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

FROM TDB MORNING PAPER* OF THIS DAY.
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—Lord John Russell's Reform Bill is about as
great a plurality as was ever comprehended in one title.
John
nn 1 theio d eve of For the multiplicity and variety
class with the Miscellaneous Estimates, or with that vulgar
departuor fe. its
Ceu ld contents
we it
suppose
mightppe
ae
description of bill which mine host of the Red Lion presents
thatte his
L guests Lord o
fa
note-book of all the bits of Par-
liamentary reform talked about for these twenty years,
selecting those of the most harm
less and plausible character,
it might very easily, have formed the letter of instructions to
the framers of this Bill. It is hard to say what it does not
contain, excepting a principle. The principles of the oldßeform Bill were prominent enough; enfranchisement and
upon it with disfranchisement were written
which made every man in these isles either a warm friend
or a still warmer foe. So blindly and unflinchingly did
the Bill go at the extinction of abuses and the creation of
a sound and popular french' *
'se, that it was only when it
had been some time before the House, and all parties
were irretrievably committed, that •it was discovered to be
an enormous transference of power from the
.south to the
north, from the agricultural to the manufacturing districts.
It was the last victory of the Anglo-Saxons, as they are
called, over the Normans, of the burg h over the
the populations over the strongholds V henthis was urged
as an objection, the answer was, " Whatof
duty to reform the Parliamentary, system, and we are pre-
pared to stand all the consequences." The, p 'nen ip le' if any,
exis
of the present Bill is, not to disturb the - n
tebalance
between the south and the north, the l and the
the Land Lord and the Cotton Lord. p ough loom,
The problem proposed
by the Minister to himself has been to extend the franchise
as much as possible without affecting the existin adjustment
of interests and classes. Lord John Russell, as if he had no
wish to perform twice the office of Parliamentary execu-
tioner, most carefully guards his ill ftnone the imputation of
being a penal measure. To set a
the great task with
calmness, he has drunk of the waters- of Lethe, and
effaced from his recollection the thousand-and one scan-
dals of the last twenty years. Possibly he would
not admit what has lately been proved
on the highest
possible evidence, that since the Reform Bill there has been
far more corruption than before. Of the sixty-seven bo-
roughs to be enlarged there is probably not one which is not
a notorious example of the influences which it was the pro-
fessed object of the first Reform Bill to destroy. There is
not one which is not'either purchasable, or under the con-
trol of some neighbouring proprietor; -and, as was admirably
shown some time since in this , paper by an ex-M.P., the
amount of real corruption, of oppression, and moral degrada-
tion,
is generally far greater in the latter case than in the
former. The measure of corruption, however, in these
small boroughs is not yet full. They are to hays accom-
plices in the shape of satellite towns, with perhaps the infu-
sion of new aristocratical influence, new families to contend
for the representation with the old indigenous borough-
monger. Disfranchisement Lord John
leaves to
others. If from this time forward, and with
this rod held up in terrorem, any borough should,
on inquiry, be found to be utterly corrupt,
then Parliament is advised by a special Act in each case to
transfer its franchise to some populous borough. By way of
example, in the present Bill he gives the two seats of the
long-dormant Sudbury to Birkenhead and Burnley, and me-
ditates some such appropriation of the two seats for St. Al-
ban's, when it is disfranchised. We are inclined to think that
England expected more of Lord John Russell than that he
should merely give two examples of what ought to be done.
