The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-31 00:00:00

THE REPRESENTATION or NINOEIII2B.

The Times is delighted with the House of Lords
for following the advice which our contemporary has
so persistently offered in providing for the repre-
sentation of minorities. By a single vote the house
has covered many errors, and justified the opinions
of its warmest admirers. Such a triumph of reason
and truth may well startle us, accustomed as we
have been during this session to rapid growth of
convictions. The supposed crotchet of yesterday has
become a fact. The Lords have shown their independence
and their foresight. At a point of the highest importance in
the history of the representative institutions of the country
they have been faithful to themselves and to their great
duties. The arguments on behalf of the proposal were over-
whelming. The voters who are now hopelesalyoutvoted,and
whose political energies become feeble by disuse, will start
into fresh vitality. Enfranchised in deed, and not merely
in name, they will be animated by the consciousness of
power. It is not too late to enlarge the scheme of redis-
tribution so as to apply the proposal at once more exten-
sively, and if the ministers be wise, the Tinws says they
will act on the suggestion.
After adverting to the fate of Lord Grey's attempt to
reprieve the compound householder, and Lord Halifax's
proposal to place the owners of leasehold and copyhold
property in the same political position as the owners of
freehold, the Daily Pews passes to the more important
event of the evening. Allowing the desirability that
minorities should be represented, the Daily News asks
whether, in three-cornered constituencies, to which alone
Lord Cairns' motion applies, minorities are not already re-
presented ? Lord Cairns does not see why an elector in •
three-cornered constituency should have the right of voting
for three members, while an elector in • constituency re-
turning only two members should only vote for two. On
what ground does he stop here! Pursuing this principle,
he would arrive at My. Dillwyn's proposition for single
voting ;or why, on the same showing, should an elector
in a two-membered constituency have two votes, while an
elector in a single-membered constituency has but one ?
The amendment, if it pus the Lower House, and becomes
law, will lead, the Daily News fears, to an enormous
amount of electioneering management and private arrange-
ment. It will substitute " wire-pulling " for true popular
election ; and will do so in order to secure more systema-
tically an end which practically is attained already.
The Herald has the singular pleasure of expressing its
great satisfaction at the defeat of the government. It
assumes that ministers will now acquiesce and give the
clause their support in the House of Commons.
In the opinion of the Telegraph the deliberations of
their lordships, so far as they have gone, have wrought
almost unmitigated evil, and this it attributes very
much to the absence of Lord Derby. They have
reversed the acceptance which the government gave in the
Commons to the 101. lodger franchise ; they have allowed
Lord Harrowby to raise the freehold qualification from
51. to 10/.; and they have foolishly and most unfairly
swamped the urban constituencies of Oxford and ('am.
bridge with voters who have no more concern in the affairs
of the municipality than they have in those of Heidelberg
or Jena. The Commons are anxious to leave town for the
holidays, but they must unpack their portmanteaux again,
and make ready to write stet to the clauses erased.