LORD2JOHN RUSSELL ON THE PARLIAMENTARY QUALIFICATION.
IN the discussion on Election Committee law and practice, Lord jowl RossELL is reported to have delivered himself as follows, in reference to some late decisions, by which Members had been ungated on the ground of deficient qualifications— "There were many cases of law which the Committees had already decided, Sod he alluded particularly to cases of qualification. He would not say whether those decisions were right or wrong ; but lie was fully sure that not one of those honourable Members who had been unseated on the insufficiency of their quali. fications should have lost their seats, for he thought it a mode of eacluding *Ambers who had been elected as the i?epresentatives of the People by which the people must stiffer ; and be hoped before long that the time would come when no such questions would be raised before Election Committees, and when ersons, haring been once seated, would have no difficulty on the ground of their qualifications." If these words have any meaning, it is that there ought to be no qualification required from a Member of Parliament beyond the choice of the constituency that returned him. This is rational doctrine, and in accordance with the representative principle. But how long has it been Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S? A little more than a twelvemonth ago, (on the 11th of February 1837,) Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH moved for leave to bring in a bill to abolish the "property Qualification of Members of Parliament ;" and how did Lord JOHN RUSSELL act on that motion? There were 120 Liberals (not in office) present : 104 voted with Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH ; Lord JOHN RUSSELL, with the remain- ing 16 and 11 officials, joined the Tories, and thus continued a ststem by which, he acknowledges, "tile people must suffer." Be was then willing to "modify, not to abolish" the qualification. laws: as Mr. WAKLEY told him at the time, be was "winding a course between right and wrong." He now hopes for the time "when persons, having been once seated, will have no difficulty on the ground of their qualification." Let his sincerity be tested by another proposition for the repeal of the qualification-laws : such a motion, if carried, would be one step towards a simplifica- tion of the duties of Election Committees.
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