The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-27 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

The years pass away, Parliaments run their course,
and Governments rise and fall. Here we are getting
on in the last half of the century, and Mr. Hume, who
was a financial reformer whoa " Lard Wellington" was
fighting our battles in Spain, is once more moving the
tour points of. his Charter. In the last session of a
Whig Parliament, immediately afier the introthettioa
end iailare of a second Reform Bill be the mover of the
tirtt, Joseph Herne i 3 repeating his thee-bonehead
too-
own in a House of which the 1-Vght Hon. Benj,inein
Disraeli is the leader, and which by no extraordinary
compact has bound itself to abstain from all the higher
'acts of legislation. If it be added that at this moment
there is not a single constitutional Goveremeet in the
world in ordinaey anti harmonious evrVion, that it, in
which the Executive is in perfect harmony with the
representative body, the one being responsible and
the other free, we have accumulated more wonders
of tlmo then even the veteran Member for Mon-
trose could have anticipated. His forty years'
sojourn in the wilderness have not given him so
much as a Pisgah's view of his promised reform; and
even his Joshua, who seconded his motion last
night, seems scarcely destined to enter. Should Lord
John Russell, indeed, find himself in a small majority
in the autumn, he may think himself obliged to secure
it, as well as increase it, by a measure of Parliamentary
reform, necessarily followed by another dissolution. Bat
his Lordship is evidently not yet prepared to go a step
farther in Mr. Hume's direction than the exigencies of
party may require; and we venture to predict that the
veteran's last words in Parliament will be an indignant
protest against corrupt boroughs, aristocratic nominees,
intimidation, bribery, and all the other anomalies and
abuses of the present representative system.
..;sa• el.n• .vi.:oi. onghe fn have
come off on Lord John Russell's measure. At the time
of the late Ministerial catastrophe we pointed out the
enormous sacrifice of material it would involve on this
fertile topic. Oar own drawers were full of letters, sta-
tistics, reports, maps, articles—all of increasing interest
and value until about a quarter peat eight on Friday the
20th ult., when they suddenly became a heap of waste
paper. The same sudden depreciation affected, of
course, the 656 speeches, or series of speeches, pre-
pared by the Members of the House of Commons; but
these gentlemen cannot resign themselves to such
painful sacrifices so easily as we are forced to do.
When a man has composed a good speech, it haunts
him till he has delivered it somewhere, some time, to
somebody or other. So the occasion of Mr. llama's
motion last night was eagerly seized by many Members
for discharging the burdens on memory. The occasion
allowed, however; of nothing but a debate on the general
principles of Parliamentary Reform; and, accordingly,
we were presented with essays of the most abstract and
philosophical character by Mr. H. Drummond, Sir W.
Page Wood, Mr. Napier, Mr. Roebuck, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and Lord John Russell. Whether we
regard them as comments on a preposterous motion or
on a withdrawn Bill, they are equally devoid of imme-
diate interest. They may all bo laid by for the next
rainy day—if indeed we are to have any rain this year—
or they may ho postponed till Lord John shall at length
bring forward the improved version of his late Bill. We
are obliged to give them as they are; bat as the public
is not obliged to road them, it will consult its comfort,
and lose very little, by taking the cream of them given
in our summary.
As Mr. Hume succeeded only in mustering 89 Mem-
bers prepared to go the whole length of his quadruple
resolution, it is evident the House of Commons, on the
eve of an appeal to the people, is not yet enamoured of
pure democracy. But it is equally evident, from the
tone of the principal speakers, that unless the new Par-
liament is very different from the present, it will deem
it wise and necessary to give a larger share of the re-
presentation to the wealth and population of the country;
and so far, it may be said, to raise the democrattcal as
compared with the monarchical and aristocratical el,-
meats. The claim of abstract right is wholly and justly
repudiated by all sensible men; but right is. one thing
and wisdom is another; and certainly nothing can be
more unwise than the proud and stubbornratantenanee
of a state of things by which large populatione, myriads
of well-informed and respectable artiz ins, and other
deserving or powerful classes, instead of being
included in the pale of full citizenship, and
thereby added to the strength of the Consti-
tution, aro excluded from that pale and prc-
yoked into hostility to that Constitution. The opinion
that seemed to ba ascribed to the present Government,
;hat there was no clear necessity to disturb the settle-
ment of 1832, we would fain hope means nothing more
than a determination against Lord John Russell's lase
Bill. -Whatever we do, let us not wait again till the
country is excited to a reform mania. That would be
to appeal from Philip sober to Pbilip drunk. Both
sides of the House, and all sides in the country, except
a few " Radicals," are prepared to take a moderate view
of the subject. But the most moderate view, oven the
view of maintaining the balance of interests established
in 1832, must admit the reasonableness of re-adapting
the representation to the very great changes that
have taken place since 1832. The unprecedented in-
crease of population and wealth that has occurred
in these twenty years, which have witnessed the infancy
and the completion of British railways, has fallen
chiefly on the towns and manafactaring districts. This
has disturbed the settlement of 1832, which requires,
therefore, to be regulated once more, like a machine that
has gradually fallen out of order, or a calendar that no
longer corresponds to astronomical facts. Since 1832
some of the metropolitan boroughs have increased not
far from 100 per cent., while many of the smaller bo-
roughs spared by the Reform Act, and even some whole
counties, show very little change. These are broad facts
that are seen and felt, that speak for themselves, and
will make themselves heard. At this stage of the
question it is unnecessary to go inn) details, other-
wise we might prove to Mr. Disraeli the fal-
lacy lying at the bottom of his calculation that
the rural population is less represented than the towns.
In his rural populations, which his counties are supposed
to be, there are, in fact, many towns. The question of
Parliamentary Reform is clearly postponed for the pre-
sent. After two years of inactivity, and after a general
election, it would be ridiculous to sacrifice another year
—nay, the last Reform Bill occupied two years—to this
very grave question, unless it ehould be re-opened by a
Protectionist controversy, But in all probability it
cannot be postponed beyond the third or fourth sestion
of the next Parliament. Till then, hewever, it is surely
premature and injudicious to make any needless decla-
rations ; and if any of our present Ministers are not yet
convinced of the necessity of reform, the best thing they
can do is to hold their tongue about it —7 ones of
Friday.