The Sun.
London, England, 1831-03-02 00:00:00

then that the churchwarden's list shall be affixed to the
doors of every parish church, and in all cases of dispute
with that list, a barrister shall be appointed by the
Judge of Assize to examine into the .question, and
his judgmennt shall be final. Every such list of free-
holders, copyholders, and others, after it has been signed
by the barrister, shall be sufficient evidence of the party
applying being entitled to vote. Every one knows the
enormous expense at present incurred by bringing
np voters to the poll. In Yorkshire, for instance, it
cannot be done for a less expense than from a
hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. In
Devonshire, where the voters were obliged to be conveyed
over rugged roads, the expense is equally enormous.
—(Hear.)—These manifold expenses it is intended to
do away with. I, therefore, propose that the poll shall
be taken in different hundreds, and in different places in
such hundreds, at convenient distances. If this plan
is adopted, we think the whole might be taken in one
day ; but if any dispute arises about votes, we give power
to the officer appointed to adjourn the decision till next day.
It shall be so arranged, that no voter shall have more
than fifteen miles to travel ; at the sane time,
however, the distance shall be so contrived that there
shall not be more than fifteen polling places in a
county. In the counties to which we propose to give
two) mots Members, there shall be two districts.
The arrangement of all this will, of course, be a matter of
some difficulty, and we propose that a Committee of the
Privy Council shall he named by his Majesty fee the purpose
of examining the divisions into which the counties may
most conveniently he arranged. Ttcse Privy Counsel-
lors—(Hear, hear, from Sir Charles Wetherell)—will
persons of known responsibility in the performance of
this duty.—( Hear, Leer. ) In some of the boroughs whew
franchise will be continued, the number of electors is ex-
ceedingly small, it is our intention, therefore, to insert
in our Bill, that wherever the number of persons
rated at 101. shall be below three hundred—the adjoining
parishes and chapelries shall add to their number.—(Hear,
hear, hear.)—That these are vast and extensive
powers I pretend net to deny, but his Majesty's Mini-
sters felt that there was an obvious difficulty to he sur-
mounted. In considering the manner in which that difficulty
was to be met, his Majesty's Ministers have felt
no small difficulty, and tt e only guarantee that could I e
proposed in order to the due performance of the high
duty that would devolve upen them, 'c aid he the
known integrity and respectability of the persons to
whom it should be confided. They shall report to
his Majesty, and hy the King's Royal proclamation (as
we understood the Noble Lord), that report shall be made
public. Sir, if any Hen. Hon. Member thinks these powers
too extensive, I will only ask him—granting the impor-
tance and the difficulty of the task—granting the object a
proper one, and that the business must be done—l will
ask him to propose another method of doing it : and I
will venture to say, if the method is more constitutional,
more likely to advance the interests of the people, which
should be paramount to all other considerations—(Hear)
—his Majesty's Ministers waiving their own proposal,
will not have the slightest difficulty in adopting it.
Sir, there is but one other thing to which under this
head I shall call the attention of the House. It
is proposed that in all those towns to be named
to send Members to Parliament, the property which a
man requires to enable him to vote for the town will
not enable him likewise to vote for the county. So that
where the towns have their vote for proper repre-
sentatives chosen by themselves, they will rot
interfere with the county representatives, and the two
classes of voters will be kept as distinct as pos-
sible. At the same time it is not intended
to interfere with the freeholders, who now have that
right in towns which send Members to Parliament.
I believe, Sir, I have now concluded all the alterations
which it is intended to make with respect to the represen-
tation of England. With regard to the right of the forty-
shilling freeholders, no alteration is intended to be made
with respect to the it being considered that that class of
voters are eminently Otted:to be entrusted with the electk e
franchise, his Majesty's Government coneiderinr that they
„

do by the smalnres of th,ir property, send those Members
to Parliament whom it would be most desirable to have.
[A Memher, whose name we do not know, here called on
Lord John Ru=sell to name the disfranchised boroughs;—
repeated cries of " Order, order."] It is proposed to take
away the right of electing Members to s,rve in Parliament
from all towns which do not contain two thous and inhabi-
tants. With respect to some of these, it was at first a
question whether we should not still allow them to send
each one M. mber ; but, on consideration, we thought it
bett r to avoid all chance of an imputation of partiality.
We, therefore, determined to fix upon the number of two
thousand inhabitants, and thereby leave no doubt that in
their disfranchisement we were not influenced by partia-
lity, by prejudice, or by a wish to favour some.—(Hear,
hear—Ordsr, order.) The Noble Lord then read the fol-
lowing list, in the course of which he was frequently in-
terrupted by shouts of laughter, cries of " Heir, hear,"
from present Members for the borough disfranchised, and
various interlocutions across the table. The " Hear" of the

.. ..... _
Hon. Member for Boroughbridge eipecially, was followed
by tremendous cheering and laughter.
meborough, York Haslemere Plyrmlon
A Idborough, Suffolk Heyden Queenborough
Appleby Heytesbury Riegate
Bedwin Hi ham Ferrers Romney
Beeralston Hindon St. Mawe's
Bishop's Castle Ilehester St. Michael's, Corn.
Bletchingley East Looe wall
Boroughbridte .West Looe Saltash
(Laughter.) Lostwithiel Old Sarum
Bossiney Ludgershall Seaford
Brackley Malmesbury Steyning
Bramber Midhurst Stock-ridge
_„.....

