The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC .lOURNALS

A very stupid answer has been attempted to
be given, by two evening papers of 'Opposite po-
litics, to our yesterday's obseervations on the ex-
tension of the metrorolitan franchise. One of
these worthies hs found out—a notable disco-
very, to which we yesterday adverted—that the
mighty capital of this great empire is already
sufficiently represented in Parliament, because,
forsooth, all the Members of Parliament must
reside within its precincts when they come up
to perform their Parliamentary functions. It
may, therefore, have 500 or 600 representatives
from other parts of the nation, and therefore
ought to have no more of its own choice Why
had it ever any at all, if this :tegument is good
for any thing, as, -with few exceptions, Parlia-
ment has alwavF, held its sittings in the metro-
polis ? To say that it has not suffered in conse-
quence of the insufficiency of its representation,
because Regent-street has been formed, or the
parish of l‘farylebone has more buildings than
fornerly, is inconceivably absurd ; as the very
ground-for giving its suburbs as well as the great
towns of Manchester and Birmingham members,
is their increased prosperity and extended po-
pulation. To the other worthy we shall make
no reply. There are still several inestions con-
nected with the Reform Bill, which require fur-
ther elucidation, and several objections that
have been made to an interference with the old
system, which admit of more satisfactory answers
than any which in our opinion have as yet
been given them. We shall at,present advert to
only two or three of these objections. The
aristocratic enemies of the Bill contend that it
has not sufficiently provided for the representa-
tion of the agricultural interest : on the other
hand, some of the zealous friends of the new
measure declare their opinion that the manufac-
turing interests of the country will not be suf-
ficiently attended to in a House of Commons
which will include so small a proportion of
members sent from the great manufacturing towns.
A third party joins the enemies of reform against
the Bill, on the ground that our great colonial
and commercial interests cannot be represented
but by members who buy their seats ; and that
neither the West Indies nor the East, neither the
Bank nor the breweries, neither the ship-owners
nor the coal-owners, can have advocates of their
interests in Parliament, unless they are allowed
to pass in through Old Sarum or some other
rotten borough. Now, in answer to these ob-
jections, we will—with a bare allusion to the
trite and just maxim that all the interests of the
country, so far as they are subjects of legislation,
must thrive or suffer together, and that none of
them can be permanently benefited at the ex-
pense or by the sacrifice of the rest, allow that
there are questions on which different classes of
representatives, as returned by different classes of
constituents, may oppose each other, and in which
the victory, as it falls to one side or the other,
may be of infinite consequence to the general
welfare ; but happily these questions are but few.
We know at present of only one on which the
town and the country, the landed interest and the
manufacturing interest—or rather the landed pro-
prietors, accompanied, as of old, by their vassal
retainers—and the general body of the nation
are at variance, and that is the question of the corn
laws. These laws are the great exclusive charter
of the country gentlemen, composing the late
majority of our legislators, and constitute as real
a monopoly in their favour as the East India
charter constitutes a monopoly of the tea-trade in
the lords of Leadenball-street, or the Batik charter
of the London circulation in the Bank of Eng-
land. When this great question shall have been
settled, as we hope that it will be, as we are
sure it ought to be, soon after that of the great
corporations alluded to, there cannot arise any
important difference of interests between any one
great class of the constituency of the country
and another, or between any one great body of
our representatives and another. We shall still
have knights of the shire and citizens or bur-
gesses in Parliament : the formalities of their
separate elections may still be observed, though
those of the former be of feudal origin. They
may be dressed and chaired after the old fashion,
but the boots and spurs of the county member
will not appear to distinguish him from his civic
brethren in St. Stephen's, nor will he have an-
nually any point of interest to contest with the
rest of the nation. Hitherto the landed interest
has been too powerful in the Legislature to ad-
mit of the enactment of impartial laws for the
general benefit. By their exclusive possession
of the county representation, and their prepon-
derating influence in the boroughs, they were
enabled to dictate laws to the whole of the com-
munity, and often exercised that power for their
own exclusive advantage. Hence their game
laws,—their corn laws,—their wool laws,—their
enclosure laws,—their rural justice laws,—
their pauper laws, and all the hateful enactments
of feudal despotism in our statute-book. They
will probably be still too powerful in the Legis-
lature as a distinct body of proprietors inspired
with the same prejudices or feelings ; but after
the repeal of the corn laws, we shall be able to
look upon them with comparative indifference.
The addition of 35 Members to the county re-
presentation of England and Wales, as given by
the Bill, is more than sufficient to counterbalance
the loss of any legitimate influence which the
measure could possibly occasion. With regard
to the manufacturing interest, or the manufac-
turing community as distinguished from the great
body of the nation, we do not see why it should
be separately consulted any more than the land-
ed. We are not aware that the interests of the
manufacturers have been neglected or resisted
under the existing system, except as amalgamated
with those of the rest of the community under
the pressure of the landed oligarchy. The
members from Manchester, Leeds, and Birming-
ham, though these great towns had possessed
the elective franchise, could probably have done
little or demanded little, exclusively, for their
own constituents, as representing the cotton, the
woollen, or the hardware trade : but they would
have swelled the ranks of the independent party
against a corrupt oligarchy, and would have as-
sisted in removing many of the evils under which
we now complain. It is needless to extend
the illustration on this point farther. On the
third objection to which we have adverted, we
deny that hese interests, so far as they deserve
the support of the nation, will sufler by Reform.
Great commercial wealth, and a high reputation
for business talents, will command an easier ad-
mission into a Reformed Parliament than into
the present ; and though our colonial interests
should have fewer hired agents or professed ad-
vocates in future than at this moment, they will
always be more efficiently represented. Minis-
terial responsibility will be increased respecting
these points, in proportion as mere interested
talkers, or motion• makers, are withdrawn. Just
now, in the case of the West Indies, Ministers
only act as umpires between one party, called
" the saints," and another called " the planters ;
and the House of Commons annually witnesses