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    t the House . He says , ' You shall not have the Ml ™ u like best , tut another , . of iny concoction , of [• i , T will not tell you any of the clauses . I mil leave * 1 ^ find out the provisions of the measure . That will S ui w tpose All I retire is , that you shall pro-TJl bill different from your own . ' Such a demand was Sr before made . . Of course , I ^ aimot comply with ie noble lord ' s request . It would , be . absurd m me to Send io satisfy the noble lord . Suppose I were to folw nil the injunctions which I have received from the noble lord , and prepare a bill m accordance with them , Sie noble lord might turn round and say it was not the VII he intended ; that the clauses were different from thuse he wanted ; and that it would not do . at all , and desire me to bring in another bill more agreeable to him- " .

    _ _ . _ .. „ These remarks showed the temper of the Premier . It was useless to follow the discussion of details , the main point was henceforth the existence of ministers ; and Lord John adopted his customary tactics—he menaced the House with his resignation . "If , " said he , in conclusion , followed by loud laughter , " the House resolve to omit the word ' local / I shall leave Mr . Bernal and the noble lord to bring in the Bill and feel at liberty to oppose it when brought in /' Mr DiSEAEM briefly criticized the plan , but it was obviously only for decency ' s sake . The sting of his speech lay in its tail : —

    The noble lord , I think , too often shows a readiness to menace the opinions of the House . ( Cheers from the Opposition benches . ) I put the question merely in this Way : __ If it be the opinion of this House that the principle upon which the Government measure is founded is not a correct one , and that the principle which is expressed in the amendment of the noble lord the member for Tiverton

    is , on the contrary , the one which ought to be adopted , is this , or is it not , a legitimate occasion to express that opinion ? If it be a legitimate occasion to express that opinion , I cannot doubt that the House will not shrink from fulfilling that duty , and that the threat of the First Minister will not deter us from laying down the sound principle upon which we think the means of national defence should be established in this country . ( Cheers . )

    The other speeches—the feeble efforts of Sir George Grey ; the dull criticisms of Mr . Deedes ; the chivalrous rushing in of Mr . Hume to the defence of Russell endangered ; and the spiritless sentences of . the new President of the Board pf Control , —deferred , but could not avert the fatal result . The House divided . For Lord Palmerston ' s amendment , 136 ; against it , 125 . rw ' t Majority sgainst Ministers , 11 . Lord John Russell declared that he looked upon

    the vote as a proof of want of confidence , and he should relieve himself of all responsibility . Lord Palmebston coolly professed his surprise at the course adopted by the noble lord . He maliciously observed , that Ministers ought not to resign upon a " temporary incidental failure of principle . " Lord John Russell explained that such was not the case . If he brought in the bill with the title altered merely , the noble lord would say , that was not the bill he wanted ; and he therefore moved " that Mr . Bernal and Lord Viscount

    Palmerston do bring in the bill . " ( Loud laughter and cheers . ) Sir Benjamin HAiiii made a short speech , advising the Premier to x-esign . Lord John Russell withdrew his motion , members at once dispersed , and after performing a little routine work , the House adjourned . Of Lord Palmerston ' s bill , wo must judge when we see it . The now spirit and vigour of his conduct , his direct appeal to the people , are at all events most welcome .

    Iho Times , tho Chronicle , and the Daily News , anticipiito that Lord Derby and the Protectionists will come in .

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    Tho Times publishes another long and vigorous loiter from " An Englishman , " on French affiurs . /^ m Conference of the National Parliamentary and 1 tnniicinl Reform Association , will meet on Tuesday , the Aid of Mnrch , in St Mnrtin ' s Hall , Long Acre , at eleven o clock in the forenoon . Tho Conference is open to all Members of Parliament who have voted for Mr . Hume ' s motion , or otlierwieo concur in the principles of the National Reform Association

    ; gentlemen elected by Associations or Committees who have adopted those principles ; and Deputations i » otn any body of Rcformors willing to attend and afford Jiilonnation on tho vital subject of Koform of Parliament . vvi ' ' I ortimt questions for consideration will ho—1 . ¦ Wlint means can bo adopted for securing , to tho utmost possible extent , the constitutional rights of tho people PA - How far tho Bill before Parliament is calculated to carry that object into eireot ?—3 . Tho course to bo pur-8 " < : « 1 to obtain for tho voter tho independent exorcise of tho franchise .

    A party of Americans , at tho head of whom arc Howard 1 mil , the American author , and Josh . Silsbeo , tho comedian , nro lilting out for a trip to Switzerland , it being their intention to ascend Mont Blanc .

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    There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing' so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep tilings fixed when , all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Abnold .

