Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-17 00:00:00

over, in the interval preceding the motion for a

second re

ions in,

and additions to, its provisions, in Committee,—

should it pass a second reading, and be committed
Among other notices of motions in Committee

, given with great consistency, and we
dare say with much anxiety, by Mr. H. BERKELEY,
to the effect, " That in the opinion of this House, no

is one.

extension of the suffrage will be deemed acceptable
to the people, as a complete measure of Reform,
unless accompanied by the protection of the Ballot."
This motion of course contemplates the second read-

ing of the Bill ; and its result will be one pretty
decisive test of the feeling of the House towards the
whole subject of Parliamentary Reform. Last year,
it may be remembered, the same hon. member was
refused leave even to bring in a Bill for the votes of
Parliamentary Electors to be taken by ballot, his
motion for leave having been rejected by a majority
of 294 to 197. The vote on his present motion will
show if the introduction of a Reform Bill so
objectionable to reformers generally has created
any increased feeling in favour of the Ballot,
the more especially as the system of Votipg Papers,
which it proposes, is regarded by many as a move-
ment in an opposite direction to that method of re-
cording votes in Parliamentary Elections.
Another motion of which notice has been given, is
that of Mr. STUART WORTLEY, that in the event of
the House going into committee on the Bill, he
should move the insertion of a clause providing that
the elections for all boroughs in England and
Wales should take place simultaneously on a fixed
day after the issuing of the writ. This, of course,
would interfere with no principle of the Bill, and
would in many respects be an advantage, both to
candidates and constituencies.

DUNCOMBE has also given notice of his inten-
tion to move a reduction of the Savings' Bank
qualification to £4O, and. the lodging qualification
to 4s. a week,—both of them well worth considera-
tion, and not unlikely to be adopted.

The efforts that have been repeated to force on
the introduction of the Reform Bills for Scotland
and Ireland, have not met with much encouragement
in the House. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has
answered the inquiries concerning those expected
Bills, made by Scotch and Irish members, to the
effect that as soon as the second reading of the
English Bill takes place, it is his intention to under-
take the Scotch Bill ; and that after the Scotch Bill
has been introduced, and before the second reading,
he will take the opportunity of stating the course
which the Government intend to take with regard
to a Reform Bill for Ireland,---expressing his belief
that the House would agree with him that it was
much more convenient that a general statement
should be made of the provisions of the Bill ; and
that no partial statement should be made at the pre-
sent moment, which might lead to very great misap-

prehension.
As well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr.
BRIGHT has been questioned about his Bill, the
opinion being expressed that its immediate introduc-
tion was extremely desirable, in order that indepen-
dent members should have an opportunity of choosing
which they thought was the best of the two bills.
But Mr. BRIGHT, it appears, thinks otherwise. One
Bill at a time, he is of opinidn, is quite enough, that
the undivided attention of the House may be given
to it. His own Bill will be introduced whenever he
thinks it right to do so.

In the mean time both sections of the Opposition
in the House, the one headed by Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, the other by Mr. BRIGHT, are preparing
to meet the motion for the second reading of the
Government Bill with a most determined resistance;
while out of doors, both the parties which those
sections represent in Parliament are bestiring
themselves in all directions, though generally so far,
apparently, without coalition or concert. It is true,
they agree in opposing the Bill,—but they do so
upon very different grounds, and with quite distinct
ulterior objects. Thus divided, as regards some of
the fundamental principles of Parliamentary Reform
are the Liberalparty —a circumstance that is not
likely to operate favourably for the cause of Reform
in the hands of the present parliamentary opposition.
Both sections of the party have objections, strong
objections, to the Ministerial Bill, but they are of
different kinds, if not also, some of them of
opposite tendencies They agree as to its shortcomings
and its imperfections, but in different degrees, and
from distinct motives. How this may really affect
the measure in the House of Commons remains
to be seen.

TILE TOXTETR BOARD OF GUARDIASS.—The "scene" at
this Board which we reported yesterday, most discreditably
unbecoming as it was in the parties concerned, was at the
same time most disreputable to the Union, which elects
men as guardians who can ever and anon " play such
fantastic tricks before high heaven." A brawl in an
ordinary pot-house would be decent in comparison with
the vulgar squabbles which they, or some of them, make a
point of indulging in, when they assemble• in. their Board-
room to transact the business of the 'Union, and of which
that we had the disgusting task of reporting yesterday was
a fair specimen.. The rude manners of those who cut the
most conspicuous figure—their giving one another the lie,
and calling each other rogues—their noisy wrangling—
their gross insults towards their law-clerk, who is evidently
quite unworthy of such company—all this, and a great
deal. more, had we time to enumerate it, constitutes
a display of low-lived disorderliness which must make
many a respectable ratepayer blush to think he is %a

disgracefully represented at sash a Board. What
the poor, whose guardians those men unfortunatelrire;
think of them, it could not, perhaps, be very difficult to,
imagine ; aftd we have no doubt that there is many an un-
happy pauper, whom they are "set over," who would be
ashamed to conduct himself, even in the not always very
select society of the workhouse, in so unbecoming a manner.
For such men, too, to take upon them to examine the can'
didates for the situation of medical officer to the union,-"

to question, in their vulgar way, and with their g,r, oss
e of the subject, gentlemen of education and good
manners, who are invited to appear before them to of
their services for the discharge of such most respond

—surely, if there were a feeling of di

)te
Ist excited

before, this must have made it most intensely disgusting'

One's wonder is,

that medical gentlemen would con