The speaker then proceeded to state how the elective body was to be registered, and how it was to vote. Overseers of parishes would be required to furnish a list of owners as well as occupiers, which would be a self-acting register. The number of polling places was to be increased; every parish having 200 electors was to possess a polling place; every voter was to vote in the place where he resided, and those who preferred it might vote by polling papers instead of going to the hustings, due precautions being provided against fraud and personation. The government were desirous of putting | ties a £10 franchise would add 200,000 to an end to the heart-burnings arising from the county constituency. that clause, and of restoring the county constituency to its natural state, and of bringing about a general content and sympathy between the different portions of the constituent body. To effect this object the principle of identity of suffrage between the counties and towns would be recognized. "If the suffrages of the town are transferred to the county," explained Mr. Disraeli, "and the suffrages of the county transferred to the town, all those voters who, dwelling in a town, exercise their suffrage in the county by virtue of a county suffrage, will record their votes in the town; and the freeholder, resident in a town-subject to provisions in the bill which would prevent this constitutional instrument being turned to an improper use-will have a right to vote for the borough in which he resides. This, as well as the franchise founded on savingsbanks, will open another avenue to the mechanic, whose virtue, prudence, intelligence, and frugality entitle him to enter into the privileged pale of the constituent body of the country. If this principle be adopted, a man will vote for the place where he resides, and with which he is substantially connected. Therefore the first measure would embody this logical consequence, that it would transfer the freeholders of the town from the county to the town." Boundary commissioners, appointed by the inclosure commissioners, were to visit the English boroughs, rearrange them, and adapt them to the altered circumstances of the times. Mr. Disraeli estimated that the effect of giving to coun The Chandos clause was the 20th clause of the Reform Bill of 1832. It gave the right of voting to the occupiers of lands or tenements of a rent of not less than £50 per annum. It had been moved as an amendment in committee of the reform bill of 1831, by the Marquis of Chandos, afterwards Duke of Buckingham. It was opposed by Lord John Russell, but supported by Mr. Hume and other Liberals, who were desirous of as wide an extension of the suffrage as possible; and was carried against the government by a majority of eighty-four, August 18, 1831. Ministers incorporated it in their measure, and although that Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords, the clause was introduced in the bill of 1832, and was carried, on a division, by a majority of 240. Mr. Disraeli next had to deal with the delicate question of redistribution. "In attempting to deal with the question popularly designated parliamentary reform," he said, "Her Majesty's government have endeavoured, so far as their intelligence could dguide them, to offer a proposition to the House which, consistently with their conception of the principles upon which the English constitution is founded, should secure for this country a complete representation. One of our first considerations was, of course, the electoral body, upon which I have treated at such length. But a complete representation does not depend merely upon the electoral body, however varied you may make its elements, however homogeneous its character. It also depends upon whether, in your system, the different interests of the country are adequately represented. Now, discarding for ever that principle of population upon which it has been my duty to make some remarks; accepting it as a truth that the functions of this House are to represent not the views of a numerical majority-not merely the gross influence of a predominant property, but the varied interests of the country-we have felt on this occasion it was incumbent on us diligently and even curiously to investigate the whole of England, and see whether there were interests not represented in this House whose views we should wish to be heard here; and he said, "of disfranchisement with which we were favoured during the autumn, when every gentleman thought he could sit down at his table and reconstruct the venerable fabric of the English constitution-if there was one point more than another on which these Utopian meddlers agreed-if there was one enemy which they were all resolved to hunt to death-it was the borough of Arundel. There every vice of the system seemed to be congregated-a small population, a whether the general representation of the | ington, Ludlow, Andover, Knaresborough, country could be matured and completed. Tewkesbury, and Maldon, sending in In undertaking this office, it must not be the future only one member instead of supposed that we have been animated by two to parliament. Mr. Disraeli declined a feeling that we would only do that which to interfere with the Roman Catholic the hard necessity of the case required. borough of Arundel, and he gave his Had we been so influenced, it is possible reasons. "In all those rattling schemes," we might have brought forward a measure that would have served the purpose of the moment, and yet left seeds behind us which might have germinated in future troubles, controversies, and anxieties. We have been sincerely desirous to adapt the scheme of 1832 to the England of 1859, and to induce the House to come to a general settlement, whether as regards the exercise of the franchise or the direct representation in this House of the various interests of the community, which should take this question for a long period out of the agitating small constituency, absolute nomination. thoughts of men. We have sought to offer to the country, in the hope that it will meet with its calm