The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-30 00:00:00

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MR. MONCRIEFF, 2ILP., ON PARMA-

MEN TA liY RE:FORM.

In accordance with the request of his constituents
Mt. Moncrieff, M.P., Dean of Faculty and late Lord
Advocate. of Scotland, addressed a second public
meeting at Leith, on Monday evening last.
• The HoN. GENTLEMAN having alluded to some
other topics, came to the subject of Parliamentary
reform. He said—l stated at the meeting which
was held the other day here, that I was not inclined
to follow new leaders on this matter of reform ;
that I saw no reason for it ; that I did not profess
myself a disciple either of the Derby Government
or of Mr. Bright on this matter—(cheers and hisses)
—because it seemed to me that I had far safer
guides to follow ; and that on this very matter q
reform exertions had been made, and measur
introduced by those whom I have been accusto
to follow on such questions, and that they in t
were entitled to take the head of the question
reform. I felt that as regards Scotland, considerin
the measure introduced under Lord John Russell's
Government, and of which I was the hand, that we
really had little occasion to learn political Opinion
on this question on the other side of the Tweed—
that we had been befOrehand with them—that in
truth, if they had followed when Lord John
Russell gave the signal in 1852, we might have had
much less trouble on the question—much less
agitation at the present day. And, gentlemen, this
bill introduced in 1852 was a bill introduced for
the purpose of lowering the franchise, both
in the counties and burghs. In counties
we proposed to reduce the franchise to £2O, and
by the subsequent bill introduced in 1854 we pre-
posed to reduce the property and the occupancy
franchise, I should say, to £lO. In regard to pro-
perty franchise, we proposed in 1852 to reduce it to
£5, and that, I think, would have been a very ma-
terial and very available gain and accession to pro-
perty constituencies. (Hear, hear.) At the same
time it is right to explain, as I explained the other
day, that my subsequent study of this question has
led me to be of opinion very clearly that it is not so
much property qualification as occupancy qualifi-
cation of counties that we are to look to for the
most available accession to the constituencies.
(Loud applause and murmurs of dissent.) In re-
gard to the towns, in 1852 we proposed a £5 occu-
pancy franchise. I cannot say we had any great
encouragement to persevere in that proposition ;
and, in particular, I do not remember that when
Lord John Russell introduced his bill in 1852, we
received from those who are now very zealous re-
formers any very great amount of encouragement
or support, or that that proposition, which I sus-
pect, is about as liberal as any that have hitherto
been, or are likely to be, made, met with the sup•
port and encouragement to which it was entitled.
(Cheers.) We are told that there is now about to
be a rating franchise. (Applause.) I own I don't
quite understand what a rating franchise is or is to
be—(hear, hear)—but I know this, that in 1852 we
were very anxious to find some mode by which upon
a valuation already in existence, the franchise
might be deterinined, in order, if possible, to avoid
the necessity of parties giving in claims and prov-
ing the value of their subjects, and in order, if
we could, to assimilate the mode of registration
to that which had been adopted in England,
where overseers for the poor both in county and
burgh made out the lists of voters. Well, at that
time, gentlemen, we considered very carefully
whether the poorrate as then and now levied could
be made available for that purpose. (Hear, hear.)
Gentlemen, it was impossible to do so—(applause)
—because, so far from being like the English poor
rate, where unluckily they have had an able-
bodied poor law for many years, which I trust is
not one of the importations from Scotland into
England—(a laugh)—l say it was found impossible
because, in the first place, the English poor rate
was universal, in Scotland it was only partial—in
England it was imperative, in Scotland it was not
imperative ; thirdly, because in England it was
confined to a rate upon real property—a man's'
lands and heritages—while in Scotland it was not
so confined, but might bo levied on personal pro-
perty. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, in 1852, it was
found impossible to adopt the poor rate—to make
it the means of valuing the subjects which were to
give the franchise, and it was not proposed at that
time to do anything of the ' kind. (Hear, hear.)
Well, gentlemen, that bill in 1852, as you well
know all of you, met with but a cold reception from
the country, and the resignation of Lord John
Russell's Government necessarily put an end to it.
(Applause.) Well, the Derby Government entered
in 1852 ; but in 1853, under the Government of the
Earl of Aberdeen this question again came to be
considered, and in 1854 Lord John Russell brought
in another Reform Bill, in which, as I have already
said, he proposed to reduce the comity
franchise—occupancy franchise to £lO a year, and
occupancy in burghs to £6, of rating fran-
