The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-25 00:00:00

TO LORD JOLTS RUSSELL

LETTER VII.
Mr MILD,
Beyond the advantages which your lordship pro-
mised the Minn Act would produce, there was
one act of justice which the bulk of the people cer-
tainly expected from it. I will net say that you
gave us any reason to expect that the " old distinc-
tions" as regards representatives would be materially
altered, but certainly it was believed and hoped
that, to some extent, the Reform Act would equalise
Cie enormous numerical disproportion which existed,
prior to 1832, between the aristocracy and landowners
and all other classes of members of the House of
Commons. In the debates upon the bill, you spoke
of '• admitting the people to a share of the repre-
sentation." By these words I presume your lordship
meant to imply that among the members of the
future house you expected to find more men who
sprang from the people, who were allied to
their interests and concerned for their well-
being. The obi, ct of my present letter
is to inquire whether the Reform Act has
fulfilled the expectations which were thus awakened,
or whether the constitution of past and present
parliaments is in all practical respects the same.
Give me leave to premise that I am not one
of those who see any advantage ordinarily in
drawing class distinctions. The true interests of all
classes of the people are, I believe, identical; and
there seems to me to be no sounder axiom in
political economy than that the prosperity or
depression of one interest must ultimately act
upon the others. But, at the same time, there seems
no good reason why one class, no better qualified for
the task than another, should set itself up to
govern all the rest. Where any one interest is
unable to protect itself, it may, upon the geueral
principle, very fairly seek the assistance of another.
But, where those engaged iu any particular occupa-
tion arc of opinion that they can best be protected
by their own representatives, let them have the
opportunity of lving represented, if they arc found
to be entitled to it.
The disfranchisement of certain nomination bo-
roughs, the enfranchisement of a considerable
number of large constituencies, and the exten-
sion of the suffrage to Inf. householder, under
the Reform Act, were measures thought likely to
effect a fairer adjustment of the balance. Amidst
the general anxiety for the adoption of " the
Bill," there is too much reason to fear that many im-
portant considerations were overlooked. It was not
observed, for example, that whilst you deprived (Ai
small towns of the franchise, and hull-disfranchised
30 more, you in reality gave the counties, governed
by the landed aristocracy, all the profit and advanH
tage of this arrangement. The following table, my
lord, will exhibit this comp'etely
In th.• n- In the
rt: dna d Itekormed In- De-
Na. Of timbers Ti presenting I.drlnts larks. erzaae. crcive.

English counties 42 143 61
English cities and boroughs tiq 38
Welsh counties
12 3

.
We boroughs
• • • .•.

Irish counties

Irish boroughs 4l
Scotch counties 'ill 30

Scotch burghs l5

Thus it will be seen that the English boroughs
paid for everything—not only for the great increase
m the English and Welsh counties, but even for the
small concessions made to Ireland and Scotland.
'ibis was another way in which the "old distinction
between town and country was preserved.
But the increase of territorial influence thus exhi-
bited does not represent the full state of the case. in
my more recent letters I have dwelt at length upon
the enfranchised districts, or small counties, whieb
may bo do scribed as " boundary boroughs." I cal-
culate, my lord, that you created 41 of those bo-
roughs, and that they return 57 members to the
House of Commons. Add these 57 boundury-bo-
rough members to the 61 additional county members,
and the total increase of influence given to the land
by the Reform Bill is expressed by 114, or ore-sixth
of the entire number of members in the House of
Commons.
For the purpose of arriving at a more complete
view of the present state of things, it is, I think,
worth while to classify the boroughs of England
according to their character. I will take them as
agricultural boroughs, manufacturing boroughs, cities,
and seaports.

