The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-11 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PA R MAME NT:

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—(YESTERDAY.)
The SPEAKER took the chair at 12 o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

T' e following bills were considered and ordered for third
reading :
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Branches to Shaw-
forth, &c.), Lancashire and Yorkshire (Extension to Settle),
London and North-Western Railway (Eccles, Tyldesley,
and Wigan), Midland Railway (Additional Powers), Mid-
land Railway (New Lines).
. _ PETITIONS.

A large number of petitions werepresented from different
parts of the country, and most numerously signed, in favour
of the Borough Franchise Bill, and censuring the conduct
of the Government in abandoning the question of Parlia-
mentary Reform, after the distinct pledge they had given,
and which led to the Derby administration being turned
out of office.
Several petitions were also presented against the Poor
Law Removal Bill, the Parochial Assessment Bill, the
Highway Bill, the Abolition of the Church Rates, and
Legalising Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, &c.
THE LAW COURTS.
The •ATTORNEY-GENERAL gave notice that on
Thursday, the 18th inst., he would move for leave to bring
in a bill for the concentration of all the law courts, includ-
ing the Probate and Divorce Court, the Admiralty Court,
and the Equity Courts, and for the application of funds in
Chancery for the purchase of a site for that purpose.
CENSUS. PAPERS.

On the motion of Mr. SCULLY, copies of the printed
forms of the census papers for England, Ireland, and Scot-
land, respectively, were ordered.
BOROUGH FRANCHISE BILL.

Mr. BAINES, in moving the second reading of this bill,
appealed to the house for the indulgence that was conceded
to a member who was anxious to discharge his duty con-
scientiously, and said he was there to advocate the interests
of a large body of his countrymen, who; he believed, de-
sired and deserved to be admitted to the political
privilege from which they were at present excluded.
When the Government introduced their measure of Reform
he supported it in this house and elsewhere. That bill same
recommended to them by the Sovereign, and its principle
received the assent of both sides of the house, and when an
appeal was made to the country at the last general election,
it received also the assent of the country. in introducing
this bill he was, therefore, not bringing forward any
new principle, but one that had already been
sanctioned by the Sovereign and the house. He was met
with two preliminary objections, namely;thsttetresetemere of
this description should be introduced by her Majesty's Go-
vernment, and not by a private member, and that Reform
should be dealt with by a comprehensive measure and not in
detail. His answer to the first was that this measure had
really been introduced by Government one previous occasion,
and with regard to the next objection, he would draw atten-
tion to the fact that Parliament had legislated on the ques-
tion of Reform in separate and detached parts, and with
great success. The experience of the last nine years showed
how difficult it was to carry out any general measure of Re-
form through that house ; and he referred to the progress
of legislation in regard to criminal law and bankruptcy
in support of his position. It had also been
objected that the people did not make any demand for '
reform, but that was more correct when it was at first
asserted than it was at present, as was apparent from the
petitions which had been presented to the house, and the
meetings that had been held throughout the country in
favour of reform. He was ready to admit that, in conse-
quence of the general prosperity, there had been an apathy
'with regard to this subject, as well as to other popular
questions. But they had no security that the
present calm would not be converted into a storm, and he
cited the authority of Lord John Russell, to show how
much more advisable it was to legislate on the subject of
reform in a period when the people were quiet instead of
when they were agitated. (Hear, hear.) He would be
able shortly to show that during the last 30 years there had
been an increase in the intelligence of the people not
only in proportion to their population, as had
been stated on a previous %ccasion by the ho-
nourable member for Buckingham, but in consider-
able excess of population. during the period to
which he alluded the population in England and Wales had
risen from 14,000,000 to 20,000,000, which was at the rate
of about 43 per cent., and he contended that the £6 occu •
pier of 1861 was better qualified to exercise the fran-
chise than the £lO householder of 1825. His bill
simply proposed to meet this state, by extending the fran-
chise to £6 occupiers, which was what the Government had
endeavoured to effect. He had, however, an advantage
which Government did not then possess, being in posses-
sion of returns relative to male occupiers in parliamentary
boroughs, which had been returned to the parochial autho-
rities, by whom they were amended and re-presented to
the house. It appeared that the whole number of
voters in boroughs in England and Wales was 442,210,
and his bill proposed to add about 211,269 to that,
which would make a total of over 653,400.
But there would be deductions from these in consequence
of persons omitting to register or from other disqualifica •
tions. He founded this upon what was shown to have
taken place with reference to the £lO voters, which amounted
to 27 per cent. deduction, and he contended that in the case
of the poorer voters the deduction would be larger, from their
more frequent removals and other causes. The conse-
quence of this deduction would be to reduce the
211,300 additional voters to something like 200,000.
There were deductions to be made with respect to scot and
lot voters, and the amount would be further reduced to 180,000
additional voters. The great bugbear relative to the reduc-
tion of the franchise, was, that it would admit a majority
of the working-classes to the electoral body ; but the fact
was that only about three-fourths of these classes
would obtain the franchise, which would reduce the
amount of voters from that body to 135,000. The hon.
member then went into additional statistics to show that
the number of electors of the working classes would, in
reality, not exceed 20 per cent. of the whole electoral
body He then alluded to the improvements that had
taken place in the c ndition of the working classes
during the last 30 years in foreign trade, commerce, navi-
gation, and manufactures, which had increased to an
extent unprecedented in the annals of a civilised country.
He also adverted to the extraordinary development of the.
railway system, and to the rapid increase or news-
papers, periodicals, and educational works, to show
the great extension of the intelligence of the community ;
and he contended that this improvement must be taken to
the account of the working clauses, as the education of the
upper and middle classes had been previously
provided for. The honourable member then went
in detail through the various social, moral, and intellectual
developments of the community during the period to which
his observations alluded, and argued that this fully de-
monstrated that the working classes were entitled to the
possession of the franchise. He recapitulated the different
points to which he had already adverted, and dwelt strongly
on the growth of temperance and mechanics institutes, and
the diminution of crime, and the cost of pauperism, in
support of his assertion, that the improvements which he
had described showed the progress and elevation of the
working classes. Notwithstanding the prosperity which
this country had enjoyed, they ought not to forget that
they had already had one bad harvest and were threatened
with another. Moreover, there was some doubt as to the
supply of the raw material on which Manchester and other
places depended for their manufactures, and a tariff had
been decided on in America which excluded their manufac-
tures, and their horizon was darkened in other directions.
He maintained that greater security for the defence of the
country and the permanence of the constitution depended
on the contentment of the masses, and he concluded by
an earnest appeal to the house not to reject his bill, which
was calculated to promote that spirit of contentment
amongst the humbler classes •of the community.
Mr. DIGBY SEYMOUR, in seconding the motion,
said that he came to the house prepared with a number of
notes on this question, but he found it would be unne-
ceseary to use them in consequence of the able speech of
Mr. Baines, which had quite exhausted this subject,
by presenting the working man in his different relations to
society. The bill of his hon. friend did not seek to revolu-
tionise but to popularise the constitution, by admitting
within its precincts a large number of well-conducted and
thinking men. The measure was intended to give effect
to the principle of the ancient constitution, which gave the
rights of voting to all those paying scot and lot. The bill
of 1832 gave admission to a large number of the mer-
cantile and middle classes, who had been previously
excluded from a voice in that house, and his honour-
able friend (Mr. Baines) merely proposed to supplement
that bill. He deprecated in the strongest manner the con-
duct of the Government in respect to the Reform Bill, and
called on the house to support the present measure, as one
that would give a large instalment of reform, and lead to
soothe the feelings of the working classes, who were neces-
sarily exasperated by the manner in which successive Go-
vernments had treated them in reference to the extension
of the electoral franchise.

