The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-16 00:00:00

Outline of a Plan of Reform.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—In spite of the attractions of temporary
topics Reform remains the great domestic question
of the day. Our political doctors seem, neverthe-
less, utterly at a loss what to propose as a feasible
scheme for the admission of the masses to the privi-
leges of the Franchise, without entirely swamping
the existing constituency, and reducing to mere
dumb show the expression of all other interests in
the community.
But something, it is evident, must be attempted.
As a matter of justice, expediency, safety, it behoves
the middle classes to contract without delay a treaty
of alliance with these unenfranchised myriads, be-
leaguering, at present peacefully enowgh, our con-
stitutional stronghold. Their welfare and content-
ment it is necessary to secure ; their views and
sentiments it is obviously, on every moral and civil
consideration, advisable to consult. It must not be
said of Englishmen of any social grade that they
are behind the rest of the world in the appreciation
or possession of political privileges, nor less capable
than Germans or Americans of exercising their
rights with intelligence and prudence.
Nevertheless, we do not want to have our insti-
tutions revolutionised. We wish to retain, under
every reformatory process, the leading features of
our ancient British Constitution. While acknow-
ledging the virtue of mere numbers as an element
in the distribution of political power, in other
words, while asserting the dignity of the indivi-
dual, paying homage to man, as man, we would
still prefer, in our deeply-rooted habits, and some-
what rigidly ramified system of old world life and
civic society, that station, intelligence, education,
and property should exert their just influence and
occupy theirdue and hitherto dominant position. To
reconcile these apparently antagonistic principles
divers schemes have been brought forward—some,
for instance, which would multiply the votes of an
elector according to the amount of his property, or
the number and variety of the qualifications he
might purchase or inherit; some which would em-
power the representative with a plurality of votes
proportioned to the extent of his constituency ; all
more or less complicated, unpractical, un-English.
Far from being deterred by these failures, my in-
tent in the present communication is to essay the
solution of the difficulty, and to prove, I trust, the
desired end actually and easily attainable.
Let me begin by premising boldly that the sub-
joined plan amounts to nothing less than a supple-
mentary constitution to our existing system ; that I
propose greatly to enlarge the present, mainly a
middle-class, constituency, and entirely to create a
working-class constituency, each to be based upon
an independent organisation, both acting harmo-
niously.
To commence, then, with the existing system.
1. Let the present £lO borough franchise, and all
other property qualifications created and confirmed
by the Reform Bill of 1832, relative to the right of
voting in cities and boroughs, be retained.
2. Let the burgess right of suffrage cease.
3. Let the county qualification be eTialized with
the borough.
4. Let a lodger franchise amounting to double
the sum (£2O) required for the borough house-
holder, and to be paid for two years consecutively
before registration, be established.
5. Let the certificate or diploma of every learned
profession, and the second degree of every univer-
sity, or the first after the age of 25 years, entitle to
a vote.

6. Let all officers, military or naval, on half-pay,
residing within the British islands, have a vote.
7. Let articles of clerkship, indentures of ap-
prenticeship, tutorship, in which should be implied
the teachership of any of the liberal arts, and ser-
vice as an assistant for five years in any mercan-
tile or commercial establishment convey the quali-
fication to vote.
8. Let the possession of £5O in any savings or
other bank, bearing one year's interest, and an an-
nual income of £5O, derivable from landed, funded,
or other fixed and realised property, such as water
or gas works, railway or canal shares, life and fire
insurance companies, or from any bona fide invest-
ment of capital in works of public utility recognised
by Act of Parliament, be held a qualification for the
suffrage, whether the owner reside in town or
country.

9. Let every minister of religion and certificated
schoolmaster, by virtue of his office, if not other-
wise qualified, have a voto.

10. Let a registration society, with appropriate
machinery, be established in every rural parish or
ward of a borough, who shall see that every duly
qualified voter be on the register.
11. Let the second occasion of abstention from
the exercise of the suffrage, without good and suffi-
cient cause, render the voter liable to a fine of £lO.
12. Let the payment of income tax convey the
vote.

13. Let the mode of voting be either open or by
ballot, according to the option of every individual
elector.

14. Let boroughs with a population numbering
more than have three members ; no consti-
tuent having more than two votes; so that every
concentrated local minority of importance may be
provided for.
15. Let boroughs with a population not amount-

ing to be disfranchised, the voters thence-
forth forming any part of the constituehcy; the
qualifications being the came both for urban and
rural districts. •

And now I come to the second part of my plan,
the creation of a working-men's constituency.
Let the seats gained as indicated in the last clause
be distributed in the interest of the working classes
exclusively, on the following principles
1. Let the country be mapped out into electoral
districts, comprising each not less than two coun-
ties, an agricultural and manufacturing or mining
county where practicable, being by preference joined
together, but so as to be always conterminous, and
intersecting, where possible, the Diocesan circles.
2. Let all labouring men, whatever their
occupation—agricultural, manufacturing, min-

ing, or commercial--who have 11v settled
habitation, who receive wages weekly, fort-
nightly, or monthly; all who gain their living by
honest industry, whether as pedlars, hawkers, or
workers in any craft or calling not prejudicial to
society; all domestic or out-door servants who can

produce a testimonial to good character for three
years; all pensioners in either branch of the ser-
vice ; and all public employes, with the exception of
those in the army, the navy, the police, and those
in the receipt of indoor relief from the poor rates,
have a vote.

