The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 8, 1859.

that bil(hear)—but the dissolution turned every-
thing "topsy-turvey," and nothing could be done.
A most important member of the present GovernMent
(Lord J. Russell) declared before the dissolution what
were his views of the measure of reform which he
would be prepared to introduce if he were a Minis-
ter. The noble lord stated a £lO franchise for
counties, and
a £6, rental franchise for boroughs,
with the wiping off of some 30 scats from small
boroughs, he should be prepared to propose with
the intention of transferring those seats to certain
large constituencies thereafter to be decided upon.
They were in a very different position now from
' that which they occupied last year. They had the
• bill which he had prepared in compliance With
their wishes beforethem, but with respect to which
there were the same difficulties which,' as he had
stated, existed at the time ; and they had also be-
fore them the general features of the measure which
Lord John Russell had said, if he were a Minister,
he would be prepared to submit to Parliament, and
from which it was but fair to presume the Govern-
ment would not in any essential particular depart.
He entirely concurred with Mr. Clay, that the Li-
beral members of the • House of Commons should
hold themselves free to act as circumstances might
dictate. No doubt they would have, as stion'as Par-
liament met,' a proposition from the Government,
and ha would assume that it would be in its gene-
ral features and provisions such a measure as Lord
J. Russell had sketched out. ' The great crime of
the Bill of 1832 was that it purposely excluded
the great body of the working classes. It admit-
ted a large number of the Middle claSses, but it left
' the condition of the working classes exactly the
same as it was before. (Hear, hear.) The propo-
sition of Lord John Russell, though it fell very,
much short of what he (Mr. Bright) proposed, was
‘at any rate one that avoided the great fault of the
Bill of 1832—for, although it would leave out a
rut number of householders belonging to the
working classes, ' and some belonging to other
cia.sses also, it would certainly, not be an intended
exclusion in the nature of an. insult, to purposely..
bar them out like the bill of 1832—abut, wherever it
differed from the bill of 1832, it would be a bill of
admission -to the -working classes. (Hear, hear.)
He found from the newspapers that the Govern-'
ment had been obtaining returns, with the view of
ascertaining the number of persona likely to be ad-
mitted under a £6 rental franchise, and during the
last session a return upon the same subject was
moved for by Mr. Buxton, with regard to Scotland.
That return he believed to be correct, as it was also
instructive, and the particulars of it were minutely,
stated in a:letter which had appeared in the news-
papers. He (Mr. Bright) moved for a similar re-.
'turn in regard to England, but it was found that
there was no Means of furnishing it with anything
like accuracy. Previous to the prorogation he urged
the matter upon the Government, and since the ses-
sion closed they had attempted to obtain. it,—that
was, to ascertain the number of electors that would
.be added in the existing Parliamentary boroughs if
a£6 rental franchise were adopted. They had
seen the returns from several of the boroughs; but,
judging from what he knew of several of these
boroughs, he believed those returns to be exceed-
ingly incorrect. But, making all allowances for
the inaccuracy, they must, nevertheless, come to the
conclusion, from the information thus furnished,
that a£6 franchise would—at least in many of the
boroughs—give a large addition .to the existing
.1 number of electors. In many •it would double th
present number ; in a few it would nearly treble
. it ; and in many more it would' add -a. proportion
varying from 20 up to 30, 50, and 60 per cent.
The _difference was this ; in a- ° •quiet-e.oing, old-
fashioned, sleepy borough, which might be said to
be finished—where no building had been going on
for many years, nor was likely to go on for many
years to conic—where no new streets were forming
—where the working classes did not congregate,
because there was nothing for them to do, and
where rents were low in addition—the increase
would not perhaps be more than
obabl 20 or
it perhap d s 25
per cent., and in some cases pry woul b
even less, but when they came to the growing
towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire—to places like
Birmingham, where industry was active, where
the population was well employed, well paid, and,
consequently, constantly increasing, where new
houses were continually being built, and there was
a demand for houses of an improved quality, and
where rents were rising because of the demand,
there the increase under £6 rental franchise would
be very large, although it would, still leave , out
numbers who, in his opinion, ought to be brought
in. It might include, perhaps, many who would be
of no advantage orferedit to any constituency, but
still the increase would be such that, looking at the
general result of any Parliamentary election there
under such a franchise, it must necessarily be an
election declaring the opinion of the great body of
the people. (Cheers.) That being so, the object of
representation would be so far accomplished, and it
would be neither frank nor honest to say that the
Government proposition—assuming, as he had a
right to do, that it 'would be that which Lord John
Ituseelt indicated many months ago he . should be
prepared; if he were a member of the Cabinet, to
introduce—was unworthy of the acceptance of men
like himself and others who had been for so many
,years labouring for ahe, advance, if not for the final
settlement of this '()Teat question of Parliamentary
reform. (Cheersa He had said that the returns
as to the numbers who would probably be brought
within the operation of a £6- resident franchise
were, so far as the English boroughs were concerned,
very inaccurate.; hut there were two points to
which he would call attention with reference to the
great increase there would be in the large boroughs.
