The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-30 00:00:00

ON,

and that the democratic party in the State would applaud
the house if they rejected it. Is the Government engaged
per fax et nefas to advance it ? It is by a course of Minis-
terial defeats that it has gained the form in which it reaches
us. Are the Opposition deeply and irrevocably pledged to
it ? In the other House of Parliament the Opposition have
declared themselves in favour of anther project. But is
the public bent upon obtaining it ? :le most distinguished
organ of the general opinion three times advised the Go-
vernment in a friendly spirit to renoence it. Never was a
bill, therefore, which came more thoroughly within the
prohibitory spirit of the standing order, or which it was less
essential to set at nought by proceeding with it. If there-
fore you view the motion to refer the bill to a select com-
mittee as a motion to reject it, on these grounds it is legi •
timate to do so. But if the motion is regarded as a motion
for inquiry, it is far more easy to defend it. For as
regards the present bill, one thing must be admitted,
namely, that the onus probandi falls not on its opponents
but its advocates. To increase the House of Commons by
four members, so far as the mere numerical addition goes,
by 01 conversant with the subject is regarded as an evil.
The excess of numbers may disturb and compromise poli-
tical assemblies as well as the privation of them. In the
House of Lords the evils which result from the want of
numbers have been frequently ;referred to. In the House
of Commons the reverse of the picture is displayed. It is
usually admitted that before the Irish Union swelled it by
a hundred the assembly was more adapted to the purposes
of business than it is at present. The room in which the
house meets will not accommodate six hundred. And
unless night by night for at least three hours the
usages of Parliament reduced the number present to a
small proportion of the whole, it would be impossible to go
through the clauses of the bills 3nel through the items of
the estimates. No kind of ParlitiMehtary or public incon-
venience has resulted_ from the want of the four members.
It has been convincingly explained that 658 was not a con-
stitutional,
but accidental number. It was only upon
Irish' grounds that the House of Commons was ever car-
ried to- that limit ; and it is not on Irish grounds that
this bill can be supported. The questions must therefore
force themselves upon us— Cul bone is the bill brought for-
ward ?—what end does it attain I—what advantage does
it furnish ?—what complication does it remedy ?—what
popular demand does it 'Assuage ?—what interest requires
it? And if these questions have not been answered in
debate, the select committee might dispose of them.
Another ground for the inquiry would occur from the
number of interests and claims to be adjusted. Salford,
Burnley, Middlesex, and Kensington, the Inns of Law,
and Scottish Universities, the London University have
all pursued the gift to be distributed. In 18.52, in 1854,
in 1859, in 1860, and at Present, Government have
offered different modes of dealing with these vacancies. It
is therefore clear that no strong or general conviction has
been formed as to the proper manner of disposing of them.
And while this is so the claims which it is not proposed to
satisfy may fairly ask inquiry from the legislature before
that doom is finally pronounced. But such inquiry may
eandsesautsp are unappro-
be asked upon a ground far more imperial and general.
deal by and bye with
erior to, those
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one of the most fatal and notorious defects of the Reform
Act. And if you fill them uP as it is proposed, you lose
your chance of doing so. What is the defect which I refer
to ? The Reform Acthas no doubt succeeded in ex pressing
the opinions of the country. It has succeeded in forming an
assembly equal in intelligence and station to the work
which comes before it. Bilt it has not succeeded in the third
great function it aspired to,the function of returning to the
House of Commons all those who havng sat there, ought to
have a seat in it according to the judgtient of the public and
of Parliament. It can only discharge this function when
you have, as before 1832 you had, a ccrrective power in the
State to do what the country wishes to be done, when the
general election happens not to do it. By the judicious
use of these, four seats you might perhaps arrive at such a
power; but if you rashly part with them, when no kind of
popular demand asks you so to do, yet will not arrive at it
except by increasing the numbere of the House of Com-
mons beyond 658, and this would scarcely ever be regarded
as admissible. But as regards the proposition that the
general elections since 1832 have fallen short of one result
they were intended to accomplish, it is easy to establish it
by referring to a series of distinguished men who since
that epoch have, for longer or shorter times, been
thrown out of Parliament, while not one could be
considered as excluded by the wishes of the country. Sir
William Molesworth, Lord Macaulay, and Sir Edward
Lytton are sufficient illustrations. They suffice at least
to prove that be a man connected with the Radicals, the
Whigs, or the Conservatives, the suppert and admiration
of the country are no security for constant access to the
Legislature in which he has attained them. They suffice to
show that public life is unhappily distinguished from every
other line of effort by the perpetual risk of arbitrary exile.
