The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-08 00:00:00

why in those pltishes which like to have them
church rates should be taken away from in, intain-
ing the fabrics of churches into which many poor
people go without paying a farthing of rates, and
should be put into the pockets of the landlords.
You have asked me a question and Ihave given you
as plain an answer as I could. (Hear, hear.) My
, reasons are not-very long, but Ido not think they
are very bad ones. (Hear.) I have now only to
thank you most sincerely for the uniform kindness
which I have ever received at the hands of all per-
sons in this county. Many there are who must dif-
fer from me in opinion, but be that as it may, I
know that I have reason to thank every one of you
for the great kindness, and forbearance which you
have always evinced towards me, and which I feel
from the very bottom of my heart. I know that
even my political opponents have always given
me credit, as I have always given them credit, for
acting according to the best of my belief, although
our opinions may differ, for the common good of
the country. (Cheers.)
The proceedings terminated, on the motion of
the right hon. 'gentleman, with the usual vote of
thanks to the High Sheriff for presiding on the
occasion.

culties to perform. Among the first is that
of providing for the future well-being ' aef
that immense country which belongs to . the
crown of these reeling, comprising our territories
in the East Indies. I certainly thought that the
time had not arrived when it was fit to legislate
upon that important subject. A civil war raging
throughout some of.the most populous countries in
India—our army and navy engaged in maintain-
ing the supremacy of this country there—many of
the. natives of India stirred up into rebellion—that
rebellion yet unquelled, and a state of warfare and
danger existing which calls for the exercise of all
the power of Government and the might of the
country to subdue, I feel that it would have been
better, wiser, and more politic to have deferred for
teih d
allm,asenni
intdloesgbbi sealiavntegi otr chosen
aincinni respect of that great con n-
-7tmr yls:az
oi period
m imight
bot better
peetatceer,
a!
pwphreen.
hend the course which it would become the duty
,of the advisers of the Crown to take, and when we
could enter upon that important subject with the
!calmness and deliberation which it pre-eminently
deserves. (Cheers.) But you are aware that
under. a vote of the House of Commons, carried
,by a great majority, it has been determined that
.immediate legislation shall take place and
!that a bill shall at once be considere& and
probably passed, for settling the affairs of India.
!Under these circumstances it appears to me that it
would be impossible for the East India Coinpany,
which has hitherto exercised the powers of govern-
iment over our-Indian dominions, to maintain their
(position and to discharge their duty to the Crown
and to the publio with that confidence and efficiency
which are necessary at such an all-important period.
We feel that-a large majority of the House of Com-
mons having declared-4 will not say that the East
'lndia Company are unfit' to govero, but tliat they
ought no longer to govern our territories in India ;
!that the government ought to be transferred to the
Crown, and to the advisers of the Crown—we feel
that it is an imperative duty imposed upon us by
the will of the majority of the House of Commons
at once to legislate upon this important subject,
which I rejoice to say—and it would be premature
for me were I to add more on the point at the pre-
sent moment—is committed to the hands of a noble-
Iman—the Earl of Ellenborough—whose abilities
'and long-tried experienced in India are such as to
'insure, if the task can be well accomplished, that it
shall be so accomplished by that noble earl.
(Cheers.) There is another subject upon which I
elo not feel callid upon to address you with any re-
serve, and upon which, as upon all others which
are influenced by temporary or peculiar considera-
tions, you have a right to expect freedom and open-
ness of discussion on the part of your rep (Beata-
tive, —I mean the all-important question of reform
in the representation of the people. (Cheers.) I
must say that upon this subject justice has hardly
been done to that great Conservative party in the
State to which I am proud to belong, and if I could
presume to offer a complaint of anything personal
to myself I should say that I had hardly had justice
done to nee upon this important question. It has
been imputed to the Conservative party, and it less
been imputed personally to myself, that we are in•
sincere in our andsavours and in the expectations
which we may hold out for reform in the represen-
tation of the people, and that we desire to prevent
all reform, all change, all improvement in that, as
in other departments of that State. Now I have
long felt, in common I believe with those who have
bestowed impartial reflection and attention on the
subject, that the elective franchise is confined to
crrtain classes of the people who ought not exclu-
sively to possess it. It has been supposed—nay, it
has been publicly stated within these eight-and-for ty
hours, with reference to plans to which I I are from
time toi time here and elsewhere alluded—that I de•
sire to deprive of the elective franchise the free-
holders, tenant farmers, and others in the county
of Suffolk and throughout Great Britain. So far is
that from being correct, that on the contrary I de-
clare that I will never be a party to any scheme of
reform by which ono single British man who now
enjoys the franchise should be dispossessed of that
franchise. My policy is all for extension, and when
