REFORM.

West Coast Times, Issue 623, 23 September 1867, Page 2

REFORM.

BEOS£ THE COEEESPONDENT OF THE ABGUS,

The Eeform Bill may be regarded as safe. Eocksand shoals have had to be encountered in the House of Lords ; but no one now fears that, after having weathered the storm of the Commons, any serious opposition will imperil the integrity of the measure in its passage through the Upper Chamber. Land is in sight, and glad indeed will the weary legislative mariners be to glide into the smooth harbor of recess. The industry which the Government and private members have displayed in bringing the Eeform question to its present advanced stage, is highly creditable to their character. The amount of business despatched on some days has been prodigious ; and whatever shortcomings in other respects they may be chargeable with, the Eeform Bill of 1867 will long continue a noble monument of tneir untiring energy, patient labor.and self-denying compromise.

A rapid summary of the proceedings of the committee since my last letter will enable Australian politicians to comprehend the minor features of the revolutionary bill which is probably destined in a few years to materially modify English political life. On Thursday, June 27, it was decided that a mere change of office shall not necessitate the resignation of a seat, and that polling places at elections may be increased at the discretion of the returning officers. Mr Fawcett's proposal, that the expense of hustings, pollingclerks, polling-books, and other requisites of an election, should be put on the county and borough rates, gave rise to a long debate. It was argued by Mr Mill that to require candidates to pay for the privilege of entering the House of Commons would foster aa opinion among those who conferred the privilege 'that the payment ought to be made direct to them. But the House was alarmed at the idea of opening Parliament to unpropertied adventurers, aud rejected the amendment by the large majority of 106.

A muchmore excitingdiscussionaroseon tho 28th ult. on a now clause brought forward by tho Attorney-General in redemption of a pledge made by the Government to Mr Denman, that the rate, on the payment of which the franchise depends, should bo demanded by the overseer. That official, in bringing forward the clause, disclaimed, all sympathy with its provisions ; and, later on, Mr Hardy, the Homo Secretary, positively refused to support it, on tho ground that it would prove mischievous in operation. Mr Disraeli, while avowing his intention to support the clause, said that he should hold himself free to oppose it at a future stage. But though Mr Gladstone emphatically declared that the principle of demand was vital to the bill, and that if it were rejected the whole question of personal rating would be reopened, and tho battle of the franchise would have to be fought over again, the- House decided, by the narrow majority of two— 2o7 to 205— in favor of the rejection of the clause. Nearly the whole of the Treasury Bench went into the opposite lobby to tho mass of their supporters, and a section of ths Liberal malcontents voted with the Tories, on the ground ostentatiously taken by Mr Eoebuck, that he desired to exclude "the rabble" from the constituent body. A supplementary debate, of a highly sensational character, was provoked, during which Mr Gladstone declared that if that vote were not reversed, household suffrage would become a mockery, and denounced the bad faith of the Government. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, accordingly, gave a vague promise to bring in a fresh provision for notice of a rate being given to the qualified householder. The fact is, the House was getting alarmed at the revolutionary nature of its handiwork, and symptoms of reaction were setting in. Unable to recall their dubious gift of household suffrage, a large section of Liberals, as well as the Tory party, were anxious to impose all possible restrictions, with a view of limiting the dreaded mischief.

Monday, the Ist, witnessed a sudden and unaccountable fit of the House in favor of purity of election, and one of those remarkable concessions on the part of Government which have so often startled the country. A new clause, proposed by Mr Candish, was carried for disfranchising all electors employed for reward at an election as agents, canvassers, messengers, or in similar capacities, and for making it a misdemeanour in the elector so employed to vote. But the House, while condemning the agent, refused to saddle the candidate with any responsibility in such a case, and struck out a provision to effect that object. The same evening the House was convulsed by quito a tempest of party wrath, * and a rovolt of the Tories agaiusfc their loader. It will bo remembered that, on the threat of Mr Disraeli last month to reconsider tho position of the G-overnnient in relation to tho whole Bill, the House rejected Mr Laing's amendment, to give additional representatives to large constituencies. On the lsb instant, however, Mr Horsefall, a Conservative, proposed a clauso conferring a third member on Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham —throe out of tho six boroughs affected by Mr Laing's amendment, MrAdderley,the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, was put up to oppose the plan, aud declaim against the representation of numbers. From the tenor of this speech it was inferred that Government had put its foot down ; but a little later in the evening Mr Disraeli rose, and not only contemptuously, threw over his betrayed subordinate, but actually went further than the motion demanded, and consented to include Leeds among the towns to which a third member should be added. This was the signal for an outbreak of angry rebellion against the tricky Tory leader, and, instigated by the indignant protests of General Peel, voted to the number of sixty-eight in opposition to tho Government. The clause wa<*^ carried by the aid of Liberal votes, but the soreness and irritation in Conservative minds is excessive, and at ah earlier stage ot the session would undoubtedly prove dangerous. The incensed old general said in his speech that the Reform. Bill was no onger anybody's bill. The expression ■compound had been applied to the householder, but would be much more descriptive of the bill. It was a compound bill compounded in fragments. It was also, ho said, "a bait very difficult to swallow, or digest when swallowed," and ho crowned hia speeoh by the biting opi. JfrMwwtwal remark* «-« There are tl»w«

