The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-14 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION

.EXTENSION OF REFORM.

TO JOSEPH HUME, ESQ.
Sra,—The country is under infinite obligations to
you for your talented expose of the present anomalous
state of the representation, in your valuable speech or
Household Suffrage, in the last Session of Parliament.
The reply of Lord John Russell was a compromise
of his consistency, and unworthy of his fame : without
be is more wary and careful, for the future, he will live,
like Hannibal, to survive his reputation.
Seven years have rolled over since the passing of the
Reform Bill, and with the single exception of the Bills for
the improvement of our Municipal Corporations, the
people have, as yet, seen nothing practically, of the be-
neficial results anticipated and expected from the mea-
sure. They are universally gloomy and disappointed ;
they would, of course, rather bear the ills they have
than embrace Chartism, or countenance contusion ;
but still they are annoyed, indignant, and dissatisfied.
For the last few years things have very much taken
care of themselves. Lord Melbourne has given no
direction whatever ; he merely sits ostensibly at the
helm of the vessel of the State, and lets any wave
toss, or any wind blow it, " whithersoever it listeth."
Sometimes he seems as if he aimed at making for some
port, but any land breeze that springs up blows him
off shore, and he seems nearly indifferent as to where
the royal bark steers, whether for weal or for woe.
The repeated elections we have had since the Reform
Bill, and their late impotent results, plainly show that
that measure is a failure ; and that it is utterly inade-
quate, is ordinary times, to return us anything like an
influential majority. The object of that Bill was to
give to the people a clear working majority in Parlia-
ment. As it is, it has merely brought us up to an
equality, and there left us. The democratic and aristo-
cratic parties are so equally balanced, that the energies
of Government are nearly paralyzed, and the influence
of the executive impaired, both at home and abroad.
We want evidently a further Reform. The rejec-
lion of the motion for an inquiry into the subject of the
Corn-laws, of the bill for Municipal Reform in Ireland,
for National Education in England, and, lastly, the
fate of your own motion for Household Suffrage, plainly
prove that we have little to expect for the future, with-
out we can strengthen our influence in the House of
Commons. We must, therefore, seek a further exten-
sion, and better distribution of the suffrage, as far as
will be practically effective, and at the same time not
too much in advance of public opinion. All that we
can do with our repressirotive system, is to make it
less and less anomalous, wile public mind is prepared
to receive any proposed change.
I respectfully submit to your consideration, whether
yes might not, upon some future occasion, disarm a
good deal of the opposition which Household Suffrage
is sure to encounter, by modifying your proposition.

and putting it into a more compact and definite form.
For this purpose, I propose, in the course of this let-
ter, to offer for your attention a plan of Reform which
has oceurred to me, and which I have the vanity to
think, is of so fair and improvable a character, that in
your hands it might hereafter assume a shape fit to be
presented to the House of Commons.
I do this from a thorough conviction that Household
Sufrage is a measure of too extensive and democratic a
character to be supported by the country at large, in
that unanimous and energetic way as to give it any
chance of sucoess at present. People are not as yet
prepared for it, and I very much question whether,
taking into account the respective amount of the urban
and rural population, the results would be such as its
advocates expect from it.
. _

Household Suffrage, undoubtedly, existed in many of
our old boroughs. and is thus far sanctioned by the
usages of the Constitution ; but it is utterly unsanc-
tioned by any precedent as it respects the counties ; as
there never was a period in our history when house-
holders voted for county members. The theory of the
Constitution implies that the towns represent the indus-
try, and the counties the property of the country.
The rural population are not by any means so pre-
pared for the exercise of political privileges, as the in-
telligent inhabitants of the large towns ; and what
might be conceded to the borough with security, would
be abused or unappreciated by the uninformed peasantry
of the rural districts. For these, and many other
reasons, it would not be generally supported ; but what
would deter a very large and influential class, would be
the fear that it would lead to consequences injurious to
the security of property, or the existence of social order.
Electoral departments, with which a general system
of Household Suffrage is necessarily connected, are
also of too new and startling a character ; they savour
too much of French Revolutionary arrangements, to
be at all popular in an English House of Commons. In
this country, where we have old divisions of counties,
municipal, parish, and ward boundaries, we have
originatingsuffi-
,zient lines of demarcation without new ones.
—lf we were starting like the Americans, after the war
of independence, with an entirely new order of things,
we might then divide the country into electoral depart-
ments, in the best possible way , but, situated as we are,
it is far better to avail ourselves of the boundaries that
exist, and adopt them, as well as possible, to an im-
proved system of representation, than to repel by plans
which we cannot hope to carry, and whose results would
be altogether problematical, even if we could.
I have not as yet heard of any advocate of House-
hold Suffrage and electoral departments who had re-
duced his proposition into any definite or practical
form ; he has been thus far contented to deal in gene-
ralities, and has expected to enlist public opinion in
favour of a system of representation, which was never
digtiectly pourtrayed. When the Reform Bill, under
Earl Grey was first brought forward, there was some-
thing definite to support, something round which to
rally the weight and influence of public opinion. Re-
, form no longer appeared in shadowy indistinct-
ness, but assumed a shape which every one
could appreciate, and all classes of the community
suited in its support. If you are to unite the peo-
ple in favour of any further alteration, you must
toile the Reform Bill for your precedent, as far as it
goes ; retrench a still further proportion of the smaller
boroughs; cut others, which send two members, down
to one ; and distribute the representatives to those
parts and sections of the country which arc at present
comparatively unrepresented.
With a plan like this, if you did not yourself succeed,
you would probably be the " Precursor" of some future
Minister, whose name would go down to posterity,
associated with its success. Changes of Nliniatry will
necessarily occur, in the ordinary progress of 'political
events ; and, when difficulties of one kind or other have
so far overtaken the Minister of the day as to make new
measures and further reforms necessary, that reform will
of course be adopted, for which the public mind is pre-
pared, and which will secure the greatest amount of
support in Parliament and the country.
I now beg leave to submit my plan for your conside-
ration, and shall then proceed to show its practical ope-
ration, by lists and statistical details.
I propose, in the first place, to disfranchise all the
small boroughs in Great Britain and Ireland, which
contain a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants, or,
in other words, put them into schedule A.
Secondly.—To allow every town, containing only from
10 to 20,000 inhabitants, to send only one Member to
Parliament, or, in other words, to put it into schedule B.
Thirdly.—To allow every town, containing upwards
of 20,000 inhabitants, to enjoy its present political
privileges undisturbed, or, in other words, not to
diminish its number of members, if it returns more
than one. To cut off all out-voters, or others, who do
lot strictly belong to the boroughs for which they at pre-
sent vote. . _