The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 16.

THR alternative scheme of Her Marwerv's
Ministers, the magnitude of which broke up the
Cabinet, was disclosed yesterday afternoon by
Lord DERRY to his followers. The satisfaction
with which it was received by them will not be
shared by Parliament and the country. The
larger scheme turns out to be practically the smaller
scheme, encumbered with checks which minify it
still further. With the exception of a more
liberal, but still insufficient, reduction of
the county franchise, there is little difference
between the project which Mr. DISRAELI ex-
pounded on the 25th of lastmonth and that which
he is to explain on Monday next. Her Maavery's
Ministers have been choosing between names and
not things ; and they offer the same choice to the
House of Commons and the country. We mistake
the temper of both if, having been played with so
long, they submit to be trifled with further. Lord
DERBY is trying a dangerous experiment. Hitherto
observers have been ready to attribute the vacilla-
tions of his Government to incapacity, and not to
insincerity. But it is more than charitable
to believe that the measure foreshadowed yes-
terday can be brought forward in good faith.
For the 6/. rating franchise offered by Mr. DIS-
RAELI in the so-called smaller measure, household
suffrage, conditional on two years' residence and
the personal payment of rates by the occupier, is
now substituted ; and the county qualification,
which he proposed on the 25th of last month to
reduce to a 201. rating, is now, it appears, to be
put at 151. The fancy franchises are retained, and
the plan of dualvoting,which was abandoned in the
alternative scheme, is resumed. The householder
who pays 20s. of direct taxation is to have a
second vote. Franchises based on investments in
the funds, on deposits in savings banks, and on
education, are to be created, but they are not to
give a double vote. The redistribution scheme is
to be confined within the limits sketched by Mr.
Dulasma three weeks ago.
So far as the borough franchise is concerned,
the Ministerial measure is both utterly inade-
quate and based upon false principles. There
is no good reason why a householder who pays
his rates through his landlord instead of directly
should be excluded from the suffrage. This fate
discrimination is the first false principle. The
principle of dual voting is the second. The
fancy franchises, with the exception of the educa-
tional qualification, are open to the objection that
they afford no criterion of political capacity, and
lend themselves to the manufacture of faggot votes.
The absence of a lodger franchise is a signal omis-
sion. The House of Commons accepted last ses-
sion a 141. rental qualification in counties. Minis-
ters now propose a 151. rating, which is probably
equivalent to a 201. rental. They thus fall
short of the liberality of the present Parliament.
They adhere to their insufficient scheme of re-
distribution, which leaves the enormous inequali-
ties of our electoral system almost untouched, and
does not practically affect the illicit ascendancy of
the territorial class.

Lord DERRY seeks to conjure with the words
Household Suffrage. Let him beware, lest,
like an unskilful sorcerer, wielding a potent
charm, he destroys himself. He and his col-
leagues are even now more deeply discre-
dited than any public men have been during
the past half century. The country believes
neither in their political capacity nor their political
honesty. For his own sake, and for that of his
party, if loftier considerations have no weight
with him, let him reconsider the course on which
he appears bent. He has abundant time to change
his mind over and over again, the process with
him being very rapid, before Monday evening. If
he wishes to avoid inspiring the mass of his coun-
trymen with deep-seated distrust--not only of
himself, his colleagues, his party, but of his class
also, he will hesitate before he authorises Mr.
DISRAELI to repeat to the House of Commons
the proposals which met to-day with the approval
of the Conservatives, and thus commits himself to ,