Mr. CAVE moved as an amendment the previous ques-
tion. He had listened with great attention to the speeches
of the two hon. members who had addressed the house, but
he could not discover anything new in their arguments or
the facts which they adduced to induce Parliament to de-
part from the determination of last session, particularly
after the decision communicated a few weeks since to the
house by her Majesty's Government. He contended that
the bill was presented in a more objectionable shape, at a
most inopportune time, and emanated from a quarter which
was not entitled to respect. In regard to the last ground of
his objection, he disclaimed any personality towards the
hon. member for Leeds, and merely wished to conviy that the
house had a right to expect that a measure of this kind,
which proposed to reorganise the constitution of the country
should be brought forward on the part of a united Cabinet.
He argued that there was no general expression by the com•
munity in favour of reform, and that the people were arming
themselves in support of that very constitution which it was
now sought to reconstruct, and that it would be most dan-
gerous at present to assent to the proposed alteration.
Mr. A. SMITH seconded the amendment. He alluded
to the case of Sheffield, where, if the lower class of voters
were increased, as the bill proposed, the whole political
power of the bormigh would be speedily transferred. This
would occur in other places, and the principle of the consti-
tution would be gradually subverted, and he considered the
further discussion of the bill would be a waste of time.
Mr. LEATHAM supported the second reading, and con-
demned the conduct of the Government relative to the
question of reform. Ho commented also on the conduct of
those members who, before the last general election, were so
zealous for reform, though now so indifferent to the ques-
tion ; and he believed that if there were another general
election they would all suddenly again be Reformers.
(Hear, hear, and laughter.) His hon. friend the member
for Birmingham (Mr. Bright) has been accused of using
inflammatory argument, and being revolutionary ; but he
considered that those hon. members who opposed the admis-
sion of a larger number within the constitution were, in
reality, the revolutionary party, and the most dangerous to
that constitution. He criticised at some length the
speeches of Mr. Disraeli, Sir E. B. Lytton, and
other distinguished members of the Opposition last
session on the reform debate, and contended that their argu-
ments were fallacious. He pointed to the inconsistency of
some hon. members who were always praising the working
classes, and always voting against them.
Sir J. RAMSDEN considered that this subject should
not have been brought forward after the statement of the
Government at the commencement of the session, and the
reasons they had urged for the course they had
proper to adopt in reference to reform. He defended the
Government, vernment, and contended that the house would be
that
hist G oovpei
stulti-
fying itself if hon. members supported the bill this year,
thought
affirming, as it did, that legislation was practicable, and yet
the slig • htest chance of this
nrniomnetnhterreefwusaesdntoot attempt it at the present time.
bill being carried ; and, with regard to its abstract merits,
the Liberal party found they did not thrive on abstractions.
The Government were declining in honour and credit
with the country in consequence of their having held forth
expectations with regard to Reform which they could
not realise, and making promises they could not
perform. (Hear, hear, from the Opposition benches.)
He believed that all parties would benefit by experience in
respect to what were now admitted mistakes relative to this