The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-19 00:00:00

Lords, has hitherto given to the land, as we all
know from past and sorrowful experience, a predo-,
minant influence in both houses. But there are
many counties which have grown up into great
populations in which there have arisen great inte-
rests not connected with the land, as, for example;
the manufacturing villages of Yorkshire,
,Lanca-'
shire, and other counties. The population has be-
come so large in these counties as to overshadow
the territorial influence, and I therefore thought
in disposing of the new seats, after giving a fair re-
presentation to the boroughs, it was not unjust and
would not be pernicious, but, on the contrary,
would be just and advantageous, that these c0m1.."
ties should have an addition to the number of their
representatives. For that reason Lord J. Itis'sell, in
his-1411 of 1854; proposed to divide the 'Vest Riding
.of Yorkshire into two divisions, giving, four mem.
hers where there are now only two, and 'alSo to *con-
stitute a new division in Lancashire with an addi-
tional number of members. AlliSion has been made
to the villages or towns of :Reighley, Doncaster,
and Rotherham. There must be some-line drawn,
and in order to do .so, I have taken the .censers of
1851.. In my opinion it is of no use to ask Parliament
and the Government to disfranchise small borouers
in one part of the country if they are to create
small boroughs in other parts of the country.. (Hear,
hear.) If you. are to take every town of 10,000 or
12,000. inhabitants and make a borough of it, you
will weaken ,the popular party .by withdrawing
their influence from the counties And will'do one of
the most injurious things-that can be done. In point
of fact you•vvill do that from. which Vu have already
suffered so much. You will make: your representa,
tion henceforth as it has heenin thiptSf;se excissr
sively arepresentation•of the land that the county
members are of no use whatever in considering the
great interests of commerce. (Hear.) With regard
to the particular towns to which reference has been
made, you will find in the general abstract at the
bottom of my schedules a statement that there re-
main seven seats not yet disposed of. These seven
seats have been reserved because I was of opinion,
and am still, that there may be two, three, four, or
more towns which could fairly represent to Parlia-
ment that their population is such as to justify their
being made into boroughs, if this bill should ever
pass a second reading in the House of Commons.
(Hear.) While it was passing through committee,
no doubt if it were in the hands of the GOvernment,
•r in the hands of a private member, all questions
with regard to these towns would be fairly consi-
dered. 'this,
.however, must always, be borne in
mind,—you: may make in every place you like a
sufficient population if you take a sufficient district
of parishes and add to ft, but that is net the wayto
make- a bdroirgh. 'lt is the way to weaken a great
county; and to.make a very small county-inside it,
but that is,not precisely what we are looking for.
(Cheers.) 'A town which has not, population enough
in itself to be made a borough had much better re-
main with: the Bounty and exercise its influence
'along with the county, in order that the borough
:and county influence may be blended together.
:(Cheers.) I haVe been asked -why in the village or
'town of Paclsey, and 'some others, a man should
not vote unless he occupied a £lO house, when
in Bradford he would vote if he. occupied a £5
hoise. That evidently is a discrepancy.. It is a state
of things which exists, now and would exist after
my bill. became law (if ever it should. become law) ;
but it arises from this fact, that you have always
had in your county and borough representation an
entire difference. Public opinion does not appear to
have made up .its mind as to the point at which
these franchises should be equalised. All your agri-
cultural labourerS, as:ou well know, are entirely
non-political. In the purely agricultural districts
the newspapers, to a great extent, have. been and
are unknown among the agricultural labourers.
There is, therefore, no particular object to serve in
inviting some hindreds of thousands of persons
whose attention has never been turned in the least
4o political questions, who have never apparently
been able to manifest an interest in such questions,
to share the representation. The time will come,
in all probability, when the franchise will be
equalled, and when that is considered advisable on
the part of the public I should not be one of • those
who would be disposed to stand in the way of any
equalisation that may be thought desirable ; but I
want now to propose that -which,•as far as I can
judge,, meets the existing requirements of public
opinion, taking into consideration the timidity that
exists on the one hand, and the earnestness and
the ardour which prevail on the other. (Hear.)
Unless you do that your bill will not be practical.
