Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-27 00:00:00

THE RIVAL REFORM BILLS

THERE is likely, it would seem, to be rather a
fierce competition of Reform Bills in the Session
of Parliament that is at hand. Not only is there
to be the Bill of the Government, and that of Mr.
BRIGHT, but Lord JOHN RUSSELL, it is under-
stood, is to introduce one, and some other liberal
member, they say,—probably Mr. B. OSBORNE—
is preparing another. Thus will there be four
separate measures of Parliamentary Reform, of
different degrees of efficiency ; or, at any rate, of
alteration. All of them, of course, will be much
alike as respects their provisions for disfranchise-
ment. The more radical the Reformer, the more
thorough will be the process of extirpation.
But it is easier to destroy than to re-
construct. All the four Bills will be destructive,
more or less, of the smaller boroughs ; and all of
them, we dare say, will be liberal towards the
larger ones. In this respect, the broad principle
will, in all probability, be much the same in every
one of them. The difference will begin when
they go into details, for these will naturally be so
contrived and arranged as to answer the various
ends which the authors of the measures have
severally in view. They who wish to upset the
present balance of interests in the State, which is
a balance of power, and to give a preponderance
to one element of the Constitution over all
the rest, and that the most furious and un-
manageable one, will of

course be for

a system of reconstruction which will throw
into the scale an overwhelming amount of
town influence ; while they who seek to • adjust
the balance more equitably, will give a due pro-
portion of both the two great influences—that of
the country as well as that of the town,—so as to
secure, as much as is possible, the harmonious
working of the State machine.

Among the more recent of the public speeches
On the subject, we have seen none that seemed to
us to take a juster view ,of the question than was
delivered by Lord BURY to his constituents at
Norwich, a few days since. It was most liberal
in political sentiment, yet most reasonable in
practical design. " Ile had had an opportunity,"
he said, "of seeing various countries all over the
world, and he could fearlessly say, that the people
of England enjoyed a greater amount of rational
liberty than the inhabitants of any other nation ;
but he should still like to see that liberty carried a
little further, and any measure which had

for its object the extension of -rational liberty
should receive his • fullest support." This, then,
was candid and rational. And as giying some idea
of what he contemplated in such an extension, he

went on to say that, "with regard to the

franchise, he was not afraid to entrust it to an
honest industrious man, who could understand the
duties which a vote entailed,"—and, further, that
"he hoped, in any Reform Bill which might be
brought forward, some means might be found of
more accurately representing the bone and sinew
of England—her honest and industrious operatives
though he was not prepared to state the exact
way in which he would do this." Here, we say,

is the difficulty.

The " exact way" in which the

reconstruction is to be done,—this is the per-
plexing point; and it is just that practical
one on which politicians most widely differ
—and differ, too, according to the ulterior
objects that are to be brought about. For
it must be remembered that the indirect conse-
quences of such great political changes are often
more important than those which it is their osten-
sible and immediate purpose to produce.
The Times has published a scheme of Reform,
wach it is more than suspected, we find, shadows
forth the promised ministerial measure; and it
adopts very ni.tch .the same principle as Mr.
BRIGHT'S, only appiled with more even-handed
justice to the two great .nitc‘rests that are con,

cerned in it. "The justest eotirsc," it observes
" will, we believe, be the wisest and the easiest.
Let the seats taken from the decayed boroughs, be
given to the large constituencies, whether rural
or oppidan. Let us not talk of redressing grievances
and acknowledging civil rights, and then give the
Government of the country into the hands of
a minority—a minority, too, composed of a single
class, the traders of the great- towns." Here is
the gist of the whole matter. It is a brief
abstract of all the bills that are projected on the
subject—take seats from the decayed boroughs,
and give them to the large constituencies. But,
then, care must be taken so to extend and so to
appropriate the franchise in such eonstituencies, as
to exclude from the reformed representation none
who are justly entitled to participate in its
privileges. Let us hope it will be found to be
true, what is stated by the same influential
journal we have just quoted, that "at a time
of profound domestic tranquillity, and when
political feeling has softened into a general
desire to advance the prosperity and enlighten-
ment of the people, the two great parties
unite to place the representation on a firm

basis; they agree to remove the anomaly of

balancing vast centres of population by petty
market-towns, and they purpose to extend the
suffrage to those. classes whom the advance of
education has enabled to exercise it beneficially."

