Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1872-08-24 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

MINERS AND THE FRANCHISE.  It will be interesting to many to know that opinion of counsel has been taken on a question which is at present attracting attention in the Cleveland mining district, as well as in Durham, and the public are indebted to Mr. T. F. Hadley for the spirited action he has taken. The following article from an excellent evening contemporary, the Sluelds GcAette, will explit.in itself : " A considerable amount of agitation prevails in the North at the present time amongst the coal miners with reference to their right to exercise the franchise in boroughs. Hitherto the hoagies occupied by colliers have been rated with, and as part of, the collieries, the rates being paid by the colliery owners. In the western district of the county of Durham the question was first raised as to the right of having the miners' names inserted in the rate-books, and and the point was referred to the Poor-Law Board for their decision. In their reply, the board advised that the occupiers' names should be placed on the books. Recently, in valuing the Houghton-le-Spring Union, Mr. T. F. liedley, the well-known valuer, of Sunderland, had the matter brought under his notice, when, with charcteristic decision and thoroughness, he at once proceeded to state a case for the opinion of the eminent barrister Mr. W. C. Glen, whose intimate knowledge of all rating questions is well known, and the result was a recommendation on the part of the learned gentlemen to insert all the miners' names is the valuation list as the occupiers of the 'remises in which they resided, irrespective of whether the houses were the property of the coalewners or leased by them for th.e accommodation of their workmen. A doubt, however, was raised whether, under the miners' bonds of agreements which the men signed on agreeing to enter the service of the coalowners, the oeoupation of the houses in question was merely that of a servant, in which case their names could not legally have been entered as the occupiers.The case, With this new feature added, , was again submitted to Mr. Glen, with the view of ascertaining whether it was a servant's occupancy. The opinion subsequently forwarded by Mr. Glen was that he thought the agreement showed that a tenancy had been created, and that the miner did not (Kwitny as a mere servant," the stipulation as to repairs embodied in the bond, and by which the occupier was bound to keep the windows, &c., in good order, being, in Mr. Glen's opinion "inconsistent with the position of a servant's occupancy." There does not, therefore, seem any reason in law, and certainly there is none in equity, why the occupiers of miners' houses in borougos should not have their name inserted in the ratebooks. For certain purposes miners have occasionally been separately rated in the County of Durhatrs but no instance is on record of their having been eu rated in boroughs as to obtain the franchise. At the same time, it should be noted. that eveu if the occupiers' names are not entered on the rate-book the franchise is saved by the proviso of the 19th section of the Poor-Rate Assessment and Collection Act. No question of the Stamper character arises in connection with the miners' horsos, all of which are, to use a Scotch phrase, "self-contained.' Much however, will depend on the form in which the claim is made to be put upon the register; but thee is a matter which will, no doubt, be properly attended to, both in Durham and Northbmberland, by competent persona. It would only be acting in accordance with the spirit of the Reform Act to enfranchise householders circum-tanceil as our north-country miners are with their several tenancies; and now that the question is on the point of being formally raised at the Revision Courts, we can only wish that, like any other Englishman's dwelling, the cellier's house may prove to be his castle, and carry with it all the electoral rights which Englishmen of every class have at last the proud satisfaction of possessing."  On Thursday, an immense Home Rule demonstration was held at Swanlinger, nine miles from Enniskillen. Ten thousand persons were present from the surrounding district. All passed off quietly.  SINGITIAR Cs a or Suicros.—A case of suicide is reported from Hertfordshire from fear of the copsequitices of having been appointed a parish overseer. the suicide (jumping out of a railway train) was committed by Daniel Beal Harvey, aged sixty-three, a commission agent, residing at St lidargaret's,but carrying on business in London. It was stated at the inquest that so convinced was the medical gentleman In attendance upon the deceased that the appointment of overseer and the supposed responsibilities attachi.ng thereto would be liable to bring on an attack of inflammation of the brain, if nothing more serious, that he bad given a certificate to that effect to be presented to the Cheshunt magistrates on the same morning with the view of getting him from the appointment. The jury returned a verdict of 'Suicide while is as unsound state of mind."