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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd March 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 199, Untitled Article

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  • Departments (2)
    • THE NEW KEFOEM BILL.
    • THE INTENTIONS OP FRANCE AND RUSSIA.
  • Text (5)
  • Transcript

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      Untitled Article

      March 3 i 860 ] The Leader and ^ atxirday Analyst . 19 !

      Untitled Article

      IT is just twelve ' months since tlie Cabinet of Lord -Dukby made their bidding for popular approval on the subject pt Reform . They proposed to give a d 610 household franchise m counties and towns , and an £ S lodging franchise , while an income tax , a savings bank , and some half dozen professional franchises were thrown in . ; finally , they proposed to redistribute the four seats forfeited by Sudbury and St . Alban ' ss , and some fifteen more , in allnineetenThis bidding

      to be taken from rotten boroughs ; , . was rejected W the country as wholly insufficient ; it was rejected by Parliament on other grounds . Whigs , . Peehtes , and Radicals equally desired to oust their Tory rivals from power , and for that purpose were alike ready to vote against Mr . Disraeli s Bill ; but , as their opinions regarding lleform differed widely , they were fain to vote upon some particular point on which they could all agree . An Amendment was accordingly framed by Lord John Eussell , which censured the Conservative plan in .

      general terms for not lowering the town franchise , so as to include a just proportion of the working classes . After a good deal of higgling and wrangling amongst -themselves , the Peelites and " Stafford House Whigs consented to vote for this resolution . Ministers were beaten , and forthwith dissolved Parliament ; they failed to get a majority in their own House of Commons , and so . the Whigs and Peelites came in ^ leaving their Radical associates at the door . Then came their tuni to bid . While the party contest was pending ,

      the chiefs had declared that , were they allowed but the opportunity , they would prove themselves able and willing to pass a large and . comprehensive measure during the session of 1859 ; or if the summer were too far spent in elections and change of ministry , they were resolved to have an autumnal session for the especial purpose of dealing . legislatively with the great question . But summer and autumn were suffered to pass without any thingbeing done ; and the Palmerstonian Cabinet has , upon various pleas , contrived to postpone its bidding until the 1 st of March ,

      1860 . . At length , however , we have that bidding , and it will be for the country to say whether , on the whole , they think it was worth waiting a year for . In some important features it is identical with that of tlveir predecessors in office ; in others it differs materially . Regarding the county franchise extension , they agree . " Ten pounds occupation , . accompanied with the fact of being rated to the relief of the poor , and with payment of assessed taxes , is to constitute the new suffrage in counties . Six pounds , occupation , with similar accompaniments regarding rateability and payment of . taxes , forms the proposed basis of the new borough constituency . All the minor

      qualifithat part of their proposal revived and engrafted on that which now before us . . ' ^ . With respect to the re-distribution of seats , the Berbyite Bi adopted the principle that no borough now represented i Parliament ought to be disfranchised ; and to this principle th Palmerston Government has now given its adhesion . It wa by Mr . Gladstone that the expediency of preserving am perpetuating small boroughs as an essential part of the con stitution was most energetically expounded last year . Th ( right hon . gentleman then sat on the Tory side of the House and voted for the Tory Bill , assigning as one of his chiej inducements to do so its non-disfranchising character . He now sits on the Whig- side of the House , and is prepared , of course , to support the present Bill , which has for him the same conspicuous recommendation . No one can accuse Mr . Gladstone , in this respect , of inconsistency , for he will only do this year what he did last—advocate eloquently the rights of nomination . As regards this fundamental principle , the two measures are substantially and avowedly the same ; and they are no doubt identical , because , the interests and wishes of the * majority of those "concerned in framing them are so much alike as to be popularly indistinguishable . Nor should we forget that five sixths of the present House of Commons ( could they vote by ballot ) would gladly resist the pruning of a . single sapless bough . Ministers have therefore had to consider what could be carried , as well as what ought to he proposed . Lord John confesses that his own opinion regarding disfraiichisement , of small boroughs , as expressed in the Bill of 1854 , w hich would have made away with some fifty or sixty seats , and transferred them to more populous places , remains unchanged : but he declares his belief that Avithout great excitement out of doors , no such proposition could be carried through . Parliament , tinder these circumstances , the new Bill proposes to take one seat from each of twenty-five boroughs now returning two members , the popiilation of which does not exceed seven thousand persons Of the seats thus confiscated , fifteen are given to large counties , and ten to large ' .-towns . - We have not space or time to enter now into a scrutiny of the conflicting . claims of these localities . Differences of ppinion there will of course be on every variety of detail ; but for the public at large it is satisfactory to be . able to look forward to the . subtraction in future of even twenty-five from the compact mass of irresponsibles hitherto privileged to rule over us , and in the addition of twenty-five votes to the number of those legislators who cannot with impunity defy public opinion . It only remains for us to add , that the long forfeited seats of Sudbury arc to be given to Scotland , and . those for St . Alban ' s to Ireland .

