The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

PRESENT PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM.

Mr. Bright then adverted to the present constitu-
tion of the House of Commons :

Bat having admitted that parliamentary reform is neces-
sary, they thereby admit that the present House of Commons
does not satisfactorily represent the nation—and it is one
step in advance to receive that admission from all those
persons from among whom it has hitherto been supposed
that Governments could alone be formed in this country.
Now, I do not believe that the Parliament, as at present
constituted, does fairly represent the nation, and I think it
is capable of must distinct proof that it does not. Before
I proceed to figures I will mention one or two general
proofs of that assertion. In the year 1816, when the great
question of the repeal of the corn laws was under discus-
sion, it required an earthquake to allow the people to buy
their bread in the earth's markets; it required a famine
in Ireland—which from 1811 to 18-51 lessened the popu-
lation of that country by 3,oo',ooo—tt required the con-
version of a great Minister, the break up of a great party,
the "endangering of the Constitution," and all those
mysterious evils which official statesmen discovered when
the poor artizan of Birmingham or Manchester, or the poor
half-starved labourer, asked this only—that where bread
could be bad best and cheapest in return for his labour
he might be permitted to buy it. But coming down to
1852, when Lord Derby was in office, he went to a disso-
lution, and the great question proposed to the consti-
tuencies was protection. Parliament reassembled, and
protection and Lord Derby were defeated by a majority
of nineteen ; but when you had only a majority of nineteen
in the House of Commons against the re-establishment of
protection, nineteen-twentieths of the people of England
were determined that they never would have anything of
the sort again. Take, again, the questions which affect
the Established Church. Probably many persons in this
meeting are not aware that according to the return of
the Registrar-General only one-third of the people of this
country have any connection with the Established Church.
In Scotland one-third only of the population are connected
with the Establishment; in Ireland five out of six, in
Wales eight out of ten, have no connection at all with it.
And yet the Established Church is paramount in both
houses. If the House of Commons fairly represented all
the people of the United Kingdom, the Established Church
—it is as a political institution that I speak of it, I say
nothing of it as a religious institution—would be much
more modest, and we should probably get some changes
much more readily than we have ever got any before.
Again, you are aware, probably, that up to 1853 if a man
received landed property by inheritance, if it were left to
him by will or came to him as heir-at-law, it paid no
legacy duty—l speak of freehold property. In 1853 Mr.
Gladstone, by an effort which was considered surerhuman,
prevailed upon the House of Commons to pass a law to
impose a succession tax, as it was called, or a legacy duty
on real property. I will tell you how they did it. You
know that if a man in Birmingham comes into possession
of leasehold houses, or machinery, or shares in the North-
Western Railway, or shipping, or any other property not
called real property—though, by the way, when a man
gets hold of it it is surprising how real lie finds it—if he
be no relation to the person who left it to him, he has to
pay a legacy duty of ten per cent., and a different degree
of per-centage according to the degree of relationship in
which he may stand to the testator. In the case of land—
the heat of all property, with regard to its durability and
certainty, for a man to hate left to him or to possess—the
law is of a different kind. A friend of mine, a member
of the House of Commons, was fortunate enough to have
left to him by a person who was in no way related to him
a landed estate of about 7001. a year. This was worth in
the market thirty years' purchase, or 21,0001. There was
timber on the estate to the value of 11,0001., which, added
to 21,0001., made the whole bequest 32,0001. If it had
been leasehold houses, or stock-in-trade, or machinery, or
shares, or shipping, or in the funds, my friend would
have had to pay 101. per cent. on it, that is to say 3,2001.
But what did he pay? that is the question, for if we
had all estates left us alike it would not so much matter.
The calculation was this :—My friend is of a certain age—

I don't know what, and it's not material; the tax.
gatherer or the people at Somerset•house look into a
table, which shows the probable length of life of a man
of that particular age, and instead of paying 101. per
cent. on 82,0001., he is taxed upon the annual income
of the estate multiplied by the number of years which
according to the tables he may be expected to live It
ended in this way, that instead of paying 3,2001. to the
State, to bear your burdens and to pay fur your wars, he
paid 7001., or rather leas than one quarter. Do you think
that if the House of Commons fairly represented the
lawyers, merchants, manufacturers, shopkeepers, artizans,
and all the rest of the population, such an act as that
could have passed that house, or that if it had existed
it could continue to exist for a single session ? I could
show you inequalities as grant and scandalous in the
manner in which the income tax, so grievously felt by
owners of certain property in Birmingham, presses and is
imposed upon the owners of the soil and those engaged
is professions and trades chiefly carried on in towns, but
I will not enter int.) that matter. Your own experience
most have shown you how unequal that tax is. You know
bow entirely every Government has swept aside all pro-
posals to make it more equal and just. And now we
come to the question of figures. I think it is very easy
to show that if the present House of Commons equitably
or at all honestly represents the population of the country
figures are of no avail in this discussion, for the figures
prove conclusively that such is not the case.