With this wain.ng, it will be very hard if the most corrupt
borough doss not manage its corruption with such secrecy
and address as to elude a Parliamentary inquisition. All
parties in it, however otherwise divided, will combine to se-
cure their house from intrusion, just as the husband and wife,
whose quarrels are the scandal of the village, always com-
bine against the constable. But the worst corruption will
wholly i scape this process by separate trial. The borough
described by our correspondent the ex-M.P., in which the
whole frame of society was perverted into one engine
of corruption, will never be one of the vulgar de-
linquents in the hands of the Parliamentary po-
lice. Such is the Reform Bill which Lord John
Russell assures us is the result, not of a hasty pledge or a
sudden emergency, but of many years' quiet observation. To
us it bears undeniable marks of pressure from without in the
specious and illusory character of its boons. We are aware
that some respectable authorities value more any general
extension of the franchise, however illusory, than special
disfranchisements and enfranchisements, and they will pro-
bably nottconcur with us in our opinion of the Bill. But
these authorities do not come to the question quite in the
same spirit that we do. They wish the question of Parlia-
mentary reform to be kept always open. They would rather
have a vague, inconsistent, unsatisfactory measure, leaving as
much as possible undone, than one which bore some appear-
ance of finality, or which premised a truce for some 20 years.
So long as the notorious and incorrigible boroughs are
spared they may possibly keep the question continually raw
and unsettled ; and, instead of a war for the sake of peace,
such as the last Reform Bill was meant to be, and actually
proved to be, we shall probably now have a weak compro-
mise, followed by fresh and increasing demands for Parlia-
mentary reform.
DAILY NEWS. - Lord John Russell last night explained
to Parliament and to the country his plans for representa-
tive reform. At the very outset of his speech he put one
point beyond doubt. All he had to propose was to be in the
spirit of plans enunciated in the legislature at various bygone
times. He was no innovator; he sought to make no novel
or eccentric changes; he was content to discuss Parliamen-
tary reform as Parliamentary reform had often been discussed
before, and was now ready—not to concede a single measure
that should enfranchise the great mass of the people upon
any one of the broadly popular plans proposed by the
representatives of large democratic constituencies—but
rather to step with a cautious and • I •
precedent- oving pru-
dence in the toot-prints of those who had gone before on
"similar ends intent." He would indeed follow on the
trail he had made himself in 18 ' ' '
32 His great anchor was
the Reform Bill of that year-- '
a measure on which he and
his colleagues at that time must stake all hope of being re-
membered as statesmen useful in their
the limits placed by that measure, he was willing to some ex-
tent to advance; but his faith must be strict line of
the constitutional charges then ita inugurated the
inaugurated.
He would re-
lax, and even improve, but not change. The Act of 1832
fixed the relative conditions of •
city and rural representation
—a state of things not now materially to be disturbed.
given The
increased intelligence that hasadvance to com-
mercial towns would be counted
fo rapid
eslow.
slow-coach
con
pace of the country was to be r. nothing; th
considered equally worthy of
being in at the goal. No re-adjustment of relative repre-
sentation could b® thought of. Thee old plan was
still to be
the plan, from which there wasto time a
mere promise of change. How be from time
far this bold adhesion
to an-
cient theories may be acceptable to the country remains to
be seen. . .
The Radical Members who. •
•
spoke
in the House of Commons
last night saw the difficulties 0 had to
take. The Bill offered them f the position they
step in advance. '
soy do not by
the Minister is clearlya
and on one point it is enanife' i find in it all they wish for,
ballot,—a deficiency on whicht Y deficient. It ignores the
they will, of course, have
much hereafter to say. But going as it does in the clear di-
rection of improvement, the
weight of condemnation which
unable to launch at it that
h must have greeted any less
satisfactory proposition. They stood by their colours, and
asked all it was their duty to ask. But the tone of the House
was tolerably manifest, and it *
was that, judging by its first
appearance, Lord J. Russell's Bill
promises to become To
the advocates of religious freedom he offers a modification of
the oaths ; to the ultras he '
of the Charter"—the property effect, concedes one "point
gists he lowers the qualitic.,3ir qualification ; for the suffra-
landed interest he tenders -*°la of voters in towns; to the
votes to a lower range of tenants
than the old Chandos-clause
iert ; to the boroughmongers he
suggests an extension without
in the quality of the small much chance of a real change
advocate constituencies;for direct
whilst to the po-
litico-economicdirect taxation the bait is held
out of a vote for each artisan who contributes 40s. a year di-
rectly to the state. It is a Hae
• le • of morsels, not mass cm ,measure of details, not one of prin-
,e3-...a, • ,
tirety. Yet, although this ne instalment, and not an en-
and inflaential subjects it w Reform Bill may blink broad
sents many popular features ought to have included, it pre-
sectional demands, and little 's
and many clever adaptations to
or indignation roused if it idtillinrPrise will probably be excited
and improved shape—the law ately becomes—in a modified
of the land.
