THE NEW FRANCHISE BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6997, 21 April 1884, Page 5

THE NEW FRANCHISE BILL.

Br London papers received by the Suez mail | yesterday we extract the following remarks made by Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commone, on February 29, in rising to bring in his Bill to- amend the law relating, to the. representation of the people in the United . Kingdom./* His proposal he submitted to the-'Houae under three heads. First, 'as the redemption, of Ministerial pledges; secondly, as tending to satisfy' the desire for an extentionof the household franchise, which was widely and generally entertained among the olasses affected by it; and above all, as adding, to the strength, of the State. 'He took his stand upon the broad principle that the enfranchisement of capable citizens, whether few ,or many, and if many eat much the better, was an additional strenth to the State, for the strength of the modern State lay in the representative Who were the capable citizens tiaa already been settled by solemn legislative judgment, acquiesced in by both parties in the State, and by the experience of the past fifteen years ; and they whom he proposed to enfranchise' in the' counties and put on the same footing as the population of the towns were the smaller tradesmen, artisans, miners, and peasantry of the country. The question whether the peasantry were qualibed had been decided by the first and second Reform Acts, for many of the towns represented in the House were really, rural- counties based upon present franchise. ; Under his Bill he would leave the. franohise of the boroughs as they were, but extend the £10 yearly franchise to cases where the occupation was of laud, without house or building. He would also establish a new. franchise, which he would call a Bervice franchise, to be conferred on persons who were inhabitants in the sense of occupiers, but were neither owners nor tenants, the present law restricting the term occupier to those who were either owners or tenants. Thus the principle of the Bill would .be to give every householder a Passing from from the .boroughs to tho English counties, he proposed to abolish the £50 rental franchise, and reduce the figure of the rating franchise of 1867 from a £12 ratable value to a £10 clear yearly valugj But the main change which the Bill would effect was to import into the counties the household, lodger, and service franchises to which he had roferred. The property franchises would be maintained in principle, but provision would be made to secure them against abuses. An important element in the structure of the scheme was that it would embrace the whole Three Kingdoms in one and the same measure. With regard to Scotland, everything would be left to it which it now possessed.. The new service franchise would be introduced into the boroughs, whioh bad already the lodger, household, and £10 clear annual value franchise, and in the counties the £50 rental and £14 occupation franchises would be replaced by the £10 clear annual valuo franohise, and the leasehold, lodger, and service franchises would be introduced. In the Irish boroughs the existing lodger franohise would be left untouched ; for the £4 rating franchise would be substituted a i £10 elear yearly value franchise identical with that of England and Scotland, and the l household and service franchises, too, would be imported. In the Irish counties the yearly value franohise would be reduced to £10, and the household, ledger, and service franchises be established, it being a vital part of the measure that the three countries should be treated on a footing of perfect equality. Occupation would be the grand foundation of the new electoral system, and while it was not held to be necessary to.subject tbe existing property franchises to the condition'of residence, it was>proposed to disqualify rent charges (except the tithe rentchargo of a parish held in Bingle ownership), fees, and head rents for electoral qualifications, and to prohibit the subdivision of hereditaments for the creation of votes, exoepting eases where the subdivision was ■ obtained by descent, succession, marriage, or marriage settlement, or by will. By this means he hoped to strikaan effeotual blow at the fictitious vote, by which he meant those descriptions of franchises where there was no real property interest at all. Having described what the Bill contained, Mr. Gladstone said it was impossible to pass by unnoticed what it did not . contain. He admitted that it was not a complete Bill; but there had never been, and never could be, presented to Parliament a complete Bill on the sabjecb of Parliamentary reform. If they would deal with the subjeot as practical men, they must not overlay and smother it. Aa deok-loading was dangerous to ships, so it would be dangerous -to the Bill. . The Government were, therefore, determined not to deck-load the Bill, for they ,knew that that would be a preliminary to its foundering. Henoethey declined to include the question of redistribution in its provisions. At the same time he granted that a measure of redistribution ought to follow aPranohigo Bill at the earliest date, and if this Bill were passed the earliest date would be next session. He might be asked to explain his plan, 6nt he did not intend to walk into a trap. . He had no objection, however, to indicate his own viewß without committing his colleagues, and he thought that when a measure of redistribution came on it should have some sort of relative, finality and be' a large measure. He . sketched what, according to his - own ideas, were the lines. on which a scheme of redistribution should .proceed. The right hon. gentleman appealed to the .Liberal party . not to endanger the Bill by pressing amendments and making additions to it. The measure was in no danger of direct opposition, but it was in some danger of having to enoounter indirect opposition. Of that, however, he was not afraid, unless there was grafted upon it the additional danger which it would have to encounter from its friends. He hoped then that they would regard the question as tho Liberal party looked at the Reform Bill in 1831, and, giving up particular preferences'and predilections, look at the broad scope and general effegt of his proposals. What was wanted in order to carry the Bill was union, and union only. What might endanger it was , disunion,'and disunion only.