The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-15 00:00:00

IRISH REGISTRATION BILL.

An HoN. MEMBER inquired when the Irish Registra-
tion Bill would be brought forward?—(Laughter.)
Sir R. PEEL said he must bring forward the Bank
Resolutions on Monday, and, as we understood, it was
not likely that the Irish Registration Bill would come on
before the holidays.
Mr. FERRAND said that the Right Honourable
Baronet (Sir Robert Peel) had, on the previous evening,
quoted a document which set forward the claims of the
coal miners during their unfortunate strike. As he
was informed that that document also set forth their
grievances, which were of the most oppressive kind, be
wished to know whether the Right Hon. Baronet had
any objection to lay it on the table of the House ?
Sir R. PEEL said he believed it was not consistent
with the forms of the House to lay on the table a hand-
bill ' • but he had a copy of the printed hand-bill from
which he quoted, and if the Hon. Gentleman wished to
have it for the purposes of debate, he should be happy
to furnish him with it.—(Laughter.)
Sir ROBERT PEEL postponed, till that day fort-
night, his motion for leave to introduce a Bill to define
and regulate certain rights of the Duchy of Cornwall.
EXTENSION OF THE SUFFRAGE.

Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD, previous to bringing
forward his motion for leave to introduce a Bill to ex-
tend Parliamentary suffrage, and to secure the
free representation of the people, presented
petitions from Leicester, the Tower Hamlets,
and Leeds, signed by upwards of 10,000 per-
sons, in favour of his motion. The Hon. Gentleman
then proceeded to state, that on former occasions he had
brought before the House propositions similar to that
which he now advanced, and had entered into different
arguments in support of his views which he would not
then reiterate. He should only state his general views
on the question, and explain as shortly as he possibly
could, the principles he desired to see in operation. If
they considered the principle of all government,
they would find it to be that the great body
of the people gave up their natural rights, and
entrusted them to others to exercise them for the
benefit of all. This principle was consistent with
his proposition that every man should have a share in
the appointment of those who were to make the laws
which he was bound to obey. He would not
maintain universal suffrage in all its details,
but the principle of the Bill he would in-
troduce to the House was, that all male adults
of twenty-one years of age should be entitled to vote for
Members of Parliament ; but that principle should be
limited by registration laws, which should confine the
exercise of it to a residence within the locality where the
election took place. He would exclude from the right of
suffrage all those who were under sentence for any
crime, or who were insane, but he would have no class
of the community subjected to limitations to which every
other class was not. He would also propose a new ar-
rangement of the electoral districts, for he could not
think it fair representation, if a district having 100
voters should have as many representatives as a district
having 1,000 voters. His third proposition was the in-
troduction of vote by ballot. He considered it impossi •
ble to extend the suffrage with safety to the
Hes
wished
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hunlessad
tot
thus
it
draw was
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attentionpeople unless voting by ballot was also adopted ;
nor did he think that vote by ballot would be
accompanied
of
principles
tbhye ot euns
tdeee;dwfihrsiet,h suffrage.thhee
stated
thethree

extension of the franchise ; secondly, a new arrangement
of the electoral districts; and, thirdly, the vote by ballot.
He did not wish to trespass on the time of the House by
going into the detail of the argument which bore upon
those three points ; but he would read the petition
which he had formerly presented to the House from the
delegates at Liverpool, and which contained a summary
of those arguments. (The Honourable Member then
read the petition, but could not possibly be followed
correctly in the gallery.) Perhaps gentlemen. might
admit the principles which he had alleged, and 'yet
differ from him as tosome of the details ; and if so, they
ought not to object to going into a Committee, where
the details might be examined. The great body of the
people were, by the present system, excluded from the
representation, and the advocates of that exclusion should
show that it was wise, expedient, andjust. He had been
challenged by the Right Hon. Baronet opposite 'io
say why he excluded females from universal suffrage.
But, although he did not include women in this measure,
he was not prepared to say that women should not in
some cases possess the suffrage. He did not think that
the working classes were represented in that
House or that their interests were sufficiently
attended to. Nor did he think that it was right to re-
fuse the franchise to a poor man, because he was poor and
unlettered. The poor man without learning was still
capable of judging of his own interest, and he was the
person who most required protection. To show that
the working classes required protection, he need only
refer to the recent divisions upon the Factories' Bill,
when the House of Commons twice decided by a ma-
jority, that women and children ought not to be required
to work in factories more that ten hours a day. Then
on a third division the same House divided that they
ought to work more than that time, and afterwards, on a
fourth division, by a large majority, that they ought to
work twelve hours. It was evident that in those' divi-
sions the House had not acted as a body that represented
the working classes, whose almost unanimous opinion
had been expressed in favour of the measure; in fact;
the House was the representative of the Government
and not of the people. There were other points besides
those which he had enumerated, which were included
in the demand for full and fair representation. Amongst
them was the reduction of the duration of Parliaments.
No man could say that there could be free representa-
tion so long
.as Parliament sat for so many years. He