The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-05 00:00:00

or less directly at effectisg this object The third
declares that every representative ought, if he think
fit, to receive his expenses during the session of par-
Bement ; the ninth dispenses with a property qualifi-
cation
be divided;udt in
the seventh
five classes--"enthpropoet!, those
ow whotheelec are
shall e
employed in daily labour forming one"—each of
which shall elect its own representatives. By these
means it is obvious that the noble lord looks to be
able to confer on every working man of mature
years and sane mind a vote in the election of mem-
bers of parliament, and also to ensure the admission
of representatives belonging to that class ti,to the
House of Commons without alarming the proprietary
cl
Coinciding with Earl STANHOPE in the opinion that
it is desirable to have the most industrious of those
who live by daily labour represented in parliament,
and also to have them represented by some of their own
order, we approve entirely of his third and ninth
resolutions. They are indispensable to that end. But
we cannot approve of class legislators.
The experiment has been tried in every German
and Scandinavian state which has enjoyed any mea-
sure of popular representation, and in the French
provinces under the ancien regime. Its' inevitable
tendency has been to foment animosities among
classes to the subversion of liberty or the paralysis of
administrative government. The sovereign or mi-
nister played off the different Pats or stande against
each other. At one time the priests and the noblesse
were banded against the burghers and the peasants ;
at another, the priests and the peasants against the
other two. The obstruction to all good government
arising out of the intrigues or counter-intrigues of
these bodies became so inveterate in the course
of the last century, that the people of Sweden,
to escape from it, aided the King to assume
despotic power. Earl STANHOPE'S representatives of
five classes in parliament would be five organised in-
teresta alternately leaguing and quarrelling with
each other for narrow selfish purposes. Their legis-
lation would be narrow-minded and hurtful. Their
intrigues would render parliament a dark region, in
which corrupt and ambitious statesmen would inces-
santly plot and counterplot each other, neglecting the
public business—purchasing power by the sacrifice of
public interests. It is owing, in a great measure, to
the non-recognition of distinct classes in the English
Commons that we have an English people, in-
stead of (as in Germany) a Humber of &betide,
who have no common views or sympathies;
and that this English people may be preserved it is
necessary that within their several districts all elec-
tors shall continue to choose representatives not of
landowners, merchants, labourers, &c., but of English-
men.
To us it appears that there is a possibility of ob-
taining the end which Earl STANHOPE has in view,
without introducing castes into English society, and
at the same time without encountering the dangers
which a majority of the upper and middle classes
(with or without good reason) apprehend from univer-
sal suffrage. By giving every householder—every
head of an independent menage—a vote, and by
equalising the electoral districts, there will be
a number of districts in which the working
classes are sufficiently numerous in proportion to the
other electors to command when they choose the
return of a member fully representing their senti-
ments and wants. We know that it is objected to the
household qualification for electors that it will exclude
many of the most intelligent both of the middle
dessert and of the skilled artisans. But this may'
lie remedied. With the present electoral qualifica-
ti in, non-elector and elector arc pretty nearly syno-
nymous with a poor man and a man in comfort-
able circumstances. This causes the non-possession of
the elective franchise to be regarded with increased
bitterness. It is a mistake to imagine that the person
who has no vote is necessarily without political in-
fluence. Throughout society we find a multiplicity
of domestic or social circles, in each of which
the members take their opinions from one or
two of the more enlightened or energetic
among them. So long as a due number of each class
have votes, it is comparatively of little consequence
who the individuals are who possess them.

MR. lit its: has received, in the events of Limerick,
the most powerful support that could have been de-
vised for his promised motion on the Irish church. In
one of the great strongholds of Hibernian nationality,
in Limerick, the partisans of open revolution, of war,
and hatred to England, have been put down—put
down, too, by the weapons to which they themselves
appealed—the strong hand of the people. That
strong hand, too, was applied, not only with violence,
but with contempt. It not orly castigated, but it
branded, and exposed the victims to present vengeance
and everlasting ridicule.
It is useful to recognise the conservative principle
that was here at work, and that prevailed in over-
coming the efforts of these who appealed so powerfully
to the passions and pride—dear, after all, to Irishmen.
The madness of SMITH O'BRIEN, MEAGHER, and
M ITCH ELI., was pat down in Limerick. and is scouted
in all the towns of the south by the junction of the
priesthood and the citizen class,—by those, in fact,
whom the late Mr. O'CONNELL chiefly trusted, and
by whom he was to the last enduringly supported.
In a mixed population like that of Dublin, full of
the professional and miscellaneous discontent of a
great capital, it was difficult to get at the true senti-
ment of the citizen class, overawed too by a mob,
whose real force it was not easy to ascertain, and by
leaders whose talents, power, and influence it might be
difficult to appreciate. The triumvirate, therefore, did
succeed in establishing a reign of terror and of doubt
h, Dublin ; but the moment they made trial in a pro-
vincial capital there was no room for such deception,
The public knew itself—citizens knew each other's
minds—the people obeyed their pastors, and the re-
sult was instantaneous in the kicking of the revolu-
tionary triumvirate out of the city.
Let the government, however, not be rendered too
confident by the triumph. For the classes which put
down MEAOHER and MITCHELL are still more for-
midable antagonists to England, and to the union,
unless England will conciliate and do them justice.
The Irish priesthood are the true police—
s, moral police who cannot be taken into
pay. The priesthood and the Old Ireland citizens
form together the only middle class, the only deposi-
tary of intelligence and economy, and the (true sup-
porters of public order and of progress through peace-
able and constitutional measures. The government
that cannot win the confidence and support of these
classes will never be allowed the opportunity or the
power of working that cure of pauperism, that trans-
formation of the inter-devouring antagonism which
prevails amongst the agricultural population, and
may bid good-bye to peace or to solid improvement.
The great false step of the English government
was certainly the abandonment or rejection of the
appropriation clause. That indicated a policy which
might have contented the great middle Irish class,
which we have desciibed. Perhaps, however, it is not
too late. And certainly the present is a noble oppor-
tunity. The classes we hint at have just given a
most noble example of their wish to preserve
amity and union with England. The events of
Limerick and the south can be looked on as nothing
less than a renewal of the old conciliatory offer of
DANIEL O'CONNELL,—that is, of DANIEL O'CONNELL
in his character of pacificator. Were our present
ministry bold enough to reproduce their own true and
liberal policy, and parliament considerate enough to
sanction it, a new era of justice to Ireland, and of
union between the two countries, might hopefully

couimeoi.e.
It will bo seen by our Irish correspondent's letter
that the government measure for extending the Irish
franchise has given very great satisfaction. It will,
undoubtedly, be received as a great boon by the
citizen class. And indeed it should be also welcomed
in England, where ministers must bo prepared to ex-
tend the principle of a rate-paying franchise, intro-
duced by their bill into Ireland.
A glance at the journals of the south of Ireland
would furnish ample proof of what we strive to
impress upon English readers—that the citizen and
the sacerdotal class, with the masses who trust them,
are opposed to violence and physical-force doctrines,
yet leagued in one common sentiment of obtaining
equal rights with Englishmen, with or without re-
' peal. A letter from a valued correspondent, giving
an account of the demonstration at Curk, will be read
with pleasure, and corroborates our view.
A recent debate in the town council of Cork fully'
displays the feelings of these classes in the south.
Alderman LYONS, on that occasion, denounced speech-
makers as the bane of the country," whose eons should
take a leaf from the book of the hated Saxon, and
work industriously, instead of talking of pikes and
blunderbusses with the insane MITCHELL. Iu