The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-17 00:00:00

the manner in which it had been prepared; yet now that
very census was taken as one of the grounds of the en-
franchisement clauses. All the seven editions of the Bill
differed from each other. They were like the seven
children, of whom it was observed, that they exactly re-
sembled each other, but that there was no particular like-
ness between any two of them. The Government, for
seven months, had been in a state of utter uncertainty as
to the towns that were to be included in the schedules A
and B. They now tell the people that they disposed of
ten Members, by giving them to the first ten places in
schedule B. The fact was, that the Noble Lord did not
take away any Members from those towns, which he left
to their original rights ; but by the language he used, the
people of some of those towns fancied that they were to
have three Alembers, the two they now possessed, and
the one which the Noble Lord was to give them. The
Noble Lord ought, in plain straight-forward English, to
have stated his intention not to touch them; but then
that statement would have confounded the parrot cry of
.‘ the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill."
He was glad that they had got rid of the riding Commis-
sioners, and that they were now to decide the question of
the limits of counties and borouelis on materials to he
laid before them. He only hoped that those materials
would be laid before them in time. He begged to
call the attention of the House to what were the
rights of the agricultural, and what were the rights
of the manufacturing interests ; and then the House
would be able to form a judgment as to what
were the real interest of this new Bill brought for-
ward by the Noble Lord. Out of the total number of
boroughs that were now in existence in England. there
were about 87—(he did not pretend to be exact in every
figure that he stated, for so many variations had taken
place that it was almost impossible to be exact in anything
relating to the Bill)—but there were about 87 that were
so be partially or wholly destroyed, and in every one a new
stotistituency was to be thrown into it, for the purpose of
opening the franchise of the plaees, according to the ac-
e runt of the Noble Lord and his coadjutors, or, as had
been better described by an Hon. Friend of his in the
course of the precious session, for the purpose of swamp-
ng it by the addition of other voters, which should destroy
he present existing influence in those places, and exposing
i t to the influence of a vast macs of persons who had pre-
viously been unconnected with the franchise of the place.
Now, according to the Bill, al it stood at present, it ap-
peared that it was proposed to take *way what he shoUld
call the conservative interest of the country, to the
attwonnt of 144 Members : that is to say two for Wey-
mouth 112 out of schedule A, and 30 out of schedule
B. On the other band, let them look for a moment at
shat had been done in the way of addition to the popular
interest; for this purpose, 44 Members had been given
tbrongh schedule C, of whom eight were for the new metro-
InAtan districts, and 19 through schedule D, all of whom
were open to the objection that they were bestowed on
places where there would be a contest for a single Member.
On the whole, it appeared that there were 63 Members
given to the manufacturing influence; and what was
there to set against this for the agricultural interest? Two
slew Members were given to Yorkshire, two to Lincoln-
ahire, eight to Buckinghamshire and the other counties
that were added to it, in the place of giving three Mem-
bers to particular counties—a plan particularly objection.
able, because it made a new distinction among voters
were previously there had been no distinction ex-
l.sting ; three to the Welch counties, one to the Isle of
Night, and 50 according to schedule F, making alto-
ther 66 Members, who, it was said, would be returned by
the agricultural interest. But how did the matter stand
in other respects? That boon which the Noble Lord had
boasted of giving to the landed interest, and which was
the preventing those who had votes for boroughs voting in
any other way, was now, under this new modification to
be taken away. In this respect he had been following
the example of the last Bill he had introduced, and bail
thrown into the country a number of voters who possessed
a vire independent of their right of vote for the county,
by being the occupiers of houses in boroughs standing in
the county to which they belonged. In order to illustrate
this, let them take the case of Birmingham or of Coven-
try ; and it was obvious that the voters from these places
would inevitably flood the county in which they stood,
and that the agricultural interest of Warwickshire must be
entirely overborne by the popular interest. With respect
to the schedules A and B, he must confess that he was
utterly struck with astonishment when he observed the
manner in which they were arranged. In the first place,
there were to he 144 Members taken from the con-
s, rvative interest; the consequence of which would he,
that a great alteration must take place in the relative
proportion of the gentlemen of England in that Hou-e ;
and while fresh privileges were given, that important
ancient right of the 40s. freehold was to be taken away,
unless it was a freehold of inheritance. He would
come now to the most important part of the whole
Bill, and that was the clause which had reference to the
right of voting in boroughs and cities. In no two of all the
Bills which the Noble Lord had introduced under the sanc-
tion of his Majesty's Government could the same principle
be found on this point. At first the proposition was, that
the 10/. clause should he confined to those houses that were
dwelling-houses, and of which the value could be esti-
mated: then it was stated that counting-houses, ware•
houses, lodgings, and houses in joint occupancy should he
added; and, in fact, anything that would tend to add
trouble and confusion to the provisions of a Bill already so
mysterious that scarcely any one could be found to explain
its provisions. It was then laid down as the proper stan-
dard, that the bona fide payment of the required rents was
the proper proof to be demanded, and that that was the
only way in which the occupancy of a 10/. house could he
credited. But the Noble Lord soon found that that would
not do, for Mr. Attwood, of Birmingham, told the num•
hers who assembled to hear him, and who, as they were
more numerous than this House, were naturally looked
upon by the Noble Lord as of more importance, th .t this
was the best clause in the world, for that it would pre-
vent their being any longer put upon by the freeholders.
