The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-01 00:00:00

instead of occupation value, is by no means the simple task it
is by some persons supposed to be. (Hear, hear.) The great
objection to such a measure, which led me entirely to re-
linquish all idea of adopting it, is that its tendency must be
directly to disfranchise many of the constituencies. I will
now proceed to consider the franchise of boroughs based
upon a value qualification. The £lO qualification has been
very severely assailed, and I think the objections to it may
be ranged under two heads. First, it is said that there is
no principle in a franchise founded on a £lO qualification ;
and secondly, it is said that a constituency based upon such
a qualification is extremely monotonous. (" Hear," and a
laugh.) It is said that there is such an identity of interest
in a constituency so founded, when we ought to seek for
variety of character, that that alone is an objection; and it
has really become almost a phrase of contumely to speak of
a constituency as " only ten-pounders." (A laugh.) I
will in the first place touch upon the objection that a £lO
borough qualification is one founded upon norinciple.
Now, I demur to that objection. It appears to me that that
qualification p
is founded on a principle. It is said, "Why
should a man who lives in a £lO house be more fitted for
the suffrage than a man who lives in a£9 house ?" That
appears to me to be no argument. It a mere sophism and
cavil. If it be an argument it is an argument against all
tests, and not in favour of a£9 qualification. But the £lO
qualification was intended as a test ; and the question is—
is it a test that is effective ? (Hear, hear.) It is a test very
easily accessible; it is a test which, if adopted, is universal
in its application; and it is a test which affords a fair pre-
sumption that the holder possesses those qualities which
entitle him to perform the acts of citizenship. It is therefore
founded upon a principle ; and the objection urged against it
appears to me to be a sophism. The other objection to the £lO
qualification is, that it gives a monotonous character to a
constituency ; that from extending the suffrage only to men
who live in £lO houses you have merely one sentiment and
one class of ideas represented. That appears to me to be
altogether a fallacy, and it rests upon the fallacious assump-
tion that every man who votes under a £lO qualification
necessarily lives in a £lO house. But that is not the case.
On the contrary, under 'that £lO qualification all orders of
men exercise the suffrage—the most affluent and the most
humble. A man who lives in a house worth £4OO a year yet
votes under the £lO qualification—(hear, hear)—and instead
of rendering a constituency monotonous, it secures within its
range a great variety of interests, of feelings, and of opinions.
(Hear, hear.) But, Sir, lam ready to admit that there are
many persons quite capable of exercising the suffrage who
do not live in £lO houses—(hear, hear)—and whom I should
wish to see possessing the suffrage. (Cheers.) But should
we obtain that result by' —I won't call it the vulgar expe-
dient, because the epithet might be misinterpreted, though
I should not use it; in an offensive sense—but by the coarse
and common expedient which is recommended of what is
called " lowering the franchise in towns." Now, I beg the
house to consider for a moment what must be the effect of
lowering the franchise in towns. Suppose that, instead de.
£lO borough qualification, you had a £5 borough qualifica-
tion. Well, the moment that you hada f 5 borough qualifica-
tion, you would realise all those inconvenient results which
are erroneously ascribed to the £lO qualification. You
would then have a monotonous constituency. You would
then have a constituency whose predominant opinions
would be identical. You would then have a constituency
who would return to Parliament members holding the same
ideas, the same opinions, the same sentiments and all that
variety which represents the English character would be
entirely lost. (Hear, hear.) You would then have in your
borough constituency a predominant class, and certainly
the spirit and genius of our constitution are adverse to the
predominance of any daze in this house. (Cheers.) It
certainly would be most injudicious, not to say intolerable,
when we are guarding ourselves against the predominance
of a manufacturing and commercial oligarchy, that we
should reform Parliament by securing the predominance of a
household democracy. (Cheers.) lam convinced that that
is not the mode in which you must improve and vary the
elements of the present borough constituency. We think,
sir, that there are modes by which that object can be ade-
quately and efficiently attained, and if the house will per-
mit me I will now proceed to describe them. (Cheers.) We
propose to introduce into these borough constituencies new
franchises. In the first place we shall introduce, as the foun-
dation of the suffrage, a class of property which hitherto
has not formed an element out of which voters have been
created—l mean personal property. We shall propose to
allow persons who have funded property—property in Bank
Stock or in East India Stock and bonds, to the amount of
£lO per annum, to exercise the suffrage. I know the ob-
jection which may be urged by some persons against the
introduction of this qualification. They will point out the
difficulties there will be in securing the due exercise of the
suffrage if that element is introduced. Tho house will par-
don me on this occasion, when I have to travel over a vast
field, and when I must confine myself to the chief features
of the measure I am recommending to their notice, if I Ab-
stain from entering into that question. (Hear, hear.)
