The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-22 00:00:00

P 4PE MAL PARI•IAMENT

HOUSE' OF LORDS.—(YESTERDAY.)
THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
:.Lord STRATILEDEN said the notice he had given was
, call attention to the report of the committee of last year
*on the reduction of the franchise, and to move for a return
of the forty shilling freeholders, by whichhe meant the free-
holders above that limit in each county in England and
Wales. If the notice only gave an opportunity to those whe
took an active part on the committee of stating the impres-
sions to which the evidence had led them, he should not
repent of having put it on the paper. This was the very mo-
ment-when such impressions might be brought before the
entry with advantage. At that vet y moment as be spoke
the attitude of the country on the question of reform was
neutral and deliberative. • That attitude was shared by Op-
position aid by Government. All three might very soon be
forced, into a different oneewhich it would then be vain to
seek to influence or modify. (Hear, hear.) Beyond this it
should never be forgotten that the immediate purpose of the
committee vanished, because the bill it was intended to
throw light upon expired before its labours were concluded.
Considering that 54 witnesses were called, that 3,770 ques-
tions were put, and that the inquiry stretched into a period
of almost nine weeks, those labours ought not to peas too
soon into oblivion. The country might fairly ask what line
of policy it tended to advance, and how far that line was
upheld by views beyond the scope of the inquiry, lie had
meant at first to touch upon the evidence of the revising
barristers who had been summoned, but on reflection he
would leave that point to those who had examined them.
The farther' observations which he, had to make would be
directed to support the return for which he moved ; and on
this point he hoped,the noblelord, the President of the
Council, would grant him that indulgence which it would
be perhaps presumptuous to expect from many of their
lordships. The kind, of ground on which he asked for the
return was, that as they could not stand still for any time
after what had happened,
occasional reform and compre-
hensive legislation were the only lines open to the country,
and the more so because to stand still for any time was
but another phrase for comprehensive legislation, which it
must inevitably lead te; that the reduction of the borough
franchise was beset by difficulties almost insurmeuntable,
and on this. point the evidence was cogent ; that the county
franchise was a safer field in which to move, but that ree
duction 'of it was impossible until you had a document to
show the number of the freeholders comparedwith the
number of the occupying voters which a twenty-pound or a
ten-pound limit would occasion. As regards the borough
franchise it was elcai to most of those who are conversant
with it that you must either keep it as it is, advance it to a
point by which the power of the middle classes would be
neutralised, or introduce the inequality between those above
a certain rental and those beneath it, which great reasoners
have pointed to, but which the public had not yet con-
sidered with attentions It was not too much to state
that the ,county franchise was entitled to precedence in
the question. But as the effect of what had been said turned
upon occasional reform, he meant by such a phrase
that course of dealing separately with the features of the
subject, according to the exigencies of the time and the
opinions of the country, which the present Minister had
declared to be his policy before the general election of 1857,
and from which he had departed since—how far with
credit to" himself the historian of 1860 might determine.
In favour of that policy there was one well-known pre-
sumption, although too much weight ought not to be
attached to it. It had been already sanctioned by the
Legislature. On this principle the Trish franchise was
extended in 1850 by the influence of one Government, and
the qualification of members was in 1858 abolished by the
influence of another Government._ (Hear, hear.) A more
serious presumption by fur, in favour of that policy is, that
the plan of a new and comprehensive, or as it was termed
in the jargon of the day, a. reconstructive settlement, had
been attempted four times with uniform disgrace to all
the Governments who ventured on it. It was needless to
remind them that. the Government ,of 1852, after finding
its scheme an object of severe animadversion from every
quarter of the Press and the reablio, although much might
be urged,in its defence, in ten days renounced the desperate
position it was placed in ; that. the Government of 1854
was forced by a concurrence of all patties to withdraw their
measure of Reform on the eve of the Russian war, and
never regained the credit they had lost by this unstates-
manlike and ill-timed proposition; or that the Government
of 18:59 was out -voted in their measure, and in vain ap-
pealed to a general election to reverse the judgment of the
Rouse of Commons. It was still less necessary to remind
them of what occurredin 1860 on this subject. The unfor-
tunate reception by which these new settlements of Reform
were strangled in their cradles could not be ascribed to want
of talent in the Cabinets which framed them. They could
not be ascribed to any temporary causes. The more their
failure was examined,- the more it would be traced to
causes which surviv,e, and of which the operation may
be confidently reckoned on. He would touch on one or
two in passing. They must array against them the
hostility of Parliament, because they threatened dissolu-
tion. They must excite the opposition of the day into
activity, because on projects so ambitious and so vulnerable
far more than on any other, the Government advancing
them might be successfully attacked. They must also
more or less create disunion in the Cabinet which forms
them, because unless you have an object to pursue, and
principle to go upon, as you had in 1832, no twelve states-
men can agree on what ought to be the nature of the set-
tlement. They must excite some degree of popular resent-
ment out of doors when they affect stability and perma-
nence, and when some changes, are excluded from them
which interest electors more than any other, but which the
statesmen of our day are all united in opposing. (Hear,
hear.) But when the line of occasional reform is con-
trasted with that of a new settlement, it suggests a further
observation: It was the line of policy conceived to be
established, as far as their. opinions are revealed, by all
enlightened statesmen of all important parties from 1832
to 1851. Except among the school who openly avowed that
their object was to concentrate the power or the State in the
working classes by means of universal suffrage, nn one ever
dreamt of a new settlement till the Minister of the day in
1851 engaged 'himself to offer one. The shock which all
Europe received from the fall of the French Throne in 1848
extended its vibrations to this country. It roused into
activity passions which had slept; and forced upon the
Legislature topics which for many years had been forgotten.