Buckingham Milborne Port Treg,ony
Callington Minehead Wareham
Camelford Newport, Cornwall Wendover
Castle Rising Newton, Lancashire Weoblv
Corte Castle Newton, Isle of Whitchurch
Dunwich Wight Winchelse.a
Eye Okehampto n Woodstock
Fowey Orford Wootton Basset
Gatton Petersdeld Yarmouth
The following was the list of the boroughs which would
be allowed to return one Member of Parliament each :
Amersham Helston Rye
Arundel Honiton St. Germans
Ashburton Huntingdon St. Ives
Bewdley Hythe Sandwich
Bodmin Launceston Sudbury
Bridport Leominster Shaftesbury
Chippenham Liskcard Tamwortli
Clitheroe Lyme Regis Thetford
Cockermoutli Lymington Think
Dorchester Mahlon Totness
Downton Marlborough Truro
Droitwich Marlow Wallingford
Evesham Morpeth Westbury
Grimsby Northallerton Wilton
East Grinstead Penryn Wycombe.
Guilford Richmond
1 The Noble Lord *went on to say, he oad new stated all the
alterations which it was Proposed to make in the state of
the representation of England. With regvd to Wales,
the only alteration which it was proposed to make, be.
sides introducing the same right to the franchise into all
the boroughs there which they did in England, consisted in
adding to the towns in Wales which already sent Members
to Parliament the neighbouring unrepresented towns, so as ,
to give them a share ,in the representation. They pro-
posed, for instance, to add Holyhead to Beaumaris; Ban-
gor to Carnarvon ; Wrexham to Denbigh ; Holywell and
Mold to Flint; Llandeff and Merthyr Tydvil to Cardiff;
Welchpool, Llanvilline, and three other places which re-
turned Ketn,!;ers of Parliament formerly, but which had
been disfranehised by a decipher of the House of Commons,
he believed in the time of Sir Aiorace Walpole, to Mont-
gromery ; St. David's, Fishguard, and Newport, to Haver-
, fordwest ; Milford to Pembroke ; Presteign to Radnor ;
aeel they further proposed that a new district of boroughn
should he :."4'eci4s.4, consisting of Swansea, Cowbridge,
Laugharn; and three other piaces,whichehOuld have the pei-
vilege of returning one Member to Parhement. That was
the only additional Member which it Was s proposed
to add to th4' representation of Wales. I come now,
eiee continued the Noble Lord, to the representation of
Scotfann ; &eel, certainly, if England wants Reform, the
same thing [Mist be acid* het in a stronger manner, with re-
ference
to that coun try. if, Sire we have here close boron ghs,
we have at the same tiine popular riPeesebtaeion, tret in
Zeetiand there is nothing like a popular retiresentation. •
No sueir thing is there known. The generality of the
people of
,Sc'otieree'e comprising wealth, intelligence, and
respectability, are not repretteeeed in this House otherwise
thin I shall now explain. In the eonneice tetre are alto-.
gethes 2,,2`,3 electors, who appear on theroit, bee ei
whoM a number are always absent, leaving 2,240 e'ectors.
It certainly, Sir, is not my intention to enter into
4tlaeitia.iclls,
iats i
sto..thfriecineinatu !floer: Lnewtl,l,icshaySctohtacth vti?ettyl
areat der.:
tinet from the land. I have, ' Sir, in my hand a
return of the-different counties; in one place out of 666
electors, only It have any interest it the laud ;in Bute, oil'
of le) eleetore there are bui• two ; in Rose, out of 29 voter:
only 19 ; and in (mother place, Out of 224 electors.
t_mlcylie937..)h—avTehisa,n
yinee
therefore,i 1 I Sir, interestcaot :n inthe
hg'. taken to
be a fair representation of the land in Scotland.
Now, Sir, what we propose is that every person who has
what is called the dominion of the land to the amount of
101, a year, which will be about equal to our 101. free-
holder, shall have a vote at the county election, and also
the leaseholder of 1;3 years of 501. a year.—(ll,-"T•)
d.
We propose to make a new arrangement of the reprevrte
ration of the whole country ; gieing to Edinburgh twP
Members ; to Glasgow two;
to Leith, • Aberdeen, and
Paisley, only one each. The Fifa district of burgh's
being disfranchised, that county, like the others, shall re-