The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-26 00:00:00

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and have a right to see, rigidly
is too muck sympathy with the &opts of the
here, the sympathy is with the petriota of the endioent.
(Cheers.) There, a member, with • sneer, asks the nue-
tary of state if he is aware that such • person as Kasha is
in England ? Here, your question is, when shall we have
not only Mazzini but Konuth among us ? (Loud sheen.)
They speak respectfully of his catholic Majesty, the King
of the Two Sicilies—(hisses)—and the Emperor of all the
Runias—(hisses)—whilst some here would agree with me
that it would be no unpleasant sight to see a gibbet with
two arms, with the Czar dangling at one end and the Ca-
tholic King of the Two Sicilia at the other. (Loud
cheers.) If Lord John Russell means to introduce a new
reform bill that will satisfy the people, it will not
need patching and tinkering for the nextdozen years. He
is but little in the habit of doing this. His tendencies have
always been, I am sorry to say, to look to the narrow
rather than the broad and expansive; to the crude and out-
worn creed of party rather than to the loving views of
living million.. When he should be reading his bible for
religious truth and liberty, he goes and consults a bishop;
he takes counsel with a clique when he ought to be listen-
ing to the voice of the public., He is attentive to the ten-
dencies of the House of Commons, when he should have
been attending to the language and win of those who in
theory, right, and eventually in practice are the makers
and masters of the House of Commons. Sir, we call that a
house of representatives. Representatives of what, I should
lake to know ? Suppose en intelligent foreigner were
brought into the House of Commons, and looking around
him there, remarking one man and another, he were to say :
"Well, who is that? What wealthy and distinguished
commoner is that ?" " Oh, sir," the reply would be, "that
is a marquis; we have six marquises an this house."
Well he would think this rather odd. (Laughter.) Look-
ing
at another man, " Who is that ?" he would ask. " Why,
that is a viscount ; we have eight viscounts in this house.
" Who is another ?" " Why, he is an earl; we have son rid
earls here." " Who is another ?" " Why, he is a lord;
there are six and thirty lords in this house. (Cheers and
laughter.) At the back of these we hese 61 baronets and 12
honourables—making 274 persons connected with the peerage
and aristocracy. " And this," he would say in amazement,
"is what you call • House of Commons. What, then, is the
House of Lords? This is only a sort of junior or
journeyman House of Lords. What brings them hero in
such multitudes, that there seems not the least propriety in
the designation which you bestow upon them?" Nor is
there. His suspicions would be very right. Ile would feel
like the young angel in Franklin's fable, who asked an
older angel to show him the earth and its curiosities. The
angel brought him down just at the time when a tremend-
ous sea-fight was purpling the waters with human blood,
and the young angel said to his guide, " Why, my fricud,
you have made a mistake: I asked you to show me Earth
and you hare shown me Hell!" (Cheers.) So might a
foreigner say, on earning to see our Commons, and finding
that the chief thing you show him are our Lords. What is
there like this in society ? The House of Commons should
be the reflex of the real commons of England, of which you
are part and parcel. If you stand in any of the great atreeta
of this city and watch the railway trains when they come
in, or poet yourselves on London-bridge, or any other
place where multitudes resort, and in what spot in
the whole country can you find that out of every noon who
passes you ; one in fourteen is a placernan ? and yet it is so
in the House of Commons. Where can you post yourselves
that you can find every seventh or eighth man who passes
you is an officer in the army or navy ?—and yet it is so in the
House of Commons. Where can you stand that every
ninth man who passes you is a barrister ?—amid vet it is so
in the House of Commons. And a line place for the law-
yers it is there. The House of Commons is, in fact, what
Mr. Barry has planned it to bc—ouo end of a vista, where
in perspective you see the House of Lords. (Cheers.) It
, Is • lord-making factory. For in what part of the country
• could you stand so that every fourth person you see as
either a son, or a nephew, or a brother, or an uncle ,or a
grandson, or is related by marriage to the peerage and
aristocracy ? Why, sir, the thing is an egregious farce, and
you have only to analyse what is called the Howe of Com-
mons to see teat we need a new House of Commons very
much, on a better principle—a thorough choose;
it is like the deformity of the poet Pope, who
was in the habit of saying " God mend me,"
A boy who beard him, exclaimed "Gad mend you, you
little deformity, why it would be much easier to make a
new one altogether.' (Loud cheers and laughter.) Well,
how can we wonder that the House of Commons itself
should be • deformity, and at its incongruity, when we look'
at the way and the principles, or want of principle, on
which it is constructed ? Why, sir, it is full of incongruities.
