THE DEBATE ON THE RESOLUTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1074, 24 April 1867, Page 7

THE DEBATE ON THE RESOLUTIONS.

(From the Times, February 26.) j, [F Chancellor of the Exchequer made the promised explanation of his Reform resolutions, commenciiitr by an assurance that the object of the Government was to improve and complete the Reform Act—the most successful political experiment of our time, which had transferred the government of this country from a heartless . oligarchy" to the middle classes, V> the great benefit of the country. But that Act has this default, that it disregarded the rights of the working classes, and it was the desire of the Government to restore the rights which the labouring classes had lost in 1832. After a brief defence of the course of procedure by resolutions chietlv bv the necessity of coming to some understanding on principles brfore proceeding to details, Mr. Disraeli proceeded to unfold the Government scheme, commencing with the franchise. It was proposed to create four new franchises, applicable both to boroughs and counties—an education franchise, somewhat wider than that proposed in ISo'.l ; a .630 savings bank franchise, requiring a twelvemonth's retention of the deposit; the possession of funded property to the amount of i'oO, and the payment of 20s a year of" direct taxes. The first would create l'\ooo new voters in boroughs and 15,000 in counties, ihe second 35,000 in towns and 25.0''0 in counties, the third 7000 in towns and 32.0>t0 in counties, and the last 30,000 in towns and 52.000 in counties ;in nil. 52.000 voters added to the borough and-121,000 to the couuty constituencies, derived from lateral extension ; and these numbers, Mr. Disraeli added. were not merely of persons qualified, but of those who would be likely to come to the poll. Before proceeding to touch on the reduction of the present franchises. Mr. Disraeli intimated that the Government did not intend to insist on'tlie " plurality ofvotes "IJesoluiion. explaining that it had been misunderstood, and that its intention was simply that a person enjoying any of the four new franchises should have one vote iu addition to his occupation vote. The Government would be ready to propose the reduction of the franchise to .CO r:itiiiif in boroughs, and ,£'2o rating in counties, by which 130,000 practical voters would be added t.i boroughs, aud 52.000 to the county constituencies ; in all, over 400..003 new voters would be created. As a remedy for electoral bribery and corruption, the Government would propose, oa a petition being presented from a town after an election, to send down two assessors to conduct a local inquiry, with an appeal to a Select Committee (the costs in both cases io guaranteed by the complainants and theapellantsi; and when a successful candidate was coin :cied of bribery, the unsuccessful candidate, if he were pro-, ed pure, should be seated in his place. '1 hese proposals might be embodied in a separate bill. Passing to the redistribution portion of his scheme, Mr. Disraeli announced, eliciting loud aud general cheering, that the Government would propose to disfranchise the four boroughs which had been recently convicted of bribery. This would place seven'seats at their disposal, and by appealing to the patriotism of small boroughs with populations under 7.000. (which lie declined to specify, though repeatedly urged by loud cries of " Ziame,") "to part with their superfluous represcntion, they would obtain 23 more. These 30 seats would be disposed of in this way:—l-i to new boroughs, viz.; Hartlepool, .Darlington, Burnley, Stalevbridge, St. Helen's, Dcwsbury, Barnsley, Middlesex, Croydon. Gravesend. Torquay, a town in the "Black County," which he could not now name, and the division of the Tower Hamlets into two districts, with two members each ; 15 to counties, by the division of North Lancashire, North Lincolnshire, West Kent, East Surrey, Middlesex, South Staffordshire, South Devon, and South Lancashire (which, having now three, will only have one additional member). The thirtieth seat would be given to London Universitj*. Over the last resolutions Mr. Disraeli passed very briefly, promising that the bill would comprise carefully drawn and practical clauses for improving county registration, assimilating it to the borough system, and for diminishing the expenses of county elections by subdivisions of districts and multiplication of pollings places; and on the last resolution he pointed out that, as it was to be a Eoyal and not a Parliamentary Commission, it might commence its labours at once, and no delay need occur. Having spoken for little more than an hour, Mr. Disraeli concluded by claiming for the bill which he had sketched out the the credit of being a sincere and practical measure, which, if candidly received, might terminate the controversy. ~ ?■ (who for the first time spoke from the front Opposition bench below the gangway) took advantage of what he termed his position as a political outcast, seriously to warn the House of the dangerous position in which it would be placed by the course recommended by the Government. He professed himself unable to see what the resolutions had to do with Mr Disraeli's speech, or what use they could serve after that speech. They were not precise and definite, like the Indian resolutions. Referring to the rumours which have been current as to the frequent changes in the opinions of the Cabinet during the last fortnight, he asserted amid general laughter, that, however wide the changes may have been, the resolutions would embrace them all; they were not a framework, but an elastic band which would hold anything Ihe primary object of tins mode of procedure possibly was to bind over the House to keep the peace towards the Government, to secure them against _ overthrow by an abstract resolution, by anticipating all the abstract propositions which could be framed on the subject—or n= he happily described it, to set the mark of Cain upon them, that no one might kill them ; but the security was a very poor one, for thirteen would not exhaust the armoury which might be turned against them, it was not the business of the House he argued, by relaxing the usual punishment of failure, to tempt a Government to rush U po a a task in which so many had tailed; it was their duty to hold the Government strictly to their responsibility, and not to go into committee until there u as" a full Understanding as to what the Government was responsible for. He besought the House not to permit the Constitution to be thrown into the w™lTi t ,?, omm,t tee, where every member f -. 'I 7 t0 1 P ro Posc what amendments he pleased, and he pressed the Goto withdraw the resolutions, and to introduce a bill at once. Mr. Lowe touched next on his own personal position on this ques',llmsclf desirous—as he had not succeeded in bringing anybody over to his views and as a 1 cform Bill was incvitable-of help! n to pass the best bill possible, and explained views on the extension of the franchise concemnmg fancy franchises, complaining of the jEtflhA dodger franchises, and maintaining omL friT i fol ', n(];lhon of the franchise Th?v, J be th ° diseknrge of Slate burdens. Iheie was no necessity for legislating in a spirit ofranie or precipitation, for the meetings of 1° ta ¥ Lold of th e public So i'tr t i m n U - C me t ro P°hs at least, had denan f\ but the impotence and Ar °f their authors. ment r 'M ßr 7 lKht 7 J ' oi ° e 4 in pressing the Governwa ' ° n abandon their proposed course, which bench Aft Ar y r,-'"' 7 ono off tlle Tl 'easury tained rr ". Disraeli's speech, he mainTrould >w rcso . lutlons were out of place; they the iuhio f" °f Wastc tiu,e ' but would throw of t!ie Pv!!, °, , c ' l a 05 > 0u 1 d lower the charac- " inio-,- . ec uttvc Government, and would last . year decided on a rating fran-

