The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-18 00:00:00

- -
Totals 3,081,622 1,822,863 125,810 152 210

SECOND DIVISION:—BOROUGHS TO RETURN MORE THAN
Two MEMBERS EACH.
Direct
Population Payable ea
£lO No. of Mem.
in 1857
3. in 1857. Electors. Boros. Propose d
Schedule E 1,799,79 1,162,078 64,604 23 69
Schedule F 2,436,101 3,229,050 123,069 12 48
Schedule G 1,715,944 2,223,991 90,078 6 30

Totals 5,951,784 6,615,119 278,651 40 147
Note.—lt will be seen from a comparison of the two
Divisions of the Genoral Abstract hero given, that the Re-
presentation of the large Boroughs even as now proposed,
is greatly below that which they may fairly claim on the
ground of population, taxation, and number of electorsZ

The following Abstract shows the Borough
Population of England, Scotland, and Ireland by
the arrangements proposed in the foregoing
Schedules ; the Number of Ten-Pound Electors, the
Number of Members, and the Population for each
Member. In the proportion of Members for Eng-
land are included Seven Members not yet appro-
priated, and for which additional new Boroughs
may be advantageously created :

Population
Population No. of £lO No. of for Each
in 1851. Electors. Members. Member.
. 7,310,961 417,441 301 24,318
. 1,107,918 48,577 40 27,697
. 827,284 28,075 38 21,770

England
Scotland
Ireland

Total . 9,255,163 494,093 379

1118. B.RIGRT',79' REFORM BILL.

(From the Times.)
Mr. Bright has at length answered the taunts or the im-
patience of the country, and we to-day produce the scheme
of his Reform Bill. The curtain is not completely raised;
something is still reserved ; the extent to which the fran-
chise is to be given is yet a mystery ; but we must not seek
to know too much at once. There is plenty of subject for
examination in the eleven schedules which are now made
public—they are a large instalment of the new Constitution.
They will be scanned with careful eyes by all who think
there is the least chance of this daring scheme becoming
popular throughout the country, and very few hours will
elapse before the men of business of the two great parties
will thoroughly understand how the new plan, if realized,
would work in divisions, and how it would tell upon the
future constitution of Cabinets.
Schedule A, the destroyer in 1832, appears in even
greater force in 1859. It includes 86 boroughs, which, if
Mr. Bright finds credit with the country, are hereafter to
remain undistinguished among rural market towns. Of
these 56 are English, 9 are Irish, and 21 are Scotch. The
vacant seats thus gained in England and Ireland are 96 ;
but, as the disfranchised Scotch boroughs are all contri-
butory boroughs, the Scotch disfranchisements make no
vacancies. , Schedule B takes away one member from 34
boroughs which the Reform Bill of 1832 had left unlopped.
These two schedules do the disfranchising work. In the
manner of general observation there is not much to be said
on the subject of the two catalogues. There are indi-
vidual members who doubtless may have excellent
reasons to give why the political existence of Arundel or
Honiton should not be suddenly quenched. It might be
said in favour of Arundel, for instance, that it is the only
English constituency which returns a Roman Catholic to
Parliament; and it might be suggested on behalf of Honi-
ton that it is the parent of half our election law. A bold
advocate might urge that a Parliament would hardly be a
Parliament without that historic borough of Honiton,
which has illustrated every phase of election contest, and
never till quite recently returned a member without being
able to give some practical reason for its choice. These are
the first two names of Mr. Bright's schedule; but we might
doubtless pursue our inquiries through the fifty-six and
find something to be said in favour of each. Even Caine,
with its 145 £lO voters, might ask why it is to be dis-
franchised while Cashel, with 12.5 £8 voters, and Youghal,
with 149, are to retain each a member. But? although the
names in Schedule B offer as strong anomalies as could be
discovered in any possible project of reform, yet we must
admit that the list scheduled under letter A have a doomed
sound. They were nearly all of them condemned
either to total or partial extinction by Lord John Russell
in 18.54, and the rest of the nation has come to look
upon them as moribund. Mr. Bright has only added
fifteen to the number of Lord John's condemned;
but he has in the majority of cases extended Lord
John's sentence to a total disfranchisement. In
only one instance has Mr. Bright interfered on
the side of mercy. Wilton, with its 231 electors, was
erased altogether by Lord John's bill ; Mr. Bright
allows it an asylum in Schedule B ; while, on the other
hand, Malton with 553 voters, and Guildford with 546
each having nearly double the number of electors
of any Irish borough returning a single member are
grouped among the extinguished boroughs. Wo have
searched in vain for any rule of disfranchisement. No
doubt, Mr. Bright has applied his own judgment as honestly
and impartially as possible ; but Mr. Bright's schedules
are as independent of any positive test of number or value
as if he had picked out the boroughs from some sentimental
dislike to the sound of their names. Wo cannot say, hew-
ever that we have much sympathy for the victims which
Mr:Bright has brought within the fold. Abingdon will
draw no tears even from the Lord Chancellor, Horsham
will only be missed by Parliamentary agents and counsel,
Westbury will be mourned only by Sir L, Lopes, and Hel-
sten and Woodstock are not indispensable. Some of.these
boroughs seem to have been put into the condemned list
for mixed reasons, wherein bad character and the existence
of a neighbouring influence must have sometimes weighed.
Mr. Bright does not, we hope, imagine that this imposing
group of victims will die unresisting. Many of them will
make a very plausible case ; some of them may be so un-
reasonable as to have right on their side; but all have influ-
ence, and will fight hard and die hard in this struggle.
Mr. Bright must have a more numerous and more zealous
party at his back than he has yet been able to muster before
he can make certain of destroying these 65 boroughs and
obtaining possession of their 130 seats.
This is the booty-130 seats. Now for the distribution.'
Mr. Bright hai gained a .-neat deal of experience since he
made that speech at4Eirmingham. He has quite got rid
of all his insane notions about electoral districts. Ho has
not even the moral courage to abolish such composite con-
stituencies as East Retford and the Hundred of 13assetlaw.
He is satisfied now to abide by the old divisions both of
boroughs and counties. In the first place, he gives 16
members to towns which now return only one member
each, and these are a class of towns fairly represented by
Dudley, Greenock, Chatham, Swansea, and Rochdale.
Schedule E consists of 23 still larger boroughs, such as
.Greenwich, Cork, and Wolverhampton ; 27 seat's are set
apart to make up to these large boroughs three members
each. Ascending still higher in population, Schedule F
deals with twelve great boroughs that contain between
127,000 and 270,000 inhabitants; 25 seats aro devoted to
making up to each of these boroughs a quota of four mem-
bers. Then come the gigantic populations of Manchester,
Finsbury, Glasgow, Marylebone, and Liverpool, each
nearly touching one-third of a million; these are to have
six members, and 20 seats are appropriated to make up the

