The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-10 00:00:00

I

*n4 authority—the moral power—which it had ter-

131,11,;

. _ „'~)~)

af -
the Pee rile prioel,,ie of Llicaflty oitet-1
has given up for ever. No one could now for the future
take his stand upon our inttitunens as in any respect
nixed and final in their character. The Noble Lord con-
aliered that their institution,: should be consf.:liriy in a
State of transition—con:zatitly expanding. There wa,,
therefore no principle of stability left in their constitution.
.4:he details of the present measure effectually destroyed
ttle character of stabiliy, and next year they might
all be changed, or, at all' events- but a few years, might
elapse without an entire modification of them. What
Would be the natural effect of all this change and un-
certaintY? Either they would soon render the state a
r°,.Plete democratic republic, or, what was more pro-
tau", they would render that House what it showed
"I,erY indication of becoming—an assembly utterly un-
.
Sole to carry out those purposes for which it was insti-
tuted,At the close of every session the constant come
Valet was that nothing had been done. That was in
That
of the great infusion of the popular element.
hat evil would be aiarated by the change now pro-
toiled. To our old Conggstnudon he had a strong attach-
ment—for the able and successful administration of
tee affairs of the cone try which had been effected under
it, and for the practical liberty enjoyed under it—and he
flow rendered the Noble Lord responsible for what was
likely before long to betal that ancient Constitution,
Shaken as it already was. It was possible that, in the
()°llrse of years, the people of England might be at last
tired out—that liberty might exist no longer—that some
other form of government might be substituted, and
such a consummation be attained in England as had
been already attained in a neighbouring country, and by
O. somewhat similar process. He would not offer any
°PPoaition to bringing in the Bill.
Mr, H. BERKELEY thought the measure of the
Noble Lord ought to be affirmed. He considered it a
great improvement, and that there was something mere
in it than that infinitesimal dose of reform which had
been promised in a well-known political organ. John
still would find there something more than that; but
he wished the Noble Lord, in turning his attention to
the extension of the franchise, had provided a measure of
Protection to the voters at the poll. The country would '
he much disappointed at that omission; but he (Mr.
Berkeley) would endeavour, when the rseesure was
Under discussion, to give the voter that protection
which Was so necessary, and which the minify so ur-
gently demanded.
Mr. P. HOWARD differed from the Hon. Baronet
°PPesite (Sir J. Walsh) as to the light in which the
Proposed measure should be viewed. The country would
• Pleased with it, for the announcement of the extension
of the franchise had been received with exultation.
; Sir R. H. INGLIS said that this was one of the most
413Portant questions which could be submitted for debate,
Yet the four Gentlemen who had spoken since the Noble
Lord had introduced the question, and had all taken dif-
eutgroundewould appear from the silence of the House
.
to have represented only their own opinions. The last cc-
easiec of the kind in which the Hon. Member for Radnor-
shire
(Sir J. Walsh) had called to remembrance was
strong
in his mind. The occasion of 1852 was very
different from that of 1832, when the subject was first
ettlthia
wurought forward. On the latter occasion every place
the House and in the passage was crowded with
loge listeners to the discussion. At the present time,
the
at the benches when the Noble L trd introduced
L subject, they were certainly tolerably well filled ;
ivaas soon as he had sat down the House relapsed into
tion difference, and the attention of Members was propor-
tionably ditninished. Bat the Noble Lord had intro-
,,yo two or three questions not necessarily connected
Leh reform, but of vital importance to the interests of
few
country—(llear)—upon which he wished to say a
sp,„„„Worde. The Noble Lord hud introduced in his
fort."'" two or three objects which should form the matter
abtseParate legislatioc, and which he would have better
mou4liata
utained from introducing ; but his (Sir R. Inglis's)
objection was with respect to the great eel;-
;it 8 question, which was unconnected with Perna-
Crlitttry.reform, and not merely to the removal of
eluded, particular words whieh bad leith'erto ex-
expieu, and had been intentionally devised to
;111de—or, at all events, the practice had the
rarest suction which could be binding upors
teem body of our fellow-subjects, as some called
..113 ; but he regarded them as strangers who held
ereed
et.eed distinct, alien, hostile, and inconsistent with our
trod , and whom the Noble Lord now proposed to in-
de ice by that very side-wind which he bad himself
Precated on a former occasion. The Noble Lerd
stated
when he introduced his great measure of 1831,
pie it was not a measure of revolution. They, on the
part Bide, contended that it was, in all its subtantial
N;ells, a measure directly revolutionary. A very few
oes had:hardly elapsed when a Noble Colleague of the
"9le Lord's declared in so many words the measure of
room
no, , Was a measure of revolution, stating it as such,
yettut disapprove of it, but to justify it by its result,
etch he declared to have been unmixed prosperity.
tol the Noble Lord had said that the country was not
ltirshet_ tried by a revolution every year; and had the
pt"rre Lord given the country any hope that another ex-
pada:Pit would not be made in 1872 or within a shorter
theiroff The unprescriptible character of the institutions
they hadunwritten constitution had been destroyed,, and
constit ll°w to deal with a charter °aro.* —a written
and tilted"' to
be found in a few books on the table,
would nroat W" no security that the Noble Lord himself
eat: be the first to introduce a change in its pro-
,;?°rls. As to universal suffrage, be did not think it
as SO much to. be dreaded by the possessors of
The