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    EXTENSION OF THE WHIG FRANCHISE . Lord John Russell has done more to advance the cause of Reform in Parliament than any agitator for these last ten years ; but slighting the canon of those political moralists who deprecate destruction before construction , he has made his progress far more by the unsettling tendency of his measure than by its new settlements . There is the utmost doubt whether his ministry will survive to carry out the scheme ; but whether it do so or not , he has given an immense impetus to reform . If he carry the Bill , we shall gain a large accession of representative territory ; if he fail , still he has pledged the Whigs to strive for that accession . HeTaas made a high bid , which other cabinets must outbid ; and , in short , he

    has fixed the minimum for the next measure . The proposed creation of an amalgamated borough system in England is the part which has provoked the most criticism ; and we wish our readers to understand not only that just criticism , but also some of the consequences of the measure , which to us appear to be too generally overlooked . The proposed creation of new boroughs , for the enjoyment of a joint franchise , is very unequally distributed . Lord John Russell sp _ oke of preserving " the balance of- interests , " as if they ought not to settle themselves withoutof Parliament

    the supreme disposing power . Like all advocates of a limited suffrage , Lord John speaks aa if Parliament were to create " the country" that it is to represent , not the country to create the Parliament . Nay , Ministers propose to create " the country" to which they would like to " appeal ; " and accordingly , if class interests are kept in the old balance , the political balance is somewhat modilied . Nothing can exceed the capricious disposal of the new boroughs . In the first place , they are very numerous in the Southern counties , and sparse in the Northern ; in other words , agricultural boroughs are multiplied more than trading or manufacturing boroughs . To such an extent Wiltshire and ther

    is this carried m , Devon , o Southern , counties , that the county constituency is reduced to a rag by the fragments cut out for the new boroughs ; in other words , the broad representation of the county , which , from its very extent , must possess a c ertain degree of independence , is cut up , and placed more within tho controul of individual landlord influence . Tho Times helps us to some strange illustrations of this caprice . Melksham , unknown place , is added to Calne , and to Lord Lansdowne ' s Howard influence ; that is to say , the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury are to help in the perennial election of Lord Shelbourne . Tavistock , rotten borough , is to be purified by the addition of four rotten borouerhs , disfranchised by the Reform

    Bill of 1832 , but now restored—Callington , Okehampton , Saltash , and Moreton Hampstcad ; Lord John , apparently , holding that five Laises mako one Lucretia . To Morpoth is annexed , not Alnwick , a place of some size , but tho more distant Blyth , a place not largo , but belonging to Sir Matthew White Ridley ; so that tho Duke of Northumberland ' s Alnwick is excluded . In Wiltshire , thoro is a most wondorful shuffling ot boroughs , which , results in swamping adverse influences , like that of Mr .. Nocld at Chipponham ; and epeonomizing ministerial influences , such as return Mr . Wilson for Wostbury , or " diffusing" tho same influences oven moro profitably . , . ji j . ji Now , on this showing , wo admit that tlio mfluoncoof the Bill , bo far as Reform-mongers can procalculate , will bo one-sided ; but still the franchise will bo extended—if not in the counties to a groat degree , but rather shuffled thore—still

    it will , on the whole , be extended . To Reformers , then , we say , accept that extensionnail Ministers to it . It is a good in itself , and should it be effected , a very remarkable consequence would ensue . The party to feel the unequal distribution of the franchise most indignantly will be— -the Tory party ! Yes , the extension is here effected . at their expense . Will they afterwards attempt to disfranchise ? Scarcely ; but they may attempt to redress the balance by a new extension r So much the better . Some , indeed , hold that universal

    suffrage itself would strengthen the landlords in the counties ; to which we could have no objection , for it might at least make the landlords consult more constantly and widely the interest of the labourers . At any rate we desire universal suffrage , not as the tool to enforce particular opinions , but as the sole means of getting at the sanction of the whole people on great occasions ; for , we repeat , it ought not to be the Parliament that makes its own " country , " but the reverse .

    Meanwhile , it is amusing to see the adjusters of a limited suffrage trying to put off the advance of a " progress , " by trifling with it—yielding , and yet trying to keep up " the balance of interests , " and dodging opponent parties about county and borough . We do not view these littlenesses with so fierce an indignation as we see in some of our more " moderate" friends ; because we believe that they do not suffice to divert the onward march of events . Quite the reverse—in the race to get before each other , factions are hastening the movements of the main body .

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    THE GOLD PANIC IN AUSTRALIA . England " possesses" colonial " dependencies " of the most magnificent kind , but their value to her and to her people is wasted by two vast forms of misdeed—by bad government , at once arbitrary and neglectful ; and by industrial anarchy , which must exist so long as the old barbaric organizations of castes or guilds are succeeded by no wiser substitute , with the principle of concert for its basis . A gigantic instance is before us , which we cite , not" in the spirit of complaint , but solely in the desire to give practical

    illustration . Our readers know the immense current of emigration from this country , mostly to the United States , where an imperfect idea of international alliances , a confusion of Downing-street with " England , " has heretofore converted our brethren into jealous rivals , almost into foes . The stream of emigration , great as it is , does not exhaust the " emigrable" population : it has thinned Ireland , until employers feel the drain upon the supply of labour ; but in England tho desire among our wretched agricultural population , —still wretchedly housed and provided , even in periods of " prosperity , "—the desire to emigrate exceeds the means . Among our skilled labourers a new kind of emigration has shown

    itself ; for , as they expected , tho unemployed workmen of the iron-trades have received from Belgium invitations to follow their work . One of the commonest objects of saving among the artisan class , as we can testify from personal knowledge , is to emigrate , and mostly to America . Both English and Irish , field labourer and factory engineer , want to leave their country . Why P Because they are dissatisfied with those arrange ' ments which we class undor the name of government , and wit ! i tho neglect shown especially to tho interests of tho labourer . Capital is threatened with a general spirit of defection and desertion in tho vast body of its auxiliary , Labour , because a short-sighted and selfish policy has made Labour sensible of injustice

    If we follow the stream