meaning by an instance.
The popular idea of Parliamentary Reform may be
fairly stated in this manner. A gentleman who is a
Parliamentary Reformer takes a small borough—for
example, Buckingham or Wycombe—and he says,
" Here are two boroughs with a constituency of 300
voters each, and here is the city of Manchester, in
the county of Lancaster, with a population of
300,000 inhabitants, but with only two members, or
the same number, in fact, as the little borough of
Buckingham. What injustice ! What anomalies !
It is absolutely necessary that we should disfranchise
Buckingham or Wycombe, and transfer its two mem-
bers to Manchester." And it is astonishing how
plausible this proposal sounds, and how easily it is
credited even by those whose interests are not in-
volved in fits adoption. But, gentlemen, if you
come to anomalies, I should like to know whether
there are none in our representation infinitely more
striking than this very popular instance drawn from
the small boroughs with only 300 constituents. I
have a note hero which is very brief but very preg-
nant. Take, for example, the county of South
Cheshire, with a population of 206,000. There is
only one town there, the city of Chester, containing
28,000 inhabitants, and it returns two members,
while the county contains 178,000 inhabitants, and
yet returns only two members. Thus the county of
South Cheshire, with 178,000 inhabitants, returns
the same number of members as the city of Chester
with 28,000. I could go through almost every
county in England and show the same anomalies.
The subject is one on which it is of the utmost im-
portance that the people of this country should have
the most accurate information, and that information
they should learn, mark, and inwardly digest during
the next nine months, so that when the proposition
of the Government, or of any Government, is made
they should be able to form a sound opinion upon it.

I meet every day of my life men who are called
Conservatives in opinion—fair and honourable men,
who probably have not had time to examine this
question, and who often say, "There are unquestion-
ably great anomalies in the present system. Why,
the little town and the great city return the same
number of members. Surely, you must disfranchise
the little towns, and give the seats to the great cities."
I am not opposod to every measure of Parliamentary
Reform which any Minister may bring forward. I
think it probable that any scheme that is introduced
must do more justice to the claims which, I think,
are not properly treated.
But this is the point which I wish to press upon
you, because it is upon it that your future conduct

SATIJRDATI

must depend. It is, that it' we are to have a new
scheme of Parliamentary Reform, these claims ought
to be admitted. Perhaps you will pardon me if
put before you a few more facts. There is the case
of North Cheshire, with a total population of 2-19,60::
inhabitants, and with the two great towns of Maeeies.
field and Stodkport. Well, the two towns, with a
population of 93,000, return four members, while the
rural population, consisting of 156,000, returns only
two. Is not that an anomaly as striking as that pre.
seated by the small county town and the large
manufacturing city ? Another remarkable case
that of the count,' of South Derby, which has only
one large town, and a total pop ulation of 1116,001).
The town of Derby, with 40,000 inhabitants, has two
members, while the 'rural population, numbering
125,000, has but two. Is not that an anomaly
(Cheers.) Again, take the county of North Durham.
with a total population of 272,000, and having four
towns, viz. :—Durham, Gateshead, South Shields,
and Sunderland. The town population number,
136,000, or exactly the same as that of the county,
and yet the towns are represented by six members,
while the county has only two. (Hear.) Perhaps
ought to apologise for giving you a statistical lecture,
particularly in this hot weather. (" No, no," and
laughter•.) But really we live in very remarkable
times. I recollect no instance of a Prime Minister
dissolving Parliament, and after a general election
coming down to the new House of Commons, and
saying his first important measure will be to reform
and reconstruct them—(laughter)—but that as he
has not made up his mind how to do it he will take a
year to consider of it. (Renewed laughter.) I don't
wish to criticiae the future policy of the noble loul,
but I think we should be the greatest idiots in the
world if we did not take the opportunity of instruct-
ing ourselves on this question, so that the noble lord
may have the advantage of the expression of the
opinions of Englishmen upon it, which may influence
his measures ; and if his measures are not influenced
by the just views that we are attempting to maintain,
at least when his scheme is brought before us we
shall be able to criticise them with that power which
must accrue from a complete knowledge of the sub-
ject. (Hear.) Yon will, therefore, feel that I am
only doing my duty as your representative at this.
important crisis in laying these facts before you.
Well, I come to the county of West Kent, which
has 400,000 inhabitants. Its four great towns are
Chatham, Rochester, Maidstone, and Greenwich,
with an aggregate population of 160,000. These
towns return seven members, while the rural popu-
lation, numbering 228,000, returns only two. That,
I think, is another anomaly. (Hear, hear.) I take
next Lancashire, that great county which has exer-
cised so considerable an influence on your fortunes
and on the legislation, and even the history of this
country. North Lancashire has a population
of 460,000. Its four greet towns are Blackburn,
Clitheroe, Lancaster, and Preston, which, with a
population of 143,000, return seven members to Par-
liament, while the rural population, comprising
316,000, only returns two. I come next to that great
centre of manufacturing industry—South Lancashire.
It has a total population of 1,500,000, or as large a
population as Denmark, and almost as large as that
of Holland. Its towns contain 1,000,000 inhabi-
tants, and return fifteen members, while the re•
maining 500,000 in the county return but two.
Really, when we are going to have a Reform Bill,
and when it is the opinion, not indeed of Lord Pal-

