New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-23

ENGLISH REFORM AND NEGRO SUFFRAGE.

ENGLISH REFORM AND NEdhU auEEhAGEs
The Reform agitation has reached a new
phase in England. The conservatives have
been driven from their position Of sullen res
tiyeness, by the imposing aspect Of public
opinion, and have deputed Mr.. Disraeli to
! prepare a Reform bill which shall go even be-
! yond Mr. Gladstones moribund measure, in
concession to the working classes This, at
least, is the report, and it appears to be we'll
founded. At all events, it accords with what
experience and reasoning have demonstrated
/ to be the tendency Of parties which find them
selves unable to Withstand the pressure of q
| elamorous majority, 1t would not be surpris-
| ing, therefore, if the present ministry should
| try to retain their position by concessions to
| which, while in opposition, they would never
have consented. In the meantime, there
has been q serious split in the Reform party.
| 4 strong protest has been made against the
leadership of Mr.. Bright, by those who think
that MIR. Bright does not follow out his doctrines
to their logical conclusions They accuse their
leader of an inability to comprehend the
principle which underles the Reform move
ment, and of constituting himself the cham
pion of simple expediency--in which, indeed,
he would differ only in degree from the mod
crate members Of the Tory party, and from all
those politicians who measure the extent Of
their concessions to popular opinion by the
inauperable necessities Of the moment. 1t
is against Mr.. Gladstone as we'll as Mr.
Bright, that these accusations are directed
Both of those leaders are accused of time
serving, and an utter disregard of principle in
their views of the Reform question. The
plan Of reform proposed by Mr.. Gladstone
and embodied in the bill on which he rested
his tenure of Office, was to allow all to
vote vino paid certain rental-the
consequence of which would be the extension
of the franchise to a large number of persons
who are now excluded. His principle--if he
could be said to have principle-was to
allow every man to vote, unless it could be
shown that he is disqualified. ttBut Who"
asks Mr.. Beales, the leader of the insurree-
tionary party, "who is to be the judge?"
This is the question who is to be the
judge?" Mr.. Gladstone and Mr.. Bright de
clare that Parliament is to be the Judge, and
the payment of a particular rental the test
The other side reply that this does not estab-
lish a principle; it only sets limit which,
being purely arbitrary, may at any time be
removed.
The discussion is interesting and sug-
suggestive, as showing the difficulty which
springs up the moment that any attempt is
made to establish tests not founded on in
variable natural distinctions. Those who
boast Of the stability Of the British
form of government leave out of view this i'm
portant element of the instability which really
characterizes 1.-THE absence ofany philosophi-
cal principle as a guide for the statesmen in
their perpetual endeavors to adapt their poll
teal institutions to the demands of public
| opinion.
| It is only in the Southern States of the
United States that any such method has been
tried, as it is only in those States thatpolitica
distinctions have been founded on invariable
natural characteristics is to say on the
admitted or presumed distinctions between
the white race and the black race-the natu-
ral superiority Of the one and the natural
inferiority of the other. Where method
Of this kind is practced artificial distinc-
tons necessarily tend to elimination; and
hence we find that society in the South is
really far more liberal and far more demo
cratic, than in the New England States. And
yet the radicals, who declare themselves will
ing to adopt property qualification for
| whites, provided negroes be admitted on the
same terms, and who want to disfranchise