The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-01 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER I.

WrIATEVF.R be the scope or tenour of the new Re-
form 11111. it is clear that it ought to be a bill for the

United Kingdom.
Three separate measures will not do. The patch-
work plan was tried in 1832, and confessedly, re-
sulted in a manner the most unsatisfactory. The
conjoint efforts of the liberal parties in the three
countries which together constitute the insular realm
of (heat Britain and Ireland, were primarily con-
centrated at the period in question on the bill
as it was framed for England. Regardless of
their specific interests and claims, the representa-
tives mid the people of Scotlandand Irelandeorthally
lent their unconditional aid to carry that measure.
That assistance was at the time far from being con-
sidered superfluous. The house of Lords were then
unused to yield. The instinct of oligarchic power as-
sured them, that once compelled to give way on such
a matter, the talisman of their domination would be
for ever broken ; and they resolved therefore to re.
sist so long as it was possible. To overpower this
then unbroken force, the organised might of three
nations was requisite, and it was not wanting. The
reverberations of popular demand were heard
from the Clyde to the Shannon; and the ex-
postulations of JEFFREY were mingled with the
declamation of Otos:Nut- The English bill
was carried, and then came the fulfilment of
the implii.4l pledge to the other portions of the
empire. Scotland gained much, indeed, by her sup-
plemental share of the general change ; but Inland
was left to the insolent caprice of Lord DERBY, then
Chief Secretary, and was cheated to her face accord-1
ingly. A meagre and miserable copy of the English
bill was pissed, into a law. 'the slam constituencies,
rapidly melted away, and the state of things because
at length so scandalous, that a 121. rating franchise'
in counties was recently found to be indispensable,
in order to preserve the semblance.: of a
representative system. For the cities and bo-
roughs nothing whatever was done by the
shambling coonpromise of last year. The number
of civic (lectors in Ireland remains as before prepus-
terously disproportionate to property and population.
The Inf. household qualification has been converted
into an muting test; but no extension of the suf-
frage has thereby been accomplished or was perhaps
intended. (If the thirty-nine members for Irish
towns, twenty-three represent boroughs whose con-
stituencies on an average do not exceed 230. In a
word, Ireland was left to be a stronghold of land-
lonlism, in defiance el the just remonstninees and
reproaches of teen-twentieths of her people.
This fatal error must not be committed again.
The maw of the people everywhere have the same
abiding interests and feelings. If at the present
hour the fiscal policy of the whole empire is menaced
subversion and disturbance,it IS because com-
bined landlordism in tin three kingdoms has still
been left so much political power. If we want to
put an end for ever to reactionary schemes of partial
and repressive taxation, put forward under the guise
of mopensution for a lust protection, we must in-
sist upon a full and final enfranchisement of the
whole mph. of whatever race, invent, or creed; fur
in this alum can we ever find industrial security and
peat..
But there arc other emuiiilemtions. which in the
mind sof a true statesman ought in themselves to de-
termine the question. (In other points there unhap-
pily still prevail deep-rooted di&rences which con-
tinually serve as elements of alienation between the
dwellers upon orpomite sides of the Channel. We
have now fur half a century lived under a legisla-
tive p'yitse. which is formally, and in books of con-
stitutional law, designated "An incorporate union."
But union of hearts unfortunately there exists
not ; nor in many respects union of aspirations.
Why is this? The first and gravest reason, we be-
lieve, to be the want or identity in institutions. 'To
such identity the landlord parties in parliament, both
whig and tory, have ever been inveterately opposed,
and of such identity the true friends of popular free-
dom in both countries leave almost begun to despair.
Within the course of the last session a whole code et
anti-popular measures were passed for Ireland exclu-
sively, not one of which have ever been at-
tempted here,—carried by English county mem-
bers, combined with Irish county members,
against the pretests of the representatives et
towns in both islands. What wonder if a
nation seeing themselves first disarmed of their po-
litical privileges, and then made the sport of the
landed oligarchy whom they hate and fear, should
discredit the sincerity of all professions of a desire
for " incorporate union," and in the bitterness of
reiterated disappointment and insult listen to the
counsels of disaffection ?
Surely it is time to put an end to this dangerous
trifling with solemn pledges and plighted rows. If
the dream ore real union is ever to be realised, it is
certainly time to begin the experimental process
whereby alone it can ever be accomplished. A great
opportunity is about to present itself.
The foundations of the whole representative struc-
ture are found to be in a condition that demands
careful and comprehensive repair. They require to
be widened and strengthened to bear the additional
weight that the national development has imposed.
This is what is meant by parliamentary reform, the 'I
re-formation of the groundwork of our constitu-
tional edifice. We arc bound in common sense to
neglect no portion of the task, but in the same esti-
mate of cost and design of improvement to include
every important part of the sub-structure. How
else shall we make a complete job of it? But I
if, on the other hand, there be one wing the founda-
tions of which were never as well laid as the re t.l
and whose security is in proportion more manifestly
in danger, are we nut especially culled upon to com-
prehend its repair in whatever plans we adopt, and
to take heed that the same line and plummet be ap-
plied to the quarter most in jeopardy ? Would it be
any sufficient excuse to say we have last year swept
away sollle fallen rubbish there, and even covered it
all over with mock stone? Whom will such twaddle
deceive?

If parliament be in earnest about electoral reform,
it will insist upon having one bill, and but one bill,
for the United Kingdom. The details and adapta-
tion, thus rendered necessary may be voluminous.
Be it so. The object to be gained is worth any
amount of trouble of this kind. Certain points there
are concededly in common. The property qualifica-
tion is to be universally abolished, and we trust we
may add that tho ballot is to be universally adopted.
Why not, than, let there be established common
franchises throughout a consolidated realm?

ALDEZMAN SIDNEY has taken much to heart
mow hinter which the Tunes thought fit to address
to the corporation of London on the occasion of its
visit to the municipal authorities of Paris. The
journalist seized the opportunity to compare the
municipolties, the local government, the systematic
and the magnificence of the two cities. In
Er7t4shis, the Mites drew all comparisons and m-
ansions in favour of tho Parisians to the prejudice of
the Londoners. Its allegations might easily have
been contradicted, and its arguments satisfactorilv re-
futed at the moment. But it would have then been
ungracious in an English paper to make charges, or
reflections on the municipally of Paris, upon its
awanwation or its acts, at the moment of its hospi-
table reception of our own citizens. And, in truth,
all comparisons and reflections of any kind