The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-01 00:00:00

those who previous to the commencement of the session had
indulged in the pleuras dream that the noble lord (J. Rua.
sal) would have deprived hie bon. friend (Mr. Hum ) of
the necessity of again bringing forward this question.
(Cheers and a laugh.) For in J gly, 1848, he rememb. red
n.. 1 only did that noble turd di.' claim the doctrine of finality,
hut exprdewd !lima( totally dissatisfild with the then
state of the elective fraactia•—(bear)—and though
the noble lord's leagasge was vague and indefitive,
yet at that time, when the cams on the continent die.
Melted aU minds, it was thought by s drat he wss jos-is
fled in his reserve; taw thought he intended to put ufl the
popular claim to that indefinite period be had hinted at to
night. (Hest) He told them to-night that be wood! not
pu• to tee in a Awns nor in a calm. Then, was the nublc
lord really waltieg tor a beets..? (Load cheers.) Was he
waiting for the excitement of the 'prose' cf a general
'leaden, then, to lay oh the table • bill to extend the elec.
rive franedse ? (Cheers.) That war not, he thought, a
course eslculased to plies the noble lord sod his government
in a very high posttiou in the opinions of the people.
He supp dried the present motion with some feelings of die.
app&ntment, he col:teased ; for he believed wird the br,..ad
arrow of government support was stamped upon it th..re was
very little hope of its success. The noble lord had given the
homes hut few reasons for his dtlatsry conduct. He Jerded
that the principles o: conserestiem and whinging were Alen
tied wit.. this stood at . ase " policy wLieb ministers were
pursing—(cheers) —a putty of neither Trimmer nor csh-
c 'don, hut added 104 to the flames. Such was not tit..
principle which Fox had laid down' when It was the
du y of the g ivernment to take the 1 ad. Neither
w4s it the policy of Lard Grey. And his. Pot,
the great emservatiee authority. asserted that it
was the theory, es it had been the practice in all
thou, to a +apt the representation to the tt Ate of th,
country. Triers could be no dnitt hut that it had always
been the principle of representation that it stuould °huge'
with tits chsirg.s which the country might en4ste, tied that
it should not bo governed by local considerations." And
the succsasnr of Mr. Fitt, the preen: pre it le-der r f this
great country, the hon, member for Bueltinghernshire—
(" hear, hear," and laughter)--whot did he .31 ? W hat
was the ike•rine Lila down in 1841? Spiakinr nn the
subject of agitation in February, 1811, that hon. gentlemen '
said

They Lewd a Rest drat of reform sedation•, of anti-ems-law
iragueN and other cumbinatinsio of that ki,..l—View things were
mrrrly thr eoare,iton, r of the pen,* taking the government or the
country into then oan hands, brean•e gurcrarseat woul.l wit :tatra -
shirr =wars them..•lssa Opinions were snow, t►e puhlie mind was
agitated, and no one wh c was in authority cone forward to leaal the
people. As the natural eestrquenee of such aeeleet racy coalesced to-
gether ; Lee wise nothirg was elcory than this, that if tue goverment
aid not In t the p.oole, the peuole vuuld drive the government.

Now, the n ;hie lord wet bringing things to that PlAithwt
he was refusing to lead the people. .ad the agitator*, Li
whom the noble lord was Ike godfather—(laugher)—must
get Lp and mike him lead. But the n.bte lord Ltd wde
that he must take doe to ewitoder. Was the house nw at'
that three !etre after ,he 13.. deer of the It form Bel the
nide lorl eapn seed Li. thwetieteetlon wits tai tranabils•
just predowly granted ? Is his letter to the electors of
Brood he suit:

It inlet hare b,en dillleulti hat It Wag sot Inipoerilie, to hare
made the hem, a the mopev reprowataaret of au• of vie mut min-
able eterus of th. r Innutiatty -tha: of the talmenout, Inte,lippm,
and able ratehasmo o at at, until In Oar great remattfulitt rag and s-0111.
amnia' ammo, mot 'mac. of wham only ere sow a quitted to tnc night
o: r.adaz. Sagh a Mamma la the ebtrieter of freem-a would du much
to purify our elatto.se, rat t strengthen the Howe of Comaloaa.

