The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-14 00:00:00

IMPERIAL rARLI AM ENT

HOUSE OF LORDS—LAST EVENING.
The LORD CHANCELLOR. took his seat on tlao Woolsack
at five o'clock.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The Somerset and Dorset Railway Bill was read a second
time.

MR. DISRXELI'S LETTER.

The Duko of ARGYLL said that he now rose to speak
upon that subject upon which he gave notice some days
ago. That subject was one which was so cutting
and so injurious to the feelings of the people, that
it became necessary that it should be investigated into.
In terms which were severe, but not more severe than
they deserved to be, his noble friend (Earl Russell) had
disclaimed any confidence in a Government which had
pursued the course adopted by the present Govern-
ment. The chief Minister of the Crown had adopted
a peculiar course in this matter. lie had written
a letter to the Times about the matter. He must say that
the Tory party were a very good-natured party, and if the
right hon. 'gentleman had been on the Liberal side of
the house, and had uttered these remarks about
"being educated," a great number of justly indignant men
would have gone into the Cava of_ Adullam. (Hear,
hoar.) It considered that if those five points in this letter
were to be taken as the theory of the Conservative
party, he thought that it was the duty of the
Liberals to pretest against them. He should take the
Edinburgh one as it had been made. He would, however,
do the right hon. gentleman the justice to admit that he
did say by the word "I" " I do not mean myself, but the
Government to which I belong." He should lightly in
his remarks pass over the 4th clause, but should speak
at some length on the sth. The first clause asserted that
the bill must be complete. With regard to this clause it
was by persuading the minds of the members of the house
that they, the Liberal party, intended to bring on one
point in one house and another point in the other house.
The peculiarity of their bill was that they did not wish
to abrogate the smaller boroughs, but letting them down
gently in order that they might be amalgamated with
others. The third point was that there should
never r
but this question had
booneal Boundary
mooted
two parties, and. if the
right hon. gentleman for seven years hail been instilling
between Commission,
the
this into the minds of the people he must have had
an uncommonly easy task. The next point was
the distribution of seats in the country, but
this was not at all a serious point. These
wore the four points which, it was argued, the Con-
servatives had been pressing upon the people. Ho
now come to the fifth point, which was formed by the
borough franchise upon the rates, and this was really the
' serious point upon which the parties had been at
issue. (Hear, hear.) The great euestion was not that
they should take the votes by the vote book,
or in acy other way, for all the Liberal Government had
introduced a rateable franchise. Is 1859 they might have
con idered that the borough franchise should be reduced,
but Mr. Disraeli, when ho left office, reverted to his former
opinion. He had asked Lord Derby's Government
—" Will you or will you net reduce the borough
franchise ?" The noble duke then quoted extracts
from Mr. Disraeli which stated that he hail not altered his
opinion on the subject of Reform, and that he was for a
lateral extension of the franchise. (Hear, hear.) On one
occasion he said that it. was the impartial opinion of the
country that they rejected a gross and indisciiminaling
reduction of the franchise. The noble duke said the last
time on which the right hon. gentleman had been educating
the people he said that this point was a more blind by
which they first succeeded in duping their own party, and
then a largo portion of the house. It was a remarkable
fact that the bill passed last year contained no per-
sonal payment of rates. It was a mere delusion,
and contained precisely the same clause as that
of the Reform Bill of 1832, and that clause
was perfectly inoperative. It was to test the sblvoncy
of the debtors, but generally the course was that no
notice was taken of the non-payment of the rates, or else
it was takenn advantage of politically by the landlord, or
the electioneering agents, and they paid the rate. The
clause of last year was of the same description as that
of the Reform Bill. It was meant that the poorest
votes should have an independent vote by the personal
payment of rates, but in reality it was not so. The noble
duke then wont into a statistical detail of the position of
the towns of Leicester and Exeter with regard to the pay-
ment of rates, and said that if they would look into the
records of Lord Grey's ministry, they would find that so
keen was political contest-that the owners of property in
those towns had agreed to pay their tenants, and they were
immediately put upon the register, and this result would
accrue from this rating clause of the bill of 1867. In ad-
dition to that, in those municipal towns where the land-
lord had no political feeling it would bring the most cruel
and unjust effects upon the municipal authorities where
the tenants were allowed to pay the rates. In the east
of London it was proved in the appeals against the rates
that that landlords had not reduced the rent, and thus the
additional rate fell upon the poor. In the district of Hack-
ney 1,000 to 2,000 summons had been issued. Rather than
pay the rates every class of labourers and mechanics was
giving up housekeeping. In Salisbury each family had a
separate holding, but this rating system would compel
many to take lodgings.
_ _