strong opinions I have formed (during the composition of the bill), that there is nothing that possesses so little vitality as a vital point, that there is nothing so insecure as a security, and that there is nothing so elastic as the conscience of a Cabinet Minister." Mr. Disraeli was dumb. His follcrwters havo eaten more than the traditional peck of dirt. The resolution, to give an additional member to each of the four groat northern towns, led to angry party altercations as to how the seats were to be obtained. Mr Disraeli, to pacify his followers, insisted that Salford and Merthyr would have to forego the privilege which had been promised them. This was too much for the patience of the Liberals ; the hocuspocus was too transparent; and so the defeated mancauvrer was compelled once more to recede from his position, and announce to the house that the four repre- , scntatives in question would be obtained by withholding the enfranchisement promised to Luton, Keighley, Barnsley, and St. Helen's. There were not wanting speakers to urge that more of the smaller boroughs should relinquish ono of their members to enfranchise towns of such magnitude and growing importance, but the suggestion was strenuously opposed by Ministers, and the House subsequently ratified the arrangement. The leading Liberals regard the redistribution section of the bill as merely provisional, and were, therefore, indisposed to interpose any such serious opposition as might have jeopardised the passage of the bill. A new Parliament elected by household suffrage will assuredly renew the battle, and complete the work of organic reform initiated by a Tory Government. We have at least got a good instalment, that satisfies even Mr Bright for the present. On Thursday, the 4th, there commenced a debate on the principle of cumulative voting proposed by Mr Lowe, which, after an adjournment to next evening, was finally rejected by a majority of 31<i to 173. The " Spectator," which has had the curiosity to analyse and classify the votes, states that of the 173 who sided with Mr Lowe ninety-six were Liberals, and seventy-seven Conservatives, tho Liberals therefore taking up the principle of cumulative voting even moregenerally than Conservatives. Of the majority voting against at. 168 were Liberals, and 138 Conservatives. Thus the Liberal party, taken separately, gavo a majority against it of seventy-one. It is further remarked that about sixty-two per cent, of the majority who opposed the measure were men above fifty years of age — that is, men whose political ideas are likely- to be stereotyped; while seventy per cent, of tho minority were men. below that ago — men irho3e ideas are more likely to influence the future than the present. Mr Lowe made a very clever speech in favor offeuniulative voting in tho three-cornered and four-cornered boroughs. He did not argue for the representation of minorities ; but contended that all electors, whether in the minority or majority, should bo on an equality. At present members of the minorities, if they wish ever to return amember, are forced to plump— that is, to give but one vote, while their opponents givo three ; and so the minority aro mulcted of two-thirds of their right, only because they are a minority. As regarded the argument from expediency, he held it to be desirable to break through the dreadful uniformity of the household suffrage, an^Jto give those who do not belong to the majority a chance here and there of securing representation for finer shades of opinion. Mr Disraeli's resistance was desplayed in a thoroughly democratic and rollicking speech. He objected to the cumulative vote on the curious plea that it would diminish the number of contests and increase the number of unopposed returns. People so returned would be merely nominated. Schemes of this sort were very good for debating societies, but for " free peopk-, voting in the b"ght of Heaven," he thought the proposal an absurdity. But though thus defeated for the time, the question will come up again, and will win triumphant support. Time would fail to tell of the swarm of suggestions and amendments which have obstructed the way of the bill ; but under the influence of the heat of the dog-days, the metropolitan festivities, and the irresistible appeals of mind and body for change and rest, these have, been swept aside with astonishing celerity. Everything was made to give -way to the urgent necessity of a speedy disposal of the bill. The measure passed the committee on the 9th, the preamble was agreed to, and it was reported to the House of Commons on tho 12th. Sir Rainald Knightley proposed that the original text of the bill should be printed, and with the alterations, erasures, and amendations which have been made in it — in which case not a single lineament would bo recognisable ; but the suggestion was too much like a joke to be adopted. The enemies of Mr Disraeli attempted to mar his selfcomplacency bj r insinuating that ho has nothing to be proud of, in the bill now before the House of Lords, as it owes its authership to the House of Commons, and not to tho Ministry at all. Friday, the 12th, was devoted to the final revision of the bill. From two to seven in the afternoon, and again from nine till near midnight, members were engaged in removing tho errors and defects which had accrued from the composite construction of tho measure, and in the discus&ion of new clauses submitted at the last moment for acceptance. The ballot was again trotted out by Mr Berkeley, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge were admitted to the franchise, and an attempt to disqualify for ever persons once sentenced to pensl servitude was defeated ; but by dint of indomitable energy, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was able to announce before the close of tho sitting that tho tlurd reading of the bill would be taken on the following Monday, the loth.