It was not possible at such a time to explain how that
great anomaly existed, or to what political calamities it
tended. But in order to remove it, it was only necessary
that the public should have some means, after a general
election, of giving force to its opinion. We all know that
if it had these means, neither Sir William Molesworth,
Lord Macaulay-, Sir E. Lytton, Lord Carlisle, or Mr.
Cobden would have been for years condemned to all the
evils of inaction. Whatever plan you might adopt—and
some have been suggested—it would naturally occupy the
space afforded by these vacancies. If lam asked by what
arrangement you could remedy the evil, I answer a select
committte is the agency to which atone a question so new
and delicate and grave could be confided. And I express
a firm belief that a select committee of the house would be
a body liffeutiequal to contend with the difficulty of the
problem 4. Y: But inasmuch as no select committee can ap-
proachthe problem for the present, I will revert but only
for a moment to the question, ought the bill to be pro-
ceeded With. It requires much consideration to de •
tide how far it is expedient to transfer power, as the bill
does, from the southern to the northern portion of the king-
dom ; to give, as it does, to counties vacancies arising from
disfranchisement of town, and to convert, as it does, seats
which were open to the mass of politicians to seats which
are only open to persons locally connected with them.
But such grave consideration it is not in the power
of the house to grant to all these topics. And
it should never be forgotten that the gratitude the
measure will excite bears no proportion to the
discontent it will occasion. It is allowed that in the
West Riding no strong opinion has been formed as to the
advantage .of dividing that constituency. There has been
no apparent movement in South Lancashire in favour of
the gift to be conceded to it. But the Scottish Univer-
sitiespsometimesmeasure.en
aed.
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will receive a blow and disappointment from the
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Kensington, and Salford, is to keep the vacancies sus-
Which calls out for change in the Reform Act. It may be
.
(jug still, but it appears to be the height of folly to
e •
offend it by legislation which wants at once the sanction of
the Government and the approbation of the public. If a
general and comprehensive measure of Reform is by-and-
bye presented, the scheme is utterly uncalled for. If it is
resolved to act by isolated measures, that policy will not be
happily inaugurated by a bill which overlooks a problem
entitled to the care of statesmen, and which, from many of
its features, may be made use of at a future time to create
among the body of the people the passions that are most
essential to control and anticipate. On these grounds the
noble lord moved that the bill be referred to a select com-
mittee.
The Earl of DERBY said he hoped he might assume it
was not the intention of her Majesty's Government to accede
to the suggestion of the noble baron who had just sat down,
that this bill should be referred to a select committee, which
would probably report about the middle of August. (Alaugh.)
He could not recollect any bill for which there appeared to
be less reason that it should be referred to a select commit-
tee than this. The facts were did lain and undisputed, and
there were no very complicate tails to be discussed. It
was a bill of a very plain and straightforward character,
which he thought perfectly well capable of being discussed in
a committee of their lordships' house. He had no fault to find
with the bill, whichhe thought had been greatly improved in
its progress through the House of Commons by the manipu-
lation it had undergone, and which the Government appeared
to have submitted to with the most exemplary patience, The
measure of the Government of which he was a member in
1852 was rejected mainly by the influence of the right hon.
gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who until a
short time ago was supposed to be one of the most promi-
nent candidates for one of the seats proposed to be created
by the present bill. They proposed by the bill of 1852 to
confer two seats on the West Riding and two on South Lan-
cashire. He had always entertained a very strong preference
for two seats instead of three for counties. But until now
Birkenhead had not risen to the importance it had since at-
tained, and he could not blame her Majesty's Government
for having selected this town for one of the vacant seats.
If, indeed, it were in the contemplation of the Government
to introduce any very large and extensive plan of Parlia-
mentary reform, he should have thought they were acting
most unwisely in hampering themselves by the introduction
of this smaller measure. He should then certainly have
thought there was somereason in the complaint of the noble
lord, that by passing this measure they were prevented from
giving due consideration to the claims of other places by
passing a general measure of reform. In the bill of the Go-
vernment with which he (Earl of Derby) was connected,
not only were these seats provided for, but provision was
made for all those places also which the noble lord had enu-
merated, the London University, the Scotch Universities,
and Chelsea and Kensington—only that they were provided
for in a different mode, by subdividing the county constitu-
ency; and he thought the principal claims to representation
were satisfied. It was not the pleasure of the Liberal party