Enough for me now to say, that the bill which I have here,
and which, with the permission of the house, I shall intro-
duce, provides, in our opinion, a satisfactory and secure
machinery by which this and all other similar franchises
to which I am about to advert may be exercised. Now,
sir, there is another franchise which we shall also recom-

mend the house to adopt, and that is one which depends
upon the possession of a certain sum in the savings banks.
(Hear, hear.) A man who has had £6O for a year in a
savings bank will, under this bill, if it becomes law, be
an elector for the borough in which he resides. (Cheers.)
Again, a man who has a pension for public service, but who
has ceased to be employed in that service, whether it be her
Majesty's naval, military, or civil service, to the amount of
£2O a year, will under this bill, if it become law, be entitled
to a vote wherever he may reside. (Hear, hear.) Then,
again, sir, the occupant of a portion of a houses the aggre-
gate rent of which amounts to £2O a year—whtch would b 3
Bs. a week—will also be entitled to a vote. (Hear.) The
house has heard much of late years of what is called an

educational franchise. lam bound to say that no plan for
the creation of an educational franchise, in the very precise
sense of that word, which in their opinion would work satis-
factorily, has been brought under the consideration of the
Government. It has, indeed, been proposed that the basis
of such a franchise should be sought for among the mem-
bers of the various learned societies. But, as it has been
very accurately observed, it does not follow that the mem-
bers of learned societies should be learned. (" Hear, hear,"
and laughter.) In these days we frequently see names fol-
lowed by an amount of alphabetical combinations which is
almost appalling ; yet though we associate the highest learn-
ing, the greatest antiquarian and scientific acquirements,
with those persons, it sometimes turns out that they only
possess a respectable character and pay ten guineas a year.
(Renewed laughter.) An educational franchise, according
to that high empyrean of imagination which some have at-
tempted to reach, has baffled all our practical efforts. But
it will be our duty to recommend to the house that the pri-
vilege of a vote, irrespective of the more formal qualification
arising from property, should be conferred upon those classes
whose education has involved some considerable invest-
ment, many of them, no doubt, exercising the franchise
under the previous qualifications which I have described.
