The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-19 00:00:00

SPlElTormltystfe-nuitimid:

Another Ministerial crisis has come upon us, says the
Times, on the passing of an amendment proposed by Mr.
Bouverie, to the effect that the payment of rates be not
required for a voter in &Aland. The leading journal
finds it difficult to believe that the vote on Mr. Bouverie's
amendment can be at as final. If it were, the con-
sequences cannot be evaded ; but there are strong reasons
for holding that the decision was not perfectly deliberate.
The numbers on each side shew how thin the committee
wag, especially when it is remembered that nearly 420
members took part in the earlier division on Mr. Barter's
instruction. The vote has every appearance of having
been hasty, and the speakers on the amendment were few
and brief. It seems also to have been not understood that
the question of rating as involved in the Scotch Bill is
totally different from the question raised last year in the
discussions on the English Act. The effect of the measure
of last summer was undoubtedly to produce a great
alteration in the system of local rating. It reversed, as
was said at the time, the policy of much recent legislation
by compelling the separate rating of householders in par-
liamentary boroughs. The proposal of the Scotch Bill
did not require any such violent change of an esta-
blished. system. The enfranchising clause conferred
the franchise on every householder rated and paying
his rates, but, as there is no practice of compounding
in Scotland, the effect of the clause was to give the
franchise to every householder who paid his rates.
Those only would lose the privilege who were so poor as
to be excused the burden of rates, and the franchise would
be that pure ratepaying franchise, unencumbered by any
compounding enforced by Mr. Henley last year. It is
hard to believe the House of Commons thinks that •
ratepaying is an unnecessary condition for the admis-
sion of householders to the parliamentary register.
Little more than twelve months ago the proposal to
enfranchise every householder who satisfied this modest
qualification would have been looked upon as revolu-
tionary. The principle of requiring payment of
rates as a condition for the electoral franchise
was, indeed, no novelty invented by Mr. Disraeli.
It is contained in the great Act of 1552,
and has always since been insisted upon, except so far as
if was varied by the admission under the Compounding
.Lets of the landlord instead of the tenant as the person
:raking the actual payment. The members of the com-
mittee were, however, in an impatient mood, and tits
arenments addressed to them fell on unwilling ears. Ike
Lilice hoped the knot of all difficulties would be cues I,r
the acceptance of Mr. Bouverie's amendment, and -Ails
hope is not an unfair expression of the temper of those
who took part in the vote. They were weary of the vast;
phrase "poor rates ;" they thought in their despera.
tion that the admission or exclusion of a " residuus.*
of householders so poor as to be excused participation
in local burdens was a trifle where so much haC
been granted, and they clamoured for prompt execution,
satisfied that things were " going to the bad" ari'd it was
best to have done with them as soon as possible. Impe-
tuosity is not an uncommon characteristic of the House of
Commons when re-assembling in the evening, but it is
- sometimes followed by recantation in the morning. It is
certain that no one yesterday afternoon seriously consi-
dered the character of Mr. 13ouverie's amendment, the
general impression being that it would come on too late for
discussion last night, and if any one had ventured to de-
clare that it would be accepted by the committee at an
early hour lie would not have been believed.
The Post observes that the necessary connection of
payment of rates and exercise of the franchise may
be said to be the mast to which Mr. Disraeli has
nailed his colours, and when the Chairman announced
that the rating clause in the Scotch Bill had been re-
jected by 118 votes against 96, the Premier said that it
became necessary for her Majesty's Government to
reconsider their position, and moved to report progress,
Once more, therefore, we have a Ministerial crisis.
The event is certainly not unusual, and the public are
becoming accustomed to what is almost of weekly
occurrence. Hitherto Mr. Disraeli has been content to
i• carry on the Government at the dictates of Opposition.
It remains to be seen whether, in dealing with the Scotch
Reform Bill, he will continue to do so. More than once
the hint was thrown out to him, in the short debate which
supervened on his motion of adjournment, that he could
not do better than bow to the wishes of the House, and
carry the bill in the form most pleasing to the majority.
Many will think it by no means improbable that he should
eagerly snatch at the suggestion.
The Daily News observes that the ratepaying principle
appears to have some life in it ; for Mr. Disraeli intimated
that though it had been his desire to meet the wishes of
the House, yet the results of the division were not what
he had anticipated, and, he left it to be inferred, might
be what the House did not anticipate. But what
result can a Minister in a minority anticipate ex-
cept defeat ? If it is Mr. Disraeli's desire to
meet the wishes of the House, he must acquiesce
in its decisions. He will, doubtless, do so ulti-
mately ; and it is hard to see what is gained by delaying
the progress of the bill, and affecting to take time for
the consideretion of the course which he will take under
a contingency for which he mast have heen prepared. A
defeat more or less, and the surrender of another vital
principle, can make very little difference to a Government
v.-hich lives by defeats and by the extinction of its vital
principles. Another long journey to take counsel with
his sovereign is quite unnecessary ; and Mr. Disraeli will
do well to think twice before putting her Majesty and the
country to superfluous trouble.
