The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-16 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

. ,
our present controversy, let us consider in this view one
or two of the projected changes in the Reform Act.
1 will first speak of the elective franchise. because
that is, in my view, by far the most important of all. You
may remember the time when a 20/. house was con-
sidered sufficiently low ; you may also recollect how
the first inveetion of -the returns from boroughs at
once brought. that, by universal consent, down to
101., at which we finally arranged the plan. But no
returns can tell any one the actual numbers who will
have votes in any given town, more especially if there
be a certain residence exacted as a condition precedent
to the right vesting. Still less can any returns tell the
working of any given qualification in various other im-
portant particulars, as the respectability and independ-
ence of the voters, their tendency to abuse as well as to
use the franchise, and the effects of disqualification on
other classes of persons. All these things must be ga'
thered from experience ; actual trial can alone prove
the soundness of the principle. No previous estimate
can show the safety of the plan, any more than it can
test the sufficiency of the machinery to carry the prin-
ciple into execution.
You sometimes like a simile, and use it with much
skill in illustrating your arguments. Let me try 01Y,
hand—my very inferior hand—at the same kind of
topic. Even when the steam-engine had been invented
and perfected, no engineer, not even the illustrious
authors themselves of the theory, ever sent into the
market a machine without actual trial ; nor I will ven-
ture to affirm, was there ever one made without having
to undergo some alterations in the trial to bring the en-
gine full to its bearings and secure its working smoothlY
and sweetly. This you would allow in the Reform Act ;
this kind of adjustment you admit the Reform Act of ne'
cessity requires. But then you would deny that the
principles of the elective system, the fundamentals of the
Reform Act, should be changed, because these were
not, you say, brought to any trial by the experiment.
This I utterly deny ; I hold them to be as much a
novelty— as much a matter of mere previous calcu-
lation before any experience—as the great steam engines
of Worcester, Newcomen, and Watt. Then what
should we have thought of those great
inventors,
had shay laid down their plans and framed their
models, and then refused to make any eillge
whatever in the principle, however toei
found it upon trial to work ? Recollect that the defects
pointed out by the working of the Reform Act are not
merely in the details of its provisions ; not like the
faults found in a new steam-engine, made on the plan
which had been found to answer in a thousand cases be-
fore. The whole principles of the Act were new and un-
tried ; it was like Newcomen for the first time framing
a working model, on the principle of causing tue
movement of the piston by a vacuum ; or Watt
r
for the first time condensing in a separate cylinder]
or planning the regulator by means of centrifugal
force, or projecting the parallel motion by the contrail
flexure of a curve's branches. All these new Prirci
pies theory seemed to sanction ; but in practice 60 "si.
never been tried ; and none but a driveller would ever
have thought of adhering to any given portion of thef'
had they been found in that particular to fail- ci
the extension of the suffrage to 10/. householders en
no lower; the introduction of leasehold votes; the
re-
taining one kind of freemen and no more—were all net
principles of political construction ; and before eltP,e;
rience had shown how they worked, no man had a rig:
to say that they would not require revision and alter''
Lion. Indeed, I go a step further ; I see no right
that any man could have to pronounce, before trii
the total abolition of nomination boroughs an ahscls,,ll;
tely necessary and altogether expedient part of tm
sy-tem, without any provision being made for the en;
trance into Parliament of official persons. ExPerien%
has, in fact, proved that, as I foresaw and foretold
in my place, this portion of the Act requires some red;
sion ; for all the important measures of law reform reaf
to be carried through Parliament in the beginnhli,„
o
1833 were postponed a whole year, including the PI
prisonment for Debt Bill, by the Attorney-Genenr:
being unable to find a seat in the House of Cointn°l
until an accident created a vacancy towards the end
that session.

In another point of view, however, the doctrine of
" finality" or permanence" is still more exception'
able. Can you make the circumstances pernaanent
which the elective system is to work ? Can Y"
toe
ot
on any basis of final arrannment the condition of
society to which your scheme is applied ?from
all human affairs, and their relative positions, vary.
he
time to time, so that a stable position of things is
only position they never assume ? Final
truly ! " Man and for ever !" as a great patical phi-
losopher exclaimed in discussing the foundations
Finalofat
constitution made for perpetually enduring ! s
permanent! for ever! Why, society is in a progres
that makes it change not only from age to age, but frog;
Pe !
year to year. We can find nothing less fixed than
rapid stream wherewith to compare the course of time.
Then are the fortunes of mortals moored to its banks,
or borne along its current ? If the flood carries us dog?,
at its own pace, what sense is there in the advice of
those who, unable to stem it for an hour or an instant,
would have us make all our arrangements as if we were
anchored in smooth water on the margin of some Peace-
ful lake ?

