The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-01 00:00:00

- _ 3IR. MUM'S ADDEESS.

0/1

The senior member for Birmingham has issued in midi-es
seeking re-election. It is as follows: .
" I have reason to believe that it is initris;ish that I
should become a candidate for the honourable office of one
5f your representatives in the Parliamentabout to be elected;
[ therefore offer myself as a candidate, and ask for a renewal
)f the confidence you have so long reposed in me. After
twenty-five years of parliamentary life, and after tenyears
'pent in your service, I shall not enter into an elaborate
statement of my opinions on public questions. I have
been permitted to explain them so fully in your Town Hall
Dn so many occasions, that my views can scarcely be mis-
understood by any amongst you. The cause of Parlia-
mentary Reform has made great progress since the last
general election, but a good deal remains to be done. The

small boroughs are still to be got rid of, and the large popu-
lations will still demand their fair share of political power.
The extension of the franchise has been granted under
circumstances which have acted with great and needless
hardship upon the small householders. I did all I could
to prevent this in the session of 1867, and I shall be glad
to assist in applying a remedy if I have a seat in the
new Parliament. I regard the question of the ballot as
of first importance. Whether I look to the exces-
sive cost of elections, or to the tumult which
so often attends them, or to the unjust and cruel
pressure whiCh is so frequently brought to bear upon
the less independent class of voters, I am per-
suaded that the true interest of the public and
of frcelom will be served by the adoption of the sys-
tem of secret and free voting. It is in practice, and is
highly valued, in almost every other country having
representative institutions, and I regard it as absolutely
necessary to a real representation of the United Kingdom.
The foremost questions for the new Parliament will be our
treatment of Ireland. You know my views on the Irish
Church Establishment and on the land question. In
dealing with the Irish Establishment we are not pro-
_moting the spread of the Roman Catholic, or
damaging the influence of the Protestant religion. We
do not touch religion at all. We deal only with the poli-
tical institution, which has wholly failed to secure any
good object, and which has succeeded only in weakening
.the loyalty and offending the sense of justice of the great
majority of the Irish people. Our opponents speak of
their zeal for Protestantism, and their loyalty to the Con-
stitution. I prefer a Protestantism which is an alliance
with Christian kindness and with justice, and my
loyalty to the Constitution leads me to wish for
the hearty union of the three kingdoms in alle-
giance to the Crown. I believe that Christianity
and the Constitution will be alike strengthened in these
islands by the removal of the Irish Church Establishment.
At the coming election, Birmingham will send three
members to Parliament ; but, by a scheme which is con-
trary to all previous constitutional practice, it is intended
that the majority of the electors shall only have two
voices in the House about to be chosen, and that one
of these shall be rendered useless by the vote of a
member not chosen by, but elected contrary to, the
will of the majority. Your constituency is increased in
number from 14,000 to 42,000 voters, and by this
scheme it is intended that, in the great division which may
take place in December next, Birmingham shall, in fact,
throw only one vote into the parliamentary scale. I regard
this as an outrageous violation of constitutional principles
and practice, and I cannot suppose that you will support
any candidate who approves of it as applied to your borough,
or who is anxious to extend it to other constituencies of the
kingdom. The great town constituencies have carried the
wise changes which have been forced upon Parliament
of late years, and the Minority Clause' has been enacted
to lessen their power, and to reduce them to the level of
small boroughs which return only one member to Parlia-
ment. I hope at some time before the election to have
the opportunity of meeting you in your Town Hall, and of
discussing this and other important questions at greater
length than is possible in this address. If you send me to
the next Parliament, I shall endeavour to act as becomes a
representative of one of the foremost constituencies of the
empire."

MR. HORSMAN ON THE. HOUSE OF LORDS.

Mr. Horeman writing to the Scotsman, proposes several
substantial reforms of the House of Lords. The following
is the gist of his letter:—He commences by pointing out
that though the House of Commons has been reformed by two
resolutions, the House of Lords has been retained in statu quo.
This has caused tho Lords to be " shunted" for all practical
purposes. He thinks a second chamber needful. Therefore
he proposes to reform the Upper House. "My first proper•
sal," he continues, "is to eliminate the bishops, and I can)
only hear of one objection to the change, of which the utility'
is not denied. It is said that bishops in the Lords are a
part of our ancient constitution. Put, if that bo
true, our answer is that the constitution was changed

