The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

LATEST BETTING.

The only noteworthy change in the latest betting at
the West•end was the advancement of Magnifier to 1,000
to 40, taken.

HORSES STRUCK OUT OF THEIR ENGAGE.
MENTS.

Rngerthorpe and Enchanter are struck out of the
Chester Cup, and Adamas out of the Chester Cup and
Dee Stakes.

RAILWAY ARRANGEMENTS.

For the accommodation of metropolitan visitors on the
" Cup-day," day tickets, at ordinary fares, will be issued
by the 6.15 a.m. train from Euston square, arriving at
Chester at about 11.30 a.m., and available for return
either by the 5.20 p.m. or the 11.14 p.m. train.

Accounts from Constantinople to the 24th, received
by way of Trieste, speak of great preparations making
by the Circassians for inroads into the districts held by
the Russians.

As the new Parliament draws near, a good deal
of interest is felt as to the number of election peti-
tions to be presented, and the interest is increased
by the fact that it will be the first time the new act
against bribery, &c., which was paused in 1854,
will be tested. On Thursday, the 7th inst., the
Queen's Speech will be delivered, and the session
e ommence. All election petitions must be pre-
sented within 14 days, but the committees will not
proceed to investigate the allegations of bribery,
&c., until about the middle of June. By the new
act (17 and 18 Vie., c. 102), if bribery is proved;
the member returned is disqualified to sit in the
existing Parliament, and may be sued for penalties
—lOOl. for each offence. The rule as to the pre-
sentation of petitions within 14 days is by an order
of the late Parliament. Either a candidate or
voter may present a petition against a sitting mem-
ber. A recognisance with sureties is to be entered
into to pay all costs, or 1,0001. may be paid into
the Bank of England. Counsel may appear for
either party, and the committee proceed with the
list of personS bribed. Hitherto there has been no
opportunity to test the operation of the New Bri-
bery Act, as the last general election was in 1852.
The sections seem to be worded with a good deal
of care, but it remains to be seen whether they
wiil reach the several cases about to be presented
to the select conlinitteg; The Speaker will nomi:-
nate ‘.‘ The General Election Committees," and the
select committees„,will be named and proceed to
try the several matters brought before them. The
select committees have power to examine witneQses
and to require the production of documents. The
expense of election petitions must be very great,
and some time must elapse before the select com-
mittees can report their decision to the house. It
is said that Mr. Phinn, the barrister, will resume
his parliamentary business before the select com-
mittees. The fees are considerable, and very
large sums were made by barristers practising be-
fore election committees.

" INIIELLECTUAI " QUALIFICATION FOR
THE FRANCHISE.