merston—because he has kept that discreet silence
on the subject which usually characterises him—(a
laugh)—but the opinion of those reformers who are
egging him on, that the measure to be introduced is
to reduce the influence of the landed interest, and to
increase the power of the towns, I think the time
has come when we ought to meet and let the coun-
try know that we have investigated the subject and
have some clear understanding upon it, and that if
we are to have a new Reform Bill—which, if the
country wants it, I shall not oppose—let it at least
be based on principles more just than those estab-
lished in 1832.

MAY 23, 1857.

If, however, we are to form any opinion from the
expressions of those who are called the leading re-
formers of the day, we are to have a new Reform
Bill, which is not to redress the injustice of 1832,
but to aggravate it. In order to convince you that
the instances I have quoted are not isolated, but
only samples of what prevails throughout the whole
arrangements of 1832, let me give you one or two
further illustrations. East Norfolk, containing a
population of 250,000, returns two members, while
the town population of Norwich and Yarmouth, num-
bering 100,000, returns four. Then there is the
case of Yorkshire. The East Riding contains a
total population of 220,000. Hull and another town,
with 04,000 inhabitants between them, are repre-
sented by four members, while the remaining
120,060 of rural population have but two members.
The great West Riding has a population of
1,300,000 ; its nine great towns, with a population
of 500,000, have sixteen members, while the rural
population of 800,000 is represented, as usual, by
two members. What I want the agricultural classes
to do at the present day is, not to place themselves
in the unfavourable position of saying on this or on
any other great public question that they are opposed
to all change. That is always a difficult position to
occupy under any oiroumstances, but it is an impos-
sible position when the Government of the country
come forward as the advocates of change, and on
their responsibility, which ought to be deeper than
that of any common man, and with their knowledge
of the facts of the case, which ought to be more
accurate than that of any common man, tell you that
a great change in the representation of the country
is required, and that they are prepared to propose it.
Do not put yourselves in the position of opposing
abstractedly every reform thus introduced, but make
yourselves masters of your case, and lay it down as
a condition that, before you assent to it, the ohange
shall be founded on principles of justice. (Cheers.)
I am convinced that if you conduct yourselves in
that manner, and are supported by correct informa-
tion, you may safely appeal to that sense of fairness
which pervades the great bulk of the people of this
country; and you may be sure that no change will
take place in the parliamentary constitution of Eng-
land, which is conceived in such a spirit of
hostility to the landed interest as the measure
of 1832.