we reflect that there are now men in this kingdom—
not numbered by hundreds or by thousands, but by
hundreds of thousands—who are well qualified by
education, by property, by character, by position by
all that can entitle a free man in a free country to
the possession of the elective franchise—who have
it not, and who are among the unrepresented in this
country, I feel that we ought not, whenever the
time shall come to legislate upon this subject, to
leave one man in Britain, who is by the qualitica
tions to which I have adverted entitled to the
elective franchise, without it. I therefore desire—
and I hope that there is nothing that the humbler
classes of society will complain of when I say so—
to begin at the upper end and to descend in confer-
ring tlse franchise as the state of education and in-
telligence among the people will permit. Whether
in counties or in towns I would certainly confer the
franchise upon every individual who possesses a suf-
ficient income to afford a prospect of his exercising
that franchise independently. I would likewise
confer it upon every man in Britain who can show
that he possesses a liberal education, but that he has
a sufficient knowledge to justify the expectation of
an intelligent, right-thinking, and reflective
exercise of tLat franchise, even although he
might not be a freeholder in a county, or a
101. householder within a borough. (Hear.) It is
necessary also—but here we come upon a task full of
delicacy and difficulty—that a great number of
towns throughout Great Britain, the population of
which has increased of late years until they have
become places of great importance and considera-
tion, should no longer be deprived of the elective
franchise. When you find, for example, towns like
the neighbouring borough of Harwich with a small
population returning two members, and others with
a still smaller, or perhaps even with a larger popu-
lation—for you all know that the number of inhabi-
tants in a town varies from time to time from cir-
cumstances over which the Legislature has no con-
trol—returning one member to Parliament, while
we have great and extensive towns in the North of
England and elsewhere, with 30,000 or 40,000 inha-
bitants, returning no member at all, you must feel
that that is an evil which ought to be remedied. I
know no reason, for example, why my old friends
and constituents in Ipswich who live in 101. houses
in the borough should continue to enjoy thefran-
chise, when it is refused to
neighbouring town of Midi g , whoha
thei inhabitants
.ta
aren tes of
fal the
eliin
character
in property, and in intelligence to the
inhabitants of this town. (Hear.) These are some
of the evils which I would seek to remedy ; and
moreover I cannot but feel that a great and undue
disproportion exists under the present law between
the population and the number of members return-
ed. I would, therefore, as far as may be, endea-
vour to restore the balance and to do equal justice
to all the inhabitants of this country. Ido not say
—for it would be absurd to dream of such a mea-
sure—that I would endeavour to parcel out the na-
tion into districts, with an exact proportion of popu-
lation to members returned ; but I cannot see why
some 52 coun-ies in England and Wales, with half
a million of electors, and I am afraid toi say how
many inhabitants, should return but 159 members,
while the boroughs within those counties return
members in the proportion of at least three to one.
While attempting to do justice, then, to the popu-
lation at large, and to extend the franchise so far as
the education, the intelligence, the property, and
the general improvement in all classes of the
people will permit us to do with safety, let us at
ttake
the same time do justice to the counties,ani
care that the number of members returned
e by
ie
ll f
counties of England and Wales shall beaorst
°micy
their like a fair proportion to the immensity)
In the re-
makesf h
elec-
tors and of their population.
tispqeuasks ti
onlyos
to
remindearl who has done me the
however,
eer which
permitich Imake
me
eerr
honour to associate me With
for myself. The noble
bi youmin the government
of which lie is the headthat has lately announced in
measure on the subject ; but he
Parliament that it is hfistibnoternetpiornestoonttaaltrieoninatnodcotno-
sideration the state o
bringhas at the same time
th his o
announced that he feels it im-
possible,ther public duties,
f
or wconsistently w-r
upon the immediate attention of
which are forced
and with a due regard to those other measures
the Legislature, to undertake that task duringl the
present session of Parliament. I must freely tel you
that this is all that I can say to you on the subject,
for it is all that I know myself. lam not in the
secret of the heads of the Government, if they have
a secret; I know not their individual or general
views upon this question ; but speaking for myself,
and for myself alone, I say that I shall be ready,
whenever a fit and convenient time shall arrive—
oafntdbils dcioune' ts
tlitoe: rli toaut
ge
htto
nsoaty
longer that the
to bconsiderationpostponed
than the ensuing session—in my place in Parlia-
ment and whether in or out of office to advocate
and maintain these principles, even down to the
details to which I have now alluded. There
are other subjects on which, although I am loth to
detain you, I am obliged to say a few words before
I bid:you farewell. A member of the profession of
the law, and having long directed my attention to
those questions of law reform in which every man

Cra this country is so deep
be supposed that I she
Which I have now the
doing my very best to br;
all those law reforms to
have elluded both here and elsewhere, and which '
I think are essentially necessary for the wellbeiege.
