Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-25 00:00:00

party in a false position. lie trusted that the bill, in its
present form, would be got rid of as soon as possible:
Mr. Bentinek said- that he had listened in vain to the
speech of Mr. Milner Gibson for any information as
,to his
own intentions on the subject of reform. Those who had
been most active in holding meetings were the advocates
of annual parliament, universal suffrage, and vote by ballot.'
With regard to the bill, though he objected to many of its
details, he was prepared to support the second 'reading, and
then to have endeavoured, as far as possible, to amend it in
committee. His chief objection to the bill was that it did not
provide sufficiently for the claims of the counties. He could
not vote for the resolution on account of the confusion into
which it would throw both the House and—the country, and
protested against such a question being made the battle
field of party in the face of the present alarming state of the
Continent, at the very moment when, as he saw in the
daily papers, Atisria-had already crossed the Ticino. The
real question at issue. was, whether they would transfer the
whole power from the other classes of the community to
hand it over to the working classes. The agitation attempted
to be got up was simply to tran3fer political poWers from
one set of men to another. He protested against the
opposition .to the measure by persons who refused to state or
who did not know by what measure it was to be replaced.
If they bandied about this question from one party to another
they would 440 vital injury on, 013 coastitution of the
,
country.

Mr. W. H. F. Dennison said, that the bill in no respect
fulfilled the objects of Iteforin, it simply enfranchised in one
direction and disfranchised in another, and would not allay
the agitation on the subject. It appeared to him that all
those who were not hostile to it were but lukewarm. There

was no feeling in any part, of the country in its favour.
Mr. Locke King said, that after the concession made by
the Government to the principle of the £lO occupiers in the
oatinties, for which 'he ha.d. so long contended,- he might
have been expected to have supported the bill, but that
principle had been altogether spoilt and mutilated by the
mode in which it was dealt with. He entered into
the history of the various bills which he had introduced
on the subject of the £lO county franchise.
Owing to that, the feeling of the' ouse had become gradually
so strong hilts favour that the Government was compelled
to adopt it, and he had supported the present administration
while he con% fairly do so, but he considered them, under
the circumstance of the parties in that House, to be but a
provisional Government. It was not, he contended, the,
duty, either of a provisional or a Tory Government, to bring
forward a reform bill. Such a bill would be regarded by,
the. Liberals with suspicion, as the offspring of unhallowed
hands. The more he looked at the measure, the more he
felt that it Was not a reform bill at all, but simply one"
admirably calculated for keeping the present ministers in
power. It was said that Schedule A :was one of
the :pillars, of the old reform bill; but ',any effective
bill which should new he introduced ought to have
another. schedule A for one of its pillars. He could not
help suspecting that the proposed disfranchisement of the
borough freeholders was a measure of revenge, for the part
taken by those freeholders on the question of free trade.
The proper, mode of dealing with the boroughs would be
to ascertain those in which political capacity really existed,
and where it did not: The four great points were the
enfranchisement of great towns and the disfranchisement
of small boroue.bVs. and *the extension of the suffrage in
town and country were all neglected by the bill, which he
declared to be unworthy of further consideration.

Mr. Batton would vote, though with great regret,
against the resolution, believing that the suffrage ought to
be further extended, bat that the bill might be so recast in
committee as to attain that object.

Mr. W. J. Fox mkei on what grounds the objections

were founded wl

The Tories

having passed the