cliise, lie askccl liirn wliy lie liad not accepted tlio decision of tlic G overnmcnt on tlio count; franchise, ffe rallied tlic Ministerialists, in ; tone of bitter sarcasm, on tlieir cliangc of opi mon, and in peroration urged with great fore and eloquence that, as it was pressure fron outside which had induced this and the lat Government to touch the question, Mr. Dis raeli should be permitted by his party to mak< concessions which would put a stop to furthe: discussion and agitation. Mr. _ Walpole, after replying to some of Mr Bright's seareasms by a reference (o the bill o 1559, which proved that the Conservatives weri not new reformers, asserted that the Govern mcnt were not about to abdicate their rcspon sibility, but that they would stand or fall by anj resolution which they deemed vital to (he con stitutional settlement of the question, lie vindicated the procedure bv resolutions as the besf | means oi giving the widest seope to the discussion, and of eliciting every kind of suggestion which could be made for a settlement of the question. Mr. Laing complained that the claims of Scotland to increased representation were passed Over in the redistribution scheme, and expressed a strong belief that neither his part of the proposed bill nor the £'G franchise had am'thing of the character of finality which he maintained to he indispensable in any attempt to deal with the questiou. It was useless to propose anything short of household rated suffrage, and this he should have preferred, even though qualified by cumulation or duality quality "of votes. Mr. Gladstone asked Mr. Disraeli on what basis he rested his calculations of the numbers to be admitted by his scheme, for to some of them he had listened with a littie incredulity. The lateral franchises would not touch the labouring classes at ali, and as the £'6 rating franchise would not admit more than 100.000 voters, lie contended that Mr. Disraeli's bill did not afford as favorable materials for n settlement as his bill of last year, which proposed to admit 200,000 of the working classes. He approved Mr. Disraeli's project for the prevention of bribery and corruption, and also the proposal to put it in a separate bill; and the same course might be taken with the proposals for improving county registration aud diminish expenses. On the mode of procedure he pointed to the concurrence of Mr. Lowe aud Mr. Bright as a signifi-cant-indication of the feeling of the House? but if the Government continued of opinion that resolutions were preferable to a bill, he would waive his objections, pressing upon them at the same time that, after Mr. Disraeli's speech, tlio resolution ought to be altered so as to embody the Government plan. (This suggestion was met with loud cries of "Withdraw," ••Bill," from the Opposition). The very vagueness of the icsolutions, he argued, must now be a source of serious embarrasment to the Government themselves. Illustrating his argument by reference to the resolutions on redistribution and predominance of classes, and assuming that no at- ! tempt would be made to proceed with the resolutions until Thursday, he suggested that the Government should use the interval in considering whether they would not withdraw, or at least modify, the resolutions. The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that some of the resolutions might now, perhaps, be unnecessary, and they would be withdraw ; others might be altered, but he decliued to withdraw the whole, alleging that there were several on which it was desirable that the Governmeetshould have the option of the House. Here again there were loud cries of '• Withdraw," " Bring in. a bill." After some further conversation, in which Sir W. S. Maxwell complained of the omission of the claims of Scotland, Sir G. Grey asked that the returns on which Mr. Disraeli's calculations were based should be laid on the table; and Mr. Warner expressed his regret that the proposed bill did not afford the prospect of a settlement, which was impossible without the consent of both sides of the House. The motion for going into committee was withdrawn, and the further consideration of the subject adjourned until Thursday.