5 MARCH 1859, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE new Reform Bill is the event. It is to a great extent less novel in each particular detail than in its combinations. It pro- ceeds upon a plan of systematizing existing franchises, partially disfranchising the most questionable of constituencies, actually disfranchising no district and no person, but modifying the ag- gregate constituency by the introduction of new franchise ele- ments, and generally touching up and improving. Thus the staple franchise of counties, the 50/. tenancy, is to be reduced to a le gel with the borough franchise of 10/. The boundaries of boroughs are to be enlarged ; the 40s. freeholders acquiring a franchise, in that name, for their own district, but losing it for the county. Polling places are to be multiplied, the right of paying carriage is to be abolished, and voting papers are to be introduced for all who wish them—a provision which is expected to draw out the quiet and the home-keeping, while it will facilitate the exercise of the vote for those who live at a distance. Fifteen of the smallest boroughs lose one member each ; the seats thus set free being allotted to some of the largest of the new boroughs, such as Birkenhead or Gravesend, or to new divisions of the largest counties, such as Yorkshire. Although there is no reduc- tion in the standard of the borough franchise, nor any enfran- chisement of one of the great classes of society, a host of persons belonging to various bodies are endowed with the suffrage in such manner as to bring out something like an extended representa- tion for society at large,—small freeholders in boroughs, and eopyholders ; holders of stock in Consols, India House, Bank of Eng- land, pensioners in army, navy, or East India Service ; savings' bank depositors, graduates of all universities, priests and deacons of the established church, and officiating ministers of any congrega- tions ; barristers, attorneys, solicitors, proctors, physicians, sur- geons, and schoolmasters, wherever such professional persons are distinctly recognized as belonging to the public bodies of their profession. Such is the Bill, described with great clearness and no little art by Mr. Disraeli, in one of the best speeches that he has ever delivered,—and that is saying a great deal.

The reception of the measure in a very crowded House was such as we might have expected after we knew its provisions. The Radical Members at once gave voice to their dissatisfaction. Lord John Russell did not reserve his own disapproval, and he has thus resumed his place as the leader of the active portion of

the Liberal party. Lord Palmerston did reserve his opinion ; thus waiving the opportunity to declare himself hostile to Minis- ters. And the date for the second reading was calmly arranged so as to allow an interval of three weeks for the different parties to review their own force and consider the policy of war or com- promise.

Ministers, however, did not come through the trial of Reform Bill gestation without sustaining some loss, not through the enemy, but through the official suicide of certain of their own body. Before Mr. Disraeli entered the House with his Bill— which bears on the back of it, with his own, the names of Lord Stanley and General Peel—Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley had resigned their posts as Home Secretary and President of the Poor-Law Department ; and they did so on grounds which at first appeared to be somewhat self-contradictory. Both would have retained the county franchise at a higher rate, namely twenty pounds ; both at the same tims felt that a more determined

and marked effort ought to have been made to take a portion of the working classes into the franchise ; and Mr. Walpole observed, that if the borough rate had been fixed at 61.,—where the power of the Magistrate to remit the rate ceases, where, in fact, the line is definitively drawn between the possible pauper and the independent citizen,—it would have been fixed at a resting place which might have prevented further agitation on the subject. With regard to the effect of the county franchise, we think both 11...: eatesmen were mistaken in their calculation ; their con- sideration for the working classes is a proof, however, both of their candour and of their fai-eightedness. The fact that after they had determined to resign they held 9ffice to avoid the pre- cipitating of Ministerial difficulties was made, tit the moment, the pretext for a gibe ; but no honest man could fail tz ,-;.ympa- thize with the reluctance of a statesman to embarrass his politicial leader, or can withold his respect from the motives which have guided Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley alike in their resignation and in their delay to announce the step. We cannot but think that Lord Derby would have maintained a stronger position, if he had spared his Cabinet this modification by modifying the bill.

On Wednesday's sitting a private Member exercised his privi- lege somewhat roughly and painfully for the Government: Mr. Collier carried the second reading of his bill to disallow the pay- ment of carriage at elections and to multiply the number of polling places—tearing a couple of clauses out of the Ministerial Reform Bill, and discounting them amid the cheers of the Libe- ral party.

Mr. Lindsay has obtained a Select Committee to examine the state of the shipping interest, its liabilities and restrictions, with an extension . of the inquiry suggested by Mr. Crawford to take into account the Pasemigera' Act, and other .recent statutes. The inquiry is a very proper one. It is not likely to be the less effectual because the representatives of the shipowners have largely modified their demands before they came within the House of Commons, strenuously disclaiming the slightest idea of interfering with free trade, and asking only for the reconsidera- tion of burdens specially pressing upon their business. It has been remarked, that the report may be instructive to shipowners themselves, in pointing out other causes besides the crowning change from Protection to Free-trade in the repeal of the Navigation laws ; for it may show that a spirit of gambling engendered under protection has been the real cause of shipping embarrass- ment.

Mr. Buxton has not obtained a select committee to inquire into the condition of the West Indies and the best mode of promoting immigration ; Sir Edward Lytton promising the information de- sired, and showing that he has the whole subject completely within his purview and grasp.

Rejecting Lord Melgund's motion for a select committee to ex- pose the Working of Forbes Mackenzie's Act, all agreed to the Ministerial proposal of a Royal Commission to enquire in situ.

Mr. Mitchell moved for a reduction of the duties on foreign and Colonial timber. Sir Stafford Northoote answered—" the estimates "; and although Lord Harry Vane would have added— when the revenue would admit of the reduction, the House would not pledge the Treasury prophetically.

Mr. Dancombe tried to introduce a bill to render the reso- lution for admitting Jews with the modified oath a standing or- der ; Mr. Newdegate, opposing. Mr. Disraeli deprecated any re- opening of a settled question ; but ultimately all parties agreed to Mr. Walpole's amendment for a select committee to consider the best permanent arrangement.

Mr. Locke King's Landed Estates Intestacy Bill, enacting that in eases of Intestacy the real property as well as the personal shall be divided between the children, has been thrown out on the second reading, with a masterly speech by the Solicitor- General illustrating the probable working of the measure. It was, however, condemned by a single sentence from Sir George Cornewall Lewis—If the bill passed, he said, it would abolish that class of people denominated " heirs." r