Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-07-19

dissolution of 1885 one election was hart
? ~ over before another was on. while, q
, everybody knows, the present election
which has come even now q year before II
Time, has been impending over the cour
try, like . veritable sword of Damoclei
: quite as long, to cay the least, as the pr
| hminary skirmishes which prepare th
way for our own presidential contests
Fancy, too, the inconvenience and the AN
ful Suspense of general election in whic
| | three seks are occupied with the mel
formality of voting, and in which only
little less than that time must elspss bs
fore the general result as to party ascer
dency can be known. Surely, 1t is far bel
, ter, both as regards the strain on publ
feeling, and the interruption of business
to make the battle short and sharp, con
inning the voting to single day, and max
ing it possible to know the result, as
rule, in another day or 30, according t
the well tried American method.
Another decided flaw In the English sys
tenn is the fact that parliamentary divi
sions are represented to q large extent b,
non-residents. Many q Sootchmsn will b
returned this week from English constit
uencies, and vice vera; while, much a
the Irish are olsmoring for home rule, i
will be quite strange If some portions o.
that country are not represented at West
minister by men who live on this side o.
the channel, and still more strange IL som,
residents Of ireland are not sent to legis
late for boroughs or counties in England
All this, besides being allowable in law, ID
common in practice. Many q Cockney ID
asking the suffrages of Honest Hodge, and
not few country squires are posing as a,
/ taft ~ ir-io In
ing metropolis. The qualifications of a
member of parliament are quite simple.
First, Barkis must be willing, and second
ly he must be a subject of the United
Kingdom. But, as is clearly shown in
Henry N. Stanley's case, he may secure
the dignity of citizens, whatever his af-
| fliations may have been otherwise, by an
easy and somewhat elastic process. The
usual terms are little more rigid, but
Stanley gets it, through q special dispense
| ton, by declaring mis- intentions and by
showing that within period of twenty
| years he has resided for at least five years
within the British dominions. Assuming
citizenship of the United Kingdom, Mr..
Anybody of Anywhere may ''stand" for
parliament before any constituency in the
realm, and If the voters favor him, he may
''sit" afterwards as a member who, though
he seldom sees them and knows little or
nothing about them, is supposed to spe-
cislly guard their interests in the House or
Commons.
And if these things are not as we think
they ought to be, what must be said, from
the American point of view, respecting
the parliamentary frsnchisel The qualifi-
cations of a voter are that he shall occupy
q dwelling house or some separate part
thereof. This applies both in counties
and boroughs. But in counties there is
the Freehold franchise, which entities the
owner of land of the annual value of for
ty shillings to vote, while In boroughs
one may register on the strength of the
occupancy of shop, Office, etc., of the
annual value of fifty dollars, or a lodger
who pays not less than fifty dollars for his
apartments may qualify on that ground.
tolerably liberal apportionment. But
when you learn that, according to the best
estimates, one in every four of the male
population is excluded by these condi-
tions, and when you find, as you surely
must if you exercise your wits on this
problem, that many of those excluded are
better fitted for the franchise than large
numbers of those admitted to it, and that
of those shut out the vast minority belong
to the class whose needs are the greatest
and who feel most keenly those hard con-
effectuslly by an intelligent ballot-when
you find out such things as these you are
impressed at once that the need for reform
in the electorate is only little less urgent
than 1t was prior to the act of few years
ago which, for the first time, admitted sg
ricultural lsborers to q vote.
We have to remember, moreover, how
many there are In this country who, with
out let or hindrance from the law, can
ia az tuv4
for that matter, a dozen or two dozen
times. Wherever man can qualify as an
owner of land he can vote for a member
of parliament, and the fact of the cleo
tions being strung out over a period of
many days makes it convenient for the
landed GLASSES to take full advantage of
this arrangement. And yet another injus-
tice lies in the fact that the different Sec
tions of the country are still so unequslly
provided for in the distribution of parlia.
mentary seats. The greatest sufferers
from this inequality are the great centeTs
of industry like Manchester, Birmingham,
Liverpool and London. There is many a
place in Great Britain where the vote of
single church parson, or a solitary coun-
try squire, counts for as much in the cleo
ton of parliamentary representatives as
the votes of any four or five of the most
worthy toilers in either of the cities Just
named. This is what Joseph Chamberlain
had in view-and surely it was not a bad
idea-when to the Gladstonisn cry of
Zone man one vote, he added, And eve
rywhere one value for one vote"
1t will be interesting to Americans to
know that amongst the classes excluded by
English law from the exercise of the fran
| chise are the whole lot of those unfortu
nate beings, 40 sadly numerous over here,
| who are branded with the idious name of
psupers. On the best authority We are as
sured that taking the country throughout,
| of every two working men who reach the
| age OF sixty, one will have to come upon
the parish for subsistence. And this
means that, besides other hardships, that
one, though he fulHll the condition of oc.
| cupying house, as many of this class do,
| will still have no vote. Only consider
what this must mean to the laboring class
es of London. Before us are some esti-
mates, the substantial correctness of which
has not been questioned, and from these
we gather two facts which are simply hor-
| rible. One is that one out of every nine
Londoners will die in the poorhouse, and
the other is that at the present time some
thing like one out of every eleven of the
| population of this city Is in the receipt of
pauper relief. Of course all Of these who
are men, though they might be qualified
voters in other respects, are shut out
from the polls by their pauperism; and
it is the same all over the country We
must remember, too, that, according to
the testimony quoted from leading Eng
lishmen in our letter OF last week, pau
perism is not always, nor is it usually,
either the crime or the fault of the Brit
ish workman, but is simply condition
to which vast multitudes of industrious
and honorable toilers are irrevocably
doomed by their inability, ont of the
pittance they receive in wages, to lay by
anything for a rainy day.
Turning to brighter things, we note
with pleasure one feature of the electoral
laws which is favorable to the working
man. He does not lose his vote when
the necessities of his situation require
him, after registration, to change his
place and residence. Wherever he was
registered last August he has a right to
vote this July, and he may put in an
appearance, if he can, and claim that
right. OF course it is the worker who ID
pre- eminently the mover, and this provi
sion, though it was not specially made
for that class, certainly inures somewhat
= to their advantage. The difficulty is
however, in getting the money to pay
travelling expenses. Our impression j:
that in our own land of the free money
might be found for a useful purpose like
this on the door step of some partisan
\ "a Il.