The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-22 00:00:00

THE GOVERNMENT _REFORM BILL.

(From the Times.)

It is not very surprising that, after battling and shifting
upon the question of reform now for seven years the House
of Commons should exhibit at this moment on all sides a
common hypocrisy. With a general election hanging over
its head, every party is afraid to declare itself fop that ex-
tensive redistribution of seats which it knows to be neces-
sary to a Reform Bill. The question is, who shall present
himself to the public in the most generous and exclusively
beneficent capacity ? Government have found it is their
interest not to abolish one single constituency; it is their
boast that they do not disfranchise one elector; and they
have even premised back to the borough freeholder the
county vote which they had previously ventured to take
from him. Politicians, with a dissolution at hand, might
be expected to show mercy to those at whose feet they might
soon lie. Lord John Russell, however, copies their tactics,
takes up their weapons, and assumes their disguise. Seeing
that they have not brought the small boroughs into ques-
tion, he is too glad to be silent himself on that delicate sub-
ject. As Government has taken its stand on enfranchise-
ment, he closes with them on that very point. They have
half disqualified the future borough freeholders, and they
have not shown the desired amount of liberality to the
borough householders. Lord John carefully guards
himself from stating the limits of his own liberality.
His business is to assert, as far as the boroughs are
concerned, the niggardly character of the Ministe-
rial measure. The question, then, before the House
is which side shall exhibit most of a rude and barbaric sort
of generosity. In some countries and ages this is the great
social rivalry. Who relieves most mendicants ? Who
gives most doles ? Who scatters most halfpence ? Who
pardons most criminals ? Who opens most gaols ? In
such competitions the acts of oppression by which such
generosity can alone be supported are for the time for-
gotten.' So last night nobody would say a word about the
small-boroughs. It was all about the ancient race of 40s.
freeholders deprived of their county votes, and the L 5
householders not yet trusted with the franchise. As Go-
vernment had assumed to be the Lady Bountiful of the
great British parish, the other side would not be outdone
in charities. If the one offered meat, the other offers
pudding ; and if the one gave coals, the other adds blankets.
Meanwhile neither will jeopardise the fruit of this bribery
by measures of sound discipline. Painful as it may seem,
we possess at this moment a Government which fears to
tell an unpalateable truth, and an Opposition which Con-
siders itself at liberty to practise equal reserve.
The hypocrisy, as we have said, is on both sides. Lord
John Russell has the excuse that he is joining issue with
Government on their own foremost claim of librality, and,
as the object on both sides is to secure an election cry, he
may plead a necessity for assuming the credit of a political
benefactor. Lord Derby's excuse is, that as he may be
driven to the country, he must put his house in order,
and go to the country with a respectable appearance.
Neither chooses to appear with the executioner's cord and
knife, and fifty constituencies trembling for their doom.
Read over all the speeches last night, and the reader will
hardly find a word about the victims. On which side is
this reserve the most culpable ? Certainly it devolves on
the Government that undertakes Parliamentary Reform to
make it a complete measure, and not leave its harsher fea-
tures to be supplied by the house. On the other hand, when
we have read Lord John Russell's unusually genial and'
affectionate eloquence about the freeholder—as old as
William the Conqueror—and the independent Borough of
Liskeard, which once returned that very good gentleman,
Mr. Charles Buller, we must add to his speech the little
appendix that twenty-eight years ago Lord John proposed
and carried the entire or partial disfranchisement of near a
hundred boroughs, and more recently avowed himself ready
and willing to disfranchise sixty-two more. Some less
prominent members of the house, on both sides, touched on
the distribution of the franchise; but, it Lord John alluded
to the subject, it was to express his horror at equal electoral
districts, at uniform franchise, or at any attempt at equality
between one elector and another. This was hardly civil to
the very large constituencies who possess under the present
system a merely nominal representation. Can we do Lord
John the injustice to suppose him wanting in kindness to
those meritorious but ill-requited communities? No.
We all know his real feelings towards them. They will
pardon the wise reserve which has prompted him for an
hour to forget their just claims. On the eve of a general
election it is necessary to be courteous and considerate to
the little constituencies of 300 or 400 who send up a mem-
ber or two. The appeal is necessarily made to the existing
constituencies. If they will be so good as to respond to it
for this once, and place Lord John Russell in power, then
they will see what they shall see when it becomes his lord-
ship's turn to deal with this almost impossible question. If
they see anything at all, they will see Lord John Russell
standing up at the Treasury Bench and enumerating some
50 or 60 boroughs, which, in accordance with the sad ne-
cessity of the case and his own previous bills, he will find it
necessary to disfranchise wholly or partly.
Cleared of party tactics and sentimental grievances, of
disinterested Liskeards and primaeval freeholders, the case
is just as Mr. Horsman put A government bribed into
reform by the possession of power, and doing for itself what
it would never do for anybody else, brings in a bill which
contains, on the admission of all sides, some very good
principles. It affords the basiS of a good measure ; and, so
far from the needful amendnients being of that complicated
and impracticable charaeter which Lord John roissell de•
scribes, we belieVe they have already occurred to most
people, and as Mr. Horsman observes, are not more difficult
than those to be made in most bills. ' Do the Whigs
and Liberals, then want reform ? If they want it,
they can now have it, for they can force upon
a yielding, or passive Government, almost any
clause they choose. If they choose to propose
a Schedule A, and a larger Schedule B, they can. Why,
indeed, should they complain ? It is they who have forced
the subject upon Parliament; it is they who have invoked
the agitation and set the ball going. If they decline to
amend the bill, and proceed to pass a resolution which they
interpret to mean a want of Confidence, the only conclusion
is, that for the sake of power they commit Reform to•the
chances of an inscrutable future. Ono thing only is cer-
tain as to the next Reform Act, whenever it passes. Its
character has been long ago foreshadowed in the earliest
and the strongest declarations of the agitators by whose
favour alone it can ever pass. It will disfranchise many
small constituencies, and divide all the larger ones. Whether
Lord John Russell or Lord Palmerston have the titular
honours of the bill, this will be its character. Without this
redistribution, Mr. Bright, Mr. Cobden, and a host of seri-
ous reformers have declared that all reduction of the fran-
chise will be nugatory. This is the point which they have
declared to be most important in their eyes, and this they
will make the chief condition of their support. Let the ex-
isting constituencies, then, know that, tenderly as they may
now be treated, any appeal to them is for a much larger
measure of Reform, involving the entire or partial disfran-
chisement of all the less populous boroughs. Any bill that
passes the house this session will be by the concurrence of
Whigs and Conservatives, and in the face of opposition
from the more violent class of Reformers. Any bill that may
pass next year, under the victorious auspices of Lord John
Russell, and in the faceof the discomfited and enraged Con-
servatives, can only be such an one as enjoys the approba-
tion of Mr. Bright and his friends