Glasgow Courier. — 1866-02-01 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE GLASGOW COURIER, THURSDAY; PEBRVARY 1 1866.  BIT.BY-BIT REFORM.  Mr Gibson appears -to think that a complete Reform Bill has no chance of passing. We see greater difficulties in the way of one which is confessedly incomplete. These gentlemen appear to assume that their work is so well cut out for them, and lies so handy on the ground, that they may take it as they please, in any order, or by any instalments. With this supposed command of material and of area, they very naturally proceed upon the ordinary contractor's plan of doing that first which will most facilitate what comes after. This would be very well if we had only the material and elements of nature to deal with; and philosophers who live in a little world of their own are very apt to fall into the way of regarding their fellow creatures as so many stocks and stones, or like the cabbage stalks the young preacher practised upon. Bat contrary to the eta° here. We have to deal with antagonists quite as intelligent, quite as capable of forecasting the future, quite as sensitive and quite as interested as ourselves. They see the whole matter in question as well as we do, perhaps better, as being more Conservative, more selfish as we may think, and therefore more susceptible. But dealing as we are about to do with ten thousand tender susceptibilities and quickened understandings, it is quietly proposed to protract the sufferings of the patient by repeated operations of increasing severity. The Reformers of the last generation used to laugh at the process calling it bit by bit Reform, and comparing it to the amputation of a dog's tail joint by joint. The simile did not apply very closely to the succession of small repairs which the Tories once stood out for in place of Reform, for it would have been possible, though slow and very irritating, to disfranchise first one borough and then another, and bestow tllktt seat on the foremost claimant. But it does apply with singular exactness to the plan of operations recommended by the speakers before us. If we began with the franchise and attempted to postpone the distribution of seats, we should immediately find ourselves dealing with the seats twice over, aud thus repeating the most painful part of the process. Now, it is idle to be at the cost of expensive repairs when the house is to be pulled down as soon as the repairs are completed. It is idle to retrench with elaborate uniformity when it is intended to break up the establishment altogether, and perhaps to go into the bankruptcy court. It is like the old recipe how to dress a cucumber, which finishes with throwing it out of the window. The representatives of the threatened boroughs will decline to trouble themselves with statistics, and, if they are not in the plot, will altogether oppose the bill, which is only the preliminary to their destruction. Thus, whatever the terms of the measure itself, and however carefully the promoters may chart out the course to be taken, the House of Commons will go at onceinto the very thick of the question, and address itself to the most i pertant points of the proposed Reform. AlO constituences, more orless, are to be put on their trial and they feel, as every accused person does, that much depends on the constitution and composition of the Court. They are to be told plainly—so it is urged in some quarters—that the existing Court of Parliament cannot quite be trusted to do justice uponithem ; while another sort of Parliament would find no difficulty in hanging them, and, indeed, would rather like to do so. So the hundred threatened constituencies and their representatives are to be invited to assist in creating a new Parliament, quite safe to make an example of them. Are they likely to respond to this appeal? Will they, like Mrs Bond's ducks, "come to be killed?" If the reduction of the franchise is to work as intended by good Reformers, will it make the small boroughs more ready to pass measures of general good at the cost of their own petty and exceptional interests? But the question in Parliament No. 2 will not be decided by the small boroughs. The populous constituencies, still more popularised by the first instalment of the contemplated Reform, and safe themselves from schedules A and B, will have every interest, public and private, in the extinction of the small boroughs. It is they that will constitute the new tribunal to which the threatened constituencies are invited to appeal, or, rather, which they are invited to create for their own surer and speedier condemnation. Of course, they will see all this as plainly as their worst foes There is nothing in this world that is wiser than selfishness for the purpose of its ends. It makes no plans, and has none except that which is dictated by nature's first instincts, of which self-preservation is foremost. There is not a borough in this kingdom which does not contain a few beads that can play a rubber of whist as well as Mr Gibson or Lord Houghton, Mr Bright or Lord Russell; and that is quite head enough for the game before them, which is to get and keep what they can. As, then, the whole question will inevitably present itself as soon as it is once open, is it worth while to attempt the idle ceremony of successive stages? It will indeed be impossible to discuss a measure confessed by its promoters to be imperfect without taking fully into account whatever is requisite to its perfection. The very first question that would be put to the Ministerial leader would be, "Does this pretend to be a perfect measure? Is it Reform?" The only honest answer would be that it is not a perfect measure, or a safe and satisfactory Reform. Supposing an a lverse resolution put to the House, declaring the measure imperfect, partial, insufficient, and not explicit, we hardly see bow the House could reject the truism. It is, in substance, the objection that has proved fatal to bill after bill, and with good reason; for if it costs an effort to make a change at all, much more will it cost an effort to hand oneself over to others, and those unknown for this purpose. So far as we see, the Parliament soon to assemble will be found to have its share of self-confidence and grand intentions. Will it, then, begin life with suicide, and declare itself at once incapable of carrying out the Reform which it confesses to be necessary?— Times.