- -
This WAS In 1835. Was Ins hone pug itivi Core ? D 4 not
a greater 11111,tlist of trinity bow exist th at ever had existed
in the huiati.d tidies of Ins boroughmengers ? (14e,r, hear.)
There had been a eetnaki!tee appoints:l three years aft, r the
ptedag of the (ixform 8.11 to inquire intocases Iv Any, sad
such passages of depravity as they had publehed it was
almost imp essible for the mind of min to Umiak's.. This
also wee in 1835. But he earns now to a more recent period,
the year 1811. when Lie hon. friend, the nisinh:r for
Sheffield alt. Roebuck) brought foulard Vie subject of the
" disgraceful eansprom.ses," and when a committee WI/ op
pointed to inquire isto those compromises. He bad looked
through that evilenes and found that in Harwich 94 tory
votes cost 6,3001. ; 84 whir votes cost 2,000!. Nottinahant,
529 whig votes cost 12,0001.• 144 tory votes cut 5,00,4.
Lewes, 411 whig votes cost 5,0001.; 407 t'ry vgescoet 2,9031.
Readinte, 670 tory votes cost 6,0001.; 410 se.ig v tee coo
litedport, 304 whig votes vat 5,4661. ; 244
tory votes no return MIL Penryn and Falmouth,
.142 whig votes cast 4,0031.: 3el tory Cute, cut 4.0004
In these six borough. alone 3,736 votes had e at upward. of
53,3681. This wag in 1311; and now they were talking of
the precut pure pulisment He lound, in 1817, that there
was another comers, appointed. II en. gentlemen were at
that time shocked at :he t lea of its ap. ointment, and parti
cularly ea when it was moved that a commission 'Quaid go
down to the boroughs to inquire into the c erupt prastites.
The next milieu the bon. lumber far Droetee auk proposed
that his brother men ben should take their oaths that
they would not bribe by the oiselv s or agents
in future. Lsng speeches were delis rad, and most
sententious maxims were heard from all sides, oat at length
the Lill wu ahandone t and had never b 'en heard of since.
Was it not evident to the cone:try, under such circumstances,
that they were so many bypovi:es in that hone.• ?—thet
they were contented with making lurg speeches Aim% the
house being th- honour and envy of surrounding r.ations, an!
with doing nothing ? (Hear, hear.) I. they were sincert
in wishing to prove that they had a korror of br:bery whet
bitter step e cold they adopt than to inerenee the franchise ?
An ancient colleague of the noble lord bad expressed himself
in favour et extend ng the suffrage to Isdgers—he meant
Lord Brougham. (An ironical laugh ) Anything proceed-
ing from the pen of Lord Woeful:am—he (Mr. Osborne)
drew a distiuctien between his lordship', speeches and his
pen (laughter)—ought to be attended to with some degree
of respect. What had Lard Br .ugham said on h-vots-hf 11
suffrage ? He said, in a work euutled t. l'ulitical Pallas
sophy"

if
I there were no man pieces entitled to return members, if no
place ur district under km. v.Sers were allowed representatives,
time would be no such dune as briery knowu. The exclusion which
cur 101. test elfrezts of some must molt 'emus and valuable members of
society is a grievous mil. All lodgers and boarders are eselts led, the
most maenious artisans, the men 0rb..., ex7ectnesa and Industry are
the props of our eorumretal arsatness ; mid or uur literary and
seleatine Int:I. whoso unwearied Istours illustrace their country and
adorn their age—all are disfranchised hr a law f ,rmcd or the purpose
of drawing the line hstween ignorant: and Oltenia me. No doubt it
dots draw the line, seal haves itifurmation excluded.