The two great parties here spoken of are, of
course, the Conservative and Liberal parties

ultras of neither one nor the other can be reason-
ably hoped, however, to combine with the great
body of their party in so moderate, yet, let us
trust, so effectual a course. But, if it be true
that the Reform Bill of Lord DERBY is to
be of the efficient character which the

Times is supposed to have described, there cannot
be much difficulty, one would think, in all really

constitutional Reformers uniting to place the
representation on a true basis." And we believe
it is this hope which is satisfying the great body,
of the people, that the country is pretty sure to
obtain a new Reform Act which will, at any rate,
be a great advance in that liberal and enlightened
progress which is calculated to give greater reality.
and force to public liberty, and to promote more
surely and more thoroughly the national pros=
perity.

DECREASE OF EMIGRATION TO AMERICA

SOME interesting remarks were made, it
would be seen, in our American correspondence,
the day before yesterday, on the great decrease of
emigration there was, during the past year, to the
United States. There has been a marked falling
off, it seems, in the general passenger traffic to the
States, but a still more marked increase from
America to Europe. "It is ascertained," says our
correspondent, "on calculating the number of

passengers conveyed by steam-ships between the
European and American ports, that whilst the
arrivals here (in the United States) have dimi-
nished about eight thousand, as compared with
1857, the departures have increased about three."
And he expresses it as his opinion, " that the
increase in the departures from the States is
occasioned by Europeans going home under an
impression that they can do better there ;" and
that " the decrease in arrivals may also be attri-
buted to a similar cause." Then, as respects
emigration generally, the decrease has been
upwards of a hundred thousand ; and the opinion
of an American writer is quoted regarding it, to
the effect that "the continued drain of population
cannot occur in any country without a sudden
check being at times opposed to it," since, "if the
supply of labour be diminished, the prices paid for
it will materially increase, and tljis will in itself
stop the effiux of; population ;"—and the case of
Ireland is adduced—the American idea, correctly
enough, being that " Ireland, from whence so large
a proportion of our emigrants are drawn, has, it is
well known, arrived at a point where her labourers
can scarcely suffice to the wants of her own agri-
culture." The important condition of both England
and Scotland might likewise be instanced, as
reasons why fewer of the labouring classes; more
particularly, have lately emigrated to America
than formerly. Not only has this been the case
during the last twelve months, but we find that in
the previous year the decline was very striking,—
and not only that the tide of emigration across the
Atlantic was failing in its flow, but that it was
actually receding,—for of upwards of eighteen
thousand steerage passengers that returned to the
United Kingdom, in 1857, nearly seventeen
thousand came from America !

But in calculating the causes of the decrease of
British emigration to the United States, it appears
to us that the rapid progress of emigration to our
Australian Colonies, during the last few years,
has not been sufficiently taken into account.
American writers, of course, have but slight oppor-
tunity of becoming acquainted with this most

material fact of the case. But it is a most impor-
tant part of the question, as regards our interest
in it here at home,—and certainly a very gratify-
ing one as respects our Colonial prosperity.
Canada has not partaken of the increase, as our
Australian Colonies has done. Indeed the Ameri-

can Continent, generally, has been to a great
extent passed by, and the regions far beyond, in
the Southern Pacific, immensely preferred.
It is rather a curious fact, that the increase of
emigration from Great Britain to her Australian
Colonies has, for the last two or three years, been
at very much the same rate as the decrease of her
emigration has been to the United States. This,
of itself, explains a great deal. By the statistics we
have of the number of emigrants to New South
Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Aus-
tralia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, it has been
lately about one hundred and sixty thousand per
annum. The greatest flow of emigration has been
to Victoria, which is easily accounted for by the
fact of its being the principal region of the gold
fields. The rate has been about forty thousand
a-year to this Colony alone, which now, therefore,
possesses a population of nearly half a million of
inhabitants. And the Colony goes on advancing
in prosperity accordingly. This, indeed, is one Of
the most gratifying effects of the tide of emigra-
gm baying set in so strongly in. that direction.