The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-29 00:00:00

discussion of the question. He would simply deny that
the assnmptiOn 'of the Hon. and Learned Member was
well-founded. He would only say that the principle was
not established that the happiness of this country would
be improved by making the form of the Government more
democratical.—(Cheers.) But he did not know well
where the Hon. and Learned Gentleman meant to limit
his doctrine, for lie said that the measure would increase
the happiness of the country by making the form of Go-
vernment more democratical, seeming to imply that a re-
public was the best form of Government, and that the
further it was removed from monarchy the better. The
Hon. and Learned Gentleman said, that the people were 1
best able to govern themselves. Now, if that were granted,
the conclusion must be arrived at, that whatever tended to
controul the democratic principle tended also to the injury
of the people.—(Hear.) That he (Sir R. Peel) denied.—
(Cheers.) When he defended the institutions of this
country which had that tendency, he was not influenced
by an attachment to the persons who exercised the powers
which those institutions conferred ; but he did so because
the maintenance of the liberties of the people and the se-
curity of the State against the encroachment of popular
tyranny, and against the establishment of military despo-
tism depended upon those institutions which were at vari-
ence with democratical power, and which served to con-
tronl it. He would dwell no more upon that argument,
as it applied more to the principle of the Bill than to the
particular clause under discussion. But there was one
part of the Hon. Gentleman's speech which had especial
force, as it applied to that part of the Bill. The Hon.
and Learned Gentleman said, that if the House did not
grant the increase of representation to the metropolitan
districts, the first act of a Reformed Parliament would lie
to grant it. But why should it be the first act of a Re-
formed Parliament to grant it to them, when it could be
shown that many other places were equally entitled to an
increased representation. Why should they be selected
for the especial favour of the Reformed Parliament ? On
account of their vicinity? —(Cheers.) On account of the
greater facility which they presented of bringing the in-
fluence of aggregate numbers to bear upon the delibera-
tions of the House?—(Cheers.) But the Right Hon.
Gentleman said that it was necessary to give those new
Members to the metropolitan districts, because represen-
tation would operate as a safety-valve against disorder.
Now he (Sir R. Peel) begged to ask the House did facts
bear out that assertion ?—(Cheers.) Before it should he
taken for granted that representation; ought to be given
to all large bodies of men congregated together in
towns, because representation operates as a safety-valve to
disorder, it ought to be inquire' whether that was borne
out by facts, however plausible the assertion might seem.
Look to Paris, which had a great preponderance in the
representation of France, as had always been the boast of
the French Constitution.—(Hear.) Was that city re-
rnarkable above the other departments for its order and
tranquillity?—(Cheers.) He did not refer to old times,
under the Bourbons, but to its condition under the present
dynasty. He could not find that its tranquillity had been
in direct proportion to the amount of its representation.
Turning to the history of this country, and looking
to :the most memorable riots that had occurred here,
although London has stood pre-eminent in the repre-
sentation, he could not see that it had been pre-emi-
nently tranquil. Looking to the riots which took place
in the year 1780, he could not say that representation
had acted as a check upon disorder.—(Cheers.) In fact,
religious or political excitement would always act upon
large bodies of men, unabated by any consideration that they
were represented, because those considerations never occurred
to them whilst under the influence of such excitement.
Much of the argument in support of the proposition upon
which the House had that night to decide, rested upon
the assumption that the existence of representation, and of
an extended right of suffrage, prevented disorders. He
would beg of the House to look at some facts which must
have come recently within the scope of their ohservation
—he alluded to the circumstances disclosed at the places
to which his Majesty had directed Special Commissions;
let them look at the three places selected for Special Com-
missions, and they would find that those places enjoyed
not only a large right of suffrage, but a great number of
representatives. In those places it did not appear that
these privileges prevented the disorders which the Special
Commissions were intended to punish. Did he, therefore,
regard tine right of sending Members to Parliament as a
right that ought to be abridged ? On the contrary, lie
was quite of the opposite opinion. ;All he meant to coat, d
for was, that an extended right ofsuffrage was not a cure for
the spirit of disorder. He now came to a consideration
which he deemed of much importance, and to which he
should beg the especial attention of the House. He would
assume that the principles of Reform, as recognized in
that Bill, were such as ought to be adopted by the House.
