THE NEW FRANCHISE BILL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1242, 1 May 1884, Page 4

THE NEW FRANCHISE BILL.

By London papers received by the Suez mail yesterday we extract the following remarks made by Mr Gladstone in the House of Commons on Feb; 29, in rising to bring in his Bill to amend the law relating to the representation of the people in the United Kingdom. His proposal he submitted to the House under three heads. First, as the redemption of Ministerial pledges; secondly, as tending to satisfy the desire for an extension of the household franchise, which was widely and generally entertained among the classes affected by it; and above all, as adding to the strength of the State. “ He-took his stand upon the broad .principle that the enfranchisement of _. capable citizens, whether few or many, and if many so much the better, was an additional strength to the State, for the ‘ strength of the modern State lay in the representative system. Who were the • • capable citizens had ■ already been .-settled by solemn legislative judgment acquiesced in by both parties in the • 'Stale, and by the experience of the past fifteen years ; and they whom he proposed to enfranchise in the counties *-’a r nd put on the same footing as the population of the towns were the ‘ -.smaller tradesmen, artisans, miners and t: peasantry of the country. The question . whetherthe peasantry were qualified had been decided by the first and second Re- ;. ..form Acts, for many of the towns represented in the House were really rural T.. counties based upon present franchise. Under his Bill he would leave the franchise of the boroughs as they were *tut extend the Lio yearly franchise to cases where the occupation was of ’ land, without house or building. He '■* ‘ would also establish a new franchise, ■' -■ which he would call a service franchise, yf'l&be conferred on persons who were -lit-'.-inhabitants in the sense of occupiers, , t vA but were neither owners nor tenants, tlje present law restricting the term occupier to those who were either tenants or owners. Thus the principle of the f, ’ V! Bill would be to give every householder . st.yote. • Passing from the boroughs to the English counties, he proposed to ■'abolish the LSO rental franchise, and reduce.-the figure of the rating franchise Of 1867 from a Ll2'rateable value to a Lio clear ye?rly value. But the main change which the Bill would ' * effect was to import into the counties

the household, lodger, and service franchises to which he had referred. -t.v-TJ’he property franchise would be mainV 1 tained in principle, but provision would : be made to secure them against abuses. Ah’important element in the structure of the scheme was that it would embrace the whole three Kingdoms in .one and .-the same measure. With regard to Scotland, everything would be left to it which it now possessed. The new service franchise would be intro- ‘ duced into the boroughs, which had already the lodger, household, and Lio .’clear annual value franchise, and in ’ tlje counties the LSO rental and Ll 4 inoccupation franchises would be replaced . - by the Lio clear annual value fran-is-vt-chise, and thd leasehold, lodger, and i service franchises would be introduced, ‘the Irish boroughs the existing ■ franchise would be left un- ' touched; for the L 4 rating franchise \*it,would be substituted a Lio clear yearly / .-’value franchise identical with that of England-and Scotland, and the houses' hold and service franchises, 100, would s be imported. In the Irish counties the yearly value franchise would be reduced ■■ t : tp.Kio, and the household, lodger, aid f service franchises be established, it ■ being’a vital part of the measure that • j -the three countries should be treated ' ton a footing of perfect equality. Oc- ’ cupation would be the grand founda- ■ of the new electoral system, and Awhile it was not held to be necessary to the existing property franchises 4.40 the condition of residence, it was

'proposed - * to disqualify rent charges > ' (except the tithe rent charge of a parish .held in single ownership), fees, and ‘ 'head rents-for electoral qualifications, . and to prohibit the subdivision of hereditaments for the creation of votes, ex- '. - ceptihg cases where the subdivision was

obtained by descent, succession, mar'triage, *or marriage settlement, or by will.' By this means he hoped to strike an effectual blow at the fictitious ■ r' ypte, by which he k meant those descrip - ■ -'•jffons of franchises where there was no real property interest at all. Having f ~Vdesc|ibed what,the Bill contained, Mr ' said it was impossible’ to '■Rtpass ’ by unnoticed what it did not 4 He admitted that it was not i complete Bill; but there had never 'Jbeen, and never could be, presented to ’ Parliament a complete Bill on the subH^7^- jectvof,Parliamentary reform. If they * would deal with the subject as practical the must not overlay and smother S r it“ - ’ As deck-loading was dangerons to Viv ships; SD'it would be dangerous to the Rf)Bill: -The Government were, therefore, ’ not to deck-load the Bill, knew that that would be a preto its foundering. Hence Irv they declined to include the question in its provisions. At '• same lime he granted that a measure ifS ;^f f -iffedi§fnilptipti ought to follow a | *franchise Bill at the earliest date, and r'Wthts Bill were passed the earliest date would be'next session. He might be tq explain his plan, but he did not intend to walk into a trap. He ifo.- objection, however, to indicate r%hia own views without committing his and he thought that when a erasure of redistribution came on it have some sort of relative finalfßlty and be a large measure. He •, according to his own ” v.|deas,-.were the lines on which a scheme : ;Rbf redistribution should proceed. The R right hon. gentlemen appealed to the Rylliberal party not to endanger the Bill /Rhyl pressing amendments and making ! /additions to it. The measure was in a';'., no danger of direct opposition, but it " . was in some danger of having to en■H* counter indirect opposition. Of that, '■■► he was not afraid, unless / there was grafted upon it the additiona! danger which it would have to Rencounter from its friends. He hoped <?’ then-that they would regard the ques- < t 4pn,iis the Liberal party looked at the Karan Bill in *631, and, giving up isular preferences and prcdilecs, look at the broad scope and ;ral effect of h'urproposals. What wanted in order to carry the Bill -tttiion, and*union only. What it it was disunion, and iuoh only.