The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-07 00:00:00

Ia; the substitute of Mr. Villiers, the Hon. Member for
Wolverhampton, to propose a toast, requested to represent
Mr. Villiers, whom an accident prevented from being Are-
s nit. The Chairman, his friend Mr. Buller, had requested
him to propose the toast of " Vote by Ballot, Extension of
the Suffrage, and a Repeal of the Septennial Act." He
would make no apology for the proposal of this toast, but
a justification was necess.:.ry from the recent circumstance
of a speech of Lord Ehrington, at a Devon public meeting
The Noble Viscount, reported in the journals (,f that day
had expressed doubts of the efficacy of the mode of secret
voting, but had further stated opinions on the finality of
the measures of Parliamentary Rofortn of 1832 which ap•
peered to him irreconcilable with the principles of the Libe-
ral party, and at variance 'with the principles of the present
Administration.—(Loud cheers.) He had the greatest re-
spect for the Noble Lord, and, he might lie allowed to say,
a personal regard for him. The Noble Viscount had
passed a long public life of integrity and disinterested ser-
vice as a popular representative. No one could attribute in-
sincerity or sinister interest to that Noble Lord, who stea-
dily, in the worst of times, adhered to the popular cause.
But Lord Ebrington had pronounced the Iteferm Bills
a final amendment of the representative system, and that
the honour of its promoters was pledged to its pertain-
. nency as an unalterable amendment of the constitution of
the House of Commons. The meeting would allow him to
examine the foundations of this position 'of the Noble Lord.
He (Mr. Parkes) wholly denied the finality of the mea-
sure. The two great political parties of the State had ex-
changed positions, if the Noble Lord were correct. Sir
Robert Peel, in his address to his Tamworth constituents
declared himself for the integrity of the Reform Bill, and
demanded that no further alterations in the popular branch
of the Legislature should be made. The cry of the Tories now
was, " the whole bill, and nothing but the bill."
This was the echo of the Reformers in 1831. And why had
the Tories adopted it ? Because in fact the Reform Bills, as
finally passed, were not the measures of the Whig adminis-
tration, but the mutilations of their Tory opponents. The
bills as framed and proposed to Parliament:in the spring of
1831, were not the bills which received the coerced consent
of the Lords and the sanction of the Crown in 1331 What
contract did the people ratify in either year that they would
accept as final the amendment of the representation then
effected ? The nation made no such bargain. For half a
century preceding they bad demanded a real representation.
The persecuted men they that day met to celebrate had asked
more than the short measure of the It...forrn Bills. In
1830, on the formation of the Ministry of Earl Grey,
public opinion, in all the great meetings throughout the
country, claimed triennial Parliaments, Household Suf-
frage, and vote by..B.allot. The ten-pound franchise was
the unexpected proposition of the Ministry, and the people
widely advocated the Government scheme of Parliamen-
tary Reform ? But who ever accepted it in full of all
demands? What Ministry, what temporary House of
Commons, could bind a nation, or sign for a people an
irreversible contract such as Lord Ebrington stated to
exist?—(Loud -cheers.) He denied wholly the existence
or obligation of such a bargain.—(Cheers.) Lord John
Russell had himself last session supposed the virtual
abrogation of the rate-paying clauses, by proposing in lieu
of April the preceding October for the payment of rates,
and the effect of which would be to increase the numbers
of the constituency. That would be an organic change
of the existing representation, if eventually carried ; and
therefore he could not believe that the Ministry of Lord
Melbourne was opposed to alterations of the Reform
Bills.—(Hear; hear, and cheers.). Further, Lord John
Russell in 1831 had declared the principle of the Re-
form Bills to be founded on the disfranchisement of all
boroughs under a constituency of 300 electors. Lord John
Russell had further distinctly left the question of the dura-
tion of Parliaments for future discussion. Now, what was
the state of the existing electoral system ? Many boroughs
retaining one and two representatives were still a disgrace
to the Legislature. He would only instance one, the bo-•
rough of Harwich, which did not enrol one hundred and
fifty electors on its register, which returned the same num-
ber of represehtatives to Parliament as Southwark.—(Loud
cries of " Shame !"). Was this the final system upheld by
Lord Ebrington, as eternal—was the coercion, intimida-
tiou, and unparalleled corruption during the recent general
election to remain unchecked and uncured--were they to
be told that so far as th.: Reform Bill, and no farther, the
people should secure their inalienable and constitutional
rights—that the electoral system ought not, could not, and
should not, be further radically reformed?—(Cheers.)
He (Mr. Parkes) did not say that the Ballot would
effect a perfect cure of all these flagrant imperfections, be-
cause applied to the existing system it was not a complete
remedy. The only specious objections to secret voting
were its insufficiency, as applied to the present constitution
of the House of Commons. But Reformers proposed the
Ballot with other remedies—they advocated an assimilation
of the constituencies to an increased and mean number, a
simpler and extended franchise, a limited and definite dura-
tion of the Legislative Assembly.—(Loud cheering.) 'He
hoped that Ministers would apply a remedy to those glaring
abuses, and that LorJEbrington would review his opinions.
He proposed the toast allotted to him, of—" Vote by Ballot,
Extension of the Suffrage, and a Repeal of the Septennial
Act."—( Loud cheering.)
" The Liberty of the Press," " Civil and Religious Li-
berty," and " The health of Mr. O'Connell, and Justice to
Ireland," were severally drunk with great applause. The
company did not separate till a late hour.