The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-06 00:00:00

77,
-

NEWSPAPER
.
opinion the deepest sincerity that that ipss„
Lion is fatal to the bill, whereas sift,mig4t:iwa,
good bill if we contented oursciv
.
line only.
Mr. G LADSTONE--A 110 W llle to say thApt it Tito-
tally impossible for me, under any circumE;tanet,s
and conditions whatever, to accept the suggestions
which Mr. Clay has made. He says that we ought
to content ourselves with asking for power to alter
the law of rating. But so long as I am your leader,
and I have the responsibility of that position, I must
consider the ground on which I move, if I ask you.
to vote for an instruction to alter the law of rating,
what is that but placing you before the Govern-
ment as men in favour of limiting the suffrage
iu one direction, without showing your readi-
ness to enlarge it in another, and, there-
fore, without vindicating the grounds on which
you act? Ido not doubt the good intentions with
which Mr. Clay's suggestions were made, but I can-
not accede to them.

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Col. FRENCII suggested that Mr. Gladstone, as
the ablest member of the Liberal party, should him-
self move the instruction.
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daylight—we
m i of
ht
possibly make out of a bad bill such a one as would
satisfy the house and the country. I have always
acted on this principle. We who are in favour of
reform are in a majority in the house. Those who
sit opposite us are not remarkable for their affection
to that cause. Being a majority of the house, and
being Reformers, we have a right to say that what-
ever bill shall pass through the house shall be a bill
satisfactory to the majority, who are Reformers, and
shall not be squared according to the pattern of the
minority, who are not Reformers. Having come to
that conclusion, I think there is another easily ar-
ll
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lugs will rest with the Government and the party
whom they represent, which party is not in favour
of making this bill a satisfactory bill. Well, now,
what is it we are proposing to do ? Mr. Gladstone
called it putting a gentle—l hope everybody in the
house will be of opinion that it is gentle—but, at
any rate, a whol-some pressure on the Government.
Now, Mr. Disraeli, in every speech which he has re-
cently made, has asked, " Are there no patriots to
come and help and assist me in passing a good bill,
and settle this question on a firm foundation ?"
Well, this is what we propose to do by the instruc-
tion that has been re id to the meeting. It is easy
to say that the Government bill confers a large ex-
tension of the franchise. It does give such a fran-
chise in a small number of boroughs, but in a greater
number of boroughs it gives a franchise little more
extended than at present ; and the objection to it is
that in one borough it gives nearly household suf-
frage, and in another a suffrage little more extended
than at present. Therefore it is impossible that the
bill can be accepted as it is. Then comes the ques-
tion whether the house will agree to alter the bill
so as to make it confer household suffrage univer-
sally. I don't believe that the House of Commons is
iu favour of the change. I wish the house were. I
should support it with a good deal of pleasure ; but
the house not being in favour of this, I should be
sorry that the bill should come out of committee as
it goes in, and without some provision for a wide
extension of the franchise in the many boroughs in
which it will remain limited under the Government
bill. I understand that the proposition of Mr. Glad-
stone to be that, rather than have this confused and
absurd system, we will take another course, and pro-
pose something that will give for all boroughs equally
a very wide and generous extension of the franchise,
such as the great majority of the house will assent
to, which will put an end to all agitation, and will
satisfy the people. I think we may attain some
good result in this way. Mr. Gladstone referred to
what was said last night in the house. Of course the
Chancellor of the Exchequer knows exactly when
these meetings are to be held, and perhaps the an-
nouncement which he made last night was not un-
influenced by our meeting here. Now it mast possi-
ble he may propose to place the compound house-
. holder under £lO in as good a position as the com-
pound householders above £lO. If he proposes that
I think he would do that which it will be very amus-
ing to see the Conservative party consent to. But
he would propose that which many of us here are
not able and are not disposed to reject. Therefore
it is just possible, although we are only three days
from the motion that the Speaker leave the chair—
it is just possible that a proposition may be made by
the Government that will render it unneccbsary and
undesirable to take any steps before the bill goes
into committee. But standing as we are, and know-
ing 'what we do know, I give my most cordial assent
to the instruction—l give my most cordial assent
to what we have heard from Mr. Ayrton: If any
member of the house be placed in the position which
Mr. Gladstone occupies in regard to this party—l
think almost, if not entirely, by universal consent—
we should avoid finding flaws (which any one can
do in anything human, if he will only take the
trouble), but we should give him our confidence,
and give it to him on the principle that Mr. Ayrton
so well laid down—that we should give him the same
kind of confidence, give it him to the same extent,
and support him in the same manner, that we should
do as members of this party, if he were at this mo-
ment leader of the House of Commons or Prime
Minister of the country.
Mr. HuollEs asked why no reference was made to
the lodger franchise in the instruction.
Mr. GLADSTONE—It is not necessary to give the
committee power by an instruction to deal with this
point. I regard a lodger franchise, however, as essen-
tial to a good bill. Indeed I have the strongest
opinion in reference to it.
The proceedings then terminated.

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