The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The new morning sittings of the House
of Commons began yesterday, and the Chancellor
of the. Exchequer, when business was suspended at
7 o'clock, declared that the experiment had been
eminently successful. The independent members
'who found it impossible, in spite of all the assist-
ance of Government officials, to make a, house at
9, may perhaps dissent from this view of Mr.
Disraeli, but, so far as the progress cf the Reform
Bill is concerned, there can be no doubt of the ac-
curacy of his statement. The work of Monday
night was taken up zealousy on Tuesday afternoon,
and if things go on as they have done in the last
two days members may even look forward to an ,
early prorogation. As far as the House of Com-
mons is concerned, the franchise part of the bill is
settled: The committee yesterday commenced by
fixing the provisions under which those who are
converted from compound householders into rate-
payers shall at first be registered in spite of their
necessary failure to fulfil the ordinary condition of
residence as ratepayers which will be afterwards
required ; it then proceeded to discuss and reject
Mr. Poulett Scrope's suggestion that no rates should
henceforth be levied on houses rated at X 1 and
under—a suggestion involving the consequence
that the occupiers of such houses should not be-
come voters; and it finally discarded the " fancy
franchises" altogether. The, dual vote had, as a
matter of form, to be eliminated from the bill,
and the consideration of part I. was thereupon
completed. It must be acknowledged that the de-
spatch shown yesterday afternoon was accomplished
by the summary excision of three clauses from the
bill, and the equally summary refusal to adopt Mr.
Poulett Scrope's proviso. This is an easy, if effec-
tual, way of getting rid of difficulties. The fran-
chises left are the ratepaying franchise and the
lodger franchise in boroughs, the £l2 rating fran-
chise and the reduced copyhold and leasehold pro-
perty franchises in counties. .The first part of
the bill has thus been brought to a condition
of greater simplicity, although it is, perhaps, open
to question whether the resolute desire of the
House of Commons to ge-tiiirongh the work before
it has not led it to reject additions to the bill which
might have been accepted had the time available
for discussion been unlimited. Mr. Scrope, in
withdrawing his amendment, confessed that he had
been too late in urging it on the attention of the
committee, and probably this backwardness was the
reason for the failure of his suggestion. The objec-
tions to the proviso were, in fact, somewhat feeble.
Mr. Hibbert opposed it because it would disfran-
chiseand a proposition of disfran-
chisementto come from the Liberal
bencheslarg; eb
evenought not
s,
er
were ere the reason based on an
accurate representation of facts, it does not deserve
much regard when it is remembered that the edu-
cational and savings-bank franchises were also aban
Boned because opposed by Liberal members. In
truth, however, the assumption was not borne out
that Mr. Scrope's proviso would occasion the dis-
franchisement attributed to it. The borough fran-
chise as filially settled is a franchise acquired by
every ratepaying householder, and, as the Reform
B l will
willpoverty as well as compounders,
householders enough who will fail to
there i l not
be abolish
satisfy the condition of being punctual ratepayers.
These defaulters will have to be excused, and the
question raised by Mr. Scrope was whether it were
better to excuse the poorest class altogether by a
Parliamentary enactment, or to leave a very ims
portant and delicate function, which may exercise
considerable influence on borough elections, to be
regulated by the discretion of overseers, controlled
by the slight supervision of borough magistrates.
The practical disfranchisement of numbers is
certain, and the dispute was by what machinery
it should be effected. We agree with Lord Gran-
borne that it would have been better for Parlia-
ment to determine the line below which occupiers
should be excused the payment of rates. There
could be no question that the benefit of the remis-
sion would be reaped entirely by the occupier, and,
so far from the remission acting as an inducement
to build inferior cottages, it would really have made
it possible for builders to provide a better class of
tenements at low rents. Mr. Scrope showed by
statistics how little the adoption of his suggestion
would have affected the rates paid by other classes
of occupiers. The only reason of any weight against
the plan lay in the argument that it would have
affixed the characteristic of poverty to all the oc-
cupiers of the tenements exempted from Rating.
Unhappily, this poverty exists as a fact, and has
been recognised by similar exemptions in other direc-
tions, and it is now too late to put much stress on
the impropriety of recognising it once more.
The House of Commons, however, refused to ac-
cept the suggestion, and we can only hope that the
provisions for voting and the redistribution of seats
will be so ample and complete as to remove all
danger of the interference of election-agents on the
one hand, or of the capricious exercise of the ex-
cusing power by local authorities on the other.
Mr. Bright put forward a claim *yesterday after-
noon to be regarded as the true author of the en-
franchising clauses of the Reform Bill; but he will,
perhaps, allow that to Sir Roundel' Palmer must
be attributed some of the merit, if merit it be, of
reducing them to their present simplicity. Sir
Roundel' Palmer; who was supposed to have told
the electors of Richmond, when he was first intro-
duced to them, that he reserved complete indepen- ,
dence in joining a Liberal Government, was the first
convert to the prudence of going straight to House-
hold Suffrage, and yesterday he led the opposition
to the Educational and Pecuniary Franchises. The
history of these Franchises is sufficiently remarkable
as a striking illustration of the jealousy of anything
novel which animates the House of Commons even
in its most daring mood. Household Rating Stif-
f rage members understand, because it, or something
like it, has long existed iu municipal elections ;
a Lodger Franchise is in the nature of an Occu-
pation Franchise, and so can, though with- diffi-
culty, be accepted ; but to give a man a vote
because he is a graduate or has been admitted
to a learned profession is a suggestion so wholly
unprecedented as to be intolerable. It is true that
similar franchises were contained in former bills,
and have been*approved by the leaders of all parties,
but there are times when the House of Commons is
too strong for its leaders. Sir Roundel' Palmer
found a vigorous supporter in his opposition to these
innovations in Mr. Bouverie, who incarnated the
spirit of the House of Commons in his strong de-
nunciation of all things new to the Constitution ;
and although Mr. Fawcett, as a University Pro-
fessor, entreated the Chancellor of the Exchequer
to persevere with the Educational franchises, the
latter gave way before what he aptly called the
" reactionary party" on the Opposition benches.
The Savings-bank clause, " a clause of venerable
antiquity," was abandoned on similar compulsion ;
and Sir Roundel' Palmer, looking forward to some
remote time when the Income-tax may be abolished,
would not even allow the taxpaying franchise to be