The Herald declares that if there could be any further
reason for wishing for the dissolution of the present Par-
liament at the earliest possible opportunity it would be
afforded by the factious pertinacity with which the
majority which now blindly follows the lead of Mr. Glad-
stone persists in stultifying, one after another, the resolu-
tions voted, the principles solemnly affirmed, in the
same House and by similar majorities last year.
But there are grave practical objections to a
dissolution of Parliament which must be followed
after a few months by another general election.
A Parliament elected during the next fortnight would be a
makeshift assembly at the best—one in which the country
would have no confidence, which could not be depended on
for the settlement of any question of moment. Yet it is to such
a precipice of immediate dissolution that the Opposition
are apparently bent on driving the Government. Is this
Government placidly to accept the negation of all its
propositions for the conduct of affairs? Is it to allow
the absolute reversal, in the Scotch Reform Bill and the
collateral issues which arise from it, of the principles
which were accepted last year as cardinal points in any
general scheme of Reform ? If it declines to accept these
-votes of the Liberal majority it has but two courses open
to it. It must either resign or dissolve Parliament.
If it did not resign at the time when a majority of sixty
was against it on a most vital question—one which threatens
the very bases of the Constitution in Church and State—
at the time when its resignation was offered to the Queen,
it can hardly resign now when it is being harassed and
defeated on a succession of matters of detail, important
enough in themselves, but less momentous than that busi-
ness of the Irish Establishment. It cannot resign now for
the same reason that it did not resign then I because it
feels certain that the sense of the country is in its favour ;
because it believes that the enlarged constituencies of the
new Reform Bill will reverse, when appeal is made to them,
the action of a House of Commons in its dotage; because it
knows that throughout the length and breadth of the
country a strong current of popular feeling is setting in,
and daily gathering strength in favour of the old laws and
institutions of the realm, and against the revolutionary
policy of Mr. Gladstone and his followers. Her Majesty's
present advisers, who safely and skilfully pioneered the
country last year through the most perilous political crisis
of modern times, are holding office much against their own
interest and wishes, pending the goodwill of the Queen and
the people, for the sake of the Queen, the people, and the
Constitution of the country.
The Standard atteir pts to explain the real character of
the recent collision between the House and the Government.
Ministers, it says, have not changed : the House has. In
1866 there was a majority of 11 against Mr. Gladstone.
In 1867 there was a majority of 20 in favour of Mr. Dis-
raeli. Now, on the same ground, a majority of 21 pro-
nounces against the principles they had accepted last
year, and a majority ranging from sixty downwards sup-
ports Mr. Gladstone invarious side attacks upon the Govern-
ment. From such a state of things it follows that
Ministers cannot be responsible for the legislation of a
House which pays no respect to them, or to the decisions
at which itself arrived last year under their guidance. If,
indeavi they could fairly be expected to resign, then they
might be held answerable for refusing to transfer their trust
to a Minister who could really lead the House. But
considering that it is not two years since this same House
defeated and ejected Mr. Gladstone, it can hardly claim a
right to restore him at its pleasure. It supported Ministers
last year, and Ministers have certainly done nothing
between that time -and this to forfeit its support. On the
contrary, they have directed the affairs of the country
with confessed ability and judgment ; their foreign policy
has been universally admired ; they have almost crushed
the Fenian conspiracy ; and they have carried a most diffi-
cult and costly war to a conclusion unexpectedly complete
,
brilliant, and expeditious. Their rish ecclesiastical
policy is what it was known last year to be • their Scotch
Reform Bill is that which the House was last' year ready
to accept ; the principles now rejected are those which the
House last year approved. The change of conduct then,
which has brought the House into antagonism with the
Ministry is one which is purely capricious, if it be not
purely factious ; and to neither the caprice of Parlia-
ment nor the maineuvres of faction ought a Ministry to
yield.
asks, remain iNnvo_e7tkellemavftthere
Can Mr. Disraeli, tho
his policy lees been so coinielyar.e:ersedo9ie
right
lung-sufferin;. tenacity office which honour-
able gentleman ie reniarkab e. e, know also the game
he desires to play with the bigots on the Irish Church
cluestiOn. The Prime Minister hold'sotiice that he may be
serviceable to Mr. Benjamin Disraeli an object he
esteems much niore worthy-of devotion than either Church
or State. His celle.ieues, with perhaps one except
so completely political nobodies that they can safely:are
so.
cal-
culate on, escap:ng any lasther odium from their nisi,i
cance. the one colleague whose political character
was formerly respected y has apparently ziven up to
I)isracli what was meant for mankind. Ile probably
imagines that by attending somewhat ostentatiously to
the business of his department he can escape much of the
responsibility attaching to a Minority Ministry. In this
lie will find himself rrCstaleen, just as I\ll.. Disraeli will dis-
cover that it is vain to attempt to cover up ignominious
defeats by speeches half accepting the result which lie
knows to be inevitable. It is a matter of little consequence
whether the policy of the Government is surrendered like
the Abyssinian captives, after a preliminary contest in
the lobbies, or their defeat takes place after the storming
c't4 the vita lel. In either case they are politically discre-
dited, and by all the Laws of constitutional warfare they
9Urikt tQ Krrencier at clisccrcCult: -----
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