I know it will be said that there is a fallacy in the
observations that I have addressed to you, and it is
not impossible that the words uttered in this room
may be the subject of cavil and criticism. Now, so
far as lam concerned, I speak to court criticism. I
do not come down to meet you, my best and earliest
friends, merely for the pleasure of seeing you here,
but that I may do something to maintain your in-
terests and support your rights. lam prepared for
this answer to my observations, and I am going to
discount it, as it were, before it is made. It will be
said that I have merely taken the population repre-
sented by the towns, and that, on an hypothesis that
is perfectly unjustifiable, have assumed that the rest
of the population is a rural and county population,
whereas there is an immense number of people who
live in towns who are not represented. It will bs
said that I have included these persons in the figures
that I have given in order to delude my constituents
of Newport Pagnell. I will meet that answer—the
only answer that can be given to the statistics which
I have laid before you, and which are taken from the
authentic and authoritative tables of the public
census. I have taken the trouble to investigate the
number of inhabitants of this country who live in
the unrepresented towns, and I shall place before
you one of the shortest and most pregnant docu-
ments ever read on this all-important subject to a
body of Englishmen. I have taken England proper
as the subject of my illustration for the obvious sake
of simplicity. In Ireland, Scotland, and even in
Wales, there are varieties of franchise and diverse
arrangements respecting the boroughs, whereas
throughout England the franchise is similar and the
political incidents of the boroughs are exactly the
same. The example I shall give is on a scale SO

THE PRESS.

extensive as to be perfectly oonolusive on the
general question.

There are 144 county members in England, and
they represent a population of 9,777,000, which gives
one member of Parliament for every 67,8834 inhab-
itants. There are 319 borough members, represent-
Mg a population of 7,144,000, which gives one member
for every 22,381. I shall deduct the population of
the unrepresented towns, which: are supposed to be
represented by the county members. Their popula-
tion is exactly 1,000,000. Therefore the 144 county
members will represent 8,777,000, which gives one
member for every 60,860 persons ; while the 319
borough members will represent a population of
8,141,678, giving one member for every 25,535. So
that when I have rectified the balance and thrown
into the boroughs what they have no right to have,
the case stands thus—that you have one member in
the counties for every 61,000, and one in the
boroughs for every 25,000.

Are not these important facts" And when we are
told that there are to be new reform bills framed ac-
cording to the opinions of the leading reformers of
the country, with a view to diminish what they call
the undue preponderance of the landed interest, are
we to take no steps to make our position known?
And when England may be called upon to decide in
some moment of passion on some Parliamentary
Reform, brought forward perhaps for the purpose of
confirming a party in power, ought not these facts to
be well driven into the convictions and conscience of
the political mind of England? (Hear, bear.) You
would be acting a suicidal part if, knowing quite well
that a Reform Bill was to be introduced in deference
to the opinions of those who think that the classes
connected with the land have too much political
power, you were not to awaken the country to the
real state of the case as 1 have revealed it to you.
(Hear, hear.) Indisposed, therefore, as I am to
disturb the settlement of 1832, still, if a great politi-
cal change is contemplated and introduced on the
responsibility of the Minister of the Crown, I shall
give his proposition a dispassionate consideration,
and endeavour to vindicate the interests which I
think have been so long injured. (Hear, hear.)
I have only one remark to add on the subject of
Parliamentary Reform. So coolly is it assumed by
Parliamentary Reformers that any change in our re-
presentative system must diminish the influence of
the landed interest that you meet persons every day,
and persons, too, r:garding themselves as by no means
violent reformers, who want to alter the county fran-
chise. They are for adopting a reduced franchise
that will curtail the legitimate influence of the landed
interest by admitting into the county constituencies
persons unconnected with that interest. That, I
think, would be a most impolitic course. Whatever
plans of parliamentary reconstruction may be pro-
posed, we ought to adhere to the great distinction
which has always prevailed in our constitution, and
which was adopted after grave consultation in 1832
namely, that we should acknowledge the franchise of
the towns to arise out of occupation, and that of the
counties out of the ownership and cultivation of the
soil. It is impossible that any sane man can conceive
the project to increase the county constituencies,
which have already fewer members and a larger
population than the boroughs, and at the same time
not to deal with the borough constituencies. Than

