The Express. — 1867-04-08 (London, England)

THE REFORM BILL ♦NO THE OPPOSITION.  Tho Tsraes regrets to find its hopes considerably disappointed by the tenor of the new ratepaying clauses which stand in the name of Mr. Disraeli. They relieve the compound householders of none of those disabilities to which so many objections have been taken. They make it lawful for the occupier, after payment of rates, to make a deduction from his rent, but the deduction is of course not to exceed " any sum which the owner would have been liable to pay." whereas the occupier would have had to pay out of pocket a sum calculated on the full rateable value. No limitation of the term of residence is introduced, and the position of the lower class of compound householders would still contrast unfavourably with that of the upper class under Sir William (lay's act. In short, by failing to make larger concessions in this direction of their own accord, the government have strengthened the hands of the opposition. The Tines proceeds to urge under these circumstances that parliament will discredit itself in the eyes of the country if it does not arrive at a compromise. It would be suicidal on the part of the government to treat the instruction as a vote of want of confidence. The difference between the rival theories of reform is now well ascertained, and it is not such as to justify internecine conflict. Prin. ciplee, as they were called, have been sacrificed already, and all can see that nothing remains to be sacrificed but self-interest and party spirit. The Daily News ridicules the announcement that the instruction is to be considered as equivalent to • vote of want of eontidence, and asks what claim the government has established in its treatment of the reform question to warrant it in refusing to enter upon a free discussion of the proposal embodied in this instruction to the committee. If the bill is passed amended as Mr. Disraeli propose., every house inhabited by a compound householder would have annexed to it • price at which a vote could be obtained, that price being the difference between the "full rate" mentioned in the first, and the sum which the tenant is entitled to deduct from the rent as prescribed in the sixth of the new enactments. This is Mr. Disraeli's " principle," which is dearer to him than the admission of mere numbers. Mr. Coleridge's proposal, the Daily News proceeds to contend, would bring in more and better voters. It preserves and extends the local benefit by providing for the maintenance and further application of the principle of compounding for rates, and avoids the political restriction and inequality by dissociating the franchise from the exclusive and purely accidental condition of direct or personal payment. The Post is unable to perceive any necessity for considering Mr. Coleridge's motion as a want of confidence in the government. There can be no doubt, it thinks, that the liberal resolution is the more honest and straightforward of the two, and may well be incorporated in the bill.  History repeats itself, says the Herald. In 1859 the place-hunting party unseated a conservative ministry and rejected a conservative reform bill through the medium of "an abstract proposition." To-night the same tactics are to be repeated, the lever employed being "an instruc. tion." The object is identical in both cases, and the interpretation placed by the government upon Mr. Gladstone's latest DISIWAVIIO will, the Herald is assured, be accepted alike both by the House of Commons and the country. The Herald has great confidence that the liberal party will reject the factious counsels of their leader. If the country is appealed to it will be no very inspiriting war cry for the leader of the opposition that his success should have =Wined in his having narrowed and diluted the generous proposals of the conservatives. The Standard is equally sanguine. The TelegrapA and Star support very emphatically the Instruction of Mr. Coleridge, and regard the disruption of the Cabinet, if that is a necessary consequence, as presenting no sufficient obstacle. 

Article type: NotIncident