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

REPRESENTATION OF GREENWICII.

Mr. 11. FITZROY moved for a copy of tho record of
adjudication in bankruptcy again.t Mr. J. Townsond,
member for Grlensvich.—Agreed to.
COUNTY FRANC RISE BILL.

Mr. L. KING, in moving the second reading of this
bill, wished to take that the earliest opportunity of stet,
ing to the house that the measure contained a similar
clause to that which was in the bill brought in by Lord
J. Russell in 1854, under the government of Lord Aber-
deen. That government not only admitted the principle
for which he had so many years contended, of extending
the franchise to 101. occupiers in counties, but they had
also shown an earnest determination t 3 carry out that
principle; and accordingly they made its' prominent part
cf their bill. It v.ould be in the recollection of the touse
that when, in the last parliament, be moved fur leave to
bring in ibis bill it was opposed by a small, though cer-
tainly influential, portion of her Majesty's then govern-
ment ; but he was afterwards gratified with an explana-
tion by Earl Granville in the House of Lards that the
government did not object to the principle, but only con-
sidered that the measure was drafted in such a manner
that they could not make the alterations which they
deemed to 'be desirable in it. Seeing, therefore, that
nearly all the members of the late government had been
members of Lord Aberdeen's government, he felt that
the best course for him to adopt, as they admitted the
principle, was to take the very words of the clause in the
Aberdeen government bill. (Hear.) He need not remind
the house that right hon. gentlemen who now occupied
the front opposition benches did not object to the bill.
The noble lord the member for Tiverton was a member
of Lord Aberdeen's government, and he not only ap-
proved of the principle of the bill, but must have been a
party to the very words which, as ho had said, he took
(rem the Lill cf Lord Aberdeen's government. The right
hon. gentleman the member for Halifax was in the same
position, and if he remembered rightly the right hon.
baronet had to make some apology to his constituents at
Halifax for not having before given his support to the
bill. The name of the right hon. baronet the member for
Carlisle was on the back of Lord Aberdeen's bill, and
ever since he bad given it an honourable and consistent
support ; and so bad the noble lord the member for
London. It was matter of great satisfaction to
him that in the course of the many debates they
had had no one made any serious objection to the
principle of the bill. It was admitted that the class to
whom be proposed to extend the suffrage was alto-
.gether unobjectionable. In fact, the political capacity
of the class was admitted by the Reform. Bill of 1832,
which recognised the right of the 101. householders to
the franchise when they resided in certain localities.
His bill only sought to extend that right to the same
class wherever they were to be found ; and if that was
objected to, it could only be on the principle that the
capacity
resided in the locality and not in the persons.
But it bad been urged that he ought not to deal with
the reform of the county representation alone. His
answer was, that if he had assumed to regulate the
borough franchise as well as the county, ho would have
been told that be was dealing with too large a question,
and therefore he proposed this moderate measure, the
only objection that could be urged to which was that
it was to small. If they were to wait till a large and
comprehensive measure of parliamentary reform were
introduced ho feared they would have to wait a long
time, for the tone and temper of Parliament was not
favourable to a large measure at present—(cheers) ;
and he would reenind those gentlemen who cheered that
it wns better to accept of present legi letion on this
subject than to wait till the arrival of a period cf great
excitement, and when a measure of reform could not be
calmly considered. In some remarks upon the bill when
it was last before the house, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer complained that the boroughs of the kingdom
were better represented than the counties. He thought
that complaint came with no good grace from the right
hoe. gentleman, fur the county of Buckingham, of
which he veal a
member,mowatdeihsihnegruaipshreesdented,
with waitphopaul
a
po-
pulation of 165,000, returned 11 members,while the
division of Surrey hi
tion of nearly 600,000 members, only sent seven mem-
bers. Or if they excluded the borough representation,
it would be found that Bucks, with 115,000 inhabitants,
returned nine members, while the west riding of York-
shire, with 860,000 inhabitants, sent only two. Now
in other respects there might be ground for the coin-
plaint. It was remarkable Oa: the county franchise in-
creasedT cll yeae; es raygs 0
1 o
wiYas compared with the boron; h franchise
there were 503,812 county ate ors ; there
were now 505,988, so that the increase in the interval
was little more than 2,000 electors ; while in the boroughs
the electors had increased from 368,822 to 439,046