The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-06 00:00:00

Whether we thoroughgoing reformers like it or
not, we must take facts as we find them, and deal
with them as we best can.

What connection has the undeniably unfair dis-
tribution of seats among boroughs with these
results of the election? Perhaps, at first glance,
an unreflecting Liberal would say, It has everything
to do with it. And, but for a little study, again,
of the hard facts of the case we should have said so

There are plenty of illustrations of the
inequalities on which both Mr. BRIGHT'S Reform
Bill and that of the Times were both founded. To
refer again to the admirable summaries of
" Vacher's Parliamentary Companion," the last
calculation of the kind we happen to have looked
at, the disproportion appears, politically, frightful.
Taking the United Kingdom (p. 23)—
One-third of the borough members are returned
by a population amounting to 7,326,427.
One-third by a population of but 1,521,968 !
And One-third by the almost ludicrous com-
parative number of 597,215 ! !
It thus takes four-fifths of the population to
return but one-third of the members ; another
third of the members is returned, actually by one-
sixteenth of the population ! Indeed the modes of
exhibiting the absurdity of things as they are
seem endless. The large boroughs, containing a
third of the population, return but twenty mem-
bers! Another third of the population, contained
in the intermediate class of boroughs, return sixty-
six members; but the favoured third, con-
tained in 206 small boroughs —on these
the dews of representative blessing, and
the blessings of representative power fall
bountifully indeed ; they are the very Goshen
of constitutional good things—happy they who
belong to the third of population contained in the
206 smaller boroughs—they return THREE HUN-
DRED AND NINE members. Why, Lord DERBY
might change his "compact 302" for them, and
gain almost three per cent. by his bargain ! But
we must refer the reader to " Vacher," who, be it
observed, is no party man, and merely furnishes us
with dry, hard calculations, which we ourselves are
always but too thankful to use rather than have to
make them ourselves.
It occurred to us, however, to ask, how would

too.

the " revolutionary" proposals of Mr. BRIGHT, and
the nearly equal revolutionary proposals of the
Times, affect the interests of the Liberal party ?
Of course we, like every one else, care little about
party ; like all upright Englishmen, we are
sublimely above such considerations ; still, as a
matter of curiosity, we asked ourselves the ques-
tion, -What votes will the Liberals gain by a Bir-
mingham revolution ? We thought as fair a test
as any other would be to ascertain what would be
the result of disfranchising all constituencies with
fewer than five hundred electors ; and, as the elec-
tion of 1857 was one in which the question of
Reform hardly came forward, we took a list of that
year. Now, it turned out that boroughs of this
class sent forty-seven Liberals to Parliament, and
only thirty-six Conservatives. They are not all
gain to Toryism, therefore; indeed, not even a
majority of them; and it is hardly likely that, by
any of the proposed remodellings, the whole of the
Conservatives now returned by small boroughs
would be cast out of Parliament as evil spirits.
Hull returns one Conservative, so does Bath; Nor-
wich was not far from sending two; Bradford
had to fight hard ; and at Leeds it is one to one.
Then, again, we look at the changes in the
election just concluded. Only six of the boroughs
in which Conservatives have gained, giving them
eight seats, have fewer than 500 electors, and from

this must be deducted two of these condemned

boroughs in which the Whigs have gained seats.
Six SEATS is, therefore, the total difference for which
the smallness of boroughs is answerable in respect
to the untoward changes for the Liberal side at this
election. To be sure, thirty more Liberal seats
would be worth having to the Liberal party, but
something much more " revolutionary" is generally
expected from a redistribution of seats.
The truth is, the emancipation of the counties is
a much more serious question for the real Liberal
party than even the redistribution of seats. It is
the counties in which the Liberals are outnumbered,
on any showing, by more than two to one. It is to
them, therefore, that the Liberals should direct
their attention. They are now bound hand and foot
to their Conservative landlords, and they want
merely the protection of secret or independent
voting to become again, what they once were, the
stronghold of liberalism. The ballot, for the coun-
ties especially; is of even more importance to the
Liberal party, as a party, than the readjustment of
borough seats.
We need hardly add, however, that our persistent
advocacy of this greatest of representative reforms
is not from merely party views. If we thought it
would give strength to the Conservatives, we should
support it with equal earnestness. To thousands

it would be a second Magna Charta ; and, by indeed

a reverse process, it would be the writ of habeas
corpus in favour of the voter now held in the
absolute and unjust custody of his landlord. It
would strike off the fetters of his landlord's know-.
ledge of his vote. It would make him really a free
and independent elector.