The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-07 00:00:00

Bill of the late Government. (Hear, hear.) I think
I have shown that the measure comes at any rate

from a suspicious quarter. (Laughter and cheers.)
1 must say that while the question was under dis-
cussion in the House of Lords this year, the Chan-
cellor of t,he Exchequer made a speech against it
most distinct and earnest, and I think it will be ad-
mitted by all those who heard him, one of the most
earnest speeches that he has made during the whole
of the protracted discussions of this session. Now,
it is pretended that the minorities who cannot be at
the head of the poll—that is the great grievance—
(laughter)—are very illused, and that this nice
scheme will be a complete remedy for this grievance.
There is, I believe, all the woridover, wherever there
prevails a system of elections, always to be found a
minority. (Laughter.) People are not unanimous on
almost any question, and even when their interests
are sometimes most clearly involved, there will be
a minority opposed ignorantly to its own interests.
In this very city, when Mr. Wilson and I met
day after day, when we spent five years—
seven years, almost day and night, of our
lives to persuade the people that a well filled
table was much better than one which appeared as
if it had been spread by the baud of famine itself,
there was a great minority in this city of Manches-
ter that in every possible way and through its organs
of the press was heaping upon us every kind of
abuse as if we were really doing the greatest pos-

sill damage to our country. And so, I suppose, by
some order of nature, depending, a little, no doubt,
upon the generosity of men's hearts and upon the
size of their heads—(cheers)—however good or great

may be the offer made to the nation, there wil
always be a minority, and sometimes I have known
even majorities unwilling to accept it. Now, if
there be majorities everywhere throughout the three
kingdoms, what a great pity it is that the remedy
should only be offered in 11 cases—at least, I think,
taking counties and boroughs, including these four
new three-membered boroughs, there will not be
more than 12 cases, in which this new rule can be
applied. But is it extraordinary that they should
begin to apply the rule just where, if there be a
grievance, the grievance must necessarily be the
least ? (Hear.) The more members that are to be
elected in any constituency the more chance there is
that the minority will have a representative. You
know, in a borough like the borough of Rochdale,
for example, where only one member is returned,
even Lord Cairns could not devise a plan by which
the minorities' grievance can be remedied. (Laugh-
ter.) For the boroughs returning one member the
case is without remedy. (Laughter.) In boroughs
returning two members there is a chance of remedy.
In a constituency, like that of South Lancashire,
returning three members, there is not a small pro-
bability that one of those members will be of politics
differing from the other two, and differing in politics
from the majority of the constituency. And the
more the number of members in any constituency
the more difficult it is for the majority to keep in a
compact body with regard to all the members, so
that the minority shall find no expression of its
opinion through, any one of those that shall be
returned. And yet here, where the three mem-
bers exist under this bill, this new scheme is
about to be adopted ; but, I maintain, there is
no grievance, and, therefore, that there requires no
remedy. (Cheers.) I assert, without fear of contra-
diction, that the aggrieved party, if there be one,
has never told its grief. (A laugh.) And that until
some superlatively fine people who find out what
nobody else is very likely to discover had hit upon
this blot every minority at the elections in the United
Kingdom went to its several homes satisfied that
that had been done which the true interest and re-
presentation of the country required. Now,
hitherto, every constituency has been considered a
united body. A writ has come down from the
Crown, and the constituencies have been required
to return. The object was that the majority in
every constituency should declare by its choice the
prevalent opinion of the constituency in order that
prevalent opinion might be represented in the House
of Commons. In every constituency there is a
minority and a majority, and the majorities of all
the constituencies make a Parliament which assem-
bles in Westminster ; and then in Parliament a
majority of those majorities in the division lobbies
decides what shall be the fate of any bill or pro-
position which has been submitted to the house.
(Applause.) Now, I am obliged to make a com-
plaint against these rash or innovating Peers.
(Laughter.) This plan has prevailed in this
country for GOO years, and during the whole of that
period there is no record in history—none of us have
ever heard of it—that there has been a complaint
that the existing and time-honoured plan did not
give a fair representation of all those to whom the
power and privilege of representation was in-
trusted. (Hear, hear.) As I said of the voting papers
there has been no petition in Parliament. Did
the minority at your last election, or do you think
the minority at the recent election for Birmingham,
or have you ever heard that any minority in the
three kingdoms has gone supplicating as that has of
the House of Commons, and saying—" Help us,
for we voted every man we could vote, we stumped
the county ; we held meetings in the boroughs ;
our papers fulminated every morning on behalf of
our politics ; some of us did things which we would
rather not condescend to particulars about—
(laughter)—and yet, after making almost super-
human efforts, we found ourselves at the bottom of
the poll ? Cannot Parliament pass a law—for in
this country Parliament is omnipotent—that shall
make the minority henceforth equal in power to a
majority of electors ?" (Laughter.) If this scheme
be right, why is it to be confined to these four
boroughs ? (Hear.) If Manchester and Birming-
ham are to have this experiment tried upon them
—they call it an experiment—(laughter)—but they
know perfectly well its result—you might as well
ask a man who was about to inflict the last penalty
of the law on an unhappy fellowman to try an expe-
riment upon him. (Laughter.) It is an experi-
ment from which probably there will be no return.
(Hear.) It is an experiment which will effectually
not only damage, but strangle the political repre-
sentation and power of every great borough to which
it is applied. (Applause.) But if it is a good thing
for Birmingham and Manchester, why is it not a
good thing for Finsbury and Westminster? Why,
I suppose that nobody would complain if it were
thought desirable, in adding to the number of great
constituencies, that the constituencies themselves
should be geographically, or according to population
in some fair way, divided. (Hear.) In the bill
which I proposed some years ago, and which grad-
ually, under favour of Lord Derby's Government, is
being adopted—(cheers)—l proposed to give to
Glasgow and Liverpool, and I think to Manchester,
not fewer than six members each, and I proposed
that those very large cities should be divided into
three portions, and that each of these portions should
return two members to Parliament. (Hear.)
we should not complain of an arrangement like that
Well,
even though the number of members given was
but not
greater than that which it is prop, posed to give ;
oul
you think
there are gentlemen who say,
the adoption of this plan would
expen
fierce contests and of n g:iveridconoftesuitsa7
wltetr t
b tah tr
is e
the boroughs and the condst??,uenweteelsl,
bu
members are to be return
exactly one of myobjections to this scheme.
of
am not in favour wlmt a
contests— (applause)
called fierce contests,
st
but I like very earne
and I am not
in favour of very expensive election 3,
but I am in favour of all that is just and honest ex-
penditure which is necessary to instruct a constitu-
ency and to enable it fairly to express its opinions at
the poll. (Cheers.) But if there be a man more
than any outside the world we live in, and a long
way behind the times in which we now speak, it
must be that man who thinks it desirable to do some-
thing by parliamentary machinery that shall put an
end to election contests in this kingdom. I venture