The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-15 00:00:00

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-',41.0
LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 1849.

Our veteran Reformer JOSEPH HUME this evening
brings forward his long-prepared and long-anticipated
motion for leave to introduce a measure securing to
the people reforms of a very wholesale character.
Although it is anything but difficult to predict the
negligent rejection of an un•Ministerial project so
directly interfering with the present provisions of the
Constitution, it is very far from being an idle endea-
vour on the part of the Honourable Gentleman the
Member for Montrose. However apparently ineffec-
tual these efforts at improvement may be, an incalcu
lable advantage invariably results even from the most
unpropitious. Each additional struggle prepares the
way for the ultimate victory. Each supplementary dis-
cussion, though negatived, it may even be sometimes
without the courtesy of a division, tends imperceptibly
to the maturing and to the dissemination of doctrines
destined in the end to prove triumphant. So it must
indubitably be with this comprehensive scheme of
Mr. Humes—a scheme derided now-a-days as im-
practicable, and extravagant, and utopian, but one
that, sooner or later, will belie the vaticinations of its
antagonists.

Those who are in the smallest particular interested
in the cause of the general advancement need not,
at this late moment, be informed of the precise
nature of the Bill proposed by the Honourable
Representative of Montrose. They have fami-
liarized themselves long since with the principles
and aspirations of that consistent advocate of reform,
whose most conspicuous colleague is the Hon. Mem-
ber for the West Riding of Yorkshire. They know
perfectly well that among those aspirations the most
prominent of all have reference to the immediate ex-
tension of the elective franchise, so'as to include all
householders—to the enactment that henceforth all
votes shall be taken by ballot [an incidental anticipa-
tion of the project due on Thursday, the 24th instant,
by the Hon. Gentleman the Representative of the
city of Bristol]—to the diminution to three years of
the duration of Parliaments— and to the more just and
accurate apportionment of the number of representa-
tives to the number of the population. Certainly,
upon all these points we may say with perfect truth-
fulness, they manage these things better in France.
Thanks to the glorious Revolution of February, the
inhabitants of the Republic have obtained all that we
have so long, and that we are still so ineffectually,
striving to obtain. They have, moreover, carried
into effect during no less than fifteen months those

arrangements which, even to the present moment,

are laughed to scorn by the obtuse spirit
of Conservatism as monstrously impracticable,
and as even ridiculously chimerical. They have se-
cured to themselves, not an extension of the elective
franchise, but universal suffrage. They have syste-
matically employed the plan of voting by ballot in
the election of two great representative chambers—
the National Assembly and the Representative As-
sembly. They have decided that their democratic Par-

liament■ shall not continue in existence under any cir-
cumstance longer than three or four years; and, with
a view to the better adjustment of the popular scheme
of Government, they have chalked out the whole of the
metropolitan and provincial departments into well
proportioned and rationally populous electoral dis-
tricts. When, therefore, in Weatminster, it is de•
clared that the proposed measure submitted to the
Imperial Parliament by the Member fur Montrose is
preposterous from its utter impracticability—France,
in her " Republican institutions," gives that insolent
assertion the lie. France shows that even universal
suffrage, with a merely partially educated multitude,
is not by any means so perilous an experiment as
was and is predicated by its opponents. France
proves, in the intelligence of her great representa-
tive Assembly, that the simultaneous working of
universal suffrage and the ballot tends
only to impart an additional strength to the Govern-
ment. France has, through the intervention of the
great men of February, obtained those boons for
which we are still yearning, and (to all appearance)
as hopelessly as the child crying for the moon. There
is, consequently, no lack of a stimulus to incite our
reformers to the reiteration of their endeavours.
There is, on the contrary, everything within reach
that could tend to excite a laudable spirit of emu-
lation.

Fourth, among the notices of motions for this even-
ng, namely, immediately after that undertaken by
Mr. Hume, is an amendment to be proposed by the
Hon. Gentleman the Member for Rochdale. Very
seldom, indeed, do we find reason to dissent from the
opinions expressed by a bold and manly reformer
like Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD ; and even in the
present instance, when we find ourselves compelled
to disagree with the purport of that Honourable
Gentleman's amendment, we only do so in regard to
time and not to principle. It will this evening be
demanded by Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD that, in-
stead of the phrase (occurring in Mr. Hurees motion
for a Bill to amend the National Representation) "so
as to include all householders," shall be substituted
these words—" to every adult male of legal age, of
sound mind, and not disqualified by conviction of
crime, and who has resided for a fixed period in one
locality, being duly registered therein." Before this
noble amendment—this amendment, noble in prin-
ciple, but erroneous in its immediate application,
can be judiciously accepted, and practically adapted
to our institutions—there are two or three prelimi-
nary improvements which must, as a matter of ne•
cessity, be accomplished. First and foremost, of
course, in the list of these preliminary improvements,
we put the great requirement of education for the
masses. And it was to obviate the diffi-
culties of this obstacle to the immediate ac-
quisition of universal suffrage, that M. EDOUARD
CHARTON recommended the adoption of an educa-
tional test, such as that of every elector legibly
writing with his own hand the name of his favourite
candidate upon the ticket to be deposited in the urn
of election. But not only is the necessity for this
precursory reform obvious—it is manifest that some-
thing more is essential as a preparative before the
amendment of Mr. SHARMAN Caawroan can be
safely carried into operation. That amendment pro-
poses the extension of the privilege of using the
elective franchise " to every adult male of legal
age, of sound mind, &e." Of sound mind ! Before
the Honourable Representative of Rochdale can
seriously bring such a proposition as this under the
consideration of the House of Commons he ought
surely to preface it by the introduction of some very
sweeping measures of reform in regard to the Law
of Lunacy. Otherwise what a frightful bat to hold
out to those false swearers of insanity, who, " for a
consideration," effect the imprisonment of any un-
fortunate person that comes within the compass either
of their cupidity or of their animosity ! At present
our mad-houses are liable to be crowded with the
victims of wealth—individuals subjected to the tor-
ments of incarceration by those who may therehyOb`ain
a mastery over their possessions. Supposing that
Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD'S amendment were ac-
cepted thus precipitately, we might reasonably anti-
cipate the addition of the victims of party politics to
those of money and other enjoyable property. At
the least there would be seductions held out to un-
principled revisers of the electoral lists in the different
localities, and together with those seductions every
facility for their gratification. Every consideration
assures us forcibly that the motion of Mr. HUME is
just in principle and essential to the welfare of the
general community; and, that although the amend-
ment of Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD is equally correct
in principle, its adoption would not only be prema-
ture, but would be liable also to prove absolutely
dangerous. First Education—then a revision of the
Laws relating toLunacy—then, if you will, Universal
Suffrage !

"Ash and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be
rp-:ned unto you," is not only the passport to spiritual