The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-31 00:00:00

THE I.I.FRANCHIBF.3IIIIT OF FOUR BOROUGOs.

AS far as the boroughs are concerned, the Times
thinks there is not a word to be said against the complete
disfranchisement agreed to last night of Lancaster, Great
Yarmouth, Totnes, and Iteigate. The suggestion that
one member should be taken would in no way affect the
offence and might easily aggravate it. Still, if this dis-
franchisement be not followed by something more,
it will be regarded as an evanescent outburst of
purity, a sacrifice made only to • feeling of
decency. If the House of Commons desire to prove
its sincerity in attempting to put down bribery, it
will seriously consider the alternative schemes of redistri-
bution presented to its notice, and declare for the one
which tends to make bribery least effectuaL If it care-
lessly adopts the plan of subdividing large constituencies,
it will make the power, and therefore the practice, of
bribery perpetual ; if, on the other band, it aims at multi-
plying " three-cornered" constituencies, and allows the
voters to distribute or accumulate their votes at their
pleasure, it will strike a blow at the power of bribery
which will be infinitely more effectual towards its sup-
pression than all penalties upon the practice.
The Daily Nfl,A sees much is f►vour of Mr. Bright's
suggestion to send up to the Lords without delay the
clauses of the Reform Bill which regulate the franchise.
As it is, it is little likely that a scheme of redistribution
hastily framed and passed can afford more than • tempo-
rary resting-place. With regard to the disfranchisement
of the four boroughs, the Daily News doubts the exemplary
effect of a severity which it regards as indiscriminating
and capricious. The result now is that the guilty voters
in the four disfranchised boroughs who happen to occupy
houses rated at 12,. and upwards will be simply trans-
ferred from borough to the county constituencies, much as
Sir John Pakington lately proposed to punish criminals in
the militia by transference to has regiments. Incorrupt
householders of less than 12f. will be disfranchised altogether.
The suspension of the writ for a term of years, long enough
to break the habit of corruption, though it, too, would in-
volve the innocent with the guilty, would have been a
wiser course as regards the large constituencies than their
total disfranchisement.

The Post believes the doom of the four boroughs will be
approved of by the general pubis, though the circum-
stance that, simultaneously with the act of disfranchise.
ment, a law is being passed which in itself completely
alters the constitution of the offending constituencies, does
unquestionably put such disfranchisement on a very singu-
lar footing.
The Ikeabl observes that we must hold communities
responsible for the action of any considerable number of
their members, and then we may hope to awaken in the
majority something like an active virtue. It is not enough
that the majority of the electors of a borough shall refuse
bribes themselves ; they must not connive at the bribery
of the minority. The acceptance of the Bth clause of the
Reform Bill will be a warning to all constituencies that
bribery has ceased to be treated as a joke.
' The Telegraph rontends that while suspension would
seem to be a more just course than perpetual disfranchise-
ment. which would make the usioorn answerable for the
wrong-doing of their predecessors, it would probably happen
that, for parliamentary constituencies as well as guilty
individuals, a sort of penal servitude is better than capital
punishment.