The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-19 00:00:00

TILE APPROPRIATION OF SE 4 TS (BUD-

BURY AND ST ALBANS) ACT,

The following is the-protest against the third
reading of the bill for appropriating the vacant
seats of Sudbury and St. Albans, entered on the
journals of the House of Lords, by Lord Strath.
eden, who had before moved to refer the bill to a
select committee :
Dissentient.

First. Becausu the third reading took place out of the
order in which the bill stood upon the notice paper, at a
time when public business was not expected to come on,
and not upon the motion of the Minister in whose name
the bill stood, thus making it impossible for peers who
wished to do so to take any part in this final stage.
Second. Because a former stage, viz., the second read-
ing, had been virtually annulled, and moved pro forma only
at an hour when by general admission it was not possible
to go into debate; all consideration of the bill being thus
reduced to the single stage of going into committee on the
29th of July.

Third. Because a resolution of the house has frequently
declared that at that period important measures cannot have
the full deliberation which they merit.
Fourth. Because a precedent has been thus formed for
passing to the statute-book a measure of organic change►
without the effective sanction of the House of Lords. And
if such organic change as the public interest requirfa is
now to be developed in a series of measures, and no, in-
cluded in a single scheme, the danger of such a precedent
being often followed is apparent.
Fifth Because while the bill has not had the effective
sanction of the House of Lords, so neither has it tad that
of either party in the Commons ; the Opposition and the
Government in that House of Parliament having both de•
clared in the course of the session that the vacant seats
ought to be otherwise distributed than by tkis bill they
are.

Sixth. Because so long as those seats were vacant a
nctorious defect in the Reform Act might eventually be
remedied without increasing the members of the House of
Commons ; the defect, in consequence of which, since 1833
distinguished public men, against the wishes of the country
have been excluded from the Legislature ; and which arises
from the want of corrective power in the State to return
those whom the united body of the nation would have
chosen, but who, from local circumstances, have not been
chosen by any of the sections into which the country at a
general election is divided.

Seventh. Beause the existence of such a vice in the
Reform Act is convincingly established by the fact that,
since 1832, Sir William Molesworth, Lord Macaulay, Lord
Carlisle, Sir Edward Lytton, Mr. Bright,:Mr. Cobden, Mr.
Milner Gibson, and the late Mr. Bernal, amongst others,
have, after general elections, been kept out of Parliament,
while the public could not be said in any of these cases to
have either caused or sanctioned the exclusion.
Eighth. Because to form any system by which the casual
deficiencies of a general election might be afterwards re-
mo red, accorditfg to the interest or voice of the community,
the four vacant seats, if not essential, were desirable, as the
space to build on ; while they are now appropriated in a
manner whieh no necessity dictated, which meets no pop'
lar demand, which takes away no public inconvenience, and
bestows no kind of new advantage on the empire.
Ninth. Because the defect to some remedy of which these
seats might have been devoted leads to serious results beyond
a palpable anomaly. An anomaly of this kind occurs what
a State, however firm in its opinion that given individuals
ought to serve it in its representative assembly, has no
power to return them if they have been outvoted by a single
local body at a general election.

Tenth. Because before 1832 the States bad the power in
question through a method it is not now desirable to call
again into existence, the Opposition and the Government
possessing at that time the means of bringing into Parlia-
ment, by the boroughs which each had at its disposal,
distinguished men whom the general election bad ex-
cluded. It is only, therefore, necessary that an important
end which was gained for many years by objectionable
means should be now secured by means which are legiti•
mate.

Eleventh. Because whatever means are now resorted to
to invest the State with this necessary power, the vacant
seats having been appropriated, such means can only be
applied by increasing the number of the House of Commove
beyond a point which is generally felt to he excessive. In
order, therefore, to remove one evil in our representative
arrangements, it becomes essential in some degree to aggra•
vete another, a dilemma into which States may be forced by
various events, but which it is against the rules of policy to
choose and to create by doubtful legislation.
Twelfth. Because among the results of the evil which it
has thus become more difficult to remedy, the State may bey
and has been, in this manner deprived of official talent it
requires, but which can only be exercised in conjunction
with a seat in Parliament. Beyond this, until the country
has the power, after a general election, of calling to its re-
presentative assembly these whom it deems erroneously ex-
cluded, public life must always be embraced with the risk
of an unauthorised and arbitrary exile such as no other
esrper invnlvarl ; it cannot, thorofore, be embraced by many
whom the State would most desire to draw into its service.
In effect it is confined to the few whose property or family
insure a permanent connection with a county or a borough,
and at every change in the Reform Act these few are likely
to become fewer.
Thirteenth. Because, apart from the public wrong, these
vacant seats might have been devoted to removing a bill
which increases the number of the county members by re-
ducing the number of the borough members, and forms con-
stituencies open to none but persons locally connected with
them, in place of constituencies at which all public men
might equally be candidates, appears retrograde in charac-
ter, and ought not to have been passed without a greater
show of argument to vindicate it.
Fourteenth. Because the gift of two seats to the West
Riding of Yorkshire, not to come into use until a disso•
lution, is an uncalled for sacrifice of the deliberative free-
dom which might have otherwise employed them, and is no
present gain to the locality it favours. The right of Par-
liament to deal with those two seats is without beneft to
any interest abandoned ; and neither precedent nor policy
imposed upon the Legislature the duty of appropriating
the four seats in one measure, becoming vacant, as they
did, at different times and under different acts of Parlia-
ment.

