THE CONSERVATIVE REFORM BILL.
THE Conservative Reform Bill is before us at last, though it is pretty well understood that, in conformity with the humiliating Ministerial precedents of this session, its one
unique provision is to be withdrawn. The merits of the measure, as asserted by Mr. Disraeli, are that it bases the
'borough franchise on a principle, though it leaves the county franchise (about which Conservatives are wont to be still more anxious) based only on a figure; next, that it guarantees a
legitimate influence to the aristocracy and middle class, while conferring a large measure of "popular privilege" as distin- guished from "democratic right" on the working class; lastly,
that it redistributes representative power locally with as much equity as is possible without a complete revision of the electoral map of England. These are great merits, if they are true characteristics of the Bill. We believe, however, that they are very far indeed from characteristics of the iGovernment Bill ; that the supposed "principle" is a mere matter of accident ; that the popular " privilege " given to the working class is given, on the whole, to that part of it which least deserves any privilege ; that the " guarantees " taken for preserving power to the middle and richer classes are either 'chimerical, or mischievous, or both ; finally, that the redistribu- tion of local power is conceived on a scale far too small for the zeal exigencies of the case, and might go much further without any complete "revision of the electoral map of England." It is a Conservative Bill only so far its it is irritating to Liberals, and Liberal only so far as it is alarming to Conservatives. Let us examine its so-called merits in detail.
When Mr. Disraeli says that it bases the Borough franchise 'on a principle, he explains himself as meaning that it makes the according of a right dependent on the discharge of a duty. The borough franchise is to be given to every house- holder who pays his own rates, and every householder who does not (at present) pay his own rates, may claim to pay them, and after paying them up to the last date to which they are due, get put on the Register. Now, if the distinction here made were between householders who, though liable for rates, are unwilling or unable to pay them, who from idleness or thriftlessness get into arrears and are not practically con- tributing their share to the social organization of their town, and householders who always discharge punctually and faith- fully their pecuniary obligations to the organization of the iborough in which they live, Mr. Disraeli's principle -would be a principle indeed, and a very just and -sound one. Unfortunately, however, this is not only not the case, but so far from it, that Mr. Disraeli's distinction is in fact much more a crudinction between householders who, for the convenience and Under the legal coercion of their own vestries, pay their rates already in the form of rent through the agency of the land- lord, and householders who live in parishes where no such regulation is made, than between the thriftless or idle on the one hand, and the frugal and industrious on the other. For example, every householder in Wells who pays his rates at n11, pays them personally, as no local or Parliamentary Act is there in force for collecting any of the rates by the agency Of the landlords. On the other hand, in Leeds, of the 35,000 householders who live in houses under 10/. rental, much more than half are held under the Small Tenements' Act, and the rates therefore paid indirectly through the landlords. In many places like Blackburn, where the Act is in force through- out the borough, all the householders under 6/. pay their rates through the owner. Mr. Disraeli, therefore, in making personal payment of rates a condition of the franchise, bases hiafranchise not on the discharge of a duty, but on a municipal accident, and even worse still, on a municipal accident which tells in favour of the least thrifty, and against the most thrifty boroughs. The collection of rates for houses of small value through the owner is a great economy of time and expense, so great an economy that the landlord is required to pay only three- fourths of the rates which individual householders would have to pay were the rates taken from the occupiers. It does not follow, of course, that the tenant, who usually pays weekly rent, and who is certainly charged heavy interest by his land- lord for the advance of the rates, pays a penny less than he would do if he paid the rates himself. But, as a matter of fact, rating through the owners is adopted as a measure of thrift and economy, and the most wide-awake boroughs in England will be found to have adopted it most effectually. Well, then, Mr. Disraeli makes his borough franchise a sort of differential duty in favour of the least thrifty municipalities, and against the most thrifty. The householders themselves are not respon- sible, the parish deciding through its vestry,—so that, as Mr. Gladstone pointed out, the householders become eligible or ineligible for Mr. Disraeli's political register by no act of their own, but simply by the act of the property-owners who elect the vestries. Mr. Disraeli may reply that, though this is so now, any householder may claim to pay his own rates, and so obtain a vote. But, then, first, the formalities of procedure, the needful notices, the foresight and exceptional worry, neces- sary for householders who at present pay their rates under municipal regulations in the form of rent, will not be a trifle, —indeed, a most serious discouragement to poor and often overworked men not expert in official procedures. And, moreover, the proceeding will involve the payment of a fine. Even if the householder, after claiming to pay his own rates, can persuade his landlord to accept a rent diminished by his individual share of the rate,—which would not uniformly be the case, for the landlord might often seize the opportunity to assert that he must raise the rent for the future, or reply that it was not worth his while to alter his plans for indivi- dual cases, — even then he would have, by the express and, Mr. Disraeli says, the just provision of the Govern- ment Bill, to pay the extra one-fourth which the land- lord does not pay, and, even then, might be told that he could not be lint on the Register without paying up arrears for which his landlord alone was liable. In point of fact, there can be no doubt that the extra pay- ment, extra formalities, and general difficulty attending the mode of procedure would prevent the greater num- ber of compound householders from qualifying, and thus a very effective limitation of the franchise would be made to depend, not on any failure to discharge individual duties, but—to put the best possible face on it —the unwillingness to incur a very irregular and special cost of time, trouble, and money. Mr. Disraeli proposes to confer a right, not equally on all those who discharge certain municipal duties, but on all who are willing to overcome the irregular and unequal local obstructions which municipal regulations may place in their way. It is as if the Government should offer a prize to every one who satisfies his own parish vestry of his mental capacities, on condition that each vestry determines for itself what he shall be required to show proof of. In one parish it may be to tell his own age, and distinguish his right hand from his left, in another to write an English essay ; and then, each receives from the Government precisely the same acknowledgment and the same reward. If this be basing the franchise on a duty, it is the duty of getting over the difficulties placed in your way by your parish vestry, which may be an a priori, but is scarcely an evenly distri- buted obligation.
