TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE GOVERNMENT REFORM BILL.

THE measure introduced by Mr. Disraeli may be regarded as the basis of the Reform Bill that will finally pass into law. In this respect, it is interesting for purposes of political discussion.

In the event of its being adopted by the House of Com- mons, with whatever amendments of particular parts, it will constitute the portion of Parliamentary Reform upon which all the great parties in the state are actually agreed, that is to say, it will embody what Conservatives spontaneously sug- gest and what the Liberals regard as the least that can be say, it will embody what Conservatives spontaneously sug- gest and what the Liberals regard as the least that can be

accepted. Its authors have evidently undertaken their task in the honest conviction that some measure of the kind was impera- tively necessary ; they have gone to the work in good faith and tried to acquit themselves with a sincere endeavour. We cannot refuse to consider the result of a labour thus performed ; we have X. no sympathy with those who hold even " Tories "—if any such survive,—as excluded from their right to take their share in national duties as soon as they show their willinvess to do so. -

Nay, instead of wishing to magnify the difficulties created by their antecedents, we desire on the contrary to make all allow- ances for those difficulties. In the first place, therefore, setting aside the comparison with other projects, we proceed to consider what the new bill is, and what may be made of it within the limits of its own design. The popular idea of a Reform Bill has always involved, as a foremost point, the • " extension " of the franchise, and we test the Government Bill on this head. It enlarges the county con-

stituencies by adding the 101. occupation voters. Mr. Newmareh, who estimates the number added at 103,000, calculates that it

will be an increase of 20 per cent on the present County consti- tuency; Mr. Disraeli has estimated the addition at 200,000, or nearly 40 per cent. At all events there is at once a large " extension of the franchise" in counties.

As regards boroughs it adds to the borough constituencies of the kingdom-

1. 101,200 forty shilling freeholders. The total of the borough electors is at present 432,000, and if none of the 40s. freeholders had votes under the present law, this would be an addition of 25 per cent. That many of the 408. freeholders are also 101. householders in boroughs, is no fault of the Government ; they add a whole class to the franchise— the class of men who by saving have been enabled to buy a frceehold of 21. a year.

2. All 51. leaseholders or copyholders.

3. All artisans or others who have 601. in a savings'-bank.

4. All persons who pay eight shillings a week for their lodgings.

5. All persons who receive 101. a year from the funds, or from East India or Bank of England stock ; or who receive 201. a year pension from Government.

6. All Barristers, Doctors, Attorneys, Clergymen of the Church of Eng- land, University Graduates, Dissenting Ministers, and certificated Schoolmasters.

Here are its actual "extensions of the franchise" in Boroughs. What will be the effect of the measure as meeting the general

wish of extensionists ? To answer this question let us conceive ourselves resident in some rising English town of respectable size, Southampton, Stroud, or Shields, where cheap papers and

Mechanics' Institutes have given a certain degree of political knowledge to the intelligent artisan class Examining the in- habitants of these towns we find pretty numerous classes who may be thus defined-

1. Professional men living in lodgings_ and not occupying houses worth 101. a year.

2. Saving artisans who may have 601. in a savings bank or who may have bought a 40s. freehold, but who for thrift live in cheap lodgings or a cheap house in the outskirts of the town.

3. Clerks, artists, gentlemen of independent income, or others who live in respectable lodgings.

One may subdivide these classes into fandholders, clergymen, &c., or specify the various professions, but for simplicity we give the classes as we state them above. All these are excluded by the present borough franchise, and as regards the first and third class would be excluded under any household franchise ; but by the Govern- ment Reform Bill they obtain a vote. Two indirect "extensions of the franchise" deserve notice.

1. The facility given to voters by the proposed provision of voting papers. At present many men refrain from going to the poll because they have no wish to mix in the moral mud of a contested election, but the voting papers will enable every voter to vote at his own fireside. How far this system affects the voting may be seen by comparing the results of open voting at the Parliamentary, elections with the results of voting by voting papers in the Poor Law constituencies. The open voting brings not more than 50 or 60 per cent of the registered votes to the poll,- the system of votingpapers brings to the poll 80 or 90 per cent of the registered votes. [It may be argued by some that the voting papers will facilitate the exertion of illegitimate in- fluence over timid voters—but against this it may be fairly said that they will facilitate the evasion of such influence—for instance, a voter could say he has just posted his voting paper and cannot recall it. The voting papers would also entirely frustrate mob influence.]

2. The extension of the boundaries of boroughs. The Parliamentary boundaries of boroughs fixed in 1832, are in nearly all cases narrower than the municipal boundaries which include large circles of suburb- an districts covered with good houses where the most respectable people of rising towns love to reside. The Government Reform Bill proposes to extend the Parliamentary boundaries, and thus add a very superior class of voters having their proper interests in the towns, and who are now absurdly mixed up, and lose their legitimate influence, in the large county constituencies.

