The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-19 00:00:00

Otominix nub

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1851>

In the House of Lords last night there was some dis-
cussion on various private Bills.
The Inhabited House-duty Bill was read a second
time, and their Lordships adjourned.
In the Commons,

Mr. Alderman SALoMoNS was introduced in the usual
form, and proceeded to the table, where he demanded to
be sworn on the Old Testament. This demand having
been acceded to, the oaths wore administered. The Lion.
Gentleman refused to repeat the words, "on the true
faith of a Christian" at the conclusion of the oath of
abjuration, and was directed to withdraw; he, however,
took his seat on one of the benches on the Ministerial
side below the gangway, but ultimately withdrew to one
of the seats below the gallery and withoutside the bar,
which are appropriated to the use of Peers and distin-
guished visitors.
Sir B. HALL asked if the Government would direct
the prosecution of Mr. SALoSIoNS, in order to enable
him to try his right.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER proposed, in
consequence of the unavoidable absence of the Noble
Lord at the head of the Government, to postpone the
consideration of the question until Monday.
A somewhat animated discussion ensued, in which Sir
F. THESIGER. Mr. T. DIINCOMBE, Mr. ANSTEY and Mr.
B. OSBORNE took part, which terminated in all parties
acquiesce❑g in the postponement of the consideration of
the question until Monday.
The House then went into Committee of Supply upon
the civil services estimates, the remainieg navy esti-
mates, and the militia estimates. _ _

The report of the Committee of Supply was brought
up and agreed to.
Certain Bills were put forward their next stages, and,
the other orders and motions having been disposed of,
the House adjourned shortly before Two o'clock.

Yesterday evening, on its being proposed that a
sum of 809,4961. should defray the charge of the Post-
office Packet Service, a brief but interesting discussion
arose among the national representatives. From this
incidental debate in the House of Commons may be
gleaned sundry particulars of importance, illustrative
of the present position and prospects of this department
of the national Administration. According to the
system as it stsnds at the present moment in the con-
tract packet service, iron steamers are subjected to a
rigid exclusion. Deemed, as they are, utterly un-
suited for war service, it has been decided that iron
boats for this reason alone should be denied all
employment in the carrying out of the postal
arrangements. It may be asked, wherefore? Simply
because it was considered in Committee that the ser-
vice in question should be performed exclusively by
vessels fitted for war. Hence the countless advan-
tages of iron steamers have been altOgether foregone
solely on account of this particular inaptitude.
Nothing has tempted the authorities to hesitate in
following this resolution, although offers of the
most alluring kind have been made for the construc-
tion, for instance, of iron steamships of 4,000 tons,
and capable of going eighteen miles an hour. Indeed
the capacities of vessels built after the fashion here
intimated have been tolerably well proved of late
years, not merely by experiments, but by actual ex-
perience. As Lord NAAS observed last evening in
the House of Commons, " the Britannia-bridge has
demonstrated that vessels could be built of iron of a
size which a few years ago would have been con-
sidered fabulous." Nevertheless, with all these in-
contestable merits, the notion has been rej acted by
those intrusted with the conduct of the contract packet
service, out of a solicitude that the inaptitude of these
iron steamers should be avoided. Admitting the wis-
dom of those who are anxious to surround the vessels
employed in that service with every reasonable
security, considering the extraordinary importance of
their freight, it must at the same time be regretted
that endeavours have not been made to obviate the
difficulty already indicated, so as to place all the un-
doubted advantages of the iron steam-ships at the
command of the Post-office department. In these
advanced stages of engineering science it is to be re-
gretted that such very considerable obstacles should
be permitted to remain in the way of the improvement
of naval architecture. The experiments at Ports-
mouth, unsatisfactory as they were considered to be,
could not, we conceive, justify any such wide-spread
and obdurate discouragement. Endeavours of another
kind should have been made, in order that additional
opportunities might have been afforded, so that
the merits of iron as a material in the con-
struction of steam-vessels should have been brought
within reach of those entrusted with the contract pac-
ket service. Until supplementary efforts of this
nature shall have been adventured upon we shall re-
main doubtful as to the justice done to the public in-
terest in this important particular.
Another subject alluded to in the course of
last night's discussion on this vote of upwards
of 800,000/. for tho packet service, is, to
our thinking, not a jot less entitled to our
most serious consideration. We allude to the sug-
gestion thrown out by the Committee, to the effect
that her Mase szv's Government should give notice
when the time for renewing these contracts arrived,
so that the country might derive as much benefit as
possible from the influence of public competition.,
It was satisfactory to learn last evening from the
First Lord of the Admiralty himself that this im-
portant recommendation had been duly considered
by Ministers, and that in consequence of it every
reasonable opportunity will be afforded
for imparting to this branch of the national ser-
vice the manifold advantages of public competition.
After this candid and satisfactory avowal on the part
of Sir FRANCIS BARING, it was not surprising to find
the vote readily agreed to by the House, a new confi-
dence having thereby been excited that the attention
of the Cabinet would henceforth be directed the more
carefully to this remarkable branch of the general
administration. _

As to the suggestion thrown out yesterday by Sir
THOMAS ACLAND, to the effect that a line of packets
should be established along the western coast of
Africa as far southwards as Fernando Po, it must be
acknowledged that such a measure would tend of course
very considerably to elevate that extensive track
of country from the degrading position of its pre-
sent barbarism, and to confer, imperceptibly it
might be, but still at the same time inevitably, upon
its inhabitants the inestimable blessings of civiliza-
tion. Nevertheless, while the ulterior advantages of
such an enterprise as the one here intimated would
necessarily be of the most humane and beneficent
character, they cannot but be viewed under existing
circumstances as marked by a somewhat Utopian
vagueness. It behoves her MAJESTY'S Government
consequently to look first to the development of good
in the packet service as it is at present consti-
tuted, before adventuring upon an extension of its
benefits upon a scale of such indefinite magnitude.
What is principally required from those officials to
whom the management of this portion of the public
service has been confided is the combination of rapi-
dity, security, and regularity in the conduct of the
entire system, a system upon which such vast and
diversified interests are dependent. While anything
remains to be
accomplished in regard to the packet
service upon any
one of these important considera-
tions, we shall not cease to regard as frivolous every
scheme such as the one here thrown out by the lion.
Baronet the Member for North Devonshire. Imme-
diately our present lines of intercommunication ap-
pear to us to be in every respect properly cared for
and conducted, then, but
mp
bcuotnoltacteilnley uthsene,hsphraloilewetes be
prepared to regard with
those for the social advancement of the Hottentots
and the other members of the African population.

