The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

with its constituencies,

the best

tnper with their representatives

this is not a true interpretation of the recent

" count out

on the question of Parliamentary

Reform, the only inference the public can draw
from the reception aiven to Sir JOSHUA WALMSLEY'S
Reform Bill is,
s not the man to deal with such

motion for lea.

to introduce a

that its au

matter
VILLIE

is a G

1 RUSSELL, or a

as on the Legislative stage. There is nothing

more natural than that the

fondlings of political

fortune.should look upon their prestige as essential
to the success of measures akin to those with
which their names have been associated. But

Sir JOSBUA, doubting the popularity of such a

commonplace illusion, has given notice that he Will,
•On the Bth of May, move again for leave to being in
his Parliamentary Reform Bill, and we are much
mistaken in tbe,honourable member for Leicester
if he does not fulfil his promise.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL abandoned his Reform Bill
in the session before the last, in pursuance of the
unanimously expressed wish of the people who, in
the excess of their laudable patriotism, would not
undertake its discussion at a moment when the
undivided attention of all classes of the community

wits required to prosecute war to a successful issue.
But this great end has now been attained, and
there is nothing whatever to prevent any indepen-

dent membe

mmons bringing

forward the question Q

Reform

Sir JOStiIIA

WALMSLE

public an opportunity

of Judging of the merits of his proposed Bill. It is
tolerably certain, however, that the House of Com-

mons knows something of its

nts and are not

ured with it

t be that members of

ie countr

desire a

sary

think it r]

ask Whigs

Cotigtrvatives and

Peelites, Free Traders and Protectionists,
Bullionists and Currency Reformers, Parliamen-
tary and Municipal Reformers, and Financial
Reformers, whether they are satisfied with the

present state of party in either branch of the
legislature? It cannot be denied, that the Reform
Bill of 1832, has disappointed every body, except:
those who belong to the compact, into which some
three or four families entered immediately after
that bill was' passed. The danger- of entrusting
the destinies of this great Empire to a few men of
traditional repute, has long been dreaded, and its

,nsequ

ences could not have been more bitterly
brought home to the British public, than. they
have been within the last two years of war.
The Statesmen of 1832 were not the men far
1853.4-3 and 6. They were not the diplomatist to
prevent a resort to arms, nor to direct the military
strength, and defence of the country's rights and
interests in war. Armies of hero's perished in
their hands, and millions of treasure slipped
through their fingers, and were swept
away like chaff in a whirlwind. The Whig Refor-
mer of 1832 was not the Free Trader of later years.
The representation given to us in the Reform Bill
is not that which we have to-day. If the increase
which has taken place in the population within
the last twenty-four years, be taken into account,
it will be found that our constituencies are smaller
now than they were under the old rotten borough
Take Liverpool, for instance, with its
population of 162,344 persons in 1824, and with its
375,055 people now, and only 17,433 registered
Taking the population as the basis of
representation we are actually losing control over,
instead of gaining power, in the imperial legisla-
Our advancement in education, arts,
tees, territorial power, wealth, and numbers,

franchise

electors!

instead of being allowed to participate natu-
rally in the representation and politico'

distinctions of the country are most stu-
diously and ingenuously excluded from the
franchise. In a town such as this it will scarcely
be believed, that only a fraction over 1 in 27 of its
population have a right to vote at elections of
members of parliament, and that of this number
there are nine hundred freemen, nearly two hun.
dred of whom do not live in the Borough, or
exercise any other right of citizenship, beyond that
of trading with the port free of Town and other

Dues

This state of things is very satisfactory no doubt
to those who are dividing its spoils, but it is any-

thing but

t towards the millions who have

Ives within the last twenty-four
years for the franchise, and are still denied the

pialified then,

right of voting at elections by every species
of inconvenience and quibbling that men can
be exposed to. When a man goes forward to
register his vote, the whole process is made as
troublesome and repugnant to his feelings, as an
Englishman, as possible. And thousands, who
have an unquestionable right to be on the roll of
voters, never register on this account. Others,
again, who know the means resorted to to carry
elections, conceive it to be the height of immorality
o have anything to say to the franchise. And
r numbers who will not regis-
ter, in order not to offend a political enemy for the
sake of an electioneering friend. All this is
particularly favourable to that nepotism, imbecility,
family combination, interminable retention of place,
power and emolument which we have witnessed
for the last four-and twenty years. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S Reform Bill brought its changes with it,

there are still greate

but it rendered subsequent changes in our repre
sentative and administrative system utterly im-
practicable. Incessant defeat has damped the
emulative spirit of a people growing in enlighten-
ment and wealth. It has handed over the entire
legislative power of the realm to a few families who
have as complete a monopoly of the House of
Commons, as the authors of the Reform Bill of
1832 have of the Treasury; whilst it has left the
public to enforce by agitation, which is at all times
dangerous to the peace and well-being of society,
those measures which have contributed most to
the greatness and stability of the Empire. To
Reform such a Parliament, must indeed be both
advisable and necessary; and it is to be hoped
that Sir JOSHUA WALMSLEY will follow up his
motion, and that the country will support him in
securing a comprehensive and equitable extension
of the franchise.