The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-26 00:00:00

ADJOURNED DEBATE.

Mr. BLACK resumed the adjourned debate. The hon.
member said that all systems of government should be re-
garded with reference to the amount of benefit they
were calculated to confer on the greatest num-
ber, and applying that test to the present bill, he
denied that the measure was entitled to the ap-
proval of the house. He approved of the reduction in the
amount of rental as a qualification for the franchise in
counties, and contended that persons qualified to vote in
counties were quite as intelligent as those who wore to
have the same privilege in boroughs. He objected to the
distinction that had been made in regard to the amount
qualifying for the franchise between England and Scot-
land. Ho made that objection •n principle, and if
the alteration proposed were likely to work in-
juriously in England, as he believed it would, he
wouldnot wish it to be extended to Scotland. He strongly
objected to the £6 franchise, as calculated to throw into
the hands of a class political power that they would
most probably abuse, in support of which he referred to
the recent conduct of the working classes, who, in violati( n
of the principles of
.political economy, got up an agitation
to obtain ten hours' pay for nine hours' work. He thought
there had been too much praise lavished upon the
working class, as it could not be denied that, in
point of intelligence and information, they must neces-
sarily be inferior to those who possessed greater advan-
tages and occupied a higher position in society. He believed
that the infusion of this greater element of working classes
would have the effect of placing the machinery for election
in the hands of a class who must necessarily be more or
less likely to be under the influence of demagogues.
The hon. member quoted from a work of Lord
Macaulay's to show that that distinguished writer
was in favour of such extension in the franchise as was
now proposed. The result of introducing this sliding sys-
tem in the franchise would be that they would eventually
come to the adoption of the principle of manhood suffrage,
for they must proceed in their downward course. He con-
cluded by other arguments against the bill.
Sir E. B. LYTTON strongly denounced the proposed
extension of the suffrage as calculated to throw an amount
of political power into the hands of a class that would over-
whelm the intelligence and property of the country in re •
gard to the exercise of the electoral franchise. He did not
recant the praise he had bestowed on the working classes
on a former occasion, but ho [contended that
that class were, however, far from being
liable to poverty, more likely to be under the
influence of temptation. The calculation as to the amount
of the addition to the democratic element that would result
from this bill, according to its supporters, were not founded
on fact, and would would considerably exceed their esti-
mate. He contended that the proposed extension of the
franchise was based on a false principle, for that extension
should have been based on a somewhat higher test than the
payment of a small rental. He contrasted the present bill
with that introduced by the late Government, and defended
the latter on the growl that it ratendod the franchise to

those who by their frugality had exhibited their foresight,
and therefore prove' themselves more qualified to use it
advantageously than those who had given no such
indi-
•ations of prudence in what related to their interests.
He contended that the arguments of the hon. member for
Birmingham were fallacious, and, looking to America in
connection with the question of the franchise, he asked the
house whether the representatives selected were of a de-
scription that would meet the approbation of a country
like England. The honourable member quote I fri m the
work of an intelligent American writer, who stated
that the respectable classes abstained from the exercise of
the franchise, from a conviction that their efforts would be
unavailing in opposition to the mass. The consequence
was that according to that routine the subject of Parlia-
mentary elections was left entirely in the hands of men who
made piffles a trade. Yet that was the moeel
which the honourable member for Birmingham
proposed to introduce into this house, and the effect
of which would be to convert the house into a synagogue
of Fergus O'Conners. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) He
asked hon. members whether the effect of this Reform Bill
would increase the information or intelligence of the house.
(LEFT SPEAKING.)