But, at all events, it was fitting and proper that the
people should now understand what was the arrangemi nt
under this new Bill, and what it is that they are going
to have after all. According to thin Bill, as it now
stands, it was absolutely necessary that a valuation of
every house should take place every year, with all the
attendant expences of surveyors, and attornies, and wit-
nesses ; not only every house, but every cottage, and
every warehouse, and every counting-house, must he
submitted to the same teat ; and certainly, after such an
enactment as this, if the surveyors throughout the king-
dom did not send an address of thanks to the House of
Commons and to the Ministers of so benign a Govern-
ment, for so satisfactorily taking care of their interests,
they must he the most ungrateful set of persons in the
whole world. It might be said that it was provided, that
when men were once placed on the register as voters, they
would net apply again; but this would not do with re-
spect to the valuation of houses, for it was well known
that the value of such property was varying every year,
and that an estimate made at the end of the year 1831,
would be no criterion of the value of the same property at
the end of the year 1832. He, therefare, asserted that a
continual valuation must be going on every year, in order
to see that what had been worth 101. the year before, bad
not, through dilapidations and other causes, lost a portion
of its value ; and this was so evident, that he defied the
Noble Lord to contradict it. They already knew some-
thing of the way in which these things were managed,
and how, when the question to be settled was whether a
house was worth 101. a year, or only Si., a set of Magi-
strates, or a jury were assembled for the purpose of bear-
ing one set of surveyors swear that it was worth the
former sum, and another set swear that it was only worth
the latter ; and in such cases they had even heard it ar-
gued that the gooseberries and currants that were produced
in the garden of a cottage, joined to the possibility of being
able to let a room to a weekly tenant, ought to be allowed
as sufficient to bring the place up to the 101. value, though
it wasotherwise estimated at only 6/. This was one example
of what had taken place, and it was a grand illustration of
what would take place in every part of England, as
soon as that part of the Bill should have passed into a law.
The reason why be more particularly complained of this
clause was, because it would not only be the means of in-
troducing considerable legal inconveniences, but likewise
one of the most fearful moral offences that it was possible
for any Act of Legislation to encourage. Ile did not hesi-
tate to say that this clause held out to the 'saver classes of
England the most direct temptation to perjury—perjury,
too, of that kind, that it was scarcely possible that it could
be resisted. It seemed to him to hold out an invitation so
strong, and the power of using it for a beneficial purpose
so impossible to he evaded, that be felt convinced that this
one clause, should it pass, would produce more perjury
.in
one year than all the rest of the enactments of the empire
put together; because every man would think that he had a
crime off of his conscience, by saying to himself " Wells
atter all, it was only a matter of opinion that I have been
swearing to." If, then, he was correct in this position, it
was not too much to say that this clause seemed to be in-
troduced for the purpose of establishing a real practical
grievance, without any adequate reason for its being per-
sisted in. The 10/. clause in its present shape required
t d the occupant should be rated for the poor ; but no 1
- ithiNtif imseary, so that whether he was rated for
,li
aaaas .
it,s. A . . (F. i4t.ra equally efficacious, so long as he had paid
taortinaV4l4 Fara te and his amount of assessed taxes. 'f he
~.„44 SW.Ler(ll4:flisperased with the requiring that the rent
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