      cations , or " fancy franchises , " as they have been called , arc thrown aside on the ground of intricacy and complication ; but the old reserved rights of freemen , etc ., are not to be interfered with ; those who possess them are to regain them for life , but with the present , generation they will expire . Lord John Russell staled , in his speech of Thursday night , when moving to bring in the Bill for England and Wales , that in this part of the United Kingdom the present borough constituency might be taken at 404 , 000 , not reckoning some 35 , 000 freemen , whose franchises would gradually expire . He estimated the additional number of borough electors under a ^ 0 franchise at about 198 , 000 , or nearly fifty per cent , addition to the borough constituency that now exists . He stated with great simplicity

      . and clearness his reasons , for discarding the idea of founding the franchise '' on rating instead of rent , confirming fully the objections tjmt have been so often argued in the columns of this journal : and after enumerating the . additions which a £ 9 , an # 8 , and a £ 7 qualification would severally give , he disposed of them all with the plain convincing question—Would it be worth while disturbing the present condition of things for the sake of a less augmentation in ppint of numbers than that which he . was about to propose P The noblti lord rolics upon the answers obtained by tho Into Mr . Joskph JfLBTciiun to inquiries directed to bo made by him some years n ^ o in the manufacturing districts , as to the usual rent paid' by skilled artisans , for tUo assumption that his J £ ( 5 proposal will include a con * sidorable proportion of that deserving and intelligent class . A hotter man than Mr , Fletchkw never lived , nor one on whoso

      statistical accuracy we should bo more disposed to place reliance . Wo must , nevertheless , express our doubts as to whether the result of his investigations can bo fairly taken as conclusive regarding tho . working ohissos in other parts . of the kingdom . Wo know that in th ' o metropolis , for example , ' six or 8 cvan * pound houses are comparatively unknown . It was this conviction , doubtless , that led Mr . DiSHAULr and his colleagues to suggest the propriety of having a lodger franchise . In this respect wo think they woro in tho right j and we should not bo sorry to soo

      Untitled Article

      / CERTAIN journals have been assisting to get up alarm , Vv / and we cannot help thinking their correspondents have been partially misled by unprincipled politicians , anxious to make money by disturbing the funds . In tlic first instance , an attempt was made to make the public believe that an offensive and defensive alliance had been concluded between Austria and Russia ; that the latter guaranteed the territories of the former in consideration of receiving * aid in schemes of aggression in tho East . The statement was in the highest degveo improbable , as St . Petersburg papers , such as the Invalide Jimse and the Abqhllc ^

      d / c Nord , were advocating the independence of Italy ; and Russia ' s finances are in . no condition to render it likely that she would be in a hurry to provoke another collision with Enylimxl and Franco . It is possible that the Austrian Government proposed something of the'kind , and very likely received assurances that the Czar would do all in his power to prevent the renewal of . the war , and the consequent occurrence of- movements to favour tho independence of Hungary ; but those , best acquainted with the affairs of St . Petersburg doubt whether Prince Gobtschakoff will permit himself to bo dragged into an imbroglio by tho House of Havshijkg , of whose perfidy he has already

      had ample experience . Tho second edition of this story , in tho "Monibuj C / tronie fa , is more probable , as it abandons the declaration Unit Russia guarantees tho Italian territory of Austria ; but wo want confirmation , and explanation of what she means , if she promises to " not with Austria in any complications that may aviso on the Danube or in Hungary j" and pause before we believe slio will adopt a course that may bring against her something worse thaw a renewal of the Crimean war . ' . • ¦ ¦

      Another story has likewiso given riso to anxiety . Wo . allude to tho assertion that tho Emperor of tho Fkisnoh had peremptorily ordered Vtotou Emmanuel to give up ail i « oa of annexing Tuscany to his dominions , and threatened sonous consequences if his behest woro disobeyed .

      The New Kefoem Bill.

      THE NEW KEFOBM BILL .

      The Intentions Op France And Russia.

      THE INTENTIONS OP FRANCE AND RUSSIA .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 199, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2336/page/3/