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, 51).

present deficiency. The wrongs of existing boroughs are
thus redressed, but there remain some large and populous
districts which have hitherto been entirely unrepresented.
Such are Chelsea, Kensington, Gravesend, Burnley, and
Birkenhead. Mr. Bright acts cautiously in this matter. He
enfranchises 7 at an expense of 9 scats, but he wisely retains
seven unappropriated seats to sustain the hopes and excite
the emulation of his supporters. Mr. Bright has thus dis-
posed of 104 out of his 130 seats entirely, as it will be seen,
among the largo boroughs. He has only 26 remaining.
These ho bestows upon the English and Irish counties, in
the proportion of 18 to England and 8 to Ireland. Thus he
makes up his tale of 130, and with some unimportant re-
appointment of their own members among the Scotch coun-
ties Mr. Bright's scheme, so far as regards enfranchisement
and disfranchisement, is complete.
We do not profess to pass a judgment upon this important
document upon the hasty perusal which the hour at which
we received it has permitted us to give to it. Cuvier or
Owen may tell the habits and instincts of an unseen beast
by contemplating a single tooth of the creature, but we
prefer to form an opinion upon a leisurely examination of
the entire animal. Every one will be struck by the strong
contrast between Mr. Bright's speeches and Mr. Bright's
bill ; every one will be a little surprised to find that Mr.
Bright's bill is not so wildly extravagant as those who be-
lieved the orator expected from the lawgiver. But still, this
proposition involves a tremendous change. The proposal
is to take 78 seats from the country party, and to give them
to the towns. This change of 78 seats would count 156
upon a division. This is the practical effect of the scheme,
so far as we have it yet before us. Mr. Bright strikes off
from the rural boroughs 130 members. Of these ho gives
104 to the towns and 26 to the counties. Tho balance
against the county party is 78. What other ele-
ments of a democratic character there may be in
the bill we cannot yet know, but this redistribution
alone is quite sufficient to overthrow the existing balance
of interests in our House of Commons. The counties, it
must be remarked, get nothing in this distribution, for the
26 added members cannot be considered as even equal to
the mass of population and property now nearly thrown
into the counties in the shape of those 65 boroughs which
are hereafter to be portions of the county constituencies.
We are, however, rather expounding than criticising. This
scheme has evidently been prepared with great labour, and
it is put forth as one to which some persons in Parliament
and many more out of Parliament have bound themselves
v• •

It is, moreover, the first of the rival Reform Bills. It de-
serves, in every point of view, very careful consideration ;
and we hope that Mr. Bright and his friends•will enable us
to discuss his measure in its complete ferin with all its
details befdre us.