He had seen only a very few of them, but he had
made inquiries in his own neighbourhood, and he
found that there were certain timid people who were
surprised at the vast numbers that would be added.
The inequalities now existing in different electoral
boroughs between the number of voters and the
population were astonishing. Some time ago Mr.
Baines showed that in Leeds thenumber of electors
was inconsiderable in proportion to the population
as compared with some other towns. These inequa-
lities would exist still, but the reduction of the fran-
chise to £6 would give a greater increase in such
places than in others where the -present proportion of
the electors to the entire population was much larger.
These inequalities would be observed, and would
startle timid people who thought that because a man
worked six days in the Week inahe most skilful
and persevering manner to sustain him Self and his
family he was to be reckoned a dangerous person as
regarded other classes of society. When they consi-
dered that in the bill of 1532 tin enormous exclusion
was perpetrated as against this class, of course if in the
bill of 18GO it was intended to remedy this evil at
must be a bill of a great and a generous admission.
1 He leoped,therefore; if there Were people who feared
that in certain places the increase of the franchise
would be somewhat larger than they contemplated,
that they would take courage when they found that
in many other boroughs the increase would be very
little. If they went upon the principle. of enfran-
Chisine- the working classes, and it was complained
that where the population consisted principally of
those classes the increase would be very large in-
deed, and if they came to have in certain places, a•
£6 franchise because the working men resided there,.
• and an £B. franchise in others because the • inhabi-
tants consisted principally of a different class of
persons—a principle to which he apprehended
neither the Government nor Parliament would us-
sent—they must have the same irregularities which
existed at the present moment. No moral man
could look at the objections by which it was charac-
terised, and consider the propositions which he and
his friends intended to support until, they were
carried out, without admitting that the result of
the change would be infinitely better for the mora- 1
lity and the happiness of the country than that of
the present system. (Cheers.) It had been stated
. by a previous speaker that he had met with one or
two persons who said that, because the working
classes combined against their ' employers; they
ought not to be entrusted with the franchise. He
(Mr. Bright) drew an entirely different conclusion.
In the United States, where all classes enjoyed the
franchise, so far as he knew, strikes against capital
were unknown. If as an employer of labour he
• were to address himself to the capitalist class he.
would ask them to look at the matter in this
light. By the representative system as we now
had it the country was divided into two dis-
tinct nations—all those who *occupied • houses
above £lO a-year, being 6,000,000 of people, re-
presented by a proportionate number of adult
males ; and all those who cccupied houses rated
below £lO, and who should be .represented in
like =liner by their proportion of adult. males,
but were not. It was obvious, therefore, that .by
rai.siug up this distinction the population was di-
vided into two nations; separated from each other
1-,y a gulf which a very small percentage of the
ii. \-.. peoplesaid
wN\h'oli; u frightful thinr, lit bass
was ; thatand thosethen
W011:1:1,, classes were now able t'
we had so tairred out from partieipa-
tzgvlidr
degrade
witho]it. caol,erhig)lriatns,daantdin.s.f•leireitti)ty
iNI.V.se.
werecombinedt
not tt (0)
be trusted ! (Hear, h'eer.) We th,;
. . toot: advan-
tage of our own wrong. end made that wrong; a
ground f'er the continued exclusion of the, Nroiing
classes from their fair share of political newer.
The evil client of this exclusion worked in this way.
