The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—When a Parliament is dissolved upon a
question, it is usual to say that the question, and
the Parliament with it, are referred to the country,
which has, thereupon, to pass judgment upon them.
But the country has now, for the next month, some-
thing more than a Parliament to examine and de-
cide upon. It has the Constitution which makes
the Parliament, and which constitutes its own form,
and manner, and degree of political action. Every
constituency in England is invited to estimate for
itself the particular effect, in its case, of a great and
uniform change ; every county and borough will
have to ask itself how it will be affected by the new
Reform Bill, and of course it will have to cast an
eye on the effect upon its neighbours. It is not
uncommon, even under elemental vicissitudes, to
take into account the qualifying power of local cir-
cumstances and various conditions. The occupier
of a marsh fen must be a patriot, and something
more, if he can pray heartily for rain ' • and the
man whose lot is cast on hill tops, gravel beds, and
hungry sand asks for no abatement of the deluge
which is drowning the neighbouring vale. There have
been people who did not wish for cheap corn, and
others who did not want cheap gold, and even cheap
cotton has very lately reduced millionaires to bank-
ruptcy. In these cases the natural presumption is
in favour of plenty ; but an abundance of labour,
good as it may be in itself, is not regarded by all
people with such unhesitating favour. On the
contrary every class and community of working
men takes the utmost pains, and sometimes resorts
to the most unfair methods, to prevent itself from
being swamped by an overwhelming addition. We
give these illustrations to show that the process of
inquiry is one quite familiar to the English practice
and understanding. The returns just published will
form a good basis or text for local inquiry, and it
appears to be thought that they require a good deal
of correction and explanation. It is quite certain al-
ready, and, indeed, plain uponthe face of things, that
a uniform rule of extension applied to bodies of all
sizes and shapes is no longer uniformity, but an ex-
aggeration of variety. If two bodies of the same
species and rank, and oluirgod with the same rights
and duties, be one of them two hundred times as
large as the other, the absurdity is enough
.as it
stands ; but it is no improvement to make both of
them half as large again, thus rendering the pigmy
a trifle less ridiculous, and the giant immensely
more absurd. But there are even more recondite
changes which a speciously uniform alteration will
make in constituencies, differing as they not only
do in size, but in still more important respects. A
month is allowed for the investigation of these local
peculiarities, and we hope it will be diligently em-
ployed. The absolute necessity of local inquiries
and special considerations arises from the fact that
this is not a question of aggregates. There is an
old saying that error lurks in generalities ; it does
not even lurk in aggregates ; it obtrudes itself, and
laughs at the simple calculator who thinks a large
sum must always tell its own tale. The vast aggre-
gates and all the other considerable figures in the
statistics of Reform have their value, for they excite,
and also direct, inquiry. But the inquiry begins, it
does not er d with them. What special significance,
for example, can be attached to the fact that the
aggregate of English city and borough electors is
now more by 228,000 than it was in 1832, and that
the town constituency has thus almost doubled
itself by spontaneous causes ? If this increase had
been uniform, and if it had also told equally over
all England, which, in the absence of a word to the
contrary, is implied in the Ministerial argument for
the bill, then it is open to say either that the working
classes have done themselves so much credit that they
deserve a larger margin of qualification, or that the
constituency reforms and enlarges itself spon-
taneously, and does not want a periodic and spas-
modic Reform Bill. But no thinking person can
use these aggregates for either one conclusion or the
other with any satisfaction to himself, for the simple
reason that the aggregates are mainly composed
of a comparatively small number of large sums.