(FromtheMorning Herald.)

' Our representative institutions are now upon their trial.
This form of government has been for centuries a continued
success amongst us, securing to all classes not only a won-
derful degree of prosperity, but also a fair share of political
power. Yet representative institutions are assailed by cer-
tain members of the community as if they had proved in-
jurious to liberty instead of having served as its best de-
fence. Minor defects and petty inconveniences are pounced
upon with avidity, and because perfection has not been
attained the whole system is condemned. There are,
in fact, certain persons who regard anything approach-
ing to an equitable distribution of political power and
a fair representation of conflicting interests with
jealousy. They desire to place the supremacy in the
hands of a single class, to change the character of our
House of Commons, and make it a national assembly, in-
stead of a council composed of ambassadors from the differ-
ent interests of the kingdom. In spite of the repeated
failure of democratic experiments in continental states, in
defiance of the warning recently uttered by the President of
the United States, they cling to the fatal delusion that
universal suffrage, electoral districts, and vote by ballot,
will bring prosperity and contentment to a nation. Stub-
born facts convey a different moral, but these advocates pay
no heed whatever either to arguments or facts • that are in
opposition to their own narrow views. The admission by
the first magistrate of the American Republic, that either
in a dissolution of the confederacy or in a military despo-
tism the license of democratic rule must terminate, fails to
produce conviction in their minds. They keep hammering
away at the old theme as vigorously as if nothing had hap-
pened, and believe, or pretend to believe, that by a change
in the time-honoured institutions of a state corruption of
every kind will be removed, and man's fallen nature be
purified and rendered immaculate. In fact, they promise
to effect by political changes the great work of the regene-
ration of the human race, which a higher authority has
told us is beyond the scope of mortal achievement.
The new regenerators of mankind have found in the
member for Birmingham an enthusiastic ally. During
the recess he has toiled diligently, though not con-
sistently, at the scheme. One day the Sisyphus of
democracy has rolled the heavy stone of reform a few
paces up the incline, the next he has tried to push it
in quite a different direction. He began the crusade
with the exploded doctrine of man's inalienable right
to the suffrage. The first speech at Birmingham was
but a feeble echo of the revolutionary cry of " Liberty,
equality, and fraternity." But the common sense of Eng-
lishmen revolted at the idea of a crusade against our exist-
ing institutions, waged after this fashion, and Mr. Bright
moderated his tone. He abandoned universal suffrage in
despair, and declared that he only wished to extend the Re-
form Bill of 1832, which ho had before denounced in the
strongest manner. Last night the hon. gentleman enlight-
ened the people of Bradford on the principles of the mea-
sure itself. If we call to mind the virulence with which
Mr. Bright has assailed the constitution of this country we
are constrained to admit that his measure is, comparatively
speaking, harmless. The assailant of Crown, Lords, and
Commons, has come down from the stezile heights of demo-
cratic innovation, and only asks for a small instalment of
the destruction ho once openly preached. Even this stal-
wart champion's eyes have been opened to the impossibility
of reducing England to the dimensions of a fourth-rate
power. He is aware that wholesale and indiscriminate at-
tack has damaged his cause, so he suddenly gives up the
panaceas that were to accomplish marvels. Not a word
does he now say of electoral districts or universal suffrage.
The bill contains 12 schedules, and the sword of disfran-
chisement is brandished over the heads of certain consti-
tuencies, while other favoured localities aro to receive an
accession of members. But this champion of the rights of
man did not tell his audience why a person dwelling in one
of the smaller boroughs should be deprived even of a single
vote, while the favoured inhabitant of either of the two
wards into which the city of Manchester is to be portioned
out will have three. If the franchise can he claimed by
every Briton as a right, how are we to account for this
anomaly ? Mr. Bright has abandoned his theory,
and his object is to secure for the manufacturing
towns the preponderance. So he shapes his bill in such a
way that all the smaller boroughs will be entirely abolished
and the larger towns obtain additional members. We need
not on this occasion comment upon his positive injustice to
.the counties. Why are their large populations to be left
out of the calculation, and the boroughs, that already enjoy
a preponderance, to have that preponderance increased ?
With one breath Mr. Bright argues in favour of numbers,
with the next he declares that numbers in the counties go
for nothing. It is only in boroughs that the individual
elector attains full development and stands the least chance
of obtaining what has been rather facetiously described as
his birthrigt.