by the Reformation. In the Ronaish. Church eccle-
siastical dignity is united with temporal power,
and under our Boman Catholic sovereigns tho highest
offices of state were held by eccles'a:tics. But in these
days we reject the union of spiritual and temporal power,
sod we repudiate the title of the clergy to bo the Church.
"Of course," continues the member for Stroud, "if a Libe-
ral Government were to propose such a change, the cry of
Church in danger would be raised by their opponents;
but I am convinced that, if a Conservative Minister
could educate his Cabinet into entertaining the mea-
sure, five-sixths of the parochial clergy would hail
it with delight, and there would not be a division
and hardly a protest against it in the House of Commons.
I next propose the creation of Life Peers—not at the
discretion of the Minister, but limited to those official
peerages as to which the Minister has now no discretion.
The creation of Law Peers has been termed the creation of
pauper Peers ; and Lord Palmerston endeavoured in the
case of Lord Wensleydale to found a new rule that Law
Peerages should be for life. It was a very wise policy
unfortunately defeated by the short-sighted and mis-
chievous opposition of Lord Derby. My life peer-
ages, therefore, would bo limited to cases where the
rule has already been established by political necessity,
or where public opinion would endorse it as a national re-
ward for personal distinction. My third proposal would give
to the Lords something of a representative character. The
present number of the Lorde, spiritual and temporal, is about
4:o—a larger deliberative assembly than is known out of
England. Lords are horn legislators. They are idle and
rich men, who give little thought to politics, and the
public business is transacted by a small section. Moro-
over, there are no less than 41 Irish and Scotch Pocrs
who sit as the mere nominees of the Conservative
Leader of the day, having been elected according to a
list which he has circulated among the Peers of his party. I
propose that out of this whole body 100 Peers should bo
elected to represent the rest, as the Scotch and Irish
Peers now represent them, and that these and the ex-officio
Peers, possibly including the judges, should compose the
Senate. lam bound to confess that I have as yet no satis-
factory mode of election to propose. Different modes
have been suggested to me, more or less feasible, but, es
my object now is not to table aecompleto and perfect plan,
but rather to throw out suggestions for public discussion to
mature, I refrain from indicating any of the courses be-
tween which my own mind is not yet made up. Of course
I may be told that an assembly of Peers elected
by their own order would represent a very narrow con-
stituency. I admit it, but we must proceed gradually. It
will be a great step gained to reduce the number of the
Upper House, improve its constitution, c liminate the inert
element, and infuse an earnest and energetic business cha-
racter. Further changes must still bo necessary, and still
greater improvements will no doubt be made.

Lord Doneraile writes, in contradiction of a report
which has appeared, to say that he has nothing to do Witt
the scheme for a "Cork Derby."

A Jew, the owner of a house in Vilna which
caught fire, cried out, " Fire, fire!" in the Polish language,
the use of which is forbidden in the streets. The next
day he was brought up before the magistrate, and fined
twenty-five roubles for violating the law.
A munificent offer has been trade by Mr. J. Day,
a member of tho Town Council of Dewsbury, with
the object of promoting the erection of an infirmary
for that town and district. Mr. Day has offered to subscribe
£2,500 if £50,000 should be raised, £2,000 if £40,000 only
be subscribed, and so on in proportion to £20,000. The
offer will be open for twelve months, and, should the effort
be accomplished, Mr. Day promises further to subscribe £5O
a year towards the maintenance of the institution.

EXTRAORDINARY LEAP.—Colonel Emmerick, a
.portsman and soldier, being pursued by a party of light
horse when going with despatches from his commander-in.
chief, the late Duke of Brunswick, rather than surrender,
leaped with his horse a precipice of thirty-six feet fall,
without receiving any injury, and continued his route.
In commemoration of this bold and gallant daring, his
statue, and that of his steed, was erected en the spot, at
Br
treupci
dkist3cl,„ fx of ras a monument of his zeal and in.
y,siorting.
THE SCOTCH SALMON FISIIINGS. —The reports
from Scotland show an improvement in the salmon fishery.
and a most successful season on the Dee and Don is just
closed. For several years past the average number of fish
taken has not by a long way equalled the catches of the
last few months. During the late drought the fishing fell
off materially; the quality of the salmon being also inferior ;
but of late, since the rivers have been again swollen by t 1 e
rain, the fish have improved both in quantity and
quality. The catch at the Don cruives on the closing
clay was very large. -- • _