But the fever which it led to was exhausted, the agitation
it encouraged had i)aseed by, before the Minister in 1851
informed the world that anew settlement must now impend
on the Reform ieet. That language is renounced, that part
has been abandoned. 'What, therefore, can be more natural
than that the public should relapse into the mode of think-
ing it suspended. 'that they should hold a new settle.
meat of representative arrangements to be uncalled
for and impolitic, and. believe that separate reforms
will do all their. interest requires and all their interest
admits of. From 1833 to 18.51. the intention of
the country 'seemed ,to be never to allow itself to
be engrossed' in a general discussion of the question
upon what 'ground to form its representative assembly.
The convulsions of two years were the price advanced for
many calculated benefits. Among those calculated benefits
war immunity in all time to come, rof indeed from the
existence, but at least from the supremacy of that inflam-
matory topic which had brought society to the verge of civil
war, and placed the country in tlae feeblest position it
could hold towards European Powers. If that intention
was a prudent one, if it was clouded for a certain time
by unfortunate events and by untoward pledges, if the
events have' passed and if the pie !ges are exploded, what
is there to prevent
"the national conviction from again
vccovering the
.firinneas :anti distinctness which origi-
nally marked it? 'When in practice it has twice
led to sound results without the, medium of disturbance,
while four times a. tentative departure from it has
been at once calamitous andsfruitiese, what is there to
prevent the country, from reverting to
,its first, ideate:or..
roborated by its; subsequent experience ? (Hear.) But
these were mere presumptions in favour of the line, which
ho adverted to. -Bat what are - the precise and palpable
advantages it has over the attempt at a new settlement
It does not bring abontethe dissolution of the Parliament
which carries it. When, in 1850, the Irish franchise was
extended, there was not a whisper of dissolving. He need,
not point out that frequent diseolutiens reduced the value
of the Legislature'by reducing the mass of
aPs.aroluta.
linreenfotary
experience included .e
in it. Beyond this c
not vitally 'endangering the Government which offers
may be offered with security according to the real con-
victions of those by whom it hashecre framed. In what
Utopia would you find any one so simple as, to
think that -the 'of 185-1, of 18:54, of 1859,
and of 1860 repreeented the ideas and judgment of their
sponsors, or what man would face the ridicule which in
any circle the statement of
,sech a View would bring upon
him. In the next place naeparafd reforM is a barrier to
other measur‘ ofiimportance. Tli4 bill of 1850 was car-
ried in the same year, with the most important act which
has passed since 1833—the act for giving institutions to
Australia. The act of 1858 was carried in the same year
in which India-wfte transferred to the Crown by legislation.
To he bill at WO, although it did not pass at all, threw
ut every sekeeentie (except those relating to the
budgen' alon't snietbesVajch it, was proposed. A general
revision ;Elm. siyi etsu, • -
capacity of oaten, iray well defeat the genius and
not less noble fli
a would prosper in the safe but
gil ()we
with the effective:. taillor9r ebio.fitiii7l,%,fsc'irporrioftimpearltoiaintiemnet,.
But these consideration.' •
ees -nlay .be all renounced as insig-
nificant compared with the last I shall allude to. Occa •
sional Reform can never add's()
reign difficulties,
whereas large and touch debated(mirte'nfo
inevit-
ably aggravate:, theee,• Wien, t 4,. e!nea must
one; Mans: while GerrrienP"e of
fraught with
depends upon
elements of discord, while the world :a:9,Bi fraLlFia•L
Powers, and this e6neirYis resolved to standusb
we cannot afford, all men will admit, to be YPt's anie
pied, embittered,. and diSorganised'society. (Haeit:e.a7;
project Of Be_,
Such any large and coniOrtheteive
form, such any neat fletlertiehf 18Te project
any scheme'
resembling the four. which .are discarded, must have at
least a tendency to make us. A large and reconstructive
measure, however-well conceived, Bengt in some degree
array class against dais, and party against party. when
the country is divided and eonvtdsed. it cannot be so
powerful agniustany Government whiclipireatetu3 Europe