The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-27 00:00:00

Vadiamentarp 13rearb 1110.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MONDAY.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL moved the order of the day for the
'house resolving itself into a committee of the whole house
en the sugar duties.
Sir 3. PAEINGTON moved an amendment to the effect
that the remedies proposl by Government would neither
afford relief, nor check the slave trade, to which the dimi-
-)mtion of the cultivation of sugar in the West Indies had
given so great a stimulus.
Sir E. BUXTON seconded the amendment, and after a
vliscussion, in _which the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Seymer, and Mr. Hume took part, the debate was
adjourned to Thursday.
On the motion of Lord MOnPETH the Health of Towns
Bill was read a third time and passed.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TUESDAY.
Mr. HUME concluded a speech of above two hours' du-
ration by moving " That the House of Commons, as at
present constituted, does not fairly represent the popula-
tion, the property, or the industry of the country, whence
-has arisen great and increasing discontent in the minds of
a large portion of the people; and it is therefore expedient,
with a view to amend the national representation, that the
-elective franchise shall be so extended as to include all
householders ; that votes shall be taken by ballot ; that
the duration of Parliaments shall not exceed three years ;
and that the apportionment of members to population
shall be made more equal."
Dr. BowRING seconded the motion.
Mr. H. DRUMMOND followed, in opposition to the re-
solution, contending that political power should be con-
fined to those who had property, to the exclusionof those
-who had none. If it were to be admitted that a particular
constitution of that House would secure a diminution of
the national expenses, then it would be composed of re-
presentatives who, to satisfy their own petty and local ob-
jects, would sacrifice the national interests and honour ;
constitute the House as they pleased, still it would be
powerless as regarded relieving the distress of the people,
it would be a gross delusion to tell them that any reform
-of Parliament could give them food, that anything but
misery was the lot of the great mass of mankind, or that
that misery could be relieved by any legislation whatever.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL commenced his speech by com-
plaining of having been misrepresented by the hon. mem-
ber for Montrose and others, with regard to the observa-
tions he had made on a late occasion with respect to the
feelings of the people on the subject of reform. He did
'not deny that he had expressed his belief that the middle
and working classes were not in favour of the people's
charter or the plan of the honourable member for Mon-
trose, but that declaration had been used as a declaration
against all reform, whereas he had gone on to say, after
having excluded these specific measures, that the people
desired a gradual progress in reform • and, in using that
term, he had excluded no species of reform, Parliamentary
or fiscal, which it might be useful to adopt. The noble
lord then proceeded to argue and combat the propositions
contained in the resolutions submitted by Mr. Hume,
concluding his observations by referring to events which
had been and were every day occurring around them. ex-
pressing his hope that, at such a time, the House of Com-
mons of England would not think it right to go into vague
end indefinite proposals for reforming—proposals which
did, indeed, apparently evade the principle of the people's
charter, but which, in reality, could not stop short of that
great change in the constitution. He would rather hope
that they would think it due to the institutions it was their
advantage to inherit—that they would think it due to the
other branch of the Legislature—that they would think it
due to the people whom they represented—to give a stead-
fast negative to the motion then before them.
Mr. W. J. Fox followed in favour of the resolution.
Mr. DISRAELI in his most sarcastic strain exposed a
Parliament as constructed after Mr. Hume's plan. He
then showed the fallacy under which this new reform cry
lad been got up ; viz. the increase of our public expendi-
ture and the increase in our taxation. In the year 1828
our taxation was £49,500,000; at present it was only
.£47,000,000, and that, too, so redistributed as to work in
every case in favour of the working classes. Our expendi-
ture had been stationary, and, therefore, the popular plea
for this change was not true. After showing that the
measures proposed by Mr. Hume were crude, unsatisfac-
tory, and insufficient to satisfy the popular longings, he
proceeded to explain the results .to which they must of
necessity lead. The movement was decidedly a middle
class movement, and was intended to aggravate the power
of that body, which had told the country that the present
Government was a middle class Government, and that it
should work out middle class objects. He made the house
merry with a ludicrous description of the mode in which
the agitation ent this subject had been got up, and con-
cluded a speech full of wit and eloquence by declaring his
determination to vote against Mr. Hume's resolution.
The debate was then adjourned.