The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1884. The franchise Bill.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1386, 22 November 1884, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1884. The franchise Bill.

The Constitutional crisis which followed the rejection of the Franchise Bill by the Imperial House of Lords has evidently come to an end, and it is difficult to say which side has gained the victory. The Upper Chamber has, indeed, consented to allow the measure to pass, but only, it would seem, on the written guarantee from Mr Gladstone that a satisfactory redistribution of seats should take place immediately. Lord Salisbury and the Conservative peers have never pretended to oppose the extension of the Franchise, and were quite willing that Hodge should have a vote if he wanted it j but they argued, and with reason, that its application to the constituencies as they now exist would be a mistake. Virtually, therefore, we think that the Peers have reason to believe that their obstruction has been justified by the compromise, although the appeal to the country which they wished to bring about has not taken place. Englishmen take their politics—like their pleasures sadly, and the mode of expressing their opinions by parading the streets in endless processions has its ludicrous aspect. Except as showing what can be done in the way of organisation, it is not easy to see what these monster demonstrations prove. At any rate it may be safely said that not one out of every hundred who take part in them care a brass farthing for the question at issue, and simply take advantage of the occasion ' for a day’s outing, although it would seem to most reasonable beings a strange kind of amusement. What strikes us particularly in connection with these demonstrations is the almost entire absence of originality. The stale old joke of carrying two loaves, a large one to represent the people and a small one to represent the Lord?, still finds a place in the Liberal processions while there is no alteration in the timehonored mottoes inscribed on patriotic banners and the speeches delivered and resolutions unanimously passed have been stereotyped since the the first time the Upper House"obstructed the will of the people,” as the Radical politicians put it. When it is considered that the result of these meetings is absolutely nil, that the objurgatory denunciations of that disgraceful blot on our Constitution, an hereditary Chamber, have no more effect than the prelatical curse in the celebrated legend of “ Jackdaw of Rheims,” one can only consider the whole affair as a gigantic farce, got up for the enjoyment of a vast crowd of gaping rpstics, who would be sorely puzzled, if questioned, to say what was the precise nature of the grievance they labor under. To give the Conservatives credit, they have in their counterdemonstrations on the Franchise business initiated a much pleasanter way of doing things. Political picnics during the time that this agitation raged were quite the fashion in England. Lord Salisbury threw open his beautiful grounds at Hatfield, and the Great Unwashed could enjoy themselves as they liked, the only penalty they had to pay being to listen to a speech on the ouestion of the hour. It is no wondejr that this kind of demonstration found favor, and as everything was cut and dried, and the applause came in at the proper time, it was easy to make it appear that the resolutions passed represented the will of the people, The Radicals may have secured larger attendances at their meetings than did the Conservatives, but there was no difference m the matter of unanimity, and that after all is the principal thing. One point Englishmen may congratulate themselves upon, and that is that their mode of expressing popular opinion on political questions is far less dangerous than is in vogue across the Channel. Had such an important political crisis occurred in Paris, barricades would have been erected and the people would have amused themselves by pelting each other with bullets, while Britons are perfectly satisfied with the bandying of words. Which is the more effective we will not venture to say, but in spite of the speeches of the noisy demagogues in England the Upper Chamber seems to be as far from extinction as ever, and in this matter of the Franchise Bill they have got, if not as much as they wanted, at least a great deal ( more than the Radical members of the Cabinet were willing to concede to them a few months back