ENGLISH POLITICS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 108, 22 April 1912, Page 3

ENGLISH POLITICS.

to THE EDITOR,

Sir, —In the first of your articles tn Wednesday’s paper you deal with English politics and try to show that she Conservative party in England is the real democratic party, and you riumphantly point to Benjamin of Israel as a great democratic leader. vVith your permission I will endeavour to show that is not the case. As you particularly refer to the Reform Bill of 1867, it will not be very difficult to show that your claim will not bear examination. Before dealing with the Reform Bill of 1867 it will be just as well to briefly refer to shat of 1866. That Bill, by its provisions would have added about 2,000,000 voters to the electoral roll, but the Conservative party opposed it tooth ami nail, and that on the grounds of the ignorance of the people. Their opinions were very well expressed by Robert Lowe, a member for the little pocket bormgh of Caine, in Wiltshire. His words were: “You have had the opportunity of knowing some of the constituencies of this country, and I ask if you want venality, ignorance, drunkenness and the means of intimidation ? If you want impulsive, unreflecting and violent people, where will you go to look for them 1 To the ton or the bottom ? . . . .

We know what sort of persons live in these small houses.” Now the Conservatives cheered this to the echo. I will ask any reflecting person if this was true, should that be a cause for cheering or humiliation and shame. It must be borne in mind that the recording of a vote is the simplest duty any citizen can perform. Yet the great Conservative party indulged in the most frantic rejoicing because they considered the majority of their countrymen were too ignorant for this simple duty. The Liberal Franchise Bill was thrown out in 1866, and. as a sequel, the Hyde Park railings were thrown down on July 23rd of that vear, and Mr. Walpole. the Home Secretary, resigned in tears. It should be remembered the Conservatives had come into office and were content to hold office in the same way as the Conservatives would like to hold office here, even if in a minority. The first attempt of Mr. Disraeli to carry the Franchise Reform was by resolution of the House without the Government being responsible, but the House was not taking any, so that was dronp’ed. Then the next proposal was what was dubbed the Ten-minutes Bill, because Mr. Disraeli said it was only considered about ten minutes on the previous Sunday night, and it took about ten minutes to talk it out. Then a second bill was introduced, and in introducing it, Mr. Disraeli said ther were six vital clauses in it —namely, Ist a two-years’ residence, 2nd an education clause, 3rd a professional clause, 4th a savings bank clause, sth direct taxation, 6th a dual vote where such franchises were combined. Now, everyone of those clauses were thrown out by the Liberals, and the following clauses were added: Ist a £lO lodger franchise, 2nd the reduction of the county franchise from £l5 to £lO, 3rd the abolition of the compound householder, and 4th a revision of the arrangements for the redistribution of seats. It will be seen by this that the provisions of the bill, as introduced by the Conservatives, and what the Liberals made of them, were two different things. A lot more could be written to show that all that was democratic in the 1867 Reform Bill came from the Liberal side and not from the Tory.—l am, etc.,