In a remark which we made this day last week
we have been strangely misunderstood, and the
subject is quite important enough to invite a cor-
rection of the error. Speaking of the extension of
the suffrage to be provided in any new Reform
Bill, we argued that the qualifications of an elector
might be looked for in the information as well
as the property which he possessed, and, as an
expression of the idea, we suggested that a voter,
on presenting himself the polling booths, might
be asked to testify to his own education by
writing his name. This suggestion was described
by Mr. Watkin, in his speech at Yarmouth the
other day, as a proposition for giving a vote to
every man who could write—something very diffe-
rent indeed from our true meaning. Our proposal
would simply have excluded from the exercise of
the electoral franchise persons wholly uneducated,
whatever might be their other qualifications. The
idea, in fact, was very analagous to that of the
provision which requires that a voter, whatever
may be his possessions, shall be of full
age before voting. Certain property conveys a
recognised qualification, but to this qualification
must be added presumptive evidence of the discre-
tion or intelligence of the individual. Although,
however, our suggestion, as we observed at the
time, was offered upon its own merits, and tended,
indeed, to the encouragement of education as well
as the elevation of the suffrage, we are confident
in our opinion that for the principle of our argu-
ment—that is to say, fot the assignment of the
franchise to intellectual as well as pecuniary qualifi-
cations, there is good warrent to be found both in
precedent and reason.
We think, indeed, we nay advance a step
higher, and ask what is in particular nature of
the qualification which lie s at the bottom of
all instinctive assumptions in any contro ersy
about the distribution of political powtr ? What
do we say when we argue that certain persons or
classes are not to be trusted with the suffrage ?
What do we recommend as the. ne:iessary prepara-
tion for the extension of political rights to greater
numbers of the commt nay ? Does any man, Whig
or Tory, Conservative or Radical, say that such
and such classes hay( not got money enough to
be made electors, or that men must somehow or
other be rendered more generally opulent before
they ein be admitt,d to the polling booths
Nothing of the kind. When we talk about
raising the great body of the nation to a certain
standard of political ability, we never imply that
people are all merely to have their pockets filled ;
we mean, that they should be so educated as
to comprehend the obligations of citizenship, whe-
ther they be rich or poor, and one of the chief
arguments for national education in some quarters
has been the necessity of thus paving the way for
a greater community of electoral rights.
As far, therefore, as the principle goes, we are
entitled to regard it as commending itself to us
almost involuntarily by its intrinsic and self-evi-
dent propriety. As to precedent, we can produce
also that peculiar requisite in most impressive and
unexceptionable shape. Two of our most emi-
nent constituencies are founded upon intellectual
qualifications only. In the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge no property qualification
whatever is required, the right of voting being
conferred purely and simply by that evidence of
education which is conveyed by the possession of a
certain degree. We shall be told, of course, that
the operation of the principle in this case affords
very little guidance, inasmuch as the intellectual
element of qualification is overpowered in practice
by the property qualifications which a large majo-
rity of University graduates possess at the same
time. But this was not the case when the fran-
chise was first conferred ; it is an accident result-
ing from social changes, and, moreover, something
lof a similar result might not improbably attend
the principle in itsfurther extension. Why should
it be ptesumed that an educated man must be a
needy man, even though his education may not
have been certified by the academical stamp. ?
It is at this point, perhaps, that some persons
may take up their ground of opposition, and argue
that if qualifications derived from education would
be accompanied, as would doubtless happen in
many cases, by qualifications derived from pio-
perty, it must plainly be superfluous to pro-
vide for the recognition of the former apart
from the latter. Why should we make a specific
assignment of the franchise to captains, barristers,
physicians, or schoolmasters, when nine-tenths of
such persons are sure to possess the right of voting
already on some other grounds? Admit that a
man entrusted with the education of some 50 or
100 embryo voters ought to be a voter himself, is

it not certain that be would be so in virtue of his
house if not of his land—of his taxes if not of
his rent-roll ? We reply that such electors are valu-
able enough to call for the admission of even the
small proportion who may be excluded ; and further,
that this proportion may not be quite so small as
is imagined. No doubt, the residence of many of
them would be such as to carry a qualification with
it, but the town. or village in which they reside
may not return members to Parliament, or they
may live in lodgings or chambers. They may be
contributing a small share to the revenue of the
country, but only indirectly, instead of directly.
They may enable half-a-dozen householders to pay
their rates, and yet not be ratepayers themselves.
A very good test at this point would be the assess-
ment to the Income Tax, and we remember the
criterion was suggested in past discussions. Beyond
all question, the contribution of 101. to the ser-
vice of the State in this form ought to convey as
strong a presumption of electoral competence
as the payment of any other imposts ; but we de-
cline very decidedly to take up this particular posi-
tion. We earnestly hope to see the income tax
and all its machinery abolished by the time a new
Reform Bill comes well into operation ; nor are we
at all inclined to purchase the convenience of the
test at the cost of the duty.
Returning, however, to the principle under consi-
deration, we must express our belief that it would
operate to the public advantage in a variety of
ways. It would remove the dissatisfaction natural
to men with such qualifications if unenfranchised,
and it would bring a new and very serviceable
element into representation. Persons in the
position we have been describing—that is to say,
men with considerably more than average educa-
tion, with incomes in many cases of respectable
amount, and yet without the privilege of giving a
vote, must not only possess, by the very nature of
the case, many of the qualifications desirable in an
elector, bnt must also be exempt from some of the
undesirable liabilities to which some electors are.
exposed. It would be hard to reach them as a body
by any other means than those of argument,
and in all likelihood they would vote upon their
separate convictions, without even the influence
of political contagion. These we think would
be strong recommendations ; and, if such a
recognition of purely personal qualifications
should communicate a stimulus to the great

work of national education, few, we pre-
sume, would consider the result as otherwise
than beneficial. There is no fear, unfortunately,
that the applicants for the franchise on the score of
superior education will present themselves in any
ovarwbelming numbers ; and as the extension of
the suffrage implies in its very terms a large aug-
mentation of the electoral body, we should rejoice at
the admission of an element which certainly cannot
preponderate, but which can hardly operate other-
wise than for good.—Times.