Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-21 00:00:00

Tll NORTHERN TatES, THURSDAY, APRIL 21 1859

schedule. The commissioner came down during the pre-
paration of the bill to the district of which I speak. He
found there a borough containing a population at the
present moment of 26,000 people, and probaby there may
be some 800 or 1,000 voters. He saw very clearly that
that borough would not send a member to swell the Con-
servative ranks, and looking at the neighbourhood adjoining,
he found a populous district, containing 12,000 persons, and
among these 12,000 a very considerable number of liberal
electors, in the northern division of the county of Cheshire.
So what does this respectable gentleman do but add
those 12,000 to the borough, making a new borough
of 38,000 population, but giving no additional member
for that increased constituency. (Hear, hear.) The
practical result of that would have been that no additional
strength would be imparted to the Liberal interest, but that
a very great additional strength would have been given to
the Conservative interest of North Cheshire by the with-
drawal of so many liberal voters. (Hear, hear.) lam not
guilty of any unfairness towards the authors of the bill
when I say I have a perfect right to judge, from what they
proposed to do with the new boroughs, how they would
have dealt with the old boroughs if they had passed their
bill. (Hear, hear.) There is another scheme by which
they pretended to add very extensively to the franchise.
They said, " you tell us now that the industrious workman
cannot be added to the number of voters, because we do not
reduce the borough qualification below £10." In parenthesis
I may allude to an astounding fact, stated by my venerable
friend, now a candidate for the West Riding of
Yorkshire, who told them that he had in
his employment—which engages 3,000 persons—not less
than 1,500 adult workmen, and not one of these workmen
had a vote ; the fact being that in the town were he resides,
the rent of a house is never beyond £6 or £7 per annum,
and consequently, although the workmen are well paid, in
good circumstances, and many of them highly intelligent,
not one of them has a vote. Now, this bill proposed to
perpetuate such a state of things—that bill which, lam
told by our opponents, I ought to have sup-
ported instead of rejecting. But its authors
said, "We intend to introduce the working man in
another way. We open the avenue of the franchise to him
through the savings' bank, and if he only puts £6O
in the savings' bank he shall have a vote."
I suppose the object of that is this, that the having of £6O
in the savings bank testifies that the man was an industrious
workman, whatever amount of intelligence he may have.
I admit that it is very creditable to any workman to lay up
such a sum, but look at the other side of the picture,
lie may be a saving young man who neVer marries, who
takes not upon him in that respect the duties of a house-
holder, but who by economy, and his solitary mode of 1
life, gets the possession of £6O, and with it the franchise.
Then on the other hand, take the industrious artizan who
has married, who has the claims of a large family upon
him, who by economy •in educating them in the best
manner he can, and clothing as respectably as he can, his
large and numerous family, who by bringing up his family as
workmen, to carry on these great industrial manufactories,
which are the pride as well as the envy of the world, perpares
them to become useful inhabitants, and the best defenders
of their own country. Under the pressure of his burdens,
he was unable to lay bye £6O in the savings' bank, and be-
cause he lives in a house not rated higher than £7 by the
Ministerial Reform Bill, he is for ever to be excluded from
the franchise. Well, gentlemen, I ask you is that bill to be
called a reform bill ? That, at least, is not the reform
that I would wish to see. There are some points in the
matter that I would like to touch upon. There is a very
important matter in the bill—one, indeed, more important
than any other portion. I admit the propriety of extending
the franchise ; I am desirous not only to see the franchise
extended in counties, but to see a still larger
franchise in boroughs, and the instalment of a much more
numerous class of citizens, and the support and minds of our
great constitution. But there is one thing that I
think far more important for your interest, and that is,
increased political power in the House of Commons.
I should say that, even at the present moment if you
had no extension of franchise, but if you obtained
a bill which would give you a fair representation in
the House of Commons to property, to population,
and to taxation, the increased representatives you
would send from this great community would
enable you to carry every measure which would be
favourable to your interest. But, gentlemen, how does the
ministerial reform bill deal with this important topic ?
In the first place, we have not one single disfranchisement
of a borough. Do you know what is the history of this
county ? Some years ago the trade was all with Man-
chester, and the Southern was the important part of the
county. The northern counties had not yet become the
busy seats of enterprise, who, by their productions, have
carried their fame to the remotest parts of the earth. These
districts were, in the days to which .I refer, but waste
lands, marsh, and bogs, with a population thin and scattered.
