The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-11 00:00:00

FRIDAY

TION BILL.

Earl FORTESCUE, in moving the second reading
of this bill, said he need hardly inform their lordships
that it had passed the other house by a very great ma-
jority drawn from all sides, and with the support of
the leading members of her Majesty's Government ; and,
though be was not authorized to state that it would re-
ceive the same support from the noble earl and his col.
leagues in their lordships' house, he thought he was war-
ranted in stating that they entertained no objection to
the measure. In stating the grounds on which he asked
their lordships to support the bill he would not dwell on
the point, much insisted upon by many, that there should
be no restriction on the natural right of the people to
choose their representatives, because, whatever might be
his own opinion on that subject, he was ready to admit
that while the possession of a certain amount of pro-
perty was required as a qualification in the once of ma-
gistrates and deputy-lieutenants, and for the exercise of
the elective franchise, he was not prepared to maintain
that there was not reasonable ground of analogy for the
requirement of a qualification for the higher office of a
seat in the Legislature. To make the analogy just and
fsir, however, it should be carried through, and a quali-
ficAtion required for a seat in their lordships' bailee as
well as in the House of Commons ; but they were aware
that that formed no part of ntieir Parliamentary consti-*
tution. No qualification was required for a seat in their
lordships' house ; but he believed it was notorious in
former Parliaments and in recent times—he was making
no allusion to the present House of Lords —that peers
had sat and voted in their lordship.' house who had not
a clear income to the small amount required in a repre-
sentative of a borough in the House of Commons. The
first property qualification was imposed by a statute
passed in the flth year of Queen Anne. He would not
enter into the motives or views of the promoters of that
bill, but he believed from its first enactment insuperable
difficulties stood in the way of its being carried into effec-
tual operation, and Hallam stated that the Act was noto-
riously evaded. After an interval of some years an Act
was passed to render that of the 9i,h of Anne more
stringent, and it was then provided that, before a mem-
ber took his seat, he should snake a declaration that he
had bona fide such an estate for his own use and benefit
after anti-fying all encumbrances, as qualified him to sit
as a member for the place for which he was returned.
The amount of that qualification for a county was 6001.
a-year from a landed estate, or a rentcharge from laud
to that amount, and half of that suer for a borough.
Shortly after the Union that Act was extended to Ire-
land, and then a regular system of fictitious qualification
became perfectly notorious, Ile would only mention one
which occurred when he was a member of the other
House of Parliament. A gentleman who was returned
fora large constituency in Ireland, was not questioned
at the election respecting his qualification, and perhaps
be might not have been aware until he came to take hie
seat that any qualification was required ; his means were
not very large, and finding that a property qualification
as necessary, he procured a map on a large scale of one
of the largest counties in Ireland, with the aid of which
he selected the names of certain town lands on the map
in a mountainous district. Those names he inserted in
his declaration as his qualification, and upon that quali-
fication he sat for two Parliaments. (Hear, and a laugh.)
He might have continued sitting upon it had be not
quarrelled with some of the parties who assisted in pro-
curing his return. Things went on in that state, the de-
sire to sit in Parliamsut increased, particularly, he be•
Laved, among persons unqualified as to property ; and
fictitious qualifications were carried on to such an ex-
tent that, in 1837, the late Sir Wm. Molesworth, when
moving for a repeal of the Qualification Act, stated, on
the authority of a respectab:e solicitor, who had been
much employed in matters of property qualification,
that not mere than one-half of the members sitting in
that Parliament were really and legally possessed of a
property qualification. A bill was brought in, he be-
lieved, in 1838, and carried through Parliament the
following year, by which the property qualification was
extended to personality as well as land. That was
a great amendment on the old law. It abated
considerably the number of fictitious qualifica-
tions, because many persons possessed the requisite qua-
lification who were not possessors of land. They had all
heard opinions expressed that there was one law for the
rich and another for the poor, but much hal been done
of late years to remove that impression, and no measure
had contributed more to that end than the act passed
last year, by which, through the humanity, ability, and
zeal of the noble lord then occupying the woolsack, a poor
man was enabled to get rid of a profligate wife. If their