and serious approval, what we believe to be a just and, I will not say a final, but conclusive settlement. Finality, sir, is not the language of politics. But it is our duty to propose an arrangement which, so far as the circumstances of the age in which we live can influence our opinion, will be a conclusive settlement. And we have laid it down as our task to consider, without any respect to persons, what we honestly think are the interests of the country that are not represented, but which we should at this moment counsel the House to add to their numbers." Well now, sir, that is very well for autumnal agitation; but let us see how it practically works in this ancient and famous community in which it is our pride and privilege to live. There are 900,000 Roman Catholics in England, scattered and dispersed in every town and county-of course a minority. What means have they of being represented in this House, especially in the present, as I deem it, unfortunate state of feeling in England with regard to our Roman Catholic fellowsubjects? There is one English Roman Catholic member of parliament, a man who bears a name that will ever be honoured by England and Englishmen; and practically, and in the spirit of the English constitution, the 900,000 Roman Catholics of England, men, many of them, of ancient lineage and vast possessions, whose feelings all must respect, even if they do not agree with them in every The deliberations of the government had ended in the following recommendations:-Four members were to be added to the West Riding of Yorkshire, two to South Lancashire, and two to Middlesex. The towns of Hartlepool, Birkenhead, West particular, find a representative in the Bromwich, Wednesbury, Burnley, Staleybridge, Croydon, and Gravesend, were to be represented. These additions were to be effected by the towns of Honiton, Thetford, Totness, Harwich, Evesham, Wells, Richmond, Marlborough Leominster, Lym borough of Arundel. That is the practical working of our constitution. You talk of the small numbers of the constituency of Arundel; 900,000 Roman Catholics! Why, it is more than the West Riding of Yorkshire; it is double the Tower Hamlets." Mr. Disraeli thus concluded his speech:"I have now, sir, touched upon those topics which it was my duty to lay before the House this evening. I have omitted many things that I ought to have said, and I have no doubt I may have said some things that I ought to have omitted. Such errors are inevitable in treating so large and so various a theme, but I am sure the House will remember that there will be many opportunities for me to enter into necessary explanations, and will treat an occasion like the present with generous forbearance. Sir, having described as clearly as I could the principal provisions of our bill to the House, I shall say no more. I believe that this is a measure wise, prudent, and adequate to the occasion. I earnestly hope the House may adopt it. I believe it is a Conservative measure, using that epithet in no limited or partial sense, but in the highest and holiest interpretation of which it is capable. I can say sincerely that those who framed this measure are men who reverence the past, are proud of the present, but are confident of the future. Such as it is, I now submit it for the consideration of the House of Commons, convinced that they will deal with it as becomes the representatives of a wise and understanding people." It Such were the provisions of the first reform bill framed by a Conservative cabinet. The scheme was, as Mr. Disraeli had avowed, eminently conservative. did not, like that proposed by Mr. Bright, reform parliament at the expense of the constitution, but preserved all that was deserving, and removed much that had led to abuse. It extended the area without changing the balance of power. It proved the falseness of the theory that a numerical majority ought to govern the land of a free country. It recognized that the purpose of popular institutions was to represent the varied and numerous interests of which a free and wealthy community was composed. It was not conceived in a spirit hostile to existing institutions, but was based on the assumption that such institutions were substantially conformable to the wishes of the people, and adequate to their wants. Unlike the various radical schemes propounded during the autumn, though it admitted that the popular power might be safely extended, it refused to place the intelligence or the wealth of the country at the mercy of a numerical majority. In short, it altered the distribution of political power, but did not revolutionize it. Yet, in spite of these recommendations, it was to share, as we shall see, the fate of its predecessors. CHAPTER AGAIN IN THERE are certain measures about which, when introduced to parliament, it becomes difficult to foretell their future; they apparently receive the approval of the House of Commons, they are supported by the press, the country appears in favour of them, and it is only when subsequently criticised and examined in committee, that we are able to decide whether acceptance or rejection is to be their lot. On the other hand, there are measures about which there is no uncertainty; from the very night when the House accords its leave for them to be brought in their success is assured, and before the first reading they are virtually enrolled in the statute-book. Again, there are measures upon which both the House and the country swiftly decide, and resolve to have none of them. The Conservative Reform Bill belonged to this last class. Before the debate of the first night had closed, it was evident that the measure was doomed to rejection. Two circumstances adverse to its progress had occurred at the very outset of its career. The cabinet was not unanimous as to the clauses in the bill, and two ministers had tendered their resignations. The disagreement had arisen upon the extension of the county franchise, which was strongly disapproved of both by Mr. Spencer Walpole, and by that accurate interpreter of county instincts, Mr. Henley. Writing to Lord Derby