The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF

TIMES.—An industrious gentleman, with a greater taste
for such inquiries and more belief in their results, than is
possessed by the world at large, has been at the pains to
work out Mr. Gladstone's Electoral Statistics ; and another
gentleman has been so good as to call our attention to
them in a brief summary. We. will frankly say that we
are apt to regard any attempt to get really useful princi-
ples of action out of these figures much as the schemes of
the philosOphers in Laputa for extracting sunbeams out of
cucumbers. The circumstances of time and place are al-
ways so much more important than the figures, that unless
we take the former into account the latter are almost
worthless. But when so much labour has been lavished
and thrown at our feet —most honestly for anything we
can see—we cannot but use it to the best of our ability.
So what do the figures mean ? As it happens they are
left to speak for themselves. Seemingly very little.use has
been made of the Electoral Statistics in the debate hither-
to ; and it looks as if the speakers, on both sides, had
ransacked them in vain. Our correspondent concludes,
not unnaturally, that the working of the bill is to be seen,

if anywhere, in those cities and boroughs in which it
make the greatest difference, by altering the proportion of
the working classes to the whole constituency. He has
therefore excluded for this reason, as also for brevity, the
cities and boroughs in which there is already a very large
proportion of the working men, and in which this bill
will only make that proportion a little more. He ex-
cludes, for example, two such constituencies as Coventry
and Northampton. These are already in the hands of
working men, as far as their numbers will do this for them.
He has therefore selected from the Tables in Mr. Baxter's
Appendix forty cities and boroughs in which the bill will
work with concentrated force, doing its best or its worst, as
people may hope or may fear. This is the line between
wind and water in which shots will tell with decisive
effect. Of 'the other cities and boroughs many aro
already democratic ; many safe to the Conservatives even
under the operation of this bill ; but these forty boroughs
are so much border land, in which the warfare will be
worst and the result most positive. We take the list as it
stands, and our readers will see that we have no other
wish, and, indeed, can have no other wish, than to show
the immediate working of the bill, if any, in its most di-
rect range. We repeat that we take the figures before
us, with neither the wish, nor at present the power, to
question them. At Salford the proportion of working men
will be doubled, and they will become a clear majority.
The town returns Mr. Cheatham, and will probably con-
tinue to return Mr. Cheetham. As its population is more
than 100,000, it ought to have another seat, and in that
case will probably return two Mr. Cheethams. Wolver-
hampton will more than double its proportion of working
men. It now returns Mr. C. Villiers and Mr. Weguelin,
who will vote for the bill in the confident belief that they
will not be disturbed. At Oldham the proportion will be
more than quadrupled ; but as Messrs. Hibbert and Platt
go a good way already, and are prepared to go further, we
should doubt whether they will give way to Messrs. Cob-
bett and Spinks. At Walsall the proportion will be nearly
quadrupled, but the working men will not improve on
Mr. Forster. At Derby the proportion will be more than
doubled, but Mr. Bass will have no occasion to tremble for
his seat, nor, indeed, Mr. Cox if he shows himself decently
amenable. Unless Portsmouth is exceptionally affected
by the disqualification of dockyard labourers, its pro-
portion will be more than doubled, but it returns two
Liberals, and will not do more. At Stoke-upon-Trent
the proportion will be more than doubled, and Mr.
Beresford Hope will have the opportunity of ascer-
taining whether artisans are a better class than
shopkeepers. He will be able to make the ex-
periment under favourable conditions, and we are in-
clined to think with success, but Mr. Grenfell must feel
quite sure of his seat. At Peterborough the Proportion
will be more than doubled, but as Lord Fitzwilliam is the
genius loci and Messrs. Whalley and Hankey go about as
far as men can do, there will be no change. There is a
mystery about the politics of Preston. It is, we believe,
the most Irish and the most Roman Catholic town in this
island. Its proportion of working men will be more than
doubled ; but as it returned two Conservatives at the last
election, it is quite possible that Lord Derby's friends will
see their way again to a like result. At Rye the propor-
tion will be more than quadrupled, we presume, by the
addition of agricultural labourers. In that case Mr. Mac-
kinnon, a moderate Liberal may have to describe himself
as a moderate Conservative. At Dudley the proportion
will be trebled, but that will make no difference to Mr.
Sheridan. At Birmingham the proportion will be nearly
trebled. It will continue to return Messrs. Bright and
Scholefield, and, in the event of a redistribution of seats,
will return two men as like them as can be found ; while
the same may be said of Sheffield, where the proportion
will be more than double and where Messrs. Roebuck and
Hadfield must be tolerably safe from Franchise Bills. At
Bolton also, the proportion will be more than doubled.
