The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-26 00:00:00

JOHN'S clause was intended by him not for routine

,anguag,e merely ; he thinks his bill will give us

a " broader and firmer basis,','for the superstruc-
ture, which, resting on the people, is carried up
through the Commons and the Lords and cul-
minates in the Crown. That it will be much
broader probably few of us have any hope. Cer-
tainly it will not be much broader than that pro-
posed by Mr. DISRAELI last year. The six pounds'
rental, as Mr. BRIGHT and his friends have shown,
will largely add to the electors in constituencies
already large—just where the increased breadth is
least wanted—while in the small country towns,
where " influence" has the election at command, it
wj,ll add but slightly to the numbers. Of what
avail will it be to form a " broader basis" for Man-
chester or Birmingham, for Marylebone or the
Tower Hamlets, while the Thetfords and Arundels
are left with constituencies as narrow as ever ?
constituencies which have not the smallest title to
be the basis of as large a portion of the House of
Commons as those of the vast boroughs just men-
tioned. Possibly Lord JOHN may essay to make
the petty boroughs into petty counties—that,how-
ever, is but a scheme for making constituencies of
the most manageable class. constituencies in which
the squires and parsons will be the real electors—
the narrowest of all constituencies.
We take leave to doubt, therefore, whether in
the boroughs, as a whole, we shall receive from
the hands of the noble lord availably broader con-
stituencies. They will be broader only where
they are now broad enough. Still more will this
be the case with the counties. Mr. DISRAELI'S
franchise last year will, we presume, be Lord JOHN'S.
It will double the county constituencies, some say.
Be it so. But we deny that it will really give a
" broader basis" to our representation there. The
county electors will still be the great landed pro-
prietors. The THIRTY THOUSAND of the Duko of
BEDFORD class will still be the real county consti-
tuency—not a thousand real electors to each county,
nor anything like it! As reasonably propose to
give greater breadth to the representation in the
Southern States of America by increasing the num-
ber of slaves, as to effect it in the counties by
enabling greater numbers to poll, for the same
landlord's nominees. No one acquainted with the
country districts can doubt that extension of fran-
chise is but extension of subserviency.
The truth is, it is childish to affect to talk of
increasing " breadth and firmness," while the
quality of the material you build with is over-
looked. Stone that will crush with the suparin-
cumbent weight adds nothing to the strength of a
building or of a buttress. We clearly need, as the
first element of representation—security that every
vote shall:represent the voter's own opinion. To over-
look this is as absurd as for any manufacturer to
overlook the quality of his raw material, or for an
architect to employ Bath stone where granite is re-
quired. Lord JOHN'S bill, we prediet, will utterly
fail here. It will make a show of what he promises,
but a show only. We speak our deliberate convic-
tion when we say that he is not one whit, really,
in advance of Lord DERBY as a Parliamentary Re-
former. We know this may seem strong language,
but we mean it. He is not one whit more willing
than Lord DERBY-Ist, To surrender the trumpery
nomination boroughs, because they are aristocratic
boroughs. 2dly. To render the voter perfectly in_
dependent of landlord and of other control. We
were present yesterday at an important meeting of
the:Council of the Ballot Society, and the testimony
of gentlemen, both from boroughs and counties, was
that without the ballot an extension of the suffrage
would be an almost unmitigated evil. We cannot
doubt it. Lord JOHN'S will be a bill which will
attempt to create a " broader and firmer basis"
from materials which have already got the electoral
dry rot.

H the discussion yesterday in the House of Com-
mons was merely cursory, it was also eminently
and significantly discursive. It resembled some-
what a sound familiar, we may presume, to the
gallant member for Southwark—the sharpening of
cutlasses. It was the revcillee of party—a prelimi-
nary flourish of trumpets that must have thrilled
to the heart of many an old political war-charger
among the ranks of the confronting belligerents.
If we examine more carefully into the record of
that first afternoon sitting in the Parliamentary
session of 18G0, we may readily detect here and
there distinct indications that already the heat of
debate is beginning to generate what Mr. TEN-
NYSON finely calls, in true Homeric phrase,
"drops of onset." The exceeding, not to say suspi-
cious, politeness of the preceding evening was
fairly thrown aside yesterday in several instances.
And if the principal knights on entering the lists
upon that first meeting of mere pageantry and com-
pliment, which annually inaugurates our legisla-
tive tournay at Westminster, may be described as
having done so, as it were, with vizors raised and with
a smiling obeisance from each to his future antago-
nist--upon the second gathering lances were being
fitted firmly in rest, thong tightened, and the
barred vizors locked down (like the spiteful lady's
reticule in DICKENS) " with a snap like a bite." There
are portents upon all hands of many a fierce en-
counter already actively in preparation. The only
difficulty now appears to be the difficulty of selec-
tion. Which plea for a deadly struggle shall have
precedence ? The Chinese War ? The Treaty of
Commerce? The Italian Question? The Budget?
The Reform of Parliament ? Each has advocates
for its being taken immediately and seriously
into consideration. All are instantaneously ac-
cepted by the House as themes having a very great
deal indeed to be said upon both sides, pro et contra.
Ministers have (in this profusion of topics
upon which Government and Opposition will
inevitably in legal phraseology join issue
with each other) at once to decide " the
order of their going," and having done
so, to impart to each the motive power " to go."
Of course, as the Prime Minister observed very
justly last evening—" It is impossible for the
Government to satisfy the wishes and opinions of
all the members as to the course of public business.
The right hon. gentleman (Mr. Hoasmast) and
others who agree with -him are desirous that the
Reform Bill should be the first measure proposed.
The hon. and gallant member for Westminster
attaches great importance to an early discussion of
questions connected with China. Other members
think that the treaty concluded with France, in-
volving the interests of our commercial system,
ought to be the first measure taken in this
house. Other members attach great importance to
the general review of our finances, and hope the
Chancellor of the Exchequer will take an early op-
portunity to bring on his Budget." Wherefore,
observes Lord PALM ERSTON at the close of this suc-
cinct resume of the Ministerial difficulty as to the
arrangement, at the very outset of the session, of
the mere ordering or sequence of public business—
"lt is impossible for her MAJESTY'S Government
tosatisfy
equally the wishes and opinions of all,
and the chances are that it will be found that the
course we have pursued is the one which, on the
whole, is best suited to bring the deliberations of the
house to a satisfactory and useful result." Upon the
perfect reasonableness of all this it were needless
to expatiate. It must be obvious, surely, upon ,