The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-08-08


remembers, and Stanton must expect no favor,
as he felt no fear.
Final Passage Of tho Reform Biii-Universai
Suffrage IN England.
The Atlantic cable has announced that in
the House Of Lords, on tho 9Th Of August, the
Reform bill was read for the third time and
passed The bill now awaits only the sig
nature of the Queen to become law and to-
date a new era in the history Of England.
1t is clearly understood by all far-sighted
mon to be but "the beginning Of the end"
Universal suffrage, looming up in the dim
perspective of the future, is what excites the
apprehensions avowed by British lords Of both
the tory party and the wbig party during the
recent debate on the Reform bill. These APP
prehensons inspired the gloomy and Cas-
sandra-like Vaccinations with respect to the
future of this bill" The impolitic but not un-
accountable opposition of noble slords to the
Reform bill were overcome by the dexterous
tactics Of the leaders of both the great parties
and by the irresistible pressure of the popular
wildly the advance Of what the Earl of
Shaftesbury called the "great democratic wave
which is going on even in spite of ITSELF" The
certainty that the Derby-Disraeli bill would be
passed by the House OF Lords explains the
failure of the reform meeting called at Hyde
Park on the 5th inst. Yet it was not passed
without protest. Earl Grey looked forward
to ga gradual deterioration of the House
of Commons" and was understood to
say that similar process Of deterioration
had already taken place in the colony
of Victoria and in the United States of Amer
lea, owing to the extent OF lowering the suf-
frage. Universal suffrage in France has like
wise been frequently held up as q bugbear in
the late discussions Of Parliamentary reform
in England. Earl Carnarvon dreaded the
danger which he anticipated from the
alleged tendency of the new Reform bill to
transfer the whole power Of the State
into the hands of a class largely composed Of
workingmen, and liable to be 80 represented
that the House of Commons win be made
accessible only to rich men or to demagogues.
To an American ear it sounds simply ridicu-
lous for member Of privileged class to
declaim against q measure as an act of class
legislation, when this is really an entering
wedge to split asunder the class legislation
under which England has so long bowed its
neck. When once the British people shall be
fairly and fully represented in Parliament the
anticipated danger Of war between classes
will have passed harmlessly by. The Earl of
Shaftesbury overestimated entirely the import
ance Of Senator Wade's agrarian speech in
Kansas when he quoted 1t as indicating that
conflict between labor and capital would be
likely to result from the Reform bill in Eng
land and from universal suffrage in the United
States. Property is nowhere more secure than
In this country, where every voter may aspire
to be landholder. And although land and
wealth are monopolized in England by COM
paratively few, and the English working
classes are consequently moro exposed to
the influence Of agrarian doctrines than
they could be II the cheap and fertile
lands of Western America were theirs
to have and to hold, yet their inherent
national characteristics are not likely to be
by any measure Of reform. The
working classes share these characteristics
with every other class in England ; and the
westminster Review" is fully justified in ridi-
culing the notion az natural but childish"
that "a reformed House Of Commons will be
revolutionary chamber-that inaction will give
place to inconsiderate and rash legislation"
It asks:-Will an act Of Parliament transform
the English race! Have the words which
Sidney Smith, in speech advocating the
Reform bill of 1882, employed to depict his
countrymen ceased to be applicable : "The
English are tranquil, phlcgmatic, money
loving, money-getting people, who want to be
quiet, and would be quiet II they were not
surrounded by evils Of such magnitude that it
would be baseness and pusillanimity not
to oppose to them the strongest con-
stitutional resistance" Can 1t be seriously
commended, asks the reviewer, that q short time
hence the electors OF the United Kingdom will
send to the House OF Commons men devoid
alike of the will and the power to legislate with
firmness and with foresight Indeed, the
reviewer thinks that the danger lies in the oppo-
site direction, and that reformed Parliament
will differ far less from its predecessors than
the advocates Of improvement expect. Here
after, he says, the opponents of reform will
marvel at their blindness in regarding the
extension Of the franchise as the beginning Of q
reign Of terror. Just as the British farmer is
all the richer for free trade, so will the British
constitution be the stronger and the more
national when thoroughly reformed" Even
the Earl Of Shaftesbury, in the midst Of his
pious lamentations over the woes which he
fears are In store for England, utters the philo-
sophical truth that institutions must be ex-
banded to suit men, and men not cramped to
suit institutions" and the patriotic sentiment
that "however dark and dismal may be the
future Of England, 1t is our duty TO stand by
our country, into whatever hands the
power and the government may pass.
Whether monsrchical, republican or democratic