The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-13 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIA.MENT

HOUSE OF LORDS—LAST EVENING.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack a
five o'clock.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.

Wrexham,'Mold, and Connah's Quay Railway, and Great
Western Railway (Finance) Bills, were read a third time
and passed.

THE DEER REMOVAL ACT.

Viscount EVERSLEY presented a petition from the
inhabitants of the New Forest, complaining of the opera-
tion of the Doer Rtmnoval Act and the enclosure of that
forest. The act effected the enclosure of 16,000 acres, and
did away in a great measure, it was alleged, with the ad-
vantages of common right.

The Duke of BUCKINGHAM said that the whole of
the 16,000 acres would bo thrown open as soon as the treed
and underwood should be removed from the forest. 116
had considered the matter with attention, and he thought
that the report that was to be laid before the house
would fully satisfy their lordships that the rights of
commoners had been fully taken into consideration.
The Earl of MALMESBURY and the Duke of BUCCLEUCII
made a few remarks as to the inadmissability of the enclo-
sure, and the petition was laid on the table.
REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE BILL.

The Earl of DERBY said—ln rising to call attention to
the state in which the bill for amending the representation
of the people has come back to us from the other house, I
take it for granted that it is the general opinion of your
lordships house that, except in a case of extreme necessity,
arising out of the continuation of some very objectionable
provisions on the part of the House of Commons, it is not
desirable that your lordships should take any steps that
may risk the rejection of a bill which has occupied the
attention of the House of Commons for nearly five months.
That rejection would lead to a great and not entirely un-
reasonable agitation during the recess, would render un-
availing all the labour and pains which the HouSe of Com-
mons have bestowed on the subject, and would cause the
attention of Parliament to be monopolised next session, as
it has been for some previous sessions, by the subject of
reform, to the exclusion of every measure to which it is
desirable their attention should be given. I shall, there-
fore, pass over all the minor amendments which the House
of Commons has proposed to make, and among these minor
amendments I hope I shall not bo considered to depreciate
the universities if I include amongst these that amendment
which your lordships introduced, whereby the right of
voting for the boroughs of Oxford and Cambridge would
have been given to students of the universities resident
in colleges and halls. That has been rejected by the
House of Commons, but I do not think that is a point on
which it is desirable that wo should take issue with
them. I shall confine myself to three points, on one of
which the House of Commons has agreed, and on two of
which they have disagreed with your lordships. The
first was the amendment made by Lord Cairns, for the pur-
pose of providing that in three-cornered constituencies
two votes only shall be given by each elector. That pro-
vision was adopted by an almost unanimous vote of your
lordships' house, and in deference to your lordships'
judgment the House of Commons and the Government
have thought it right to accept the clause, and it now
stands part of the bill. lam myself not favourable to the
principle of three-cornered constituencies. They are a
novelty never heard of in this country before the Reform
Act of 1832, and a novelty which I do not think has
worked advantageously. But if it be thought desirable iu
any case to give effect to the representation of a minority
—of which I say nothing, although I think it very doubt-
ful—then it is clear that the only cases in which you can
introduce this system are in the three-cornered constit-
uencies and in the City of London, which is represented by
four members. 1 du not object to trying the experiment
on this limited scale, but I shall certainly object to the ad-
dition to the number of three-cernored constituencies with
a view to the further introduction of the principle of the
representation of minorities. To the other two amend-
ments introduced by your lordships, the House of Com-
mons have, I regret to say, not assented. Oue of them is
the raising of the copyhold and leasehold county qualifi-
cation from £5 to £lO. In rejecting this amendment the
House of Commons have thought fit to state their reasons,
and upon looking over them I am forcibly struck with the
wisdom of the advice given to a judge on a certain occa-
sion :—" Give your judgment by all means, but not your
reasons." More inconclusive reasons have never been
given for any step than those which are offered on this
subject by the House of Commons. They begin by saying
that every other franchise gives by the Reform Act has
been reduced, and that, therefore, the copyhold franchise
also should bo reduced. But although it is true that all
the occupation franchiser created by the Reform Act are
reduced by this bill, the 40s. freehold franchise, which
existed before the Reform Bill, has not been lowered. And
when it is said that because 10s. freeholds confer a vote,