of the people of thia country. - (Hear, hear.) Per'
haps I may, in
.a word, all ede_to the 'efforts in the::
same direction of the late Government.: T do not
stand here to underrate the difth,tilties With which.-
that Government was erocompasseil;
e
or to eitheriiien
than appreciate the measures -which they at terapt d,
and in some of which they succeeded • but I do sty:
'
I that, considering that during•ib e la' - months that
the Earl of Derby was at the bead -of- the. Govern--
' ment in 1852 that Ministry were the authors cif.
more and greater law reforms than:any .previous
or
subsequent Ministry during the first half of the pre-
sent century ; considering also that the late Go-
vernment had been in rower for five years, corn-
msnding—at least for all the purposes Of law re- '
form and civil administration—a large majority int
both Houses of Parliament, I tbiukthet the people
have a right to complain that that Government--
called as it was a "Liberal" -Government—has
done far too little. (Hear, hear.) In the, last
session of Parliament two important bills were cer-
t inly passed—the Testamentary 811 relating to
wills and adtninistration, and the 'Divorce Bill.
Far be it froni me to say that the Testamentary
Bill has not effected a great improvement in the
in common with all Englishmen, owe
aland and I,
tenderray thanks to the Government for having
successfully carried through the Parliament that
important measure. But at the same time I feel
that justice is due to the Conservatives in both
Houses Of Parliament who mainly contributed to
the success of that measure ; for wh, reas for year
afterfyear, upon the reports ofcommissions and com-
mittees, bills had been attempted to be framed and
corny had been brought forward to reform the exer-
cise of testamentary jurisdiction, it was only in the
last session that a bill was at length passed, that
bill being in all its main principles identical with
one which I had myself previously proposed to
Parliament. (Hear. bee- ' So also with respect
t ',the Divorce Bi-e. :e _ ___ is certainly much di-
vided-upon many of the provisions of that bill, and
fionab of theta I entirely disapprove, yeirsit luis un-
doubtedly effected ;a . great. improvement in some
respeets---enabling the deserted trife, foresample, to
protect herown earniii;,,s and her little property from
the profligate husband who has left her; but even
(so
that important part of that important measure you
owe to Lord St. Leonards, who was Lord Chancel-
-I,)r under the Administration of the Earl of Derby.
(Hear.) Still, let me do justice to the late Govern-
ment. I believe that many of them were sincere in
their desire to effect law reform ; but circumstances
may have preven'ed them •, they may have looked=
rather more to party consideration than Was desira-
ble, and have wasted that time in mere party sub-
jects which would have been Fetter bestowed upcn
1
these important matters. I hope that in the posi-
tion to which you have now restored me, of your
representative, I shall be enabled, even during the
present session, to submit to the consideration of
the Legislature a number of important measur es in
which all of you must be more or less interested.
We hear in all the great commeroial towns of Eng-
land loud complaints of the state of the law. of bank-
ruptcy and insolvency, as affecting the relations of
debtors and creditors. I have already, during the
very short time that I have been in office, directed
my attention to that subject, and I am in commu-
nication with persons conversant with commerce
and commercial exigencies in all their details in
several of the great commercial cities and towns in
England. I trust therefore that I shall tefore long
be enabled to submit to the /louse of Commons a
measure which at learnt will remedy the greater
number of those evils under which the- ?percentile
community have so long laboured. (Hear.) Again,
' there is a measure for the registration of tithes sad
for facilitating the transfer of land. That is a sub-
ject in which every inhabiteet cf:thies country limit
feel a personal interest • because the expel:leas at-
tendant upon the smallest transaction in-the-way
' of selling or exchanging a little piece of land are
such as oten to deter people from taking those mea-
sures in their domestic relations and for pe:sonal
purposes which may be very essential to their into,
rests ; or they are such if those measures be taken
as to bring upon persons difficulties and embar-
rassments without end. Let me here assure
a class of persons in whom I myself take
a sincere interest—l mean the attorneys and
solicitors of England—a class to 'Whom I will not
say that I owe, but certainly thronh whom I have
obtained whatever I may possess cf fortune and sta-
t-on—a class of persons for whom I entertain the
sincerest respect—let me assure them that I should
with infinite reluctance b:come a party to any mea-
sure which would in any way prejudicially affect
their interests. But I believe that no such conse-
quence will follow. T believe, if we shall succeed in
passing a measure which shall enable every man to
transfer or to cl a-ge his land with the same facility
:as be might transfer or charge so much stock in the
funds, that so far 'rem injuring the interests of
. attorneys and solicitors it will for many years to
come, at least during the first and primary working
of the measure, increase their occupation without
prejudicially affecting the interests of the commu-
nity. There are many other measures which I will
not detain you by alluding to, but to which my at-
tention has been directed. I can only assure you
that in all that relates to law reform, iu all that re-
lates to the civil administration of the affairs of this
country, in aq, more especially, that can affect the
interests of the land, 'and of the owners and occu-
piers of land, I shall endeavour worthily to discharge
those duties which you have imposed upon me.