-
AORICULTEIULL 110ROIGHS.
[All return 2 member* except where otherwise expressed.:
Abington (I) Grimsby (1) l'eterstield (I)
Andover Guildford l'untefriset
Aruiuhl (1) Helstoue (1) Reigate (1)
Ashburton (1) Hertford ltetlord
Aylesbury Blanton Richmond
Banbury 0) Horsham (1) Ripon
Barnstaple Ilunt in.-.:on Rye (I)
Ii Bedford mitl4l) St. Albans
Beverley Knaresburough St. Ives (1)
Bewdley (1) Launceston (I) Shaftesbury (1)
Bodmin Leominster Shoreham
Boston Lewis Stafford
Bridgewater Lichfield Stamford
Bridgcnorth Liskeard (1) Sudbury
llridport Ludlow TAmworth
Buckingham Lyruington Tavistock
BurySt.Edmund's Lyiue Regis (I) Tewkesbury
Caine (I) Lynn Thetford
Chichester Id ddstone Thinik (1)
Chippenham Maldon Totness
Christ Church (1) Malmesbury Wallingford (1)
Cirencester Malton Wareham (1)
Cockermouth Marlboro' Warwick
Cricklade Marlow Wells
Devises Midhurst (I) Wenlock
1/urchester Morpeth (I) Westbury (1)
Droitwich (1) Newark Wilton (I)
Evesham Newport Woodstock (I)
Eye (I) Northallerton (I) Wycombe
Grantham Pcterboro'
Total-89 boroughs, returning 118 members.
111•NUFACTI:111NO 1101t01:01111.
..

Ashton-under--....-iacidermi--:nstjr(l)ghettleld
Lync (1) Leeds South Shields (1)
Birmingham Leicester Stockport
Blackburn Macclesfield Stoke-upon-Trent
Bolton Manchester Stroud
Bradford Newcastle-under- Sunderland
Bury (I) Lync 'Tiverton
Clitheroe (1) Newcastle-on-Tyne Truro
Derby Norwich Tynemouth (1)
Dudley Cl) Nottingham Wakefield (1)
Frame (1) Oldham Walsall (1)
Gateshead (1) Preston Warrington (1)
Halifax Rochdale (1) Wigan
Huddersfield (1) Salford (1) Wolverhampton
rotal-10 boroughs returning 6d members.
CITIES AND LAIIOE TOWNS.
Bath Gloucester Reading
Bristol Greenwich Rochester
Brighton Hereford Salisbury
Cambridge Hull Shrewsbury
Canterbury Ipswich Southampton
Carlisle Lambeth Southwark
Chatham Lancaster Tower Hamlets
Cheltenham. Lincoln Taunton
Chester Liverpool Westminster
Colchester London (4) Winchester
Devonport Mary lebouo Windsor
Dover Northampton Worcester
Durham Oxford Yarmouth
Exeter Plymouth York
Finsbury Portsmouth
Total-44 cities returning 90 members.
ATIPORTS. _ . .

Berwick-upon-Tweed Ilythe (1) Scarborough
Dartmouth (1) Falmouth Whitby (1)
Harwich Poole Whitchaven (1)
Hastings Sandwich Weymouth
Total-12 towns, returning 20 members.

The summary of the foregoing is really interesting :
No. of No. of
- - _ Constituencies. Members.

Counties, with the Isle of Wight—•• ii---7. . ilii29l—
Boroughs
Cities and Large Towns
Manufacturing Boroughs 4O .• 85 176
Seaport Towns l2 .. 20
Monmouth District 1 .. 1
Universities

471 471

Thus we sec that the influence of the land, in
comparison with that of the citizens and townsfolk,
is predominant to the extent of a majority of 115
votes, or of upwards of onelyfili of the entire repre-
sentation of England in the House of Commons. In
relation to the manufacturing boroughs, the agricul-
tural constituencies (exclusive of the counties) pre-
ponderate to the extent of 244 to 1. Now, I put it to
your lordship, whether you believe that the people
contemplated a disproportion of this sort when the
Reform Act was accepted? If 1 look back to the
records of the period is hen that bill passed, I find
nothing so much complained of as the great pre-
ponderance of the landed interest in the House of,