So much for the " principle " of the new Borough fran- chise. It is still worse when we come to Mr. Disraeli's claim that while the Bill freely extends a popular privilege to the working class, it guarantees the political influence of the classes already represented in Parliament. As far as we can see, almost wherever it is effective in the one direction, it is just where it ought to have been effective in the other. Where the " guarantees " may perhaps work to secure the middle class in their present supremacy, it is where the working class is most intelligent, and might most beneficially command the con- stituency. Where the 'popular privilege" is most effectually
conferred, it is where the people on whom it is conferred will be most likely to abuse it. Thus, in Leeds, in Bradford, in Halifax, in Salford, in Bolton, in Blackburn, in Ashton- under-Lyne, in Macclesfield, in Dudley, in Preston, and a great number of boroughs of the same class, the number of compound householders is a very great proportion of all those under a 101. rental. Sheffield and Stockport are, perhaps, the only great manufacturing towns in which no local or Parlia- mentary Act creates compound householders. On the other hand, in a large number of the small boroughs like Thetford, Wells, Hertford, Gloucester, Sre., the resident householders are either all, or in great proportion, not under any compounding Act, and here, therefore, the "popular privilege" would really be largely conferred where it is least valued and least likely to be wisely used. The "guarantees" secure a real and substantial check on the representation of acute, intelligent artisans. The concessions freely extend "popular privileges" to the class whose popular privileges have been abused, are abused, and ought to be restricted. The operation of the dual vote, —in itself, of course, quite incalculable,—would necessarily have exaggerated this eviL It would operate, of course, far more powerfully in wealthy and flourishing boroughs to multiply the votes of the middle class, than in poor and dwindling boroughs. In Leeds, in Bradford, in Birmingham, and the rest, places full of direct tax-payers, its influence would have been very large. In Thetford, Wells, Abingdon, Harwich, &c., its influence would have been comparatively -very small. Mr. Sandford said the other day that in Maldon, one of the most equivocal of the small boroughs, 60 dual votes would have been conferred by the Bill, while 500 new householders would have been added to the Register at the lower end of the scale. The guarantees proposed by the Government all take effect against the best artisans, who might fairly expect a liberal extension of their "popular privileges," while the "popular privileges" are given freely enough to the ignorant labourers of decaying towns.
In boroughs, then, the Bill of the Government leaves undone what it was most essential to do, and does what it was most important not to do, while its guarantees,' instead of trimming the balance, exasperate the mischief. The net result would be, that while the working class would have less representation than before wherever it was fitted to elect good representatives, it would have nominally a great deal more deposited in bad hands, and probably by them betrayed to the highest bidder. And the evil thus effected, the vote given to direct taxpayers of 20s. and the holders of 50/. worth of stock would excessively exaggerate. As Mr. Gladstone well said, these votes would become gigantic agencies of fraud in the hands of clever election agents. A "three-legged jade" that would qualify 360 voters, or a little depreciated stock parcelled out into faggot income-tax votes, are the machinery which the former qualification suggests. Except perhaps the educational franchise, all the fancy franchises, as at present proposed, as well as the household franchise in the smaller boroughs, would become powerful instruments in the hands of unscrupulous wealth to exaggerate and extend its already enormous influence ;—so little is it true that the Bill care- fully guards against the political preponderance of any one class in the community. And if it is a gross failure in this respect, the local redistribution of power which it pro- poses does nothing to retrieve its case. It is miserably in- adequate, and does not extinguish a single rotten borough except the four condemned by the Commissions. It takes only twenty-three seats away from twenty-three boroughs, each of less population than seven thousand, and leaves still two each to such tiny nomination places as Buckingham, Wycombe, Stamford, &c., while only giving one apiece to vast towns like Darlington, Middlesborough, Dewsbury, Staleybridge, and the rest. This was not necessary, even for a Ministry that had made up its mind not to revise the electoral map of England,' but only to remedy obvious injustices. What there is of the redistribution scheme is no doubt in general good ; but there is so very little of it, and the plan on which it is conceived is carried out so feebly, that it may well be regarded as holding out the minimum of advantage which could be offered in this direction by any Ministry, however Conservative.
The Bill seems to us, on the whole, so bad that it can only be doctored in Committee by a complete transformation. By limiting the reduction of the franchise in boroughs where there is no local or Parliamentary Compound Act in force, by extend- ing it where there is, by expunging at least two, if not three, of the fancy franchises, by cutting away the irritating and inefficient dual vote, by extending the redistribution scheme so far as to take one seat from each double-membered borough with a population under 10,000 or 12,000,—it might indeed be rendered tolerable ; but so might most bad things, by exchang- ing them for good. The Government- have already changed their form of procedure once, and the substance of their pro- posal twice. If we make them again alter the whole sub- stance in every detail except the county franchise, it will be a humiliation which even they, long suffering as they axe, could not accept. It would be far better to throw it out and begin de novo, than enter on that process, for which even old women rarely have sufficient time and patience, of tearing the materiak before us into rags, and then patching it together into a politi- cal counterpane that would after all be more quaint and gro- tesque than either seemly or enduring.
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