Gentlemen, I will not detain you longer. It re-
mains for me once more to offer you my sincere
thanks for the honour you have now conferred upon
me, and to assure you that in executing th-eitrust
which you have committed to me I will endeav,qur
to the best of my ability faithfully to represeffOur
sentiments, ever to promote your interests; ami to
do my duty to you and to my country. (Cheers.)
In answer to an elector who asked the opinion of
the learaed member upon church-rates, lowering
the property qualification, and education,
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said the subject of
church rates has long been one of attentive consi-
deration with me. It is surrounded with many dif-
ficulties; for while, on the one hand, it affects pro-
perty and the rights of property, on the other it may
be said to affect—and no doubt in many instances it
does affect—religions liberty. Under these cir-
cumstances' and considering that the subject is
beset with many difficulties which have puzzled
and perplexed all the greatest, wisest, and most in-
telligent statesmen of the day, it can hardly be ex-
pected that I should say here and at once that I
am prepared with any measure, or that I c-,n. ex-
press any decided opinion upon the subject, But I
will say this, that I do think that those who do not,
and who, upon religious principles, cannot, with
propriety, attend our churches may well complain
that they should be obliged to contribute to their
maintenance ; and whenever it is possible to devise
a measure—and I hope that it w iil be possible before
I appear here again, as it may before any great
length of time—whonever, I say, it is possible to
devise a measure by which justice can be done, and.
by which while the rights of property :are re-.
spected, those who decline from religious motives
to contribute to the expense of the maintenance of
the churches of England may be relieved from doing
subject whoas hasa t.
suchsc , I sal i
measure.a l l r. joi c e i(ndhheoerospsorltunmiatyy
soafy:ifsupportingit
will
afford
nt ea) thet a
ttits gentleman
cuteisti
el, h
and that it is now under the con-
sideration of many members of the Government. I
earnestly hope that during the present session we
shall be enabled to suggest emus) measure that will
assist at least in remedying the present evil. with
regardl to the
already
eexten
said,sionof to be
the fragniciliiiszet
, my desire
is, as
the upper
end—to give it first to all who are now without it,.
who are clearly entitled to it by property or edu-
cation. When that shell be effected, and we shall
have extended the present franchise---I mean the
right of voting by reason of the occupation of 10 .
houses—tea great number of towns altogether un-
represented, 1 shall be ready to take into favourable
consideration the claims of those who occupy houses
of still smaller value ?. hut I must not be understood
to pledge myself on the subject, because I say that
we ought first to give it to all who are clearly
and undeniably entitled to it before we descend
lower in the scale. As to education, I did not quite
understand the scope of the question. I may state,
however, that the present First Lord of the Admi-
ralty has bestowed a great deal of attention upon
this important subject, and that he had submitted.
a measure upon it to the consideartlatlsieoharal
rs
coonfcuNvrrheiteiche.
Nniv
ietnht
,s;,
etryh e
general principle
least,
ef hasaPr na er sl metital 3-,
support the efforts of my right hon, friend in the
same direction, and I trust that before long a mea-
sure will result which shall have the effect of enab-
ling every parent in England who thinks fit to do
so to educate his children. (Cheers.)
Three cheers were then given for Lord Derby,
atter which, on the motion of Sir F. Kelly,
seconded by Mr. Cobbold, M. P., a vote of thanks
was tendered to the High Sheriff.
sedged . the
for
which they bad
the extremely orderly manner Id,
comTipielimieniatil. ;
d a request that
conducted themselvest
SHHEeltitFhFankbreideflytheacktw blage
and dispersea and betake them-
selves to their respectivee
home.s—.a request`which,
complied
so far as we could fudge,
moments
the crowd -had disap.
they would now quiedt y
with for in a few •
and the ordinary quiet of the locality.
wag
peered,
restored. they instantly

,