Let us see how this is with the elective franchise'
All agree that the great criterion for determining OD
ought and who ought not to enjoy it is their fitness. let
exercising it beneficially to the common weal. Areas
masses of people stationary in improvement ? -Are
the numbers of well-educated persons the salne.„`°-
t
one time and at all times ? Are the males:of iwer,Z;
one years old in 1839, who have improved their °ciao
by reading, not more numerous than the. semeses not
was in 1831 ? Then, are the well-educated classes
the selec-
those best worthy of being entrusted with • h was
wine
when
tion of their representatives ? Must that
taken as a test of information and respectability, 11
you could find no better, be rigorously adhered to when,
in the altered state of society, it proves a
bette
no test at all, and when another and a
easily to be found ? sins
Observe how grievously this view of permanu..- eed,
against the very fundamentals of a Reformer's er
to
and then comprehend how distasteful it must prove hit
all the friends of Reform. You and I, nor One woe
bad test,r9:
more than you, had all along been contending fer „ge
necessity of extenuing the suffrage, principally hee:lo-0..
what might be a very fit qualification in times a 'gob
ranee would not do now, when all ranks are so 01 eg
better taught ; and that the spread of knowledge ani°ol
the people made it wholly impossible to deny P°litpors
rights to vast bodies of men who had of late Pheir
raised themselves in the scale of society hY jted
mental accomplishments. Who was that it that aduet, ry
as one principal reason in favour of Parliame°oo`o,
Reform that ten newspapers and twenty books were, tea
published for one that our ancestors had circtuacb,
among them ? I greatly mistake if it was not my 1110
valued friend, colleague, and correspondent, whested
am now addressing. I am pretty sure that I °vise.
most unmixed satisfaction at his urging his trulY `ieg's
solid, and philosophic argument against Mr. Cann so
brilliant declamation, and illustrating his doctrine:us
worthy of the Vice-President of the Useful Knowle of
Society, by numerical statements of the progress be
.
publication. But the doctrine of permanencct ose
prefers the word to finality (as I do, because the
von
h
is a word, and the other is none), makes sad foot
with all such arguments. Indeed, the two things ca
exist together.
fee's
I go, however, a step further, and I will supPn'ehonge
affairs to be in a state of perfect stagnation-4'u none
to happen in the circumstances of human society " all
in the pitch of human improvement. I will suPPose
state
men and all things to remain in the same fisederibe'
which some accounts of the Chinese empire den had
and suppose, moreover, that actual exPerl-
thrown no new light upon the scheme of 18";;ry Pre-
I say, that it is quite absurd—l might call 't •sed what
sumptuous—to affirm that, having then dejil think °,f'
then appeared to us the best scheme we ea'''. it, TO
no man can now suggest any improvement uP°n or as"
is, indeed, to arrogate. infallibility to ourselves' sir
cribe perfection to our own handy-work. But ay be'
surd or how presumptuous soever this delusion ony Of
it is nothing to the extravagant, the monstrous folly
be
rejecting any acknowledged improvement that _
subsequently offered, merely because it is a e.hadicl o°,t
other words, for for no better reason than it
occur to ourselves eight years ago! I 'V% for o°t
that the having once adopted a plan is a reass-nded
ap-
changing it, unless the improvement recoil a Wore
pears plainly to deserve the name. But sari! Yves us t°
silly thing never was asserted than that it be '° how
reject all admitted improvements, how useful,
they
are
portant soever, for no other reason than that
now, and had not before, been thought of.
al reaal
[The remainder of his Lordship's Letter has
appeared in The Sun.]

POSTSCRIPT.
ThursdaY•
tte°
I believe you are aware that this letter was wrin.
before the division of Monday, or its effect was 1101
and also are aware what were the circumstances
delayed its publication.
Pifr
before

, ----
On Saturday an inquest was held het(n- t.
Carter, at the Horse and Groom Great Guildford-streeho
Southwark, on view of the body of a man unknown, 9106
was found by some men on board of a ballast bargee,.
Southwark Bridge, on Thursday morninglast. On j.
long discussion took place as to the pro
aAmination of the body the skull was found to be &setoff,.
propriety
ing the case for the t mortal' • bt
purpose Of making a post 04
amination, ,but it twin—
g believed that the injuries...ocl
have ee caused from haring been drawn up by the'fr. the
Tbst
then
,e machine, e following verdict was returned --- water
• ty of at) eat'
deceased, who was unknown, was found dead in tbf,,,, ho
of the river Thames with his skull fractured, but "—lntbes
came in the water there was no evidence." The c'A" f
which were on the deceased will remain in the eusoui °
the parish undertaker. r vifig
Lord and Lids' Francis Egeiton intern'. ler' 00
town at the close of the ensuing month on a tour 2 pear
Lordship has 'purchased a fine brigantine yacht, "'' his
200 tons. His Lordship, although recovered frail Iv,
rrcent violent attacks of the gout, is far from bein
stated in health, and has, in consequence. been ordervra
his medical attendams a ehaoge of air, The Noble
contemplates a ()mac of several months.
g eJr hi

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