The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-22 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PA RIJA Al EN 'l'.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—(YESTERDAY.)
The Lonn CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.

GLEBE HOUSES.
Viscount DUNGANNON gave notice that on Thursday
he should ask the most rev. primate, whether it was in-
tended to introduce, during the present session, any bill
with respect to the delapidation of glebe houses.

THE BALLOT.
Lord TEYNHAM presented a r titian from Manchester
in favour of vote by ballot.

CHURCH RATES.
Lord BERNERS presented a petition against the aboli-
tion of church rates without an equivalent.
THE LABOURING CLASSES.
The Earl of DERBY gyve notice that on Friday next
he should present a petition with respect to the displace-
ment of large bodies of the labouring classes occasioned
by the introduction of railways into the metropolis.
THE CASE OF MR. TURNBULL.
The Marquis of NORMANDY read the precise form of
the motion he intended to submit with respect to the case
of Mr. Turnbull. It was to the effect that their lordships
express their regret at the circumstance.

INDICTABLE OFFENCES BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
FICTITIOUS SAVINGS BANKS.
On the motion of Lord MONTEAGLE, this bill was
road a third time and passed.

SECOND READINGS.
The following bills were read a second time :—Fife and
Kinross Railway; Uxbridge Gas; West Cornwall Railway;
Wigan Gas; Wolverhampton New Water; Northampton
Water ; West London Extension Railway ; Charing Cross
Railway (City Terminus) ; Edgeware, Highgate, and Lon-
don Railway ; Rumney Railway; Caledonian Railway
(Calend and Branches) ; and Caledonian Railway (Ruther-
glen and Coatbridge Branches).
CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICES BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
Lord STRATHEDEN said the notice he had given was
to call attention to the report of the committee of last year
on the reduction of the franchise, and to move for a return
of the forty shilling freeholders, by which he meant the free-
holders above that limit in each county in England and
Wales. If the notice only gave an opportunity to those who
took an active part on the committee of stating the impres-
sions to which the evidence had led them, he should not
repent of having put it on the paper. This was the very mo-
ment when such impressions might be brought before the
country with advantage. At that vet y moment as he spoke
the attitude of the country on the question of reform was
neutral and deliberative. That attitude was shared by Op-
position and by Government. All three might very soon be
forced into a different one, which it would then be vain to
seek to influence or modify. (Hear, hear.) Beyond this it
should never be forgotten that the immediate purpose of the
committee vanished, because the bill it was intended to
throw light upon expired before its labours were concluded.
Considering that 54 witnesses were called, that 3,770 ques-
tions were put, and that the inquiry stretched into a period
of almost nine weeks, those labours ought not to pass too
soon into oblivion. The country might fairly ask what line
of policy it tended to advance, and how far that line was
upheld by views beyond the scope of the inquiry. He had
meant at first to touch upon the evidence of the revising
barristers who had been summoned, but on reflection he
would leave that point to those who had examined them.
The further observations which he had to make would be
trii'ected to support the return for which he moved ; and on
ethis point he ,hoped the noble lord, the President of the
L...euncil, would grant him that indulgence which it would
'etee.perhapeepeesumpte4 e teuse..eetpect from many of their , .
re'rdships. The kind of ground on which he asked for the
return was, that as they could not stand still for any time
after what had happened, occasional reform and compre-
hensive legislation were the only lines open to the country,
and the more so because to stand still for any time was
but another phrase for comprehensive legislation, which it
must inevitably lead to; that the reduction of the borough
franchise was beset by difficulties almost insurmountable,
and on this point the evidence was cogent; that the county
franchise was a safer field in which to move, but that re-
duction of it was impossible until you had a document to
show the number of the freeholders compared with the
number of the occupying voters which a twenty-pound or a
ten-pound limit would occasion. -As regards the borough
franchise it was clear to most of those who are conversant
with it that you must either keep it as it is, advance it to a
point by which the power of the middle classes would be
neutralised, or introduce the inequality between those above
a certain rental and those beneath it, which great reasoners
have pointed to, but which the public had not yet con-
sidered with attention. It was not too much to state
that the county franchise was entitled to precedence in
the question. But as the effect of what had been said turned
upon occasional reform, he meant by such a phrase
that course of dealing separately with the features of the
subject, according to the exigencies of the time and the
opinions of the country, which the present Minister had
declaied to be his policy before the general election of 1857,
and from which he had deported since—how far with
credit to himself the historian of 1860 might determine.
In favour of that policy there was one well-known pre-
