The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-08 00:00:00

THE REFORM BILL ♦NO THE OPPOSITION.

Tho Tsraes regrets to find its hopes considerably
disappointed by the tenor of the new ratepaying clauses
which stand in the name of Mr. Disraeli. They relieve
the compound householders of none of those disabilities to
which so many objections have been taken. They make
it lawful for the occupier, after payment of rates, to make
a deduction from his rent, but the deduction is of course
not to exceed " any sum which the owner would have been
liable to pay." whereas the occupier would have had to
pay out of pocket a sum calculated on the full rateable
value. No limitation of the term of residence is intro-
duced, and the position of the lower class of com-
pound householders would still contrast unfavourably
with that of the upper class under Sir William
(lay's act. In short, by failing to make larger
concessions in this direction of their own accord, the
government have strengthened the hands of the opposition.
The Tines proceeds to urge under these circumstances that
parliament will discredit itself in the eyes of the country
if it does not arrive at a compromise. It would be sui-
cidal on the part of the government to treat the instruc-
tion as a vote of want of confidence. The difference be-
tween the rival theories of reform is now well ascertained,
and it is not such as to justify internecine conflict. Prin.
ciplee, as they were called, have been sacrificed already,
and all can see that nothing remains to be sacrificed but
self-interest and party spirit.
The Daily News ridicules the announcement that the
instruction is to be considered as equivalent to • vote of
want of eontidence, and asks what claim the government
has established in its treatment of the reform question to
warrant it in refusing to enter upon a free discussion of
the proposal embodied in this instruction to the committee.
If the bill is passed amended as Mr. Disraeli propose.,
every house inhabited by a compound householder would
have annexed to it • price at which a vote could be
obtained, that price being the difference between the "full
rate" mentioned in the first, and the sum which the tenant
is entitled to deduct from the rent as prescribed in the
sixth of the new enactments. This is Mr. Disraeli's
" principle," which is dearer to him than the admission of
mere numbers. Mr. Coleridge's proposal, the Daily News
proceeds to contend, would bring in more and better
voters. It preserves and extends the local benefit by pro-
viding for the maintenance and further application of the
principle of compounding for rates, and avoids the poli-
tical restriction and inequality by dissociating the fran-
chise from the exclusive and purely accidental condition
of direct or personal payment.
The Post is unable to perceive any necessity for con-
sidering Mr. Coleridge's motion as a want of confidence in
the government. There can be no doubt, it thinks, that
the liberal resolution is the more honest and straight-
forward of the two, and may well be incorporated in the
bill.

History repeats itself, says the Herald. In 1859 the
place-hunting party unseated a conservative ministry and
rejected a conservative reform bill through the medium
of "an abstract proposition." To-night the same tactics
are to be repeated, the lever employed being "an instruc.
tion." The object is identical in both cases, and the in-
terpretation placed by the government upon Mr. Glad-
stone's latest DISIWAVIIO will, the Herald is assured, be ac-
cepted alike both by the House of Commons and the country.
The Herald has great confidence that the liberal party
will reject the factious counsels of their leader. If the
country is appealed to it will be no very inspiriting war
cry for the leader of the opposition that his success should
have =Wined in his having narrowed and diluted the
generous proposals of the conservatives. The Standard
is equally sanguine.
The TelegrapA and Star support very emphatically the
Instruction of Mr. Coleridge, and regard the disruption of
the Cabinet, if that is a necessary consequence, as present-
ing no sufficient obstacle.