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

that bill—(hear)—but the dissolution turned everp
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 svhich he
would be prepared to introduce if he were a Minis-
ter. The noble lord stated a £lO franchise for
counties, and a 1:6 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. thegeneral 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 soon as Par-
liament met, a proposition from the Government,
and he would assume that it would be in its gene-
ral features and provisions such a measure as Lord
T. Russell had sketched out. The great crime of
the' Pill '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
vast number of householders belonging to the
working classes, and some- belonging to other
Josses 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—but, 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 re:urn 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
number of electors. In many it would double the
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-going, 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 come—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 20 or perhaps 25
per cent., and in some cases probably it would be
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 or credit 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
Russell 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 the advance,if not for the final
settlement of-this great question of Parliamentary
reform. (Cheers.) 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 ; but there were two points to
which he would call attention with referenCe to the
great increase there would he in the large. boroughs.
He had seen only a very few of them, but lie 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 existink in different electoral
boroughs between the number of voters and the
population were astonishing. Some time ago Mr.
Baines showed that in Leeds the number 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 'in the most skilful
and persevering manner to sustain him Self and his
family he was to be reckenecl a dangerous person as
regarded other 'classes of society. When they consi-
dered that in the bill of 1832 an enormous excluSion
was perpetrated as against this class, ofcourse if in the
bill of Mil it was intended to remedy this evil it
must be a bill of a great and a generous admisSion.
He Loped, 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-
chising the working classes, and it was complained
that where the population consisted principally of
those classes the increase would be very largein-
deed, and if they came to have in certain places a
£6 franchise because the working men resided there,
and an £8 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 as-
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-
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.clstsses enjoyed the
franchise, so far as he knew, strikes against capital
were unknostn.- If as an employer of tabour 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
abode £lO le-year, being 6,000,000 of people, re-
presented by a -proportionate number of adult
males; and all those who occupied houses rated
below £lO, and who should be represented in
like manner by their proportion of adult males,but were not. It was obvious, therefore, that by
raising up this distinctithr the poluilution was di-
vided into two nations., separated from each other
by a gulf which a very small percentage of the
Ii
erlssianicgl what as werefl•igh frightful talbtilneg to
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titre of our own wrong, and. made that wronn•
ground for.the continued exclusion of the- work'inn•
classes from their fair share of political power.
The evil cifect of this exclusion worked in this way.
The great body of the working classes felt that they
had, no interest in polities ; the constitution rejected
them, and, as in the case of the tenant farmers who
had votes, but were not allowed,to use them freely,
they took no interest in politics; for, knowing that
they must always vote one way, and that being the
wad 'of the landlord or his steward, they felt it
wobld he a matter of ease to them if they were ex-
cluted'altogethar from the franchise. They knew
nothing about politics, or the influence of public