3. Let every householder or cottier, who has paid
weekly rent for two years, have a vote.
4. Let each electoral division in England return
two members; those in Wales, Scotland, and Ire-
land, each, one.
5. Let the suffrage of this branch of the con-
stituency be exclusively by ballot.

6. Let the elections be held triennially if the con-
stituency shall so decide, or otherwise.
7. Let there be no restriction on the social status
of candidates ; but if a working man be elected, he
shall receive an allowance—to be defrayed from the

county rates of the electoral division—of £250

or £3OO per annum.
8. The expenses of the election, which shall be
held where practicable, previous to the borough and
county elections, shall be leviable on the same funds.
9. As a tribute to public virtue, a test of social
progress, and an encouragement to popular educa-
tion, let there be no disqualification in either branch
of the constituency but convicted personal corrup-
tion proved before a bench of magistrates, and, under
30 years of age, the inability of the voter to read
and write.

By these means, Sir, I strongly hope to have made
it apparent that to give due rights and privileges to
the working masses of our fellow-countrymen, yet
preserve the just weight and influence of the edu-
cated and propertied classes of society • to reconcile
the conflicting claim of numbers with old established
and complex interests ; to endow with the power of
the suffrage a vast and homogeneous multitude,
five millions of men, a Xerxean host, without
virtually disfranchising the present possessors, a
sifted and contracted constituency of at most a mil-

lion and a quarter ; to maintain the moral and legal
equality of all to confirm the independence of every

%1L5......

class ; to introduce into our Parliamentary organi-
sation an element which, while representing the
most enormous force in civil society, shall not ex-
ceed in its own proportions an eighth, or at most a
seventh, of the whole ; and while giving fair scope
and uncontrolled expression to the various social
forces of the day, to secure at one and the same
time the balance of our carefully-adjusted Consti-
tution, and prepare for the natural expansion of
liberal principles, is a problem not yet to be pro-
nounced insoluble.

On the contrary, it appears to me that by adoption
of the bases laid down in the above scheme, subject
of course to such modifications as further deliber
tions might suggest, the existing constituency, and
the many and varied sections of the body Politic
which it represents, may retain its original and jll3t
position instead of being wholly effaced from the
political eminence it has for so many years occupied,
to the honour and wellbeing of our country ; while
at the same time the demands of the advanced partYl
vote by ballot, annual or triennial elections, paid
members and electoral districts being entirely, though,
under safeguards, conceded, and universal or man'
hood suffrage in everything but name adopted, the
large addition made to direct and genuine represen-
tation of the industrial population will render cer-
tain the unrestrained expression of their views and
opinions. iu the Imperial Legislature, and coder
upon their order in the State a new and legitimate
dignity ; the forces of new factors will be incor-
porated in the columns of our constitutional equa-
tion, and the landmarks of ancient and venerable
institutions be still beneficially preserved for .our
posterity. --I am, sir, yours obediently,

LITERATURE.

- --

Madonna Mary. By Mrs. Uliphant. Three von•
Hurst and Blackett.

This is one of the most interesting of Mrs. Oli-
phant's many charming stories. Since the first
:ap-
pearance of her delightful tales in Blackwood 's
Hagazine some years back, the authoress
of " The Athelings" and of " Zaidee" has been de-
servedly recognised as a general favourite. Her
style, always simple and pleasing, has wonderfully
improved, however, since those days, and her cha-
racters, which were always attractive, are now por-
trayed with greater facility and less appearance 01
art. The heroine of her present story, " Madonna
Mary," is as simple and natural a creation as novel-
reader could well discover. Her trials are perhaps
beyond the probable range of ordinary troubles, but
whatever her outward circumstances, she is herself
always the same—a true-hearted woman, patio')
and long-suffering; a loving wife to a most irritat-
ing husband, a tender mother alike to the worthy
and unworthy son. The situation is one of pecu-
liar pain, and somewhat resembles a celebrated
Peerage case of no very remote antiquity. The
opening of the first volume finds Mary in India, the
happy wife (of ten years) of the affectionate but most
perverse Major Ochterlony. After the arrival of 3
certain mail from Euglaud, the Major, always rest-
less and fidgety, becomes even more so than his wont'
Mary, who by the force of habit and the discipline
of self-control, is comparatively indifferent to 111. s
" moods," learns, to her surprise, that the Major is
disturbed by the intelligence of the death of a witness
to their marriage, a marriage which had taken place,
ten years previously at Gretna Green, but which had
been- since recognised by all the members of both
families. The Blacksmith's House and the register
have been burnt. One witness was already dead,
and the death of the other drives the unfortunate
Major to distraction. We will not follow out the
various phases of the self-torturing Major's anlle:
ties ; suffice it to say he contrives to render all their
friends doubtful of the reality of the first marriage
by persuading his too complaisant wife to submit to
the ignominious ordeal of a second ceremony ! lb°
bloom of Mary's life is tarnished, but the simple
Major exults in his own sagacity. Later on, `'lien
another mail brings a letter from a very unusual
correspondent, his elder brother who, in the course
of the epistle, carelessly asks after his little nePhes
who is " to carry on the honours of the house," the
poor foolish Major is still more exultant, and the
following scene occurs :
" You will be pleased when you road it," he said. "Lc
talks of Hugh quite plainly as the heir of Earlston•.
can't help being pleased. I wonder what kind of squu.'
°
the little beggar will make ; but we shall not live to see
that—or, at least, I shan't," the Major went on, and 1°
~,
1
looked at his boy with a wistful look which Mary used t°-
think of afterwards. As for little Hugh, he was very
different, and not much more conscious of the affection
nearer home than of the inheritance far off. Major Ochter:
lony stood by the side of Mary's chair, and he had it in his
heart to give her a lesson upon her unbelief and Want
confidence in him, who was always acting for the Ye?
best, and who thought much more of his interests than his
own.