The most ardent cannot carry all they wish.. (Hear.)
The most ardent will not allow the timid to rest
secure in their timidity. We must have something
which meets as much of public opinion as will en-
able it to be carried, and when carried will give
such satisfaction as will make the measure work
satisfactorily to the whole kingdom.. (Cheers.) I
believe I have not touched upon all the questions
which havebeen •raised in the course of discussion.
As to what should be done, my notion is this—in
the West Ridin 5 of Yorkshire there should be formed
a general association ; and if that is done, then .I
think that in every town and populous neighbour-
hood in the West Riding there ought to be formed a
local association. The special object of these associa-
tions should be to do two things, perhaps. three. In
the first place, to. hold meetings for the diffusion of
information among ' the people. Make them
thoroughly understand, if you can, the nature of the
different schemes which may 'be before the public ;
for don't suppose for a moment that I am running
about the country to ask the people to take my
child off my hands. Nothing of the sort. What I
want is a real representation of the people, and I
want it to be that sort of representation that the
people will feel it to be a representation. (Hear.)
Make them thoroughly understand the question.
Then have a grand organisation of petitions. Ordi-
narily when petitions ;come dribbling into the
House of Commons at 5 o'clock they are of little
use. They are put quietly away, and among the
votes at the end of the week there is sent round to
the members a list of the various subjectS on which
petitions have been presented. But, if it is found
that night after night on all sides of the house
members get up with great rolls of petitions which
they can scarcely carry, specifying that the peti-
tioners request the house to pass a bill to establish
household or any other suffrage, the ballot, and
such a distribution of members as will give to all
the great towns a' fair influence--specifying if they
approve them, when the bills are introduced, the
propositions which I have made, or the Government
or. anybody else has made—let the table of the
House of Commons be loaded night after night and
week after week in this way, as I have seen it' on
some questions in past times, and then the men in
the house, without any elaborate logic, without con-
stant persuasion and discussion, somehow or other
—they don't know exactly how it gets into their
heads—begin to say that after all it was a mistake
to suppose that the people did not care about the
subject, and that I went about it in order to get up
an agitation. (Cheers.) What am I, if the question
is not one that recommends itself to their hearts?
That is the sort of reasoning which will take place
in the House of Commons, and as we know it is said
by the naturalist that various animals take their
colour from the different grasses or leaves on which
they repose, so the members of the House of Com-
mons,loy a process they cannot logically describe,
from the old Conservative or Liberal, feeling- that
they repose on public sentiment out of doors, and
that without public sentiment they are nothing,
will gradually moderate their hues, and in the
course of 12 months, if this movement goes on with
any amount of success, will find that household suf-
frage is not in any degree dangerous, that the
ballot is a convenient mode Of exercising the fran-
chise, that to give five members to some great
cities, six 'to others, three to others, and two tol
some of our large towns,, is both a reasonable and
constitutional proposition. (Laughter and cheers.)
By making a grand, persistent, united, and reso-
lute expression of opinion on the part of the great
middle and working classes of this country, now
so happily united, you will find that the House of
Commons, and ultimately the House of Lords, will
become docile in your hands, and I believe you
will find that within a year or two you will have
done one of those great things for liberty which
will stand forward for ever as a bright spot in the
annals of yoir country. (The hon. gentleman re-
sumed his seat amid great cheering.)
Mr. LORD, of Bradford, believed the proposed
franchise did not include what were called lodgers,
and wished to hear whether Mr. Bright would have
any objection to supplement his bill, with a provi-
sion for the accomplishment of that object? (Hear.)
Mr. Thud-au—lf I am not mistaken, I had the
honour of receiving a letter from the hon. gentle-
man who has just spoken respecting the point
which he has just mooted. It is a noticeable thing ,
that there does exist in Scotland at this very mo-
ment a lodger franchise. The practice in Scotland
has been that if a person occupies lodgings of the
value of £lO he can be'placed on the register for a
Scotch borough ; and when I was in Edinburgh I
was inforined that 28 persons in , that city hid'
wailed themselves Of that "privilege.
I can only say that the subject has receiv d the
most careful consideration of those whom I have