sumption, although too much weight ought not to be
attached to it. It had been already sanctioned by the
Legislatute. On this prinCiple the Irish franchise was
extended in 1850 by the influence of one Government, and
the qualification of members was in 1858 abolished by the
influence of another Government. (Hear, hear.) A more
serious presumption by far, in favour of that policy is, that
the plan of a new and comprehensive, or as it was termed
in the jargon of the day, a reconstructive settlement, had
been attempted four times with uniform disgrace to all
the Governments who ventured on it. It was needless to
remind them that the Government of 1852, after finding
its scheme an object of severe animadversion from every
quarter of the Press and the, public, although much might
be urged in its defence, in ten days renounced the desperate
position it was placed in ; that the Government of 1854
was forced by a concurrence of all parties to withdraw their
measure of Reform on the eve of the Russian war, and
never regained the credit they had lost by this unstates -
manlike and ill-timed proposition; or that the Government
of 1859 was out .voted in their measure, and in vain ap-
pealed to a general election to reverse the judgment of the
House of Commons. It was still less necessary to remind
them of what occurred in 1860 On this subject. The unfore
tunate reception by which these new settlements of Reform
were strangled in their cradles could not be ascribed to want
of talent in the Cabinets which framed them. They could
not be ascribed to any temporary causes. The more their
failure was examined, the more it would be traced to
causes which survive, and of which the operation may
be confidently reckoned on. He would touch on one or
two in passing. They must array against them the
hostility of Parliament, because they threatened dissolu-
tion. They must excite the opposition of the day into
activity, because on projects so ambitious and so vulnerable
far more than on any other, the Government advancing
them might be successfully attacked. They must also
snore or less create disunion in the Cabinet which forms
them, because unless you have an object to pursue, and
principle to go upon, as you had in 1832, no twelve states-
men can agree on what ought to be the nature of the set-
tlement. They must excite some degree of popular resent-
ment out of doors when they affect stability and perma-
nence, and when some changes are excluded from them
which interest electors more than any other, but which the
statesmen of our day are all united in opposing. (Hear,
hear.) But when the line of occasional reform is con-
trasted with that of a new settlement, it suggests a further
observation. It was the line of policy conceived to be
established, as far as their opinions are revealed, by all
enlightened statesmen of all important parties from 1832
to 1851. Except among the school who openly avowed that
their object was to concentrate the power or the State in the
working classes by means of universal suffrage, no one ever
dreamt of a new settlement till the Minister of the d n
1851 engaged himself to offer one. The shock which all
e
Europe received from the fall of the French into
extended its vibrations to this country.
forced
upon the
activity passions which had slept, a
ans
had been forgotten.
Ilatroroused
Legislature topics which for manYyeea.raus
exhausted,
the agitation
But the fever which it led to was en
,wthimatppearndt
before the Minister in 1851
it encouraged had passed by,
therefore, can be more natural
ionnfotrhme eßdetfhorenawoAroldt. thiahthaata7awngusetstgleeraisenretnmouunstoendo
has been abandoned.
public
.I.3_7hoau.ldthreelyapasheoinuitao thhoeldmaodneeowf tshietntlke-,
tinhganitthasust the public
t of
men and believe that separate reforms
for and impolitic,
representative arrangements to be uncalled
will do all their interest requires and all their interest
admits of. From 1833 to 1851 the intention of
the country seemed to be never to allow itself to
be engrossed in a general discussion of the question,
upon what ground to form its representative assembly .
The convulsions of two years were the price advanced for
many calculated benefits. Among those calculated benefits '
was immunity in all time to come, rot indeed from the
existence, but at least from the supremacy of that inflam-
matory topic which ha'a brought society to the verge of civil
war, and placed the country in the feeblest position it
could hold towards European Powers. If that intention
was a prudent one, if it was clouded for a certain time
by unfortunate events and by untoward pledges, if the
events have passed and if the pledges are exploded, what
is there to prevent the national conviction from again
recovering the firmness and distinctness which origi-
nally marked it ? When in practice it has twice
led to sound results without the medium of disturbance,
while four times a tentative departure from it has
been at once calamitous and fruitless, what is there to
prevent the country from reverting to its first ideas, Cor-
roborated by its subsequent experience ? (Hear.) But
these were mere presumptions in favour of the line which
he adverted to. But what are the precise and palpable
advantages it has over the attempt at a new settlement ?
It does not bring about the dissolution of the Parliament
was
which carries it. When, in 1850, the Irish frantsee
nee
extended, there was not a whisper of dissolving
the
vein:
not point out that frequent dissolutions reduced
Of the Legislature by reducing the mass of Parliamentary