Our political constituency had not arisen in those days,
members were sent in to represent the existing population at
that time. This state of things continued up to the passing
of the Reform Bill, in 1832. Previous to 1832, we, who
came from Manchester to visit your town of Liverpool,'
had constantly placed before our eyes the monstrous
anomaly, that the great town of Manchester, having
300,000 of a population, had not one representative in the
House of Commons, whilst the insignificant village of
Newton-on-the-Willows, having perhaps 200 inhabitants, sent
in two members to the House of Commons. Gentlemen, the
Reform Bill of 1832 has put an end in some degree to such
formidable anomalies as this, but by a rapid extension of Man-
chester, and of the wealth of the north of England during
the twenty-seven years that has elapsed, the state of things
at present is a parallel case to that which I have described.
This is in fact what the Ministerial Reform Bill intended
to perpetuate. There is a borough in the south of Eng-
land owned by a noble duke, and which has a popula-
tion of 2,300 people ; why, gentlemen, I have con-
stituents who employ a number greater than the population.
That population had within it but 190 electors. These 190
persons have the distinguished honour of being represented
in the Commons House of Parliament by one vote ; and
when my constituents of Salford, gathered together, to the
extent of 4,300, desire to express their opinion upon any
measure affecting their interests, they can send but one
representative to advocate the interests of those 4,300 elec-
tors, and his vote may be negatived, and his position nulli-
fied by the vote of ;the representative of the 190 electors.
(Hear, hear.) Then, I say, that to present
to a deliberate assembly like the House of Com-
mons, or to present to the country a measure containing
and carrying out such an absurdity, and such a political
injustice as I have described is tantamount to an insult to
every man of understanding. (Cheers.) The ingenious
Chancellor of the Exchequer is obliged to bring all his
ability and ingenuity to excuse it. He says, I know you,
gentlemen, who represent the great manufacturing
districts of the north, are always tellir, us propertyb
taxation and numbers ought to have a fair
and adequate representation, but there is something
more besides mere electoral numbers to be represented.
Let me tell you that there is such a thing as interest to be
represented, and so I contend, should be, if the existence
of this borough of Arundel, because my noble lord, who
represents it, is the only Catholic member who is returned
by a borough in England, and he is representing the in-
terests of 400,000 of his fellow Catholics throughout the
country. (Oh, oh.) Well, gentlemen, I thought this was
a very strange argument. 1 did think I had the honour
of representing a considerable number of Catholic electors
in this county. (Groans and cheers, and cries of "no
Popery," and " three cheers for Spooner.") I did think, gen-
tlemen, that I had the honour of representing a consider-
able number of Catholic constituents. I have at times had
exceedingly great pleasure in seeking to extend to those of
my Catholic constituents equal political and. religious pri-
vileges which I would seek for myself. (Cheers and groans.)
But, gentlemen, this ingenious gentleman, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, had not refreshed his memory
with respect to this distinguished borough of Arun-
del. It happened that the proprietor of it changed
his faith from that of a Catholic to that of a
Protestant. At that time, his only son, the Earl of Arundel,
was representing it, and he was a decided and conscientious
Catholic. But his noble father thought it inconsistent
that he should, amongst other electors, be misrepresented,
and he gave notice to his son to quit the
borough, and his son was obliged to resign, and seek the
representation of an Irish borough of the same faith, and a
Protestant representative took the place of the Earl of
Arundel. What then became of the representation of the
900,000 Catholics in England ? If arguments of this kind
were the only ones to come from such talented gentlemen as
Mr. Disraeli, I say then the case is hopeless. I will now
turn to a question more interesting to your own county.
[A Voice : Give the dog a bone.] It is a question affecting
you in Liverpool, and my friends in Manchester. Justly
and properly estimating your position, whether in your own
county or in the empire at large, when you come to decide
questions of national importance, or to deeide upon a matter
which may affect your own locality, and the public interests,
you accordingly call upon your representatives in Parliament
to carry that measure, and how many members do you
send to Parliament to carry that measure ? You
send, for the representation of the county and the boroughs
within it, 26 members. Well, now, you possess a population,
at the present, of something like 2,300,000 people in this
county. You are assessed with income tax upon the valua-
tion of some ten and a-half millions per annum. You have,
of borough electors, on the present electoral basis, some-
thing like 27,000 or 28,000 electors. I could take you
down to the southern districts of England, and I could
point out to you nine agricultural counties in which there