The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-18 00:00:00

THE HOtNE OP LORDS ASO THE BF.FORSI RILL

The Timrs mentions a rumour that attempts may be
made in the House of Lords in concert with an influential
party in the Commons to strike out the lodger franchise,
to revive the cumulative vote, to engraft upon section 7
Mr. Ponlett Scrope's plan for disposing of the compound
householder, to restrict the boundaries of agricultural
boroughs—in short, to introduce organic changes into the
structure of the bill. The House of Lords could only
debate these amendments afresh with good service if
there was any reasonable prospect of their being ultimately
adopted by the House of Commons and the nation ; but
the Ti anew ventures to say that it would be a great mistake
to presume upon the readiness of the Commons to
abandon decisions on important points, however
narrow the majority by which they may have been
carried. The Reform Bill, in its present shape, is
well understood by all parties to be a compromise.
Nothing but assured success in a great enterprise will re-
concile the government, the House of Commons, or the
public to a retrospect of this 'elision, so memorable for the
disregard of public morality which it has shown, and suc-
cess would be gravely imperilled by any considerable muti-
lation of the bill. It is easy to revise a provisional ar-
rangement, but it is dangerous to meddle with the articles
of a treaty of peice. Moreover the qualifications of elec-
tors and the distribution of constituences aro matters
which directly concern the popular branch of the legisla-
ture, just as the creation of life-peerages directly concerns
the hereditary branch. No peer can now venture to as-
sert, as in 1831.2, that the disfranchisement of a borough
is a confiscation of their property ; and in other respects
the sacrifice, if it be a sacrifice, now demanded of the
Lords is trifling indeed compared with that demanded of
their fathers.

We are reminded by the Daily News that Lord Grey,
who has so promptly sounded a hostile note, is in
favour of the separate representation of orders,
trades, and professions, of guilds and associations.
Lord Derby may congratulate himself on his leader of the
opposition. Lord Derby's own position is more tlying
than that of his colleagues in the House of Commons, for
he has had no means of preparing his audience by that
gradual process of transformation through which the Re-
form Bill passed in the Lower House. Ho will have to
introduce to the most conservative and aristocratic assem-
bly in Europe a measure for the extension of the suffrage
on principles purely and simply democratic, without any
of those checks and Induces on the necessity of which
he has often insisted. The statesman who, in forming his
government, made overtures through the late Lord Lans-
downe for the official co-operation of Mr. Lowe, has ended
by adopting the policy of Mr. Bright. He has not even
the poor consolation of flattering himself that the measure
is his own. What is good in it bas come from Mr. Glad-
stone, whose suggestions have been not the less potent be-
came they have commanded the assent of the government
without being, in the majority of cases, forced upon them
by a hostile division. No wonder Lord Derby should be
anxious to hurry the bill through the house as hastily as
decency and custom will allow.

The Star assumes that Lord Derby cannot retain office
if the peers mangle the bill. His government have ac-
cepted it am it stands, and every obligation of political mo-
rality and honour will compel them to make sn honest
effort to pass it in the Lords. No reduction of the amount
of enfranchisement will be tolerated by the people. The
Lords have the power and the right to attempt a redaction
if they choose, but the people have equally the right to
enter forthwith into a contest with the House of Peers.
If the one denies the people's right to the franchise,
the other may open up any question affecting the
Peers which may seem appropriate to the occasion.
No human power can now restrict the measure of enfran-
chisement embodied in the bill except for a session or two
at the most. and if any attempt of the kind be made
the intervening period will be one of vast and dangerous
commotion.

The Telegraph remarks that ministers were free to drop
the bill at any time during its progress through the
Commons on the plea that the amendments introduced
by liberal members had effected changes so thorough that
no one could recognise it as • conservative scheme ; but
having accepted those alterations by persevering with the
bill as a whole, the Ministers are bound in honour to pro-
tect it in the Upper House, where, as a general role, they
can command • majority. A House of Lords acting for
itself alone, and rejecting the advice of the leading men
on both sides, could not stand very long. We should
then, indeed, see foreshadowed in the future the possi-
bility of that second elective chamber which the lugubri.
ous Mr. Lowe has prophesied for our terror.

THE REFORM BlLL.—Subjoined is the text of
the letter addressed by Lord Derby to his supporters in
the House of Lords :—" July 16, 1867.—My Lord,—The
Reform Rill having now passed the House of Commons, it
is my intention to propose that it should be read a second
time in the House of Lords on Monday, the 22nd inst. ;
and although I hope that no division may be called for on
that stage, yet it is of extreme importance to have as good
an attendance as possible of the friends of the government.
I have therefore to request that your lordship will, if
possible, be in your place on that evening ; and more
especially that you will favour me by your attendance
daring the progress cf the bill through committee, in
which it is almost certain that some amendments will be
moved to which it may be impossible for her Majesty's
government to give their assent. —I have the honour to
be, my lord, your obedient servant—Hamar."

Mr. Hindi= has notEed his intention to bring
before the Rouse of Commons the cue of the schooner
Mermaid, which, while on a voyage from Cardiff to Anoons
with a cargo of coal, in October, 1f464, was disabled and
sunk by tho Spanish batteries at Ceuta, and for which no
reparation Las yct been obttined.