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test of- qualification than 1 ( W . a-year ; and if the principle he once admitted , as it is by the bilL that the payment of rent in . cjointiriuotis periodical sums constitutes prirria , facie evidence of fitness to exercise the suffrage , there seems no reason why the aggregate amount should be fixed at 20 * instead of 101 . We cannot suppose that the novelty . ^ of the voting-paper system will receive the sanction ofthe present Hbuse of Commons . When last debated in that assembly , as we not long since took occasion to observe , the preponderance of opinion was so stroiigly against it , that Lord Robert Cecil , by
whom : the project was brought forward , was advised not to go to a division . One of the best speeches made on that occasion against the plans was that of Lord Stanley . We may confidently count , therefore , on his abstention from supporting it , though it forms part of the Government scheme . Lord Stanley is not a man to vote for what he believes to be wrong , at the bidding of any set of men . He could never be induced * last sesssionj to sanction tie Corrupt Practices Extension Act ; and , the other evening , he refused to vote with his jiarty on the question of " Catholic Oaths . " We are prepared , however , to see many
modifications in committee of the bill , as lately promulgated . There are abundant precedents ' . 'for such alteration / The "Reform bill of 1832 was the third introduced on the subject by Lord John JJussell within the space of less than twelve months . Each of his three bills differed materially from the other two , arid one of the most importantprovisions 6 f the one that ultimately passed ^ namely , the Chandos clause , was interpolated by a vote of the House , af ter a long and animated struggle ^ The two points on which Lord Derby" has pledged himself to take issue , and oil which , if he is beaten , he declares that he will dissolve Parliament ; are the maintenance of the 101 . uniform franchise for
town and county , and the transfer of the town , freeholds from counties to towns . On each of these , there will be much to say hereafter ; but considering the lamentable laches of the Pahnerstonians for years past , we doubt if much popular sympathy will follow ¦ ¦' them , should they seem to make use of their numerical power in Parliainerit , merely tg obstruct tliepassing of their opponent's measure , without prdpoxindirig a better one of their own . As we said at the beginning of these observations , the impending struggle in Parliament , is one rather for the ascendancy of party , " than the satisfaction or contentment of the great body ofthe people ; and the acts and motives of all who take part m it , will be weighed by the public accordingly .
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THE NAVmA-TlOH LAWS . No measure of commercial reform was more sincerely and pertinaciously opposed than the repeal ofthe navigation laws 5 they were not enacted , like the corn laws , by a selfish class for its avowed and exclusive advantage They were enacted by patriotic statesmen to benefit the public . They were sanctioned by the continued increase of our snipping in conjunction with t ? iem for nearly 200 years , and were regarded as the palladium of our naval greatness . ' They were eulogised by the father of political economy . He referred some of them to national animosity , but declared them all to be as " wise as if thev had been
dictated by the most deliberate wisdom . " They could not , however , stand against the evidence of facts ; and after several years' searching and patient investigation , they were wholly— -even , those which restricted our own coasting trade to our own shipping—from necessity abolished . There never was a fairer semblance of advantage to be obtained by restriction , and never , than b y their ultimate failure , was the conviction made more certain that the principle is , in all cases , indefensible , and to act on it always injurious . On Tuesday evening the bonefit accruing to the State from apolishing them was
illustrated at considerable length pv Mx . JUndsey , Mr . Liddel , Mr . Crawford , and others ; and both sides ofthe House were unanimously of opinion that to restore these laws was impossible . If possible it would not be advantageous . Mr . Liddel , an occupant of the ' Treasury benohes , and a groat advocate of the shipping interest , is reported to have gone so far as . xo allege , in reference to the legislation concerning' shipping' subsequent to the repeal , that all such legislation was orronoous . Wo have in those present convictions another proof similar to that we liwvo derived from tho repoal of
the corn laws , and of the prohibition to establish joint-stock banks , of the extreme fallibility of the Legislature . The present condition of the shipping interest , suffering , like a portion of the mercantile interest ; from the great success and the too eager desire tjp get rich , prevailed in 1855 , 1856 , arid part of 1857 , could not , even by its most unscrupulous advocates , be referred to the repeal of the navigation laws . All which they could say against them was , that otlier nations had not abolished restrictive laws , . and , in consequence , had not conferred equal advantages on our shipping to those which the
abolition of our restrictive laws had conferred on other shipping , as well as on our own . It could not be denied that our shipping had increased arid improved wonderfully since the abolition ; it was merely asserted that the shipping of other countries had increased also , and in a greater per centage , thoxigh not in actual tonnage , than our shipping . A child of one year old , as Sir Stafford Northcote expressed , had become in a year 100 per cent , older , while his father , who was fifty years pldj had onl y advanced 2 per cent . The great navy of Hanover , Norway , Sec , has increased more per cent , than British shipping , having started from a much smaller figure . Hut the actual increase ofthe
former is 200 , 000 tons , and of the latter 1 , 021 , 000 tons . It was explained ^ too , by Mr . Lindsey , that cotton fi-om the United States , and timber from Norway , &c , was necessarily brought hither in the shipping of those countries , and our increased manufactures and ¦ ¦ our increased trade , the consequence in part , of our freedom , in part of the general impulse trade has received from the great gold discoveries , have thus increased the shipping of all the world .. The shipping of France and Spain , and other countries in which restrictions are still maintained , has increased ; , not , as the foolish men
who yet demand reciprocal restrictions would infer ^ by reason of those restrictions , but in spite of them . So that riow ^ we may say , all argument against free navigation is for ever at an end . The goodness of Providence , brmging Tinto existence a great increase of the traffic between distant countries , coeval with our abolition of restrictions on c ommerce , has engraved the advantages of freedom so plainly in the facts , of the material world , that it has already become a settled and irreversible conviction in our country , and must become apart of the mind of all nations .