such a proposal nothing could be more monstrous
or unsatisfactory. It aggravates the injustice and
increases the very political evil which ought to be
redressed. If there is to be a change in the electoral
body, it ought to be an increase in the constituencies

of the boroughs. If, therefore, you calmly consider
this question with especial reference to the position
and influence of the land, nothing could be more
unjust, absurd, and anomalous than the schemes of
reform hitherto propounded. (Cheers.)
I shall now leave that which hi put forward as the
question of the day. It is hardly necessary for me
to trouble you at any length upon other topics. There
is one subject, however, upon which I think the
people of this country ought to be prepared to come
to a definite opinion, and that is as to the position

whieh the Established Church is to maintain in their
constitution. (Hear, hear.) Ido not mean to War
into the controversy which has arisen with rasp*
to the parties which exist in the Church of England.
There never was a period when these parties did not
more or less prevail, and although one thing cannot
be denied—namely, that there never was a time when

one of these parties was predominant that its pre-
dominance was not injurious ,to the Church—it
must still be candidly admitted by all dispassionate
men that the competition, if I may use the expres-
sion, between the two parties which, have now pre•
veiled in the Church for more than two centuries has
on the whole been beneficial to this country. While,
on the one hand, what we familiarly call " Low
Church " has checked the advance of priestly domi
nation, on the other hand, what we call " High
Church" has saved us from the consequences of

latitudinarian practices. lam myself in favour of
that via media which the most eminent prelates of
the country have ever since the Reformation main-
tained and upheld. (Cheers.) I desire to see a full
and complete ecclesiastical establishment on the

basis of a true Protestant feeling ; but, at the same
time, I wish to see our ecclesiastical polity main-
tained in its spirit and truth. The question, how-
ever, which is now rapidly advancing, and which the
people of this country will be called upon to decide
—I believe even in this Parliament—is not whether

you shall have what is called " High Church " or
"Low Church," but whether you ball have a Na-
tional Church established in this realm, forming an
important part of its political constitution. This
question you will very speedily be called upon to
decide when the subject of church rates is brought
before you—a question the discussion of which it
has for many years been convenient to evade, but
which, you may depend upon it, before twelvemonths
have passed will in the consequences of its settle-
ment be one of the utmost importance to this
country. I have brought to this subject, I believe,
as calm a consideration as any man can well com-
mend, but I cannot conceal from myself that the
movement against church rates is a political move-
ment. I have arrived at that conclusion from facts
which are before us. They are these :—By the la*
of England, as it at present stands, no church rate
can be levied without the consent of a majority of
the ratepayers, and I should suppose that it is a dis-
tinguishing characteristic of Englishmen to defer

always to the sense of a majority. It is therefore
clear that a church rate cannot be levied in any
triot unless there is a predominant opinion in its
favour. Now, how do we find that the law practi.
cally acts? We have before us returns from the
12,000 parishes into which England is divided. In
how many parishes do you suppose, according to the
last returns, church rates have been refused° Why,
only in 600 out of the whole 12,000. (Hear, hear.)
When then we find, under a law so liberal in its con.
ception that the opinion of the majority absolutely
decides the question of assessment, that only five per
cent. of the 12,000 parishes—and those, of course,
situated in large towns—have availed themselves of
the privilege of withholding a church rate, it is im-
possible for me to accept as a grave conclusion that
this institution, if I may so call it, as it now exists
is opposed to the feelings and convictions of the
people. (Cheers.)

It is, however, impossible to deny that in this
question, left as it is—and perhaps wisely—to the
decision of the majority, is involved the whole ques-
tion of a ehurch establishment. Even if the majority
had a conscientious objection to the payment of
church rates, and you were called upon to terminate
them, you would have to decide the great question
whether you would maintain an establishment or
not. Circumstances, however, have not come to
such a point as to place us under the painful neces-
sity of weighing the advantages of an Established
Church against the general convictions and senti-
ments of the community. It is clear, however, that
every objection urged against church rates might be
equally urged against tithes, and might even be car-
ried to a greater length. If the conscientious objec-


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