From this survey of the measure, its design and effects, it is obvious that some of the most specific objections might be embodied in amendments which would harmonise with the principle of the bill itself. Many Liberals agree with Mr. Disraeli that the disfranchisement of the smaller boroughs is not advisable. The small boroughs give us one of those varieties of constituencies which are available for supplying the House with men of various capacities and qualifications. But beyond defending the present system as better than Mr. Bright's scheme and its probable mono- tonous result in the House, the Government would have strengthened their position if ihey had done something to add to the variety of constituences. The House even now wants a greater variety of young men fitted for the Under Secretary- ships. The small borough enables the patron to put in his protege,—a Sheridan, a Burke, of old time, or in their earlier Parliamentary career a Walpole and Gladstone of our own day. ;—the county returns the country gentleman ; the large towns give us manufacturers or representatives of what we may call the agitating classes. That extent of variety did very well some years ago ; but we have now intellectual men who neither will nor can appeal to the patron, the populace, or the purse ; and any new scheme should supply some openings for such men. The openings should be made by giving new Members to the Universities already represented, and allotting representatives to the other Universities. The Members for the present Univer- sities are all men who do credit to the House of Commons ; for each of the learned constituencies, indisputably above bribery or intimidation, has sought a man whose name will do it some honour ; and the list of University Members since the Reform Bill, irre- spectively of party, embraces some of the best names in the House. In saying this we are but expressing what has almost become a truism, so thoroughly is it engrained in the opinion of the day. A witness to the fact speaks to us from the Northern extremity of the Kingdom. In addressing a local meeting at Carlisle, the other day, Mr. Philip Howard, of Corby Castle, the late Member for that City, touched upon the subject.

He might be permitted to say that in any revisal or reconstruction of the representative system the claims of education ought not to be forgotten, and should have the benefit of direct representation. There was the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, where some of the most eminent men had received the whole or part of their education—Lord Brougham, Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, Lord John Russell, and many others, had been there ; and he might name his brother, now Ambassador to the Portuguese Court, as having studied there. He might say that he trusted the London University also—founded principally by Lord Brougham, and fostered by his late and able Mend, who had lately paid the debt of nature—he trusted the London University, where men of all creeds can matriculate, would be admitted to the repre- sentation.

It would, therefore, be a means of adding good men to the House if the following representatives were allotted to the Universities --Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, (2 each additional) 6 ; Lon- don, 4 ; the Queen's University, Ireland, 3 ; Durham, 2 ; the three Scottish Universities, 4 ;—in all 19. But how are ihose 19 seats to be obtained ? It will be remembered that our principle of re- presentation is not according to numbers, and that one eminent or eloquent representative more adequately represents a borough than six members less gifted. For instance, would not the whole county of Lancashire feel more safe against any plausible injustice if it had Mr. Disraeli or Mr. Gladstone to " represent " it in the House than a small army of ordinary county or borough Members ? And the reason is obvious ; the Members are not delegates of hostile territories voting each for his own county and against the others ; each Member is bound to attend to local interests, but there is no necessary conflict between those interests and Imperial interests. A town with one Member is as much secured against injustice as a town with two : and that it has two rather than one arises simply from the necessity of dis- tributing the Members of the Imperial Parliament. It would be easy then, still in accordance with the design and spirit of the Bill, to go further than Mr. Disraeli in his reduction of members. There are forty-two towns under 10,000 inhabitants returning two Members each ; one Member is quite enough for the local interests of each. Mr. Disraeli has taken fifteen for his new con- stituencies; we would take nineteen for the new University con- stituencies—leaving eight to be given either to Edinburgh, Dublin, Salford, or some new towns or interests that have arisen since 1832.

The next amendment might be introduced to obviate what Mr. Henley calls the possible very ugly rush" of the disfranchised working men over the arbitrarily painted line" which excludes them from political recognition within the constitution. It is well known that the progress of education has caused in large towns an increase of intelligent artisans, men who read their penny paper as " understandingly" as the ten-pound householder, but

who live in cheap lodgings or in a cheap house, and have not 601. in the savings-bank. When some of this class are pointed out at a reform meeting as not having the franchise—when we knew

that many of them are sober, God-fearing citizens—it seems hard that no way. more easy than the saving of 601.—a large saving for

a man earning a and a week—is not provided for the gradual and individual admission of such men to the franchise. This fault might be remedied, first, by enacting that instead of 601. saved the voter should show a residence in the borough for four years, and should have during that time been an habitual depositor in the savings-bank—never for any two months without a deposit, never having less than 51. during any year and his whole deposits averaging a deposit of 201. left in the bank for the whole time. This would allow for the withdrawals and renewed deposits natural to the artisan class, and would frus- trate the manufacture of votes by Parliamentary agents. Another means of giving to the intelligent artisans a hope of gaining the franchise is perhaps novel, and may be considered impracticable ; but we are assured that it would be useful. At pre- sent, the candidates for the posts of letter-carriers, messengers, or porters in the Government service are examined in reading, wri- ting, and arithmetic. The examination is simple and easy, though honestly carried out. We suggest that the certificated school-masters enfranchised by the new bill, should be au- thorized under regulations to hold courts in which, say once in every two years, artisans or others who had resided in the borough for two years could claim to be examined in reading, writing from dictation with proper spelling, and the first four rules of arith- tic, and obtain the franchise as the consequence of the certifi- cate. Such a clause might not add ten per cent in each town to the constituency ; but with the savings-bank franchise it would con- tribute to arrest complaint—nay, it would meet the claim of some who speak in the name of the working class. Such provisions would enable us to say, Every artisan can, in future, by thrift and self-education, save or spell his way to the franchise.

We have examined the bill as it is, and as it might be made within the scope of the original design. Its comparison with other projects, and its relation to the opinion of the public, have to be considered subsequently.