One faci'will show the positive unfairness, not to say in-
justice, of the scheme. It is proposed, in schedule G, that
five boroughs, exceeding 316,000 inhabitants, and now re-
turning two members each, shall in future return six mem-
bers each. These boroughs are to be divided into two
wards, each ward returningthree members, and each elector
is to be registered in one ward only. Our readers will na-
turally ask why the number of inhabitants has been fixed at
the arbitrary standard of 316,000 ? The answer will afford
an idea of Mr. Bright's love of fair play. This schedule
contains the names of five boroughs—Liverpool, with its
375,955 inhabitants ; Marylebone, with 370,957 ; Glasgow,
with 329,097; Finsbury, with 323,771; and Manchester,
with 316,213 inhabitants. The number 316,000 inhabi-
tants has been fixed upon as giving to a borough the right
of returning six members to Parliament, and fortunate
Manchester has exactly two hundred and thirteen to spare.
By a happy coincidence the great cotton mart comes within
the magic circle. Dublin can boast of 265,252 inha-
bitants—that is, 50,961 less than Manchester, the
well-beloved—and is to return only four members.
But the population of Manchester is less than that of
Liverpool by 59,742 souls, yet both boroughs are to
return the same number of members to Parliament.
Dublin has fifty thousand nine hundred and sixty-one in-
habitants less than Manchester, and for that reason loses
two members. Manchester has fifty-nine thousand seven
hundred and forty-two inhabitants less than Liverpool, yet
is to have equal privileges in this new reform scheme. Such
is the equitable arrangement contemplated by Reformers
who tell us that numbers form the proper basis of repre-
sentation, and who talk loudly on the rights of all men and
of justice being rigidly administered.
This is only one specimen, and by do means the worst, to
be found in a proposal that has been industriously puffed in
many quarters, and is regardedas the bill of rights of those
who desire to substitute class legislation for our represen-
tative institutions. The rating franchise for boroughs, and
a ten-pound qualification for counties, have gained the
mastery over the inalienable-right doctrine, and Mr.
Bright, who a short time since refused to place any limits
whatever to the franchise, destroys at one fell swoop the
rising hopes of many an unfledged elector. The modern
Prospero doffs his mantle and breaks his wand, and endea-
vours to follow, though with his usual eccentricity and
exaggeration, the antecedents of other Reformers. He in-
creases the number of members in one direction, and sweeps
away- a constituency in another; but he is no longer the
real Simon Pure, and those who remember his former
pledges ask in amazement for an explanation of the enigma.
It is not, however, our duty to account for the inconsis-
tencies of these advocates. It is sufficient for us to show
that those who denounce everybody and everything have
their weak side, and that between their promises and their
performance a wide distinction exists. It is not only in
the drama that the unities of time, place, and action are
violated, and farces as well as tragedies are sometimes per-
formed by very solemn actors. Such assuredly was the
case at Bradford last night, and we are not surprised to
learn that model Reformers are already making wry faces.

POSTAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN IRELAND
AND ENGLAND.—The city article of the Freeman of yester-
day says the City of Dublin Steam Company held a special
meeting on Saturday to receive the report of the directors
in reference to the contract for the mail service. The re-
port was adopted. There are to be two departures from
Dublin-7 a.m. and 7.30 p.m; and two from London—at
7.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m. The distance to be performed in
eleven hours, or a penalty of 345. a minute. Four boats,
COO-horse power and 300 feet long, to be built for the ser-
vice, with a speed of 20 miles an hour. The contract was
signed on the 3d of January, and the company must be
ready to start to work in two years.
[ADVFIRTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Pills and Ointment—
Health—Air.—The mildness of the present weather,
though a boon to the verypoor and destitute, who, Frie and
to relate, often want food and raiment, is weakentng
enervating to the body ; hence fever, diphtheria, chest corn-
plaints, and gout have been so prevalent, and in some loca-
lities an epidemic diphtheria has prevailed, as at Salisbury 1
and Windsor; in both places Holloway's preparations
chocked that and its kindred febrile complaints with uner-
ring certainty, and the pills, taken as preventives, saved
hundreds from receiving the infection or disorder. Hol-
loway's medicines correct the depressing effects of this mild,
damp weather; they purify the blood and restore tone to
every organ in the body, more especially to the brain and
la ma.