He would assume—than which nothing could be further
from the truth—that the Bill was, generally speaking,
calculated to carry the sound principles of Reform into
beneficial effect ; but did it therefore follow, that consis-
tency required that every Member who gave a general
support to the Bill should therefore vote unconditionally
for the metropolitan clauses? The matter resolved itself
into two questions ; the first was, whether or not it
was necessary or expedient that so large a number of
Members should be added to the representation of the
metropolis ? The second was, whether the constituency
was of the sort which, in the present relations of the
greater and smaller towns of the United Kingdom, ought
to belong to the metropolis? The number of metropolitan
Members under the new Bill would amount to no fewer
than twenty-two. A very small degree of reflection would
enable the House to see the mode in which the influence
thus created could not fail to act. These twenty-two
Members would be, during their attendance in Parliament,
in constant communication with their constituents—under
the immediate force and controul of their influence. Thus
would there he in that House a body of twenty-two indi-
viduals, with every facility for combination, and with every
means of acting in that House upon the immediate, and
therefore ill-considered commands of their constituents out
of doors. It must be obvious to all who heard him, that
the Members returned to sit for the metropolis wonld re-
present rather a political, than a manufacturing or com-
mercial interest. For his part, he could not imagine any-
thing snore inconsistent with the most obvious principles
of common sense, than to apply the same rule to the metro-
politan districts, and to the smallest borough that could be
found in any one of the schedules. The fact was, that
where it was &afe to extend the suffrage, the promoters of
the Bill curtailed it ; and where it became dangerous to ex-
tend it, they threw it indefinitely open. It would be better
to have made the franchise universal, than to have este.-
hlished a 101. franchise in the metropolis ; for, in small
towns, there did not exist the same facilities of combina-
tion, nor the same influence on the part of the Press. He
found it necessary to trouble the House with a few details.
In the twenty-six largest, the number of new qualifications
did not amount to more than 33,703. In the metropolis
the number of electors inhabiting houses above the value
of 10/. was 59,000, which amounted to nearly all tine
householders; whereas, in the smaller boroughs, they
were scarcely in the proportion of one to eight ; and
strangely enough, it happened, that in London the num-
her of voters in many of the parishes, exceeded the actual
number of inhabited houses rated above the value of 10/.
He might be wrong in the calculations which he had made ;
they were merely founded on returns put into his hands
that morning ; but he believed, upon examination, it
would be found that the results were correct. The parish
of Paddington, for example, contained 1,126 inhabited
houses, but the number of persons raised as occupiers, and
therefore en titned to vote, amounted to 1,329. In St.
Pancras there were 8,424 houses, and the number of
101. rated occupiers, added to those whose houses
were not so rated, but were worth that sum, amounted
to 8,504. But the great argument in favour of tine
present, and all those that might be called the popular
clauses of the Bill, was, that it would have the effect of
rallying round that House the worth and the influence of
the middle classes. Let the promoters of that Bill take care
that they were not giving the power and all tine influence
to numbers rather than to integrity and respectability.
Under the weight of the two-and-twenty metropolitan
Members, it would be in vain that a reformed House
of Parliament should attempt to resist the pressure which
would thus urge them from without, therefore he should
say to the House, take time to consider. There could not
be a greater or a more dangerous error than to suppose that
in such a case, learning, wealth, or refinement, and no t
numbers would decide the question. If a modification of
the metropolitan clause were found to be not advisable ; if
the promoters of the measure and their friends resolved at
all hazards to abide by them, then so they might, that
course would always remain open to them ; but, on the
other hand, if they once took the forward step, they would
find it to be a step perfectly and utterly irrevocable.
When once they made the suffrage in the metropolis almost
universal, and added to it such an unheard of number of
Members, the pressure upon them, from within and from
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tnaturely considering before they decided. All that lie
urged them to do was to postpone for the present the ques-
tion, whether or not, through the constituency which tine
Bill established, the integrity, the respectability, the cha-
racter, the wealth, and the honour of this great city would
be duly represented.
Mr. C. GRANT briefly explained.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, after complimenting the Right
Hon, Baronet who had just sat down on the success with