PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 695, 15 August 1870, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Mr Hardcastle'B bill for repealing the minority clauses of the Reform Act came up for discussion this week, and was lost on a close division. Mr Gladstone, speaking in his pri- 1 vate capacity, and carefully separating his opinion from that of the Cabinet, frankly avowed his own personal objections to the minority system. Minorities ought to be represented, but he held that such representation was obtained by diversity of constituencies j without the minority vote, and that there j were practical objections to the working of the latter. Mr Disraeli took the ground that it was inexpedient to disturb so recent an arrangement as the Reform Act, though admitting that his own feeling was opposed to these "refined and fantastic arrangements for the representation of the people." He preferred what in agricultural language is called the custom of the country, and that was to bow to the feeling of the majority." The second reading was met by moving the previous question, and in the division Isi voted on either side. The Speaker, as is usual in such a case, gave his vote that the question should be put, so as to secure a more direct expression of opinion on the main issue. There was some excitement, but when the second division wa9 taken, it was found that the opponents of the bill had increased by two, while its supporters had declined by six, and that it was therefore lost. The Universities' Test Hill, after passing a second reading in the Commons by a large majority, has been carried safely through committee. The House of Lords has rejected the Bill to Legalise Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister by the narrow majority of four — 77 against 73.