We have thought it advisable that the suffrage should be
conferred upon graduates of all universities—(hear, hear)
—upon the ministers of religion—whether ministers and
deacons of the church or ministers of denominations—
under regulations which the house will find in the bill ;
upon the members of the legal profession in all its
branches, whether barristers, members of the inns of
court, solicitors, or proctors ; and upon all members of the
medical body who are registered under the late Medical
Act. (Hear, hear.) To these we have added such school-
masters as possess a certificate from the Council. (Hear,
hoar.) Sir, there are some other franchises which it is our
intention to give the borough constituencies; but before I
touch upon them it will be convenient that I should call
the attention of the house to the subject of the county fran-
chise. (Hear.) Previous to the Reform Act of 1832, the
general franchise of England may be described popularly—
though technically perhaps such a description is not quite
correct—as a franchise which in the counties arose from
property and in the boroughs from occupation. When the
measure passed in 1832 was first introduced that distinction
was recognised by the statesmen who had the preparation
and conduct of the bill. I have no doubt they deeply consi-
dered that question at the time ; nor can it be denied that
if the constituencies had remained as they proposed them,
the principle thus set up would have been a distinct and a
clear one. Whether, however, the distinction could have
been long maintained, I may with great humility be per-
mitted to doubt. Looking at the immense expansion of
the country, at its vast increase in wealth and population,
and not only in wealth and population, but in those distinc-
tive interests which seek representation in this house—re-
membering the 10,500,000 inhabitants of counties to whom
I have already alluded—l venture humbly to doubt whether
that distinction could have been long kept up. That its
maintenance was convenient to the statesmen of 1832, who
had immense difficulties to contend with, I can easily con-
ceive ; but whatever was their intention they were disap-
pointed in the plan which they had prepared, and circum-
stances occurred in this house which changed the cha-
racter of the franchise and destroyed the distinction
between property and occupation which the Ministry
of Lord Grey had sought to establish. Now, the indi -
vidual responsible for that change was the noble duke
who was my predecessor in the seat which I now un-
worthily fill, and as his conduct in this respect
has often been challenged, and as there are many who
now deplore the course which he then took, perhaps the
house will for a moment permit me, who am well aware of
the motives which influenced him, to state the reasons
which induced Lord Chandos to move successfully in this
house the celebrated clause that bears his name. When the
Reform Bill was introduced in 1831 it was generally avowed
that the object of that measure was to give a I€ls-nitimat_.
e
position in the Legislature to the middle classes ofand its
England.
"'hat was the object avowed by the Ministry,
pro-
priety was generally acknowledged by the country. Now,
when the principle that the middle classes should be
vblhe.o was
repro.
seated in this house was laid down, Lord Chandos,
then the member for the county of Buclnngham, being a
man who lived much among his neighbours, and who was
familiar with the character and the interests of rural society,
naturally felt what he considered the great absurdity that
the most important portion of the middle classes—the most
important even at this day, because they are the greatest
employers of labour—l mean the farmers of England--
should not possess the suffrage—(hear)—and it was with
that view that Lord Chandos moved the clause. The sym.
pathy of the house
was so great in its favour (a sympathy
not confined to party ; Mr. Hume was a supporter of the
Chandos clause) that the noble lord who then led this
house, Lord Althorp, felt it his duty to yield to it. But
that happened then ,which sometimes does happen when
great measures are brought forward by a Ministry and
an important amendment is introduced successfully by an
eager Opposition. Those who have had the preparation
of great and important measures—and I see present many
upon whom that task has devolved—know the great diffi-
culty, the long anxiety, the constant hesitation which
are involved in such a task, and know how hard it is to
adapt one part to another, and to obtain that general har-
mony which will meet public wants, and which will give
you a chance of carrying your measure successfully
through. (Hear.) But when a leader of Opposition car-
ries an amendment which he believes to be necessary, he
thinks only of the proposal which he is making to the house,
and if the Ministry are obliged to adopt it it very often does
not fit in with their previous design ;it does not display
the harmony and unison which would perhaps have been
the case had they themselves devised it with a due regard
for the other details of the measure. (Hear.) I have no
doubt that had the Government thought lit in 1831-2 to
introduce the principle of occupation in the county fran-
chise they might have rendered it so homogeneous with
their general scheme that it would have worked with per-
fcct facility, that we should long ere this have been quite
accustomed to its operation, and then those distinctions
and difficulties which have since arisen might never have
been heard of. (Hear, hear.) But there is no doubt that
from the moment, or shortly after, this £5O occupation
clause was put into operation, feelings of dissatisfaction and
suspicion were excited in the minds of the cow/011
Occupiers in the county of less than £so—say of £4OIP or'
X2o—who, if the principle had not been admitted,
naturally
na
probably never have thought themselves injured, t
looked with great soreness on the man who had voted in a
borough because he had an occupation of £lO. That feeling
•f dissatisfaction was unfortunately followed by those indus-
trial controversies, respecting the origin or
end of which it
prolonged,
is unnecessary to say anything, but
which
were
bitterness among
and which undoubtedly occasioned
great
all clams. That feeling of dissatisfaction bccatue a feeling