The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-17 00:00:00

Government proposed to deal with the whole question
of Parliamentary Reform. But before proceeding to the
consideration of these questions ho would have to refer to
what had fallen on another occasion from the lion. member
for Birmingham. He had great respect for the hon. gen-
tleman. Ho widely differed from his views, but he ad-
mired, beyond the possibility of expression, the eloquence
which he had always displayed in that house. He, how-
ever, was perfectly amazed to hear a member of the Go-
vernment insinuate that after all the hon. member (Mr.
Bright) was only "Snug, the joiner." (Much laughter.)
He would undertake to speak of the hon. mem-
ber in more respectful terms. 'Die hon. member had told
them that Lord Somers had laid it down that by birth
every Englishman had a right to the vote. That was a
startling proposition; and if the hon. member had consulted
the history of the circumstances to which he referred, he
would have found that Lord Somers had laid down no such
proposition. If he (Sir H. Cairns) understood the principle
of the constitution, it was this—that Parliament should be
the mirror of every class of the people, and that no one class
should outnumber or outvote the other. Moreover, accord-
ing to the constitution, mere fitness or qualification for a
a vote was not sufficient to entitle a man to its possession.
The spirit of the constitution was to preserve the balance
towards all classes, and in that case the question of fitness
was only a secondary question. They must agree that, if
all the working classes of this country were admitted to
the suffrage, the balance of power would be overthrown.
The majority of the house would agree that there should
be a fair representation of the working classes in the con-
stituency. In the next place, they would agree that there
was at the present time a substantial representation of the
working-classes in boroughs—then the question, and the
only question that remained—and it narrowed the argu-
ments between them—was there a sufficient representation
of the working classes, and ought it to be increased to any
extent ? Referring to the periods of 1860 and 1864, they
would, if they had legislated at those times, have legislated
under erroneous impressions that the working classes were
less fully represented than the statistics had since proved to
be the case. He had understood the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer to say that the Government had avoided any refe-
rence to classes. [The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
dissented.] He attached no blame for that, because the sta-
tistics were framed themselves on a question of classes.
I [The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER assented.] Now,
however, they were told it was not a question of statistics,
but they were told they were treating the non-electors as
an invading army, and were excluding their own flesh and
blood, those who were Christians like themselves. But
the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose one year and told
them that every man had a right to vote until the con-
trary was sheen, and when the same gentleman talked of
limiting the admission to £7, he ought not to speak of
idle mocking words. (Opposition cheers.) The hon. and
learned gentleman quoted the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer with respect to the £6 franchise, to the effect
that that franchise would give a majority in the borough
constituencies of working men, which had never been
proposed before, never had been intended by Parliament,
and was not a proposal which her Majesty's Govern-
ment intended to make. He then went over the cal-
culations with respect to the £7 franchise, and proceeded
to demonstrate that, taking into account the repeal of the
rate-paying clauses and the additions by the lodger fran-
chise, the proposal of the Government would give just
the same majority of working men in regard to the present
measure as the Government had repudiated with respect to
the £6 franchise. It was said, however, by the hon. mem-
ber for Westminster (Mr. J. S. Mill) that they must not
take the question of the number of voters, but of the num-
ber of seats. He assumed the working class seats to be in
round numbers 130. That was not a majority, but if in a
bill for redistributing seats 25 seats were taken from one
side and added to the other, and that they were seats
where the working classes had a majority, that would
give 180, which was a majority in the boroughs.
Taking the same proportion for Scotland and Ireland,
the working classes would then have a majority of
seats as well as in the constituencies. Taking the
Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement of the number
of the working classes in the constituencies at the period
of the Reform Bill of 1832, being 31 per cent. as against 26
per cent. at the present time, the hon. member said these
figures were entirely imaginary ; that there was no basis
on which the calculation could be reliably made. Dealing
next with the allegation that the working classes would
never act together politically, ho asked how it was, if the
Government believed that, they had not adopted a £6 fran-
chise ? He was quite sure the working men were divided,
like other men ; but he maintained, whenever any ques-
tions arose which concerned them as a class, they would
do what was done by all other classes and professions. It
such a question as the incidence of taxation came on, would
not the working classes work together upon that? (Con-
servative cries of " Hear, hear.") Suppose the hon. mem-
ber for Birmingham were to advise them that an alteration
of the law of primogeniture would be beneficial to them,
would they not be likely to take the question up as a class ?