The great body of the working classes felt that they
had ao interest in politics; the coustitutiorerejected
them, and, as in the case of the tenant farmers who
had votes, but were not all Owed to use them freely,
they took no interest in politics; for knowing that
they. must always vote one way, and that being the
way of the landlord or his steward, they felt it
would' be a,matter of ease to them if they were ex-
cluded altogether from the franchise. They knew
nothing about politics, or the influence of public

opinion upon the Government and Parliament the
landlords being the only authorities to whom they
looked for remedying the political evils to which
they might be subjected. So it was with the'work-
inee classes; when a grievance affected them, instead
of regarding it as the effect of evil laws ler of op-
pressive taxation, they charged all the evil to the
capital by means of which they were employed.
They knew nothing about Parliaments, or Cabi-
nets, or monarchies,; but they did know the ca-
pitalist who employed them, and with whom they
were in daily contact, and feeling a pressure from
a cause with which he cculd have nothing to do,
they got up a fight with him, because, being shut
out from the free consideration and examination of
those great- political questions which affected the
wellbeing of the working classes more severely and
directly than any other, they were unable to dis-
tinguish the true causs of the evils of which
they complained. As an employer of labour
he held that every man who had capital
so invested had the greatest possible, as he believed,
the most direct interest, in extending the elective
franchise to the largest possible number of those
who were employed by him. Let them once feel
that they were not oppressed by those injudicious
and unwholesome divisions which the law had
created among them, and he had no doubt that in
the strike in London, or any strike in Lancashire or
elsewhere, the more•the men could feel that in the
law and the constitution they were upon an equa-
lity with their, employers and, all other classes, the
less would they be disposed to combine in narrow
sections and trades to wage war, not against their
enemies-but against the 'greatest friends they had
in the world—the capitalists by whom labour was
maintained. (Cheers.) With regard to those timid
gentlemen who were eo terrified at the prospect of
admitting large numbers of the working classes,
they must show to them that the conduct of those
Classes for many years past had been deservine. of
'all the praise which had been bestowed upon them,
and much more. (Hear.) He was not himself ac-
customed to praise the working men ; lie did not
like patting men upon 'the back ; he would rather
show his appreciation of them by offering them free
admission to those political rights to which he
deemed himself entitled as a citizen of a free coun-
try. (Cheers.) And now, with regard to the Go-
vernment, he should be very sorry to say a word
that appeared ill-natured,or that was calculated to
increase their diffiCulty in dealing with this ques-
tion. Unquestionably the Government would have
difficulties, and very considerable difficulties, to
overcome. When Lord John Russell's proposition
was made last, summer there was a general feeling
in the country that it was the sort of offer that
would be likely to be received as being a long
way from the absurdity Of the Reform Bill of
Lord Derby's Government, while it also left at a
considerable distance the advanced scheme which
the Reform. Association had laid before the coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) And although many wished
that it_ had gone further yet, Woking at the result
of-the late elections and at the discussions which
had taken place in Parliamont and out of Par-
liament, he believed he was justified in saying
that great numbers of all classes of reformers were
willing to acquiesce in the fairness of Lord .J. Rus-
sell's proposed measure. (Hear, hear.) He spoke
of the fairness of it taken from that noble lord's
point of view, surrounded by his associations, and
knowing the insuperable difficulties by which legis-
lation was beset at every step in such a question—
knowing the state of the public mind—a state not
of perfect satisfaction, but yet of what he might call
toleration or acquiescence, he thought they had a
right to urge on the Government that there should.