When he (Mr. Osborne) referred to bribery as a national
leprosy attaching to our constitution, he wished to ask, how
were majorities in that house made ? Was there no other
fora of corruption besides money? (Rear, hear.) It was
generally supposed in the country :hat the emblem of a Se
cretary of the Treasury was a whip, bat b n. members of
that house knew that it was a fishing rod. (Laud laughter.)
The secretary was indeed an exacrt fisher of men—a parlia-
mentary Isaac Walton—(grsa• laughter)—who knew bow to
bob for eels and to angle as skilfully as any country gentle-
man. (Continued laughter.) Some nibbled at colonial

baits, linen at empty honours, ribbon and garters, but that
house seemed to have • peculiar fancy for the honours of
the bloody band. (Roan of laughter.) Look at the peers
made by Pitt; and, when the Melbourne ministry were
in dihigulty, who did not remember the " miraculous
draught " of hermits that appetred all alive in
the Gazette one morning ? (Continued roan of
laughter) Ile lamented that the days of chivalry
were gone, but certainly it was much easier for a belted
knight to win his way by succouring a minister in his difß•
ouldes, that by be. eking lances fur a damsel in distress.
(Renewed laughter.) lie was surprised that the noble
lord said nothing on the subject cf the ballot. Ile
(life. Osborne) did not wish to take up the time of the house
GS the ballot, Oceansa he had Tay strung Opi, lone that both
the evils and the advantages of that system were very much
exaggerated. But he thought if toll people wished for the
ballot, if they thought it was a protection from intimidation,
they were entitled to hove tlse halts:. Ile thought that the
events which had happened in France said something ,in
favour of the ballot. Could any gentleman suppose, in the
dreadful state of things which had occurred in France, that if
it was not fir the protectiou of the ballot they would have at
this moment conservativeitutmbly is Frinec ? He
advocated the ballot as a protection fr..= an untn!ightened
democracy, and he advocated it es • protection
fur the mi ny against the prejudices of the
few. In reference to electoral districts, the noble lord

said Natenghem, with 63,000 inhabitant'', lent two mem-
bers to parliament; while S such Devon, with 207,000, sent
only two. The noble lord made an important omission. Ile
ought to state that there were Ogeit borougs.3 in South
',Lyon, each of which sent two members to parli men' ; and
the members for these little boroughs were chiefly returned
by gentlemen who lived near, and who were aupposed to be
the great gaudiest' and representatives of our territorial
constitution. Now he contended that this household suf-
frage, as was ably shown by his hon. friend the member for
Montrose, was nothing more than a recurrence to the ancient
practice. He did not wish to divide the country
tato districts, bat he should like to see the
Scotch system of consolidating towns. Ile beli .ved that the
Scotch elections were more pare than the English ones were.
Take the borough of Lyme Regis. There was never a par-
liament but they had a committee of that house sitting two
or three weeks respecting the election for Lyme R gis. He
did not know who the member was; be believed be was
generally a leased genele:oau. (Laughter,) Why not in-
corporate Lyme ltsgis with Sidenouth, or any other Tittle
town. He throw that out to the noble lord.
The noblo lord said he wanted suggesions • he
threw out that suggestion. Why, if he objected to
electoral districts, did he not consolidate these small places
after the Scotch system. They would not then have au
Attorney-General going down to a Borough, and being sub-
ject to the horrible imputation of having put his hand in his
pocket to bribe 'people. He threw out the suggestion; he
thought the noble lord might adopt it with great effect in
Ireland. And he believed the notie lord would give
great satisfaction if be would masks the elec-
toral districts larger and the nand= of meth
bus smaller, for they were too numsr us ter busi-
nem. Hell the members did not come to do b.ainess.
Why the molt important business was trenseeted in a house
of 45 ussmbers, and at a certain hour they saw gentlemen
coming in in that dress which had 'Jethro., as elusive' es the
toga, and it they had had a good dinner they listened to the
speeches, but if they had not they would not listen. He
supported the motion bemuse he ',GA .‘1 ou it as a tree
conservative motion, and bee-use in Lis conscience he
believed it would add to the security of the constitution:
and he supported it for the best of all reasons, because he
believed it would make that house iii reelity what it pur-
ported to be—the Hone of the Commons of England.

Kr. H. BERKELEY, amid loud cries of questim,"
congratulated the house that the right hon. the Roma S.crs-
tar, had promised to west at hest one part of his hon.
friend's motion on a future occasion.

Mr. L. KING moved the adjournment of the debate, but
the cries for a division became so general, that the hon.
number was induced to withdraw his motive.

The home dtvaded— For the motbu
Agitilt it 2ll-116