lordelsips were not required to possess any property qua-
lification, he could not see why such a restriction should
be imposed upon members of the House of Commons. It
was within the knowledge of all that recently a member
elected to that house had been unseated by the decision
of a committee, and had been prosecuted for making a
false declaration of Lie qualification, the property upon
which he relied being insufficient to give the required
qualification after deducting the encumbrances upon it.
That was the first prosecution that had taken place dur-
ing the 150 years the Qualification Act had been in ex-
istence. The bill he now proposed for second reading
would relieve members of the House of Commons from
the.necessity cf making any such declaration, but if it
were passed he hoped its first effect would be to bring
about the liberation of the gentleman to whom be had
referred. The noble earl concluded by moving that the
bill be read a second time.
The question having been put,
Earl GREY expressed his surprise that no opinion bad
been pronounced by Government upon this subject. It
was something new in practice and in parliamentary his-
tory to be told, upon the authority of a noble earl moving
a bill, that Government did not mean to support it, but
bad no objection to it, That was a novel course of pro-
ceeding, as inconvenient as extraordinary, and more espe•
cially, when he considered what were the former opinions
of noble lords opposite, did he think that, if they in-
tended to advise the 4ouse to pass the bill, it was their
duty to state the grounds upon which they had come to
that conclusion. As, however, he learnt from the noble
earl who moved the second reading that the Government
did not mean to oppose it, he presumed the measure
would receive their lordships' sanction. It was not his
intesition, under teoss
circumstances, to trouble the
house with an opposition
which he knew would be una-
vailing, bt.t he could not permit the bill to pass without
expressing his regret ttat it sboullipass in such a man-
ner and at such a time. With restie& to the measure it-
self, be owned he did not consider it one of great im-
portance. Ha altogether differed from the noble earl that
the imposition by the Legislature of restrictions upon
persons returned to Parliament was "an invasion of the
natural rights of electors," and thought if they began to
argue those assumed natural rights they would soon get
into interminable confusion and absurdity. He supposed,
as his noble friend advocated the first point in the Char-
ter, be
was prepared to argue for the remaining five point..
Although he (Earl Grey) did not thick there was any-
thing unreasonable iu Parliament requiring that before a
man took his seat in the House of Commons he should
show that he was in possession of sufficient property to
give some as-uraioce of his independence and ability to
devote his time to the duties he had undertaken, yet he
was perfectly aware that the liW as it stood at present
was easily evaded. He did not take the same view of
those evasions as the noble earl appeared to do, for he
regarded such tampering with a solemn declaration as
not
very distinguishable from_ Perjury.
Be that as it
might, it was true that the law was easily evaded, and
he fully recognised the objections to retaining upon the
etatute-book a law that was not practically in force. He
therefore entertained no strong opinion against this
measure consideredtself; but be could not avoid
thinking it derived additional importance when it was
considered in conneclten with other questions and the
They could not but feel
time at which it way
there was at thenumerous party who
presentpr p°sel
momenta
desired to effect a complete alteration in our representa-
tive system. The abolition of the property qualifi-
cation was the first step, but there were other mea-
sures included in the list of what they considered
necessary reforms. They wished for a very large
extension of the franchise, and for a redistribution of the
right of returning members to the House of Commons.
They wished, moreover, to establish a system of secret
voting as well as to abridge the duration of Parliaments.
Those were the objects sought to be attained by a party
of considerable importance in the country, and he need
hardly point out to their lordships that if the measures
to which he had just alluded were carried into effect un-
accompanied by any counterbalancing
• • the introduction of a complete changes in an op-
posite direction,revolution
,•
into the working of our Parliamentary system would be
the result. (Hear.) Instead of a constitution under the
operation of which the different classes of the community
would exercise a certain amount of authority, we should
have, as the consequence of those proposed alterations,
such overwhelming influence thrown into the hands of
those classes who formed the numerical majority of the
people, that all the other classes in the State would be
rendered collectively powerless. (Hear.) We should
have an unbalanced system of demoCracy, Now, he felt
that to any change of that character the great majority of