The LORD CHANCELLOR lucidly explained the
nature and effect of the ratepaying clauses of the Reform
Act, and administered a sharp rebuke to the noble duke
for occupying the time of the house with miticisms upon
what, after all, was only a post-prandial oration. Ho pro-
ceeded with much vigour to animadvert upon the charges
which had been brought by Earl Russell on the occasion
referred to against the conduct of Lord Derby's Govern-
ment, denied that these charges had either point or accu-
racy, and indignantly repudiated the conclusion which
had been drawn by Lord Russell from his own unsup-
ported premises.

Earl RUSSELL said that the speech of the Lord Chan-
cellor was eminently ingenious, though it had altogether
omitted to answer the charges of the Duke of Argyle. Ile
then proceeded to descant upon the advantages of com-
pounding for rate ; the hardship of imposing upon the
Poorer classes of occupiers their personal payment; and
predicted that the now Parliament would speedily alter
the firm and solid ground which Ministers last year
boasted they had discovered to rest the borough franchise
upon. Lastly, the noble earl justified his charges against
the Government, declaring that their conduct with respect
to Reform had been unworthy of high-minded statesman,
and repeated his comments on the speech of the Premier
at Edinburgh.

Tho Earl of MALMESBURY complained that under
the pretext of putting a question with respect to the com-
pounding for rates Earl Russell had seized the opportu-
nity to direct an attack, without notice, against persons
who could not be present to defend themselves. It was
unworthy of noble lords to make attacks which only a dis-
appointed Opposition would think of conducting. He
vindicated the conduct of Ministers, and argued that they
had only at last succeeded in settling the Reform question
by treating it no longer as one of party politics, but by
consulting the house itself on the subject of its own re-
construction. The result was that the bill which had been
passed was more the work of the Commons than of her
Majesty's Government. If the measure inflicted hardship
upon a certain class of occupiers he was sure it would be
considered and redressed, and with that end in ♦iew the
matter was now being investigated by a committee of the
other house.

After some observations from Earl Grey, Earl Granville,
and the Earl of Devon, the subject dropped, and their
lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—LAsT EVENING,
Tho SPEAKER took the chair at four o'clock.
EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.

In reply to Mr. CRAWFORD,
The LORD ADVOCATE said it was the intention of the
Government to introduce a measure on this subject during
the present session.
PARTY PROCESSIONS IN IRELAND.

In reply to Colonel KNOX,
The Earl of MAYO said in October last 25 persons
pleaded guilty at Downpatrick of an infringement of the
Party Procession Act. The men were allowed to go at
large on their own recognisances, they promising not
to offend the law. The others refused to plead guilty ;
they were tried and convicted, when Mr. Johnson, of Bally-
kilbeg, who was one of them, asked that the other two
men might be liberated like the others, as they had
acted under his direction. Mr. Johnson's memorial went
to the Lord-Lieutenant, who referred it to the judge, but
that learned gentleman said as the memorial did not come
from the prisoners themselves, but from a prisoner who
aaked no favour for himself, it was returned to the person
sending it as informal. The informality being remedied, the
men were allowed to go at largo on their own rocogni-
sauces, but as Mr. Johnson had stated that he could ask
no favour for himself, ho had therefore to undergo the
sentence passed upon him, which was a month's imprison-
ment for that offence, and another month for his refusal
to enter into his own recognisances to abstain from (-loin g
as ho had done for the future.
STATE OF MEL A.ND —TIIE ADJOURNED
DEBATE.

The adjourned debate on the motion of Mr. 11AotutE
was resumed this evening by
Mr. C. FORTESCUE, who said the mind of England
had now ripened ou the condition of Ireland, and it
being considered intolerable. The Fenian organisation
had been, up to the present, productive of but bad results;
it had led to the suspeusion of the Habeas Corpus Act