18 FEBRUARY 1854, Page 1

We call the bill for the improvement of our representation

"the Reform Bill" ; but it is not the only reform before Parlia- ment, nor does it monopolize the attention of Members. Several other reforms scarcely less important are under consideration with a view to progress and accomplishment. There is every reason to hope that the wrongheaded agitation out of doors which is attempted against-Mr. Baines's bill to abolish the law of settle- ment and removal, and to extend the area of Poor-law rating to the anions, -will be defeated ; for the main objects at which that measure aims, in a very direct and businesslike manner, have been already sanctioned by every independent opinion which is con- versant with the subject. The sitme may be said respecting the transfer of testamentary jurisdiction ; and the public at large will agree with Ministers, in intrusting that jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery, reformed s Chancery now is, instead of following the advice of the Commissioners in establishing a new court. Ministers have also promised that they will bring in a bill permitting persons who have conscientious scruples to make affirmation instead of taking an oath. Some other measures intro- duced by private Members are of more or less importance. Mr. Jelm Phillimore has introduced a bill to appoint a public prose- cuter, with assistant district prosecutors; and Ministers adopt the principle of the bill, probably to incorporate it in a larger measure of their own. The bills introduced by Mt. Locke King for making- the real property of intestates divisible amongst all the children like personal property, and by Sir Fitzroy Kelly for appointing an election-officer to superintend elec- tions, cheek bribery, and administer oaths by wholesale, are more questionable propositions—the latter ludicrous; though they are met with a courteous offer of consideration. Mr. Oliveira brought forward his proposition for reducing the wine-duties, only to with- draw it without debate, on the ground that a division might em- barrass the Government in time of war. A fair consideration; but then, why move at all just now ? It is an amusing instance of a reasonable proposition withdrawn on reasonable grounds, but advocated out of time and suppressed in the most inconsistent manner ; and it stands on the report of Parliament only as an ex- ample of the way in which a Member ought not to treat his own motion.