be no departure in an adverse sense.froin.the terms
which Lord J. Russell offered, upon which the elec-
tions took place, upon the faith of which -the pre-
sent Government came into office, and upon which
alone he thought the Liberal party could be justi-
fied in giving to the Government all the support in
their power in the event of such a measure being
introduced. At all events such a measure would
'be an honest one. It might not be the best, but so
far as the Government were concerned it would be
fairly carrying out that which they offered before
they were a Government, and would ,at all events
exonerate them from any charge of treachery or
feebleness. Upon these grounds, therefore, he felt
that he and those who acted with him would
be bound in honour to give to the Government
all he support in .their power in promoting the
enattment of . such a law. (Hear, hear.) That
was the course which he should take. At the
same time he agreed with Mr. Clay, that he
could not be bound—he , should never think of
being bound—nor did this resolution pretend to bind
anybody as to his perfect freedom of action under
whatever circumstances might arise. He should not
oppose the Government Bill, because it did, not in-
clude the ballot, if it should so happen that the
ballot formed no part of it. Provided it offered a
fair suffrage, and that extersion of the suffrage
which they had a right to expect, he would give it
his support. (Hear, hear.) If it were a measure intro-
duced in good. faith, as ia that case it would be, he
should feel that he was not doing his duty to
the hundreds and thousande who'would be included
under such a bill, but who were now excluded,
if he placed himself ces a difficulty in the way of
the Government in their endeavours to pass it. He
wished the Government success with all his heart,
and the great eleMent of their success would be
their adherence to what they had already offered,
and a firm resolve to rely on the good sense of the
country at large, believing that even those of their
countrymen who might consider that there were
some short-comings in the Bill, but who, being
anxious for reform, would be prepared to extend to
them a generous and hearty support. (Cheers.) If
they would take up the question in this spirit, de,
termined to stand Or fall by it, they might depend
upon it that they would find force enough in Par-
liament, in the country, and in the press to carry
the measure to a successful termination. But it
would bC an unhappy thin,- and fatal to the Go-
vernment if thy- receded fronr the 16 borough
franchise. If there was to be only the difference of
some 20s. bet Ween the franchise proposed by Lord
Derby and that which after all the present Govern-
ment were disposed to accept—for Lord Derby's
Government, it was said, would in their extremity
have agreed to an LB franchise—what justification
could they advance for turning out the late Cabinet
and • taking office themselves? Considering the
corruption which had taken place at the last elec-
tion—the exposuies at Wakefield, Glocester, Nor-
wich, Berwick, and other places whose sores were
as bad, but,from which the bandages had not been
stripped—(a laugh)—he was more than ever re-
solved to support any attempt that promised to
.place our electoral system upon a basis where we
could approach it with satisfaction, and feel that
we were not doihg a dishonour to Liberty itself
when we boasted of being a free nation. He inti-
mated, in conclusion, that should the Government
Bill fail he would introduce the one which he had
prepared, and which he said was in so perfect a
state that it might be brought in at any moment.
(Hear.) If he did not go so far as some of his friends
desired, he hoped they would give him credit for
seeing difficulties which were not perceived by them,
-and that they would not imagine that he had with-
drawn a hair's breadth from the principles he
had ever professed, or that his feelings in favour
of a more extended reform were , less intense than
at any former period. (Cheers.)
Mr..LUCROFT, as a manhood suffragist, said the
working classes had no confidence in them because
they did 'not go out boldly for that measure. All
their speakers admitted the justice of the demand
for that suffrage. Mr. Bright himself had just ad-
mitted it ; yet as a body they did not demand it,
and he told them at once that that was the secret
of their weakness as a body. The people were not
apathetic, but they had lost all confidence in leaders,
because those leaders themselves were not true to
principle. He denied that the working classes did
not understand politics. They understood politics
better than any other class, certainly better than
the middle classes, or at all events they thought so,
and that came to the same thing. (Laughter.)
Mr. Biticirr did not mean to say that there were
not great numbers of the working-classes who did
not know as much about politics as other classes;
but the fact of their exclusion from the franchise
had a tendency to make political questions of less
interest to them than if they had votes, as he wished
them to have. (Hear, hear.)
The resolution was then agreed to:
Mr: llawLINGs, of Liverpool, moved—" That,
to meet the expenses of the Parliamentary Reform
Committee for the ensuing year, a subscription list
be now commenced and published."
The resolution having been agreed to,
Mr E. POTTER, Of Manchester, moved—" That,
inasmuch as the defeat of the obnoxious and illusory
Reform Bill of the Dolby Administration was ac-
complished by the zeal and co operation of Parliae
mentary Reformers,. this Conference appeals to
them to continue their efforts with unsparing
earnestness; and to be prepared, on the produc-
tion of a new Reform Bill by the present Govern-
ment, to pronounce with equal promptitude upon its
tittles:: to satisfy the just requirements of the coun-
try." lie approved of the course Mr. Bright pro-
posed to take with reference to the Government
measure.
The resolUtion was seconded by Mr.'ll. COSIIAM,
and, after some observations from .Mr. ELT, was
agreed to.
The proceedings closed with a.vote of thanks to
the chairman.

[AuvnumEmENT.] —Mr. Benson, Ludgate-hill, has
just published a new illustrated pamphlet on watches (free
by post, for two stamps). It should be lead by all Who are
about-buying- a watch, as it contAins prices and important
information as to—=What watch to 'buy 1 where to buy it
and how to use it 1