Sixteen boroughs contribute more than two-
thirds of this increase, leaving the remaining third
to be divided between 170 cities and boroughs. The
aggregate increase of electors in Finsbury, Maryle-
bone, the Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Southwark,
Greenwich, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Birken-
head, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford,
Bristol, and Brighton has been 160,000, leaving only
68,000 for the other cities and boroughs. The
average increase in each of the sixteen has been
10,000 ; in each of the 170 it has been 400. But
upon the very first sifting even these averages are
found of small significance. Five metropolitan
boroughs and Manchester make up 100,000 of the
increase—that is, two-fifths of the English aggre-
gate increase. Two metropolitan boroughs contri-
bute as large an aggregate of increase as Manchester,
Salford, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bradford, Sheffield,
and Leeds put together. When the increase is so
local and so exceptional, the significance also must
be exceptional and local. Every city and borough
must be treated on its own merits, and the question
is not how to deal with a theoretical average, but
with a great variety of individual facts. As far as
quantity goes, the most important fact in these re-
turns is that which we have just stated; that is, an
aggregate increase of electors in 16 boroughs twice
as much as that in all the others in England. Its sig-
nificance is most questionable. To unassisted and
unofficial common sense it points only one way, and
that is redistribution. Does it show that the exist-
ing electors of these 16 cities and boroughs want
reinforcing from a lower stratum and a vein richer
in democracy ? With the exception of Liverpool,
the Conservative freemen of which are masters of
the situation, and perhaps we must add its neighbour
on the opposite shore, all the cities and boroughs
on this list return men of rather strong opinions in
the popular direction. Whether we look to the
act-zal electors or the actual niembers, we cannot
conceive what need there is to double the former by
the admission of a much poorer class. If any bill
were in Parliament for cutting all these constitu-
encies in two there would at least be sense in it. It
ie not even sense to take 34,000 electors pompously
engaged in electing two members, and insist on
swelling them into 60,000, as a reward for the good
behaviour of the first 34,000. But if such a proposal
is simply ridiculous, and the facts upon which it
affects to be founded do not lead to it, neither do
they lead to any conclusion affecting other and dis-
tant places. The fact that the Tower Hamlets have
more than trebled their constituency can be no rea-
son for resuscitating the expiring freemen of Honi-
ton. We have taken 16 boroughs, and shown that,
under existing arrangements in other respects, any
interference whatever with them is perfectly gratui-
tous. The only possible or conceivable result would
be the chance, here and there, of an uneducated
and narrow-minded Democrat instead of an edu-
cated man of very decided Liberal views—that

samil
being the existing class of members for these
boroughs. If we go to the other end of the Par-
liamentary catalogue, to the almost evanescent con-
stituencies—fast losing the freemen that buoyed
them up for a time, and now sinking into nothing-
ness—they can gain no good by any general in-
crease, for their quality, whatever it is, does not
depend on the popular element, or even the indus-
trial. The relation of any Reform to them is only
accidental, and out of the present question. But
there is a more numerous class of smaller boroughs;
of which the electors are the actual masters, and
independent in a sense. We could take at least 50
of them, name by name, and fearlessly ask the
Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he had these
in his eye when he discussed the increase and eleva-
tion of the working classes, and the wisdom of
further popularising our borough elections. They
1
are places for which it is impossible to be returned
without a large expenditure, the chief recipents of
which are always the poorest, whose first instinct
is to mass, like starved sheep, for self-preservation.
What is it, then, that is proposed in its present
naked form ? It is to add numbers to numbers,
and poverty to poverty ; to add new divisors to
those who have too little to divide, and new claim'
ants to those whose only thought is to divide 3
spoil.
DAILY NEWS.—Mr. Gladstone stated in the
House of Commons last night that it is his intention
to propose in committee the insertion in the Church'
rate Abolition Bill of clauses embodying the sugcs'
tions which he lately made for the settlement of
whole question of church-rates. The interval that
has elapsed since the second reading of Mr. Hard"
castle's Bill has been sufficient to give all parties
concerned in the law of church-rates an opportunity,
of expressing their opinion as to the proposal of
Mr. Gladstone. The result is on the whole veil
favourable, and we believe we may safely assume
that the form in which this log standing dispute
between Churchmen and Dissenters will ultimately
be adjusted has been gained. The merit of Mr;
Gladstone's plan is that it gives the opponents of
church-rates substantially all that they have been
contending for, in a form which the friends of the
Church may equally accept without a sense of hums"
liation. This is what intelligent and reasonable
men on both sides perceive, and the more plainly
the character of the proposal is apprehended the
more supporters it will gain. On both sides there
are, indeed, extreme men who shout " No smell'
der," and who would gladly prolong the war apPa"
rently for no other reason than love of the fighting'
Amongst the Dissenters, one or two shrill, feeu.v,
voices are heard asking whether this great question 1'
to be settled by a compromise. By all means, we
if that which is acceptable to one party because 1;
is in form a compromise, pleases the other because
it concedes the substance of their demand. What
the Dissenters have asked is the cessation of con!:
pulsion in the respect of church-rates, and a?
Mr. Gladstone's proposal would secure. The 014
tangible objection made on the side of Dissent is,
that if the machinery of church-rates is left 10
the hands of Churchmen, every parish will thence-
forward have its church rates ; and that where
Dissenters are few and poor they will be compelled
to pay rates by the application of social pressurteo.
We suspect that they will. But how are you
legislate against the evil? The State cannot keep
up in this country a sort of Freedmen's Bureau
,to
shield the newly emancipated in every rural pari`t,
from the influence of those who have employrne%
wages, and custom to dispose of. Social influence
a fact which will have its value under any circuM;
stances, and legislation cannot hinder its possesso 5
from exercising it. By destroying the present jetciiiltO
pulsmy power of the members of one community
exact tribute from another by the agency of the. la,„
the Legislature would do all it can to discredit to'
abuse which is apprehended. Mr. Gladstone desires.
to confine the right of determining how subscrq
tions or voluntary payments for the ecclesiastical
purposes of a parish shall be appropriated excl.
sively to those who have contributed to the ft
This is a right which Dissenters at present enjel,.!
and which is very dear to them ; and it is only eV'
table that Churchmen, as soon as they place thou'
selves in a position similar to that of the Dissenter!
been
shall have the same control over their free-will sub-
scriptions. We believe that no objection has ben
. i..
or will be raised against this fair and reasonable
claim.