STRATHEDEN and CAMPBELL.

THE IRISH HARVBSTTGENBRAL PROSPECTS

(From the Dublin Evening Post.)
Hitherto our reports have been favourable, and still We
indulge strong hopes of a good harvest, notwithstanding
the changeable weather and the vast quantity of rain fall-
ing at this critical period in the month of August. The
telegraphic reports yesterday announced rail' in every part
of Ireland but one—the fortunate exception, being Portrush,
a watering place on the northern coast, near the Giant's
Causeway, which has been rendered somewhat celebrated
by a railway erected by Mr. Darga;n, by his own private
enterprise, between that town and the thriving manufac-
turing town of Ballymena. Everywhere else, all day yes-
terday, there was a steady down-pour of rain, saturating
lands before quite moist enough. But it is still more re-
markable that the telegraphic reports from Great Britain,
with a single exception, mentioned the prevalence of fine
summer weather throughout England and Scotland.
The continuance of heavy rain yesterday had a depress-
ing effect upon all classes of people in this city, especially
mercantile men, who have had experience of the serious
injury that has resulted from short crops in 1859, and
very deficient harvest in 1860. Many farmers have since
been living and paying rents partly out of the profits of
previous years. Traders and shopkeepers have suffered
from a decrease of business and a falling off in profits ; and
many of thorn are now cautious about laying in stocks for
autumn or winter, until they ascertain the fate of the har-
vest, upon which so much depends for the recovery of trade
and the restoration of confidence.

We are assured that there is a fine and even an abundant
harvest in America, from whence the United Kingdom has
obtained considerable quantities of bread-stuffs in defi-
cient years ; but those supplies had to be paid for, and
thus the exhausting process that takes away much of the
wealth of the country has been continued. In some parts
of Europe—certainly in France, which has often sent us
supplies—there will be a somewhat deficient harvest ; and
for some weeks there has been an active demand in the
English market on French account. It is an encouraging
feature that French purchasers ceased to press so much at
Mark-lane this week ; and that the " brilliant weather "
yesterday, whilst there was a deluge here, caused " a de+
cline in old English wheat left over from Monday of 2s, tO
3s. per qr. upon the prices of last week."

THE IRON TRADE.—The shipments of Scotch pig
iron during the present year as compared With the corns.
sponding period of 1860 exhibit the following results :-
1861., 1860.
Month ending Jan. 26 Tors. T0n5.31,519• 32,454
Feb. 29;738•• 25,278
)5 March 30 , 42,554 •46,928
3) April 27• •62,622 50,585
May 25 65,637• 54,488
), June 29 .. 73600 .. 52,925
July 27 .. 48,304 47,846
Week ending, Aug. 3.. 11,971 10,949
), Aug. 10 10,237 12,871
These figures show a total export of 376,182 tons in the last
32 weeks, as against 334,324 tons in 1860, being an increase
of 41,858 tons. The totals do not, of course, include the
quantities which have gone into consumption in Scotland
and through inland communications. The production hag
been reduced during 1 he last 3ix months, the number of fur'
naces in blast in Scotland having been only 119 in July as
compared with 131 in January. The same dulness is ob-
servable in other parts of the country, the number of fur-
naces in blast in England having been 256 in July as com-
pareed with 276 in Januai y, and in Wales 129 as compared
with 145 in January. Altogether 48 furnaces are thug
shown to have been blown out ; and, assuming that a speed)"
improvement does not take place, this year's make of pig
iron will probably be from 300,000 to 400,000 tons less thsa
in 1860,