Mr. Barnes must be safe enough ; Mr. Gray may have to
give way to somebody more decided and explicit. At Ash-
burton the proportion will be trebled, and we should like
to see the additional constituents march through Coventry,
if they over heard of that place. However, they will do
their duty to the new lord, and return Mr. Jardine again
At Manchester the preportion, now large, will be nearly
doubled. It will re-elect Mr. Bazley, and, perhaps, a
closer psir than Mr. E. James. As the population is going
on for 400,000, it will probably find room for the two
candidates who did not get in at the last election.
At South Shields the proportion will be more than doubled,
but they will not quarrel with Mr. Ingham, or he with them.
At Wigan the proportion will be more than doubled, and
Mr. Eckersley may find himself in difficulties. At Cam-
bridge the proportion will be nearly doubled. It returned
two " Liberal Conservatives," one of whom has been un-
seated, and it may possibly change them for Liberals of a
less mixed quality. Ashton-under-Lyne will more than
double its proportion, but it will rest and be thankful for
Mr. Milner Gibson. Bury will more than double its pro-
portion, but it cannot do more than prefer Mr. Philips to
Mr. F. Peel. Thus far, on the authority of these statistics,
and the interpretation before us, the total proportion of
working men, after the addition by this bill, will be 50 per
cent. or more. Below this point, it will be between 40
and 50. But it is the addition we are concerned with now
--that is, the estimated increase of proportion. At Black-
burn the proportion will be more than doubled ; and in
that case Mr. Hornby and Mr. Feilden may have to give
way:to Messrs. Pilkington and Potter. At Sunderland the
proportion will be more than trebled, but that can matter
little to Messrs. Candlish and Hartley. At Warrington the
proportion will be more than doubled, but that town evi-
dently consults its industrial and commercial interests by
returning Mr. Greenall, and its new voters will have the
same reasons as the old ones. Gateshead will quadrupleihe
its proportion, but the new voters will not be men if
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byways, but that will not affect
marthen will more than double its e"working men" by
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Morris. Mr. Abingdon will do the same without danger
to Col. C. H. Lindsay. Salisbury will more than quadruple
its proportion, and how it may then stand with its two
returned Australians we know not; but they need not
despair. Yarmouth will more than double its proportion,
but the friends of Messrs. Lacon and Goodson will be equal
to the occasion. At Hull the proportion will be more than
doubled, but that will only obtain more supporters for
Messrs. Clay and Norwood. Newcastle-on-Tyne will
nearly double its proportion, with the same pleasant results
to Messrs. Cowen and Headlam. Wycombe, which seems
oddly interpolated in such a list, will more than double its
proportion by the addition of labourers, we should think ;
and in that case may return two Conservatives, instead of
Messrs. Mills and Carington. Swansea will not quite
double its proportion, but Mr. Dillwyn will be secure.
Stockport will increase its proportion fivefold, but it will
not seek better men than Messrs. Watkin and Smith._War-
wick will nearly double its proportion, and perhaps, in
spite of its noble patron, it may return two Liberals in-
stead of one. Carlisle will nearly double its proportion,
and though Mr. E. Potter will have no reason to fear, Mr.
Hodgson may have to look about him. Whitehaven will
just double its proportion, by the addition possibly of as
many friends of the Conservative Mr. Bentinck. The dis-
trict of Carnarvon will more than double its proportion of,
we should think, rural working men, who will not find a
better adviser than the Liberal Colonel Pennant. The last
in the forty is Horsham, which will double its proportion
of rural industrials, and possibly exchange a Liberal for a
Conservative. We have stated all these cases, and the
operation of the bill upon them, with the utmost simplicity
and left ourselves little room for comment. The first
thing that strikes us —and it is the only remark we can now
make—is that the grand pretence of a special representation
for the working men wholly disappears. In all these
cases much the same sort of men will be returned as at
present ; and if, in a very few cases, the working men do
put their heads together, taking the lead from some cen-
tral organisation, and elect representatives of their own,
in more cases will it be found that the new and poorer
voters are employed to neutralise the votes of the shop-
keepers and better artisans. But the real phenomenon that
will strike both sides of the controversy will be the very
little effect which a reduced borough franchise widllihnatz,
even in the extreme cases, as selected and sirens
list before us. But is the probability of littlel acctcrutaalinelffyecist
one way or another a reason for a bill ?
,not. We cannot help seeing in the ad.vdodelaectcylaossf,tahgeaibnisll
the signs of a bad animus against the ret
shopkeepers, againsteven the artisans of
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quiet, humdrum class. There isiaristicatod,
quality. Re-
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selves even in the depths of our overg
fear that man is much the
joked, indeed, should eve b 0 if the yrsoy:unleditisehso;w thbutewme-
very where, and that a
deficiency or absolute want
nowhere be' relied on as a proof o
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This, as we have often bad to observe, is a comparative
question ; and a question, moreover, in which there s
always a good deal to be said on both sides. As a matter
of cost and comfort most Parliamentary gentlemen with a
varied experience would rather have the poorest labourers
even to the very dregs of the "freemen" class, for their
constituents, than a set of self-important tradesmen and