" My darling," he said, in that coaxing tone which 3.fellA
knew so well, " I don't mean to blame you. It was a 1131."
thing to make you do ; and you might 'have thought 131. e
cruel and too precise. But only see now how important it
was to be exact about our marriage—too exact even. If
Hugh should come into the estate•—•"
Here Major Ochterlony stopped short all at once, with-
out any apparent reason. He had still his brother's letter
in his hand, and was standing by Mary's side ' • and nobocif
had come in, and nothing had happened. But all at once,
like a flash of lightning, something of which ho had never
thought before had entered his mind. He stopped 51107 t
and said, " Good God !" low to himself, though he vas
a man who used profane expressions.' '
His face chnne;°d
:„
as a summer day changes when the wind seizes it like -
ghost, and covers its heavens with clouds. So great W's
the shock he had received that he made no attempt tollidti
it, but stood gazing at Mary, appealing to her out of the
midst of his sudden trouble. " Good God !" he said. .1'1"
oyes went in a piteous way from little Hugh, who knew
nothing about it, to his mother, who was at present the
chief sufferer. Was it possible that instead of helping h°
' had done his best to dishonour Hugh ? It was so new a,l
t;
idea to him, that he looked helplessly into Mary's eyes
sae if it was true. And she, for her part, had nothing to
say say to him. She gave a little tremulous cry cry which di
but echo his own exclamation, and pitifully held out ber
hand to her husband. Yes ; it was true. Between at°
they had sown thorns in their boy's path, and throw
doubt on his name, and brought humiliation and uncer-
tainty into his future life. Major Ochteriony dropped o
a chair by his wife's side, and covered his face with
hand. He was struck dumb by the discovery. It n
only she who had seen it all long ago—to whom no sucle..
revelation could come—who had been suffering eve'', an
grily and bitterly, but who was now altogether sub'"
,°d conscious only of a common calamity, who was the
only one capable of speech or thought.
The very interesting but, as we have already saicil
very painful nature of the plot, may be surmise':
It is not long before the widowed Mary and her two
boys, and a baby-boy (born after the second mar
riage) return to the desolate " home" of Englau
Her after trials are sufficiently varied, but we s—
hall
no further reveal the secrets of her history. Soni
of the characters by whom she is surrounded are
capital. There is the very religious Mrs. Kirkman'
the colonel's wife, who feels herself responsible for
the souls of the whole regiment, and who is alw3):4
glad to see her friends humbled, " her own humility
being so well-known." There is the impetuous 811
affectionate little Mrs. Askell, who exclaims, .1
hearing of the fatal marriage, " I have alsv33it
loved the Major and always stood up for him—bt i;
oh ! shouldn't I like to box his ears!" Theireto
the foolishly-fond old maiden aunt Agatha, and re
spoiled, and utterly selfish Winny. Such and
the principal characters among the ladies, a
wo have forgotten the most charming
kell,
them all, the loving little N A
elly to
who only makes her appearance late la
story. Francis Ochterlony, the head of the. house,s
7_o
is an antiquarian and connoisseur in art.
is a perfect museum, and his dismay at tniadi..
ruption of his young nephews is at "cemajor
crous and distressing to contemplate. uncie
Percival, the evil genius of the story, anCtil
good
Penrose and Sir Edward Willoughby, are 'bop
in their way. Of the characters of Mary
to ton
we do not speak, because we do not wish
e
further upon the mystery of the story, vtbl.e.ll,bo
advise our readers to discover for themselves L.
pages of Mrs. Oliphant's very delightful tale.

Lore and Duty. By the author of " Basil St.
John."
ouglas. Ono Vol., pp. 358. Edmonston and
The
author of " Besit St. Johu" writes in
us to
a graceful, pleasant manner and introduces
,
uaintauc
an attractive group of agreeable acq;
The struggles between love and duty wbich give t