and property as had been hitherto supposed.
largest experiment which had been made with
I
"Peet to i co_ t had occurred recently in a neighbouring
untry, and they had seen that it was Be security to
40arty or property, and that it was the most efficient in-
strument for conferring the largest amount of power
tt'bleb modern Europe had seen concentrated in the
ut.,ttods of one man. There was no security that those
-4 supported his (Sir R. Inglis's) Noble Friend on this
, !101l would not bring forward other measures of a
stilt larger nature. He (Sir R. Inglis) therefore pro-
`°l:l against this constant tinkering of the Constitution,
it by
deserved far more respect. than had been shown
37 his Noble Friend.—(Hear.) There was another
athnt—en point to which he (Sir R. Inglis) was almost
41i peed to refer, after adverting to such a minor subject
qrn't be had just alluded to—namely, the religious
uestion,he by which' the Noble Lord proposed to admit
tet3t who differed in religion from the bulk of the na-
ateuto, and who were almost alien in other respects, to a
0. at in Parliament. This he (Sir R. Inglis) most de•
inid.hel9 objected and should oppose by every means
Portent Power. After such a subject as that—one so im•
ditttint as well as so sacred—he was almost ashamed to
ti"..etelad to so comparatively low a subject as the pro-
eit'Y qualification proposed to be abolished by his
et°°le Friend. But this point was one of those de-
roeeratic elements which his Noble Friend was so
nd of encouraging in this Bill. The result of is
ad
ltdv°PtiOn would be to throw open the House to any
enturer—of whom there were too many always
•ead
(si
r 3 ---by separating power from property. To this he
t 0 jt. Inglis) would not willingly agree. With respect
thee minor points of the proposed measure he should
014 then dwell upon them, as there would be so 'teeny
l i3Pertunities of discussing them in their details; he
a
°tad not, therefore, longer occupy the House on that
reitsion. But he was unwilling, when his Noble Friend
tiBl4l introduced a measure, and so extensive in its nature,
at: it should be permitted to pass even through its first
Re without one voice, at least, being raised against
the
religion& portion of the proposition, which he would
aver w„ most offensive to the great bulk of the people
Of England, and which therefore he trusted Parliament
stould not suffer to stand on the Bill of his Noble Friend.
e knew there were those, supporters of his Noble
Friend, who wished to abolish all oaths whatsoever; but
n
nless some instance, a •modern, could be ncient or
ad-
duced in which civaiwct society existed without any re-
ference to a higher autho •
and elicit truth, he could sanction obligations
would consent to the abolitionil"counsel, and for one never
country
of that form of words
which constituted this
Parliament the Christian assembly
Y a Christian country, and
People.—(Hear.) of a Christian
bir. BRIGHT said be had been ende urine to weigh
theu various portions of the Noble Lore° •-••-•"
to admit that Froposition, and
ete was bound in fairness
expected, there were-
"elute there were
Sotlie of which be entirely disapproved, and which tell
Sty far short of what the country
other
, Portions which would give some degree of „ta
faction Portions
to those outside the House. It was difficult to
-
atY
hew much good it would do—not speaking in the
direction of the 'lon. Baronet (Sir J. Walsh), but in
respect to those who desired the extension of the trait.
~-"`‘et but as it would be all over the country to-mor-
;;°_,w, he thou ht it quite fair for those who differed con-
while they had
Zierahly item the lion. B 'twee) views,
"7° oPportunity, to make some remarks on the speecheshe
°` those who differed from the
eountry also. The great and democratic
which might go tot. the
portion
and
hp.
Proposition, was the 51. franchise for boroughs, d
agreed with the Noble Lord, that the classes toa which
the franchise was to be given were perfectly competent
she did not mean every man of them, for that was not
true even of the present franchise—but taking them as
attwhole, to discharge its duties, and in thee portion
of the kingdom in which those classes were the most
numerous they might with perfect propriety
and confidence be entrusted with it.—(Hear.) He now
saw them periorming the duties of voting in their pa
r
that with great and undeniable propriety. He saw
'B't Whomever they elected in the poor-law unions x-
t3,llded the poor-rates properly and honestly, end that
en these classes elected municipal corporations in
utowns and cities those bodies showed no destructive pro-
4:laity, but were about as respectable and trustworthy
citizen
bodies that could be elected by any other class of'
fotizens in the country—(Hear, hear)—and he took it
hattr anted that they had precisely the same interest in
ttlng the good government of the country, and in the
2servation of order, as any one else, be his property
t'nat it
might. Therefore, though many might be re-
turned for the boroughs who would not be the wisest
e!' in the countr who
there were many returned from
the counties now who were known not to be Solons—
(A.1„
gh)—still they would just he as good as before.
,t'.eziltere Was one serious defect in the Bill with regard to the
belche of the borough franchise which he ceuld have
-ated t
the 0 see removed. It had been charged against
v... "'lase that many of its Members came there through
t;i'tes. forced upon the electors; hat he had never said
at landowners were more inclined to force those ere-
a• rie on their
ortCB any Property to vote against their con-
tl than other class of the community. In the
era parts of the kingdom, in Yorkshire and Lan-
"lire, there were
Persons each, a large
firma lo • from 500 to 5,000
omp, prig
would be electors ander the
Portion of whom were men woo
are were besides a g and chit-
Zten, but the wages :lilt Bill of the Noble Lord.
number of women
~a,"°llBe, aad the head of that
••-te must say, then, as a lame were taken to somebody's
te
house would have a ve
he.
Wor extremely sorry the Nubian'ploy
Ilia hands or out of the h fief labour, that
Lord not taken he
hands of any one similarly