The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-18 00:00:00

ABOLDiNING THE COMPOUND MOM

If the primitive sentiment of wonder were not
obsolete, the Times says it would be an occasion of scar.
prim that a private member should, by a simple amend-
ment, intro lucid into committee almost without a note of
warning, have abolished the compound householder. This
is, however, the literal fact. It was practically deter-
mined last night that henceforth within the limits of par-
liamentary boroughs—and it is only of parliamentary
boroughs we speak—the compound householder shall not
dwell. The Gordian knot has been cut ; Mr. Hodg-
kinaon stands revealed the hero of the hour.
No doubt there will be some demur in a pariah
here and there, bat the objections of local rate-
payers will prove ineffectual. Another difficulty, how-
ever, was revealed last night, namely, the definition of a
hoot*. The Times inclines to the opinion that a solution
of this may be found in the adoption of Mr. Serope's
amendment, relieving altogether from the assessment of
rates tenements rated at 41. and under.

The Daily New also regards the career of the compound
householder as a thing of the past. Without exceeding
the limits of the principle which Mr. Disraeli has laid
down ea the basis of the franchise, this principle, after
what occurred last night, amounts in practice to household
suffrage, pure and simple, save in the case of defaulters
and those locomotive persons whom not even the most
thorough-going radicals desire to enfranchise. If the con-
servative party is satisfied with a phrase, the liberal party
may well be content with the substance of their demands.
Censoring Mr. Disraeli for the petty insolence of his
taunts and sneers at Mr. Gladstone, the Daily News urges
him to set his sincerity beyond doubt by either adopt-
iag Mr. Hodgkinson's clause or introducing a bill
for the same purpose, or postponing the clauses re-
lating to the borough franchise until he is pre-
pared with the necessary supplement to them. He
has a chance, which, if he seine it, will become a certainty,
of settling the question of reform for an indefinite period.
If he lets it go, he and it and the country are committed
again to the chapter of accidents.
The Herald describes this general desire to get rid of
the practice of compounding as a most gratifying triumph
for her Majesty's government, and has no doubt that on
Monday the Chancellor of the Exchequer will make a pro-
position which will be generally acceptable to the house,
and end the opposition to the bilL
The Standard, writing bet me Mr. Hodgkinson's amend-
ment was accepted by the government, censures hon.
gentlemen for bringing on a question which had already
been virtually decided. Had his amendment, it says, been
carried, it would have repealed, by a side-stroke, the whole
body of compounding sots, whether general or local, and
thrown half the parochial vestries in the kingdom into
dire financial confusion. It is to be hoped, proceeds the
unlucky writer, that the friends of the compound house-
holder will now reconcile themselves to the cruel necessity
which requires him to go to the port-office for a printed
form of claim as the sole price of enfranchisement.
The Telegraph sees in Mr. Dieraeli's acceptance of the
amendment, in principle, but refusal to allow the words
embodying it to stand in the bill, an official stimulus of
agitation and its warrant. " What miserable feelings of
distrust are those which first dictated such perversion of
the Small Tenements Act from its original intent as to
make it a means of inflicting disabilities, and which now in
a breath admits that it should be restored to its former
object, but defers the boon !"
The Star considers the remedy violent, and one which
may very likely suffice to kill the bill. It will involve
real sacrifices in many large communities, both of money
and convenience, to those responsible for local administra-
tion. And there is no conceivable reason why any such
inconvenience should be incurred except the supposed
necessity that the present government should have the
honour of settling the reform question. But as an alter-
native for the acceptance of the government macaws as it