The Commonwealth. — 1866-03-10 (London, England)

CONSISTENCY.  PARLIA.3IENTARY REFORM. To the Editor. of the Commonwealth.  S Il2,—We are on the eve of the birth of yet another Reform Bill; for the fifth or the sixth time has her Majesty the Queen, in the annual Message from the Throne, informed her faithful Lords and Commons that, acting under the advice of the responsible advisers of the Crown, she has directed a Bill to be laid before them to improve the representation of. her people in the Commons House of Parliament. It is not worth while stopping to inquire why a promise so plainly stated, aryl so often reiterated, has resulted in nothing at all. Oar business just now is with the present, and not with the past. That a measure will shortly be laid on the table of the House of Commons in reference to an extension of the suffrage, we may consider as certain; that such extension, whatever it be, will be small, may also be regarded as pretty certan ; and that it may be so very small indeed in its application and results as to be absolutely not worth accepting, is a possibility, the contingency of which is by no means remote. Such, then, being the unsatisfactory nature of the situation, !t beco nes art imperative duty for the people to consider, in a matter so vitally affectino•e their common interests, what their attitude should be. This question of Parliamentary Reform has, during the last few years, been stultified much more by the inertness—to use the mildest term—of many of its professed friends than by the honestly avowed hostility of its opponents. The Liberal party have been scandalised and amazed at the defection that has adsen in their ranks—a defection that increases in number and in seriousness as the time approaches for a trial of strength between the advocates of justice and freedom upon the one hand, and the partisans of privilege, exclusion, and class interests on the other. Now, this defection is one of the most serious things WO have to arrest; but it must be met And orashed,--g, stamped out" is the term just now. The hostility of "the other side" may be considered afterwards—that is not the point at present; it is humiliating to have to admit it, in reference to the working of a popular movement, but it is true nevertheless, that we have more to fear from the latent treachery of supposed friends than the open warfare of acknowledged enemies. That it is so, however, the history of the last Parliament has ,clearly shown. But these kind of people are somewhat difficult to deal with; they have no sort of, principle as public men; political consistency-and morality are terms at which they shrug their shoulders and haughtily jeer. There is only one way in which to appeal to them with effect, and that is by playing on their fears. Let them but once become convinced that the people generally are earnest in this matter, and will have no farther dallying with reform by any I one Tvito may wish to be counted as in any way upon I the Liberal side, and we shall speedily see these  gentlemen—who, though returned to Parliament as reformers, yet seem to suffer from a chronic antagonism to anythi,g in the shape of reform—not useful, perhaps, but the most humble and subservient followers-in the wake of the winning cause. The sort of plain, outspoken utterance that is required to awaken in these placid sometime Liberals a sense of what is required of them, will act also in an extremely beneficial way upon the Government, who, if appearances do not belie them, would most heartily that thi, bitter cup passed by. And saying this is implying no distrust of Earl Russell; but he does not stand alone. A Whig himself, it must be remembered, and no ardent panting innovator, really radical changes are hardly to be expected front him; but for a statesman of our day, he has considerable political conscience, while his ability and intelligence have never been denied; his surroundings, however, are beings of quite another order—the old timehonoured Whigs, without any pretension to or the slightest faith in political honesty, with whom intelligence is much less than a secondary consideration, and whose complacent belief in themselves•is only  exceeded by their rooted distrust of the people. It is because the bill about to be introduced is in such hands that few are disposed to place any abiding faith in the liberality of the measure. It is our duty, however, to wait and watch. We must not be taken unprepared either way. It is to be hoped that we shall not have to expend our strength in ignominiously rejecting a bill which has been so patiently waited for, and on which so many hopes are based. We must, however, stand prepared to do our duty to ourselves. It may be that something will be offered -worth our having, and in that case all, and perhaps more than all, our energies will be required to help it on. But the people must not sit with folded hands and humbled attitude, waiting for the ungracious providence of a Whig Government to show its attachment to the great principles of freedom. They may, when forced to it, concede, but they will not initiate; if it is not beyond their administrative calibre, it far exceeds their intention and their hope. Born, as they seem to believe, solely to inherit the firstfruits of the earth, they will not commit political suicide by transferring power—not to the Tories, who are comparatively only their opponents in theory, but to the people, who are the opponents of both, not only in theory, but in fact. And without a strong pressure from without is put on, and that speedily, it is to be feared that the old policy of trickery and delay may again be successfully played out. Not that our rulers are worse than other rulers, but that it is the habit of a privileged elass to guard angrily its own interests, always in antagonism to the common weal; to trample on the people if they are weak, and to flatter and cringe to them if they are powerful; and to abase themselves in the mire of party fights and at the behests of mean and petty interests, while they leave Liberty to crawl into the world like an unhallowed or forbidden thing. Storm: H.