The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-28 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1853.

On the 9th day of February, in the year of our
LORD 1852, and in the 20th year of the Reform
Act, Lord JOHN RUSSELL proposed to the House
of Commons his second Reform Bill. Many little
things were offered therein to an expectant nation,
but almost the only morsel large enough to be
worth a glance awit fell, was the Si. rating fran-
chise for boroughs. The ingenious device for
floating the rotten boroughs a little longer by the
population of adjoining districts was rejected with
laughter or with loathing—the trivial additions to
the county franchise were thought a matter of
absolute indifference—the abolition of the pro-
perty qualification was accepted as long-promised
justice ; and the abolition of such forms of the
oath as affixed a stigma on Catholics and Jews
was hailed with pleasure by all but bigots. These
latter were, however, points of detail ; the propo-
sition, the only proposition which gave any cha-
racter to the Bill of 1852, was the 51. rating
clause. This was an extension of the suffrage.
It lowered the franchise, to about a seven-
pound instead of a ten-pound franchise. It was
the only step in advance taken by the Whigs—
the only point which would have been contested
at all severely, excepting perhaps a sharp skirmish
or two with the Spoonerites over Protestant and
Christian oaths. It is the only thing which
any one, who does not trouble himself to look
over his old files of newspapers, remembers of
the RUSSELL Reform Bill of 1852. Ask any of
our neighbours to assist our frail memory touch-
ing that notable Bill, and we get for reply—
" Why, I- hardly recollect. There were some
canny arrangements, I think, about keeping the
boroughs which we all thought were doomed, and
some little modifications of the county franchise,
good as far as they went ; but the only thing
worth talking about was the 51. rating franchise
for boroughs."
If, however, we are to believe some of our con-
temporaries, this, the only thing cared for or re-
membered by any one, is now to be entirely
" ignored ;" the one chief step towards making
all Englishmen politically equal, towards making
representation co-extensive with taxation, and
towards diminishing the class excluded from the
pale of the Constitution—this step is to be re-
called. Lord JOHN RUSSELL offered too much ! !
There was in this offer more of the out of office
orator of Perth, who declaimed on the glories
of our intelligent and rapidly improv-
ing Democracy, than of the cool States-
man who declared in 1833 that he intended
by his Reform Bill to give the predominance to
the landed gentry. Are we to credit this ? We
hope not. There are tens of thousands of our
respectable artisans and operatives, men certainly
very superior in education and political knowledge
to 501. tenants-at-will, who are taking it for
granted that they are not to be passed over iu a
new Reform Bill. They helped the middle classes
help
oeilwspee rfyr;oourathietnyhedtiedns-poowunitdh
hthoeusezhveorid-reerist:ra,,tvvede pwriol-1
to win the measure of 1832, which put them in
your turn, if you'll help us now."
In hundreds of thousands they fought with this
hope the battle of the present electors, and they
gained it for them too ; and can the latter, now
that the time for a second Reform Bill is really
come, safely forget all these claims of their unen-
franchised brethren ?

It is said that they are politically very quiet
just now. They have been earning good wages,
and the majority still do so, and they are, it is