ADVERTISER.--The new R
country, and it
a measure
weeks wee). As public ere as we indicated several
0 dilatation
high pitch, it will not be p • was not wound up to a
be lowered in towns to 51., anciPtitel The franchise is to
paying direct taxes to the eez counties to 201. Persons
annum, are also to be entranotilint of forty shillings per,
than a constituency of 500 are to 'rd. Boroughs with less
with other towns until a censtitue electorally incorporated
The only borough at present to eleY of 500 is made up.
Alban's, but in futurelany borough be disfranchised is St.
corruption, will, in virtue of that conevoinvicted of bribery or
tinguished, and the representation trancepoh, be at once ex-
town or district, on which the representativeed to some large
been before conferred. The property qualification right had not
be done away with, and the distinctio qualification is to
ing between the oaths taken by Protestantsnat present exist-
Catholics is to be abolished. The and Roman
be repealed which excludes the Jeclause, too, is to
ment, by requiring all who take the oatlawsB from Parlia-
do so "on the true faith of a Christian." Suchllegianc, to
visions of this measure. Our readers will not need are the pro-
ance to form an opinion of its worth. It will
our assist-
not only does Lord John Russell not It be seen that
Reform, triennial Parliaments, or even au "bridged in his plan of
of Parliaments to any other term, but that I:lidged duration
condescend to allude to points to which the e does not even
so much importance. And so with regard country attaches
that great political necessity of the times, and to the ballot—
no measure of reform would be worth ace without which
John Russell not only does not mean to giveptance. Lord
but he does not even make the slightest allues's the ballot,
passes it over in silence. The constituencies ion to it. He
their votes in the same way as heretofore. must record
pendent for their daily bread on the patrons s Tradesmen de-
tomers, will still be subjected to the altelefatr their cus-
voting contrary to the dictates of their ve of either
or seriously injuring their interests—Perhaps nicntiisciences,
selves and their families. Thousands of r
them-
instances them-
record of electors being ruined, in consequence
efs are 'on
given an honest vote. And dependent voters are stillniNerting
subjected to the same risks for a conscientious exercise Of be
franchise. The Ministerial measure is now fairly before the
country. What the country's verdict will be is a point to
which, we presume, there will not be
.teeo opinions.
It will
be received with universal disappointment. What
exigencies of the times require, is a man of • • .
the
position in the
of the
house, and enjoying the confidence
the sentiments
who will
boldly come forward and representoe man sentirnents and
wishes of the people. There is
eyend one alone, to
.11 its
whom the country is now directi g as the a coming
man." That man is Lord Palmerston. All that is required
on the part of the Noble Lord, to
ninsure such popular de-
monstrations in his fovour as will rehedeerbhi
—in one of the most
influential men of his age, is, that ould come out fear-
lessly and explicitly in this important crisis.
CHRONICLE.—The sketch which
the Premier gave last
night of his projected Reform Bill fully bears out the op' •
Pea le opinions
we have always expressed of him. p had been led to
expect some semblance, at least, of novelty. Instead of that,
there was the old Reform Bill of 1832 staring us in
the f
It was a little modernised, perhaps, with a few shene see.
eteeth
added, and one rotton one extracted- but there was.
no mis-
taking our venerable friend. If Lord John Russell can suc-
ceed in passing off such a Bill on the country as a great and
original measure, he will be even a greater conjuror than we
imagined. As for the general scope of his Bill, we shall
only say at present that it strikes us as a