a month before the bill was laid upon the table of the House, Mr. Walpole said, "I regret to say that I am about to take the most painful step which I have ever had to take in the whole of my life. I am going to request you to place my resignation in Her Majesty's hands, because I find it utterly impossible for me to sanction or countenance the course of VOL. I. XVII. OPPOSITION. policy which the government have now determined to adopt on the important subject of parliamentary reform. I cannot help saying that the measure which the cabinet are prepared to recommend is one which we should all of us have stoutly opposed, if either Lord Palmerston or Lord John Russell had ventured to bring it forward. Under all these circumstances, I have no alternative but to repeat the request with which I commenced; and I shall therefore consider myself as only holding the seals of office until you can conveniently fill up my place." Mr. Henley offered similar objections, and adopted the same course as Mr. Walpole. Thus the bill came before parliament with the damaging reputation of a measure upon which the cabinet had been divided, and which had led to the secession of two of its more important members. There was also another unfavourable circumstance. By an official fraud, which has never yet been discovered, the scheme of the reform bill had appeared in the Times several hours before Mr. Disraeli rose up to lay his measure before the House. Hence, members had possessed the unusual advantage of carefully studying the scope and tendency of a bill before it had been introduced. First impressions are not always permanent, but they have it in their power to exercise no little influence upon the mind of a nation at a critical moment. Members who were opposed to the bill were able, on the very night it was announced, to rise one after the other and offer a searching and carefully considered criticism upon the subject which, when reproduced next morning in the newspapers, tended at once to prejudice the country against the government scheme. A measure 55 must be very strong in itself, or else be very strongly supported, to brave at the outset no mere impromptu objections, but those based on a studied and deliberate investigation of its merits. four hundred years. I have had to look into this subject, and I am sorry to say that the great majority of the freeholds which I have considered are not of that ancient duration. They are of much more modern No sooner had Mr. Disraeli taken his days, and have been created in a much seat, after a speech of three hours and a simpler and more manufacturing style than half, than the popular chamber resounded the territorial traditions of the noble lord with criticisms, objections, and remon- seem to contemplate. "But," says the strances. Few-very few-on the night of noble lord, "I will never consent to it; its introduction were in favour of the bill. I will never be party to a bill which disThe majority were undoubtedly hostile. franchises the hard-working man.” The Scotch members complained that the did the noble lord do in his last reform interests of Scotland had not been fairly bill. What was the first feature in his last dealt with in the bill. Irish members bill? Why, a proposition to disfranchise followed suit. The disfranchisement of all the freemen in England. So much for those persons who voted for counties in this principle of the noble lord. A great respect of property within boroughs was and perilous innovation to restrict the strongly disapproved of. The right of voting borough freeholders to vote in the locality in boroughs to be conferred upon the in which their qualification exists! Why, 40s. freeholders was objected to, since if I mistake not, it was part of the first there was no description of vote so easily reform bill. It is an innovation which fabricated as that of the 40s. free- has been discussed in this House often and holders. The extension of the franchise to often; that was projected by the political lodgers would, it was said, open a great colleagues of the noble lord, and which has, door to fraud. Then it was made matter I believe, been accepted by the good sense for loud complaint that the franchise in of the country for a considerable period. the boroughs throughout the country had It is clear that the moment you consider not been extended; that the working classes the county franchise in the spirit in which, were not fairly dealt with; the bill, other on the part of the government, I have Radicals grumbled, would not give one iota attempted to consider it to-day, the moment of power to the working classes of the you put an end to that exclusive character country; and that the "fancy franchises," which has been complained of in this debate, as Mr. Bright called them, were absurd. you must give the counties, not to any parThe spirit of the Opposition was sounded ticular order or exclusive class, but to the in the concluding words of Mr. Roebuck, inhabitants of the counties, and those who "I say emphatically that every stage of the have a substantial local interest in them; bill must be opposed; steadfastly opposed by and I feel persuaded that the justness of every friend of the people in the House." this arrangement, the logical sequence, as it is, of recognizing the identity of the suffrage, will not meet with that fate which has been predicted for it by honourable gentlemen below the gangway, but will be accepted by the good sense of the country." When objections had run their course, Mr. Disraeli replied. He dealt first with the two reasons which Lord John Russell had brought forward as causing him to disapprove of the bill. "The noble Lord," said Mr. Disraeli, "rests his opposition to this measure on two grand principles. First of all, he cannot consent to any measure which disfranchises in counties the ancient freeholds which have existed for three or Mr. Disraeli then touched upon the complaint that nothing had been done in the bill for the working classes. "What we have done for the working classes," explained the chancellor of the exchequer, "may not sound |