Our electoral system, if system it may be called, which has
nothing to answer to that word, comes to the utmost verge
of absurdity. Lord John Rumen has said he has heard it
999 times, but it is worth repeating the thousandth time, and
perhaps with that the amendment may come. We have in
our boroughs 30,000 electors returning four representatives,
and we have also 30,000 electors returning 104 representa-
tives. (" ohame.") We have 330 members representing
six millions of property, and we hare 328 members repre-
senting 78 millions of property. Half the rateable pro-
perty in the country (in the counties of Kent, Lancaster,
Middlesex, Surrey, Suffolk, Staffordshire, Somersetshire,
Yorkshire, and another), has 161 members, and the other
, half of the rateable property has 310 'itemisers. There are
nine counties which have 66 per cent. of the property of
the country, and 31 per cent. of the representation. There
aro 34 countis s that have also 50 per cent. of the property,
which return 66 members. These incongruities are in •
continual state of aggravation. The census returns jolt
published show a great improvement of that which is placed
fine in the resolution now before the meeting. They. show
I the necessity of a re-distribution of representatives in pro-
. portion to the population, which is the same thing as in
proportion to the property. There arc some places where
the population has diminished during the last ten years,
but the returns show the same ;number of representatives.
There are places where the population is stationary, yet
return the same number of representatives. There are
places where the population is rapidly increasing,
and is likely to continue to increase yet they
only return the same number as they did previously.
The increase in this city alone in the last 10 years has been
38,000 souls, a number which consistsof the 500th partof the
entire population of the kingdom. It is a number equal to
the population at the last census of Andover, Harwich,
Huntingdon, Leominster, Marlborough, Thetford, sad
other towns, returning altogether 16 members. The whole
amount of the population which there return 16 members
has been added to this city in the lust ten years. The in-
crease in Liverpool, Manchester, and Salford is 85,378.
81,000 persons in eighteen boroughs return no fewer than
30 members to parliament. London has increased
405,000, yet has not is single additional member.
Lancaster has increased by 65,000 persons, and still
gets its two members. Nor arc these incongruities
confined to this part of the subject. They are em-
braced in the: Reform Dill itself, a bill which draws an
arbitrary distinction, which is founded on no reason or
justice whatsoever. The 10/. householder,who or what is
he? Why does the amount of your rent constitute your
tide to have a share in the representation, and in
the legislature of your country the line is must unfairly
drawn. It include* the meet dependent of all classes; the
small tradesmeu, and it excludes the most independent of
all classes, I mean the intelligent operatives. I suppose
there are very few working men who pay more than 151. a
year rent. You may take it fur granted that all the work-
ing men included in the Reform Bill are to be found in the
number paying between 101. and 151. • year rent. That
number is between 90,000 and 100,000. Suppose the half
of these are working men, and you get 60,000 only as the
total amount of the working classes enfranchised by that
mach-boasted Reform Bill; that is to say, the working
men who constitute the mass of the commons of England
have one vote out of every 17 votes possessed by the other
classes of society. This is an anomaly which is not to be
endured. They strove well and truly, heartily and stoutly,
for the carrying of the Reform Bill, and it is a
debt owing them by the middle classes to strive
with heart and soul for their enfranchisement; for the
fulfilment of that obligation I think the time is now wholly
arrived. And, sir, my fear is that Lord John Russell may
stick too closely to the little accommodating way in which
he achieved that reform—that he will be peeping about in
moiety to sec if there be any little clan here or a little class
there who may safely be admitted within the bounds of the
austitation. Sir, the course should be directly the re-
verse. The mod.: should not he to see on whom parliament
might bestow the franchise and on whom it might uot, but
thin they should give it, and show cause, and good cause
=
' thievery instance where the franchise is witheld or de-
(Hear hear.) It is a privation, a degradation, and
sisal not be inflicted unless a man's incapability of using
illsedettrly demonstrated. (Hear, hear.) Lord John Ros-
ie, I should sap, has fears and apprehensions ; he has ex-
pound them on several occasions, and teems to be in great
ulna as to the safety of wine of our institutions. Why,
air, there was a much stronger alann in other quar-
ters when he introduced the Reform Bill. My thoughts
go back to the time spoken of by a fellow-townsman
of mine,—that is, • gentleman of Norwich, named Bunting.
He has recorded in apamphlet a collection of prophecies
uttered at the time the Reform Bill was introduced. They
were all of a very alarming nature. Mr. Banks said the
Reform Bill would establish a state of things approaching
to the despotism of the mob. Sir John Shelley said no
administration would be able to carry ou the government
of the country for en weeks. Mr. Price prophesied confu-
sion and civil war, until some powerful chief would inter-
fere and e-tablish a military despotism. Sir IL Vivian said
no freeholder nor no landowner need flatter themselves on
their property being safe: a reformed parliament would
take the crown off the king's head. Even Sir Robert Peel
fell into these alarms about a reformed parliament. He
said the government of the country would come into the
hands of demagogues, who wool lead tha country
to despotism and destruction ; and even though the mo-
narchy were not to be nominally abolished, still the
democrats would virtually reign in the House of Commons.
I think after all these prophecies Lord John Russell slight
have spared himself the folly of prophesying on the present
occasion. He might take it for granted that as the demo-
cracy had not risen when the last Reform Bill was earned,
so there would be no great danger that such p
would prove true in the present case, and that we nrtatters
on furth .z reforming without such sacrifices as those which
were predicted. (Cheers.) I believe the monarchy would
be as perfectly secure under any reform which Lord John
Russell may entertain, or which is contemplated by the
neat thorough-going democrats in this country. I believe
the House of Lords is quite as safe as it deserves to be. As
to the established church, lam not sure that every voter
should be pledged, as his lordship seems to wish, to.
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