chise, in England ; and he proposed also to enfran-
chise every one who paid 40s. of assessed taxes to
the Government. (Applause.) Gentlemen, I re-.
gret to say that the bill met with no more support
from our now ardent reformers than the formerone
had done. (Hear, hear, and some hisses.) I also
had been instructed to draw a Reform Bill for
Scotland. lam not at liberty, as it never was laid
on the table of the House of Commons, to say any-
thing as to its terms, except this, that, along with
the Reform Bill, there was another measure that
Lord Aberdeen's Government introduced into Scot-
land fbr that year. It was a measure intended to
do away with the inconvenience we found arose
from having no general valuation of counties and
burghs. He introduced the Valuation Bill, and
that is now passed into law, and instead, therefore,
of parties now being obliged to draw upon the poor
rate assessment, or the prison-rate assessment, or
any valuation made for mere taxation, there is what
England has not—there is the valuation of this
country, of all lands and heritages, houses and lands
in burgh and county, with the annual value of each
made up year by year, with the name of the pro-
prietor, and the name of the occupant ; and there
—if you really wish to have a household franchise
—there and there alone is the place where a states-
man ought to find it. (Cheers, and marks of dissent
from the back of the room.) Not only so, gentlemen,
but the poor-rating—the rate for the support of the
Poor b r law—must be made up from the valuation
roll. The value that is set down in the valuation roll,
wherever the assessment is laid on lands and heri-
tages, must be taken from the valuation roll; and after
the poor-law assessor has got his valuation, then in
one parish he takes off a certain amount ; in another
parish he may take off less—and so the old assess-
ment under the poor-rate goes on—(hear, hear)—
but they aro all based upon this valuation roll.
Well, then, I say, what is the reason why these
gentlemen who came down from the London Reform
Association choose to encumber us with a rate
franchise ? (Cheers.) It is utterly impossible to
carry it—(renewed cheers)—while they have ready-
made to their hands a machine infinitely more
convenient and perfect than any they have-had in
England for their very purpose. tell you why.
Why the proposal was made by men who, probably,
knew nothing earthly of what the Scottish Poor
Law was, and who never had heard of the Scottish
Valuation Bill—(hisses and cheers)—and you may
depend upon it that this is the fact_ It is not.the
first time by any means that we have been offered
presents of this kind from the other side of the
Tweed—(a laugh)—and lam only sorry that there
are many on this side of the Tweed who don't look
more scrupulously at these presents. (Applause.)
I;have known in the course of my political life five
or six instances in which propositions have been
got up—got up with some degree of support in
Scotland—to introduce English institutions here,
when in reality, when we came to look more closely
into the matter, we were far better off ourselves
than our brethren who were inclined to be so
benevolent and humane to us. (Hear, hear, and
laughter.) For instance, there is the bankruptcy
law. I remember one year there was an im-
mense agitation in Scotland to introduce the
English bankruptcy law into Scotland—a great agi-
tation and great pressure. Well, we resisted it as
well as we could, and in time it was found that the
English bankruptcy law was about four times as
expensive as our own. (Hear, bear.) In 1856 I
introduced a measure which cleared away a good
many obstructions that had gathered round our
own system ; and I believe it has now brought our
law to a state which it is admitted in England is
much preferable to their own. (Cheers.) And
yet, for the time the storm waxed very strong, and
it was all we could do to resist the apparent pres-
sure -which was brought to bear. (Hear, hear.)
Then, again, as to sheriffs' courts, people were found
who said, " Give us the English county courts
here. They are a great improvement introduced
into England. Give' us English county courts."
Why, gentlemen, English county courts were just
an imitation of the Scotch sheriff courts upon a
very reduced and insignificant scale, and the men
who now clamour for the English county courts
seem not be aware that in Scotland we have the
full benefit of those institutions, and have had for
many years, with a great ninny advantages that
the English fain would have, and I have no
doubt will soon adopt. (Cheers.) And so, gentle-
men, this matter of the rating franchise stands in
the same way. (Hear, hear.) To take in-the poor
assessment as an element in this matter is the
greatest blunder any party could commit. (Hisses
and some applause.) The question is apparently
household suffrage—at all events suffrage depend-
ing on the occupation of tenements within the
burgh. Well, then, let us fix where the line is to
be drawn. "I am not disposed, nor am I prepared,
to go the length of household suffrage. I don't think
household suffrage would be of any benefit to the
people but I am quite prepared to consider the