Mr. Odger, who professed to be the friend of working men,
had stated some time back that if they had a proper repre-
sentation agricultural labourers would get more than Bs. a
week, and that work should be found for every man willing
to work. But there was another point more dangerous
still involved in the present question, and that was the
derangement of the balance of the constitution which
would be brought about by giving a preponderance of
power to the working classes. (Opposition cheers.) At all
the meetings which had been held over the country he be-
lieved the bill was only accepted as a step towards some
further measure. At Montrose, where a strong resolu-
tion in favour of universal suffrage had been passed last
year, the meeting this year contented itself with a resolu-
tion accepting the bill at the suggestion of the hon. mem-
ber for the borough. (Hear, hear.) According to an
extract from an American paper which he bad before
him, the opinion formed of the bill was that it would
lead gradually to universal suffrage, and give the hon.
member for Birmingham such an increase of power as
would enable him to assimilate English institutions to the
American standard. (Loud cheers from the Opposition.)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had told them the work-
ing classes were unequally divided in the boroughs of the
country, but this bill would leave the inequality where it
was before. (Hear, hear.) The working classes would
have a majority of both seats and votes in the boroughs
of England and Wales, and he supposed the same would
be the case in Ireland and Scotland. The speech of the
noble lord the member for King's Lynn (Lord Stanley)
was both unanswered and unanswerable, if indeed he ex-
cepted the answer of the hon. member for Westminster.
He believed the great majority of tho house were deter-
mined that the Parliament which altered the franchise
should also decide the question of the distribution of seats.
(Loud cheers.) The hon. and learned grtleman pro-
ceeded to argue that there were many questions connected
with the Franchise Bill which required a key for their
solution, and that that key was the Redistribution Bill.
The Government, however, kept the key locked up in
their box, and refused to let them have it till after the
second reading. But if the redistribution of seats was made
by a Parliament elected by the old constituency, it would
be quite in the power of another Parliament, elected under
a now and a larger constituency, to object to such redis-
tribution. With regard to the question of time, he con-
tended there was sufficient at the disposal of the Govern-
ment to deal with the whole question, inasmuch as they
admitted there could be no registration before 1867, and
feeling sure that this bill would not pass, he urged them
to reconsider the matter before they called upon the house
to agree to the second reading. He taunted the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer and the Government with their
secresy, remarking that although a bill which required
for its success a Parliamentary manoeuvre might be
a good bill or a bad bill, the epithet bestowed on
it by the hon. member for Birmingham was not the best in
the world, for it could not be an honest bill. (Loud cheers
by the Opposition.) It was because be thought the way
the Government were dealing with the question of Parlia-
mentary Reform was precipitate, rash, and therefore reck-
less, he should vote for the amendment. (Loud cheers
from the Opposition.)
The debate, on the motion of Mr. Graham, was then ad-
journed at a quarter to two o'clock.
The Writs Registration (Scotland) Bill was read a se-
cond time, and was ordered to be referred to a select com-
mittee.
The Railway Clauses Bill and the Public Libraries Act
Amendment Bill were committed pro forma.
Tho Postmaster-General Bill was passed through com-
mittee.
On the motion of the ATTORNEY-GENERAL,
Leave was given to introduce a bill to abolish forfeiture
for treason and felony, and also a bill to consolidate and
amend the law relating to bankruptcy in England.
On the motion of Colonel TAYLOR,
A new writ was ordered to be issued for the borough of
Cambridge, in the room of Mr. Wm. Forsyth, whose elec-
tion has been declared void.
The house adjourned at ton minutes past two o'clock.

COOLIE EMIGRATION.—In the year 1865, 5,975
coolies from India and 2,758 from China were introduced
into our West Indian and neighbouring possessions. The
majority wont to British Guiana, above 3,000 to Trinidad,
and nearly 500 to Honduras. 20,278 immigrants from India
were introduced into Mauritius. In the course of the year
462 returned from British Guiana to their own country,
taking with them money and jewels of the value of £11,485;
514 returned home from Trinidad, taking with them
£14,000 in money and jewels. 3,621 returned to their own
country from Mauritius, but there is no account of the
amount of the earnings they carried back with them.
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