We yesterday pointed out someofthe necessary,itht
ingredients of the Reform Bill of 1882,
which it will be of but little practical utility, and
will bitterly disappoint the reasonable expectations of
reformers. There is another point of considerable
importance on which there can be no doubt, the de-
clarations of the PaExtEe, on the subject bring as
plain and explicit as can be desired. The "property
qualification" of Members is doomed. It is to be
totally and unconditionally abolished, and no restric-
tion will henceforth be imposed on the freedom of
choice of the constituencies. Considering the object
for which it was imposed, and the gross and palpable

evasions that were constantly practised, it is only
miraculous that it should have been so long retained.
And yet some of the most mischievous enactments
may fairly be inscribed to its insidious operation.
The real estate qualification was imposed at the be-
ginning of the last century for the purpose of weak-
ening the power of the House of Brunswick, and of
preventing, if possible, the accession of her MAJESTY'S
ancestors to the throne of these realms. It was in
fact a Jacobite plot intended to strengthen the hands
of the " territorial aristocracy," who were gene-
rally speaking the steadfast adherents of the expelled
dynasty, and to exclude the commercial and trading
community from seats in the Legislature. This it
partly accomplished, for, however brilliant the ether
qualifications of a candidate, he could not take his
seat unless he was the proprietor of a free-
hold landed estate of 6001. per annum if
elected for a county, or 300/. per annum,
if elected for a city or borough. This necessity, it
was supposed, would induce him, on all occasions, to
advocate the interests of the landocracy at the ex-
pense of all other classes of the community, and ge-
nerally speaking it had that effect.
The penal code was enacted in the last century by
duly qualified legislators. The national debt—that
stupendous monument of national extravagance—
sprung from the same source. The system of indi-
rect taxation was introduced and fostered under the
same influences. It was a Parliament composed of
gentlemen of real estate, who considered that the
precarious and fluctuating incomes arising from trade
or commerce, or the exercise of skill and industry,
should be taxed as highly as the dividends
of funded property, c: the rents of well-circumstanced
real estates. It was the same body who by a cor-
rupt compact with the moneyocracy passed the
iniquitous monetary code, that double-rivetted the
chains of the debtors, and took away the very life-
blood of industry, in order that they might in return
be allowed to carry the infamous corn-laws, which
they erroneously supposed would maintain the
prices of agricultural produce at the near level that
would obtain the same nominal rents and rates in a
gold currency worth 20s. that were obtained with a
paper currency worth 13s. only. They have suffered
long and bitterly for their unaccountable and preposte-
rous delusion. An avenging Nemesis has followed
their footsteps, and made them fall into the pits and
snares which they laid for their neighbours.
A tree which produced such fruits could not be
suffered to cumber the earth much longer. Measures
were accordingly taken for its overthrow; but, un-
fortunately, these steps were not sufficient. In
place of striking at the roots of the unsightly weed,
and grafting it up from the soil, they
attempted to prune some of its rotten branches ;
in other words, in place of abolishing the
property qualification altogether, they enlarged
its basis, and rendered the possession of
chattels, real or personal property, to the above
amount, sufficient to entitle the possessor to a seat in
the popular branch of the Legislature, if he could
obtain the confidence of any constituency, so as to
be duly elected as its representative.
Now this is bad in theory, and useless in practice.
Bad in theory, because no restriction whatsoever
should be imposed on the free exercise of the fran-
chise. Why should an independent constituency be
prevented from selecting the person best qualified to
represent its wants and wishes, and who is not, and
should not be chosen on account of the length of his
purse-strings, or ofpounds, shillings, and pence merely ?
Itis for other and higher qualities—for the integrity
of his character, the variety and magnitude of his
attainments, or the coincidence of his political views
with those of the majority of the electors. He may,
too, be iu the enjoyment of a handsome income ob-
tained by the exercise of honourable industry in any
trade or profession. That will qualify him to pay the
income-tax just as fully as if it were arising from
landed property or Three per Cent. Stock ; but there
the line of demarcation is drawn. It will not qualify
for a seat in the Legislature, or for any beneficial
purpose connected with the "rights of property."
What a cruel and impudent mockery is this, and how
could it possibly be.defended ?
But it is also useless. Any man desirous of be-
coming a candidate may obtain the necessary quali-
fication of 3001. or 6001. a year, as the case may be,
for .501. or 1001. It has never any efficiency in
keeping out persons of small fortunes or ne fortunes,
if they can otherwise get in. Those who are noto-
riously without means have always unimpeachable
qualifications—everything is prepared selon lea regles,
and though a man may be really penniless, his quali-
fication will bear the strictest investigation, the most
trying ordeal. It is those who, conscious of possess-
ing ample means, disregard the snare, and are occa-
sionally caught in its trammels. For every reason,
therefore, we rejoice at the determination of the PRE-
MIER, and are willing to give him every credit for the
prompt and graceful manner in which he avowed his
opinions on the subject.