The Express.
London, England, 1859-03-01 00:00:00

THE REFORM BILL.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER row molded
the 'treaties silence el the holm to mows for home to befog
in • Bill to Amend the Laws relating to the Ropresentttion
of the People in England end Waive, sad to facilitate the
Regietratiou and voting of Electorr. Aft 1' Meaning to the
imp( rt wee of a quertion involving the principle upon which
the distribution of power in the community depended, and t
the I wearable circumstances under which the question was
brought forward for discuarion, compered with Show attend-
ing the alemure of 1832, he remarked that the latter measure
was seasmatily esperimentel, and that it was not surprising
some mistakes should have been committed, and that,
the emus of time, mom should be discovered which
ought to be emected, and defteencles that ought to be sup-
plied. He then refette 1 to the attempts which bad been
made under three ministries t remeedy them acknowledged
imperfections, and to the camas which lied arrested them
attempt; although the hems bad shown reinctence tr deal
with them. What, then, he asked, was the duty of Lord
er government under them eirownetenore It was the
mimosa opinioa of hie whinet that this subject must be
' dealt with, and dash with he as earnest and a sincere spirit,
sad be denied that there was anything in the previous wear
i of Lord Derby which precluded hem from bringing Seward a
nesseure of te'oem. Parlitalettarr reformers, he observe%
might to dind d Into two classes. The first clam engirded of
tbose who would adapt the settlement of 1832 to the Regrind
of 1869,1nd would act in the spirit and in accordance with the
ratios of the emeirution, and among this clam he included
her Majesty's minietem The other clue c=reed a aew
Motol of reformers, who acted avowed! r upon a different
&sleety's; their doctrine waa that the chief, if not the sole,
object of reprmestetion was to realise the opinions of the pot
potteries automically ; their standaed was population. Bur,
although population was one element of this que.tion.
another was propeety. He admitted that the new echo.'
had not excluded the element of property ; they acknowledged
that population and property should to together in stwistice,
but in nothing elm. This haws t t repreelit not only
numbers and property, but all the intercede of the country,
and thete interest, were oft-n antes-nit/to sad competing.
After dwelling at seine length upon the injustice and the
enorgeltee attending 01,14000 u of the principle of popula-
tion. be 'nested that if population be the standard boroughs
meet be disfranchised and the membets given to countieo.
The object of representation was to prerent a mirror of
the mind of the °cowry, It. agriculture, Its menutseturing
, its commerce, It. probational ability. Dialect,
itahle4oBthrleet bad been effected, end if this eyelets were sub-
vetted perffecoent was bound to mbetitute • mathissery
eq•ally WWI.% Bat the new sobaol would melee the
eamitinsairy to • very limited clam. If the Hesse of Com
memo wee, reformed and moonstruotel accoeding to the
primal* of population, it would find itself in the Imo-
minims postdate from which it had berm emancipated more
tine two mutters ago. The cheep which it would be
his duty to nc rammed would not, therefore, net upon the
prhoeipho of i opulst:on, nor upon that of property joined
with [lulation. lir. Disraeli proceeded to dierese the
qweetioa of the frombise, first In boroughs, then in counties.
It was proposed, he said, not to alter the limit of the
borough franchise, but to introduce into boroughs a
new Wood of tiseetties, founded upon piesonnt property,
and le give • vote to persons having property to the amount
of 101. a yew in the Funds, Bank Stork, end Hoot India
Week, a press bevies 601. in a savings-bank would, under
the bill, be ea elector for the borough is which he resided.
es well as the recipients of pensions la the newel, military, sad
WWI services amounting to 20/. a yew. Dwellers in a poetics
of • home whose merregete rent wee 201. a peer would like-
wise have a vote. The mirrors would also be conferred upoa
graduates of the universities, ministers of religion, members
of the legs' protegees, and of the medical body, and oertah
solteetrasetent. in mosiderieg the county franchise,
be reviewed the controversy respecting the Chen-
' its dame in the Act of 1832. To terminate the
lesetbarsings arising from it, and to meters the
eennty existithency to its natural state, and Ming about a
weed content end sympathy between the differ, nt Nereus
of the ama'it uent body, the gecerumeot proposed to reoweite
the principle of identity of cuff, op between the oounths sad
the Imes. They proposed that boundary commiseimers
should visit the borough in Englead, rearrange them, sad
adept them to the alt-red circumstances of the time! their
sepoolatment would be delepted the eeclosere toente'sooners.
¶be effect of giving to mina a a 101. freebies would be,
aceontlas to the eat mete of the government, to odd
H the county con-titsescy 200,000. Bevies lild tee
fore the house the chamfer of the proposed *tortoni
body, he met proceeded to state how it was proposed
they should be registered, and how they were to vote.
Oreresers of pariahs would be required to famish
• list of moms as well as occupier., which would be • wit
acting reeiser. It was proposed that the number of pol ing
places should be greatly hocreated, that every perish haring
200 de -Ms should be a potties plow; that every voter
abodi vets In the piece where be reelded, and that those
who Wed it might vote by polling-papers instead of going to
the feasting*, preeautious being provided assinat fraud and
perwmation. A complete repreeseteti-n, be proceeded to
observe, did sot depend upon the electoral body;
it also depended upon whether the different inter-
ests of the country were adequately represented.
Discarding the principle of peydome, and tempting as
a truth that the function of that house was to represent, not
the voice of a numerical majority or the influence of • pre-
dominant property, but the various leterests at the conatry,
the government had felt It to be their duty to we whether
theme were hareems not represented, and whether the general
eepeeetleike c ibis weary coal 4 be catered end cow