The debate served to elicit some complaints of the condition of the shipping interest , and some explanation of its causes . It suffers from exorbitant exactions for light dues , compulsion to take pilots , the tax on timber , while there is no tax on foreign built and foreign owned ships , and form a heap of very contemptible regulations j with which some gentlemen thought it necessary to encumber it , after setting it free from the old restrictions . The Merchant Shipping and Passenger Acts , and the Act for compensating injuries "—one of them a law containing 548 clauses , or about as much matter as would fill a Quarterly Review , was passed through a committee at one
sitting—are found , as might be expeqted , and was said when they were passed would be the case , to b e extremely injurious . They were accordingly referred to the committee for inquiring into passing bills , &c , appointed on the motion of Mr . Lindsey , and we , hopo that the well meaning , but presumptuous officials , who thought themselves greater statesmen than , Cromwell , will have to undo tKoir own work , as this generation has had to undo his work . We hear many complaints of the slowness of the multitude in comprehending and acting on the half truths which arc unjustly dignified by the name of sanitary science , but their dulness js volatility , compared to tho slowness with which
members of the House of Commons , who are obliged to aot on the principle of free trade , and boast of being freetraders , comprehend the principle and carry it out , Tho gentle Mr . Labouchere , the prim purist , Mr . Cardwell ; the heavy Tory , Mr . Henley , and others , while they recognise its advon-f tages , nvust have some great interest to pamper and regulate ; and so they took the mercantile marine under their especial care soon , aftor they had beon obliged to give up the navigation laws , From their proceedings tho mercantile marine is sufferjnff ; and we have no doubt that tho inquiries to be instituted intp the effects of these new restrictions will end in abolishing thorn . - Their injuriousness can bo . shown by one fact . To protect passengers tho Legislature encumbered English shinning with
the Passengers ' , Act ; but it could not subiect forei g n shipping to the same law . The consequence is , that the passengers meant to be protected go bv the foreign ship—they lose all protection , and the English shipowner , who might b e kept in order loses the passenger traffic . Passengers and ship - owners are alike injured by a law intended only to secure the well-being of the former . The claims now made by the shipowners for the remission of light dues , &C , involve some charo-es on the public ; arid Sir Stafford Northcote , with tEat familiarity with antiquity which distinguishes the men who make the laws for our modern and mowing conrinttnity , spoke of these as the sacrifice of
the Consolidated Fund in the Temple of Concord , Tils is an" illustration , " which , as the lion , gentleman said , is not an argument . The Consolidated Fund is merely another name for a portion of the taxes applied to particular j > urposes ; and a much larger sum than is required to provide lights , and compensate all who must be compensated for ' ' the loss of passing tolls , &c , may be saved from the proceeds of taxation now applied to -patronise and debase the mercantile navy . Very nearly 1 , 000 , 000 ? . a year goes to hire the . services of a few steamers to carry letters , &c , and the expenditure on this head is every year increased . The subventions—to use a French word—which might have l ; ecn plausible when steam in its i
was nfancy , have now not the shadow of a justification . The service of the Post-office must undoubtedly be paid for ; but l , 0 O 0 , 0 OOZ . a year for the carriage of letters seems to us chiefly destined to enrich the favoured companies on whom it confers a monopol y * They are enabled thereby to shut out competition ; they treat passengers so much the worse ; and the actual traffic required- —which would pay all its cost and enrich all concerned in carrying it on—is curtailed or perverted by a riaisapplication of tiie public money . We can assure Sir Staitbrd Northcote that the shipping may be relieved without sacrificing that charming entity , the Consolidated Fund .
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THE POLITICS OF NUMBERS . Oke of the most curious fallacies that we find continually asserted by the opponents of Parlia-r inentary reform , is that which assumes the working classes to be all alike , and imbued with opinions differing . very considerably from those held by other portions of the community . The supporters of this , fallacy argue , that if a number of working men , exceeding the middle class and aristocratic voters , Were admitted to the suffrage , we should have an uniformity of representation , and One interest made to predominate over every other . declared
Mr . Disraeli supported this view , when he that reducing the borough franchise to 51 . would give a " monotonous constituency of the same ideas , opinions and sentiments . " It may be conceded that a household suffrage , which excludes lodgers , would produce less diversity than another scheme bv which a large body of intelligent lodgers were admitted ; but the fundamental assumption that the working classes axe under the same influences and hold the same views , is radically unsound . , If the question of diversity alone were concerned , a far more diversified House of Commons could be obtained b y the votes ofthe working classes than by those , ofthe smaller shopkeepers , who are much more under the influence of uniform ideas ' , The circumstances that operate
upon the working classes are exceedingly various . In some trades occupation is intermittent ; in others continuous . Some kinds of work , are performed at home—others in factories or workshops , borne labour alone—others in company , eonio indoors , and sonic out . What can bo more different than the position of the 600 , 000 men described ro the last census as engaged in the higher ulftsa 01 meolianical and chemical arts , and that ot tJa 0 agricultural labourers , who arc a mucu raoro numerous body P Why should the 135 , 000 tailors , described in the same document , agrco in tastes and opinions with 150 , 000 coal minors !» - —or vruy should a quarter of a million flax and cotton spinners form a dead level of monotony with J 00 , wu
workers in iron and steel P ¦ , . Not only do the physical conditions of the -worKing classes diller very widely , but thvy wo necessarily brought * under the influence oi dilforont seotJons of the aristocraoy and middle dafls , uy whom their feelings and opinions are rnoameu Those who have laboured for social progress
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306 THE LEAjDM , [ STo . 467 , March 5 . 185 Q
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1859, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2284/page/18/
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