REFORM RENT.
THE expediency of raising a Reform Rent was suggested by the Globe in the course of the week, and we have heard no more of it. Let. us endeavour to put the suggestion of our contemporary in a practical shape. The manner in which, on the occurrence of any pressing occa- sion for money, a supply is at present levied, is well known. A few wealthy men subscribe liberally ; the fund thus formed, being indeed the only one that can on a sudden emergency be applied to, is used; the occasion passes by, and with it all thought of provi- siongfor the next that may arise. Another does arise, and finds the public as unprepared as before. The same parties are had re- course to, for no other parties are known ; and so the circle runs, until the subscribers get weary of such repeated contributions, and fall off in consequence, or until their means are no longer adequate to such frequent demands. Thus ever and anon some opportunity of public good is lost, for want of that vigilance which the enemies of the public never lack, for they have the strong stimulus of self- interest to keep their attention awake. Now, this reliance on in- dividuals—which is extremely unsafe, for it makes the public good dependent on the will of the few—might be effectually obviated, were there on the part of the public the slightest degree of fore- sight. There is no want of will. Every man cannot, fbr the pur- poses of a general election, subscribe, as Sir FrtaNcis BURDETT has sometimes done, his thousand pounds; every man cannot subscribe one pound; but there is haely amen in the three king- doms who could not subscribe his shilling or his sixpence; and that subscription, insignificant as it seems, would in its aggregate furnish a fund fbr carrying forward the most expensive elections, and, in so far as the necessary expenditure of money went, make all the popular interests of the country triumphant. Suppose we reckon the Reformers at but a twelfth part of the community— one penny a week from two millions of persons, in twelve weeks would amount to 100,006/. One penny a week from the same number, would in a year amount to 433,3331.6s. Sd.
Let it not be said that the necessity for such a fund will have gone by, even when the Reform Bill is carried. The influence of public principle is in the nature of things extremely slight. On great and stirring occasions, like the present, the nation may rise as one man; but it is hopeless to look for a continuance of such enthusiasm. We must work out ordinary results by ordinary means. We must have a regular machinery, by which we can knock at every man's door, if we would keep Up in common minds, and in common times, and for common purposes, the necessity and value of combined efforts, by those who in their union, and only in their union, are invincible. The machinery by which this is to be effected is not very complex.
We have no patriotic priests like the Irish, but we can surely find honest men as well as they. The first thing to set about is a Committee in London, whence distribution is most easily made, and to which remittances can be most easily forwarded. There are three trustworthy and public-spirited bodies in London,—the City Reform Committee, the National Reform Committee, the National Union. Let each of these name six individuals, and the Rent Committee is complete. The next task is the division of London into districts. Suppose • a member of any of the Unions takes thirty-six houses—in that way, six thousand individuals will, by the devotion of half an hour once a week, visit and collect from every individual house in the four Metropolitan districts, in London, Westminster, and the Borough. One penny a week for every house within these limits alone, would amount in a year to somewhat more than 45,0001. In point of fact, it would- not be
necessary, in a great number of cases, to collect above once a year, and in few above once a quarter.
Supposing this machinery of Collectors perfect, let there be for every hundred Collectors a Sub-Treasurer, to whom their several books and the amount of their collections should be handed over, once a week or once a fortnight ; and let each of the Sub-Trea- surers hand over the sums received from the hundred Collectors of his district, once a week or once a fortnight, to the head Trea- surer; arid, as far as London is concerned, the machinery is perfect. We have not the slightest doubt, that in every street, lane, and almost every court of London, an honest Reformer might be pro- cured, who would be happy of such an opportunity of rendering himself, by a little exertion, useful to the great cause. In the Country, the same process would obtain, with only one difference— that the sums collected by the Treasurer of each district would be transmitted once a quarter, or once a half-year, to the London Board.
That there is nothing impracticable in the plan we propose,. might be proved by reference to the case of the Irish Rent; but we have a more successful and permanent example of its practica- bility in England, in the case of the British and Foreign Bible Society. That society raises some 40,0001. or 50,0001. every year, and has done so for twenty years past, chiefly, we believe, by con- tributions of ld. per week. There are tens of thousands, in every quarter of the empire, to whom no truth is more obvious than that the greatest of social blessings is good laws wisely administered; and who now see, or will soon see, that it is impossible to have good laws without good lawgivers ; and that therefore the judicious, but above all things the unfettered choice of their lawgivers, is the first duty, as it is the highest privilege, of a free people,—there are tens of thousands, to whom these truths are all but axiomatic, where there is one thousand that can appreciate the advantages of translating the Bible into the Otaheitan language. Therefore, if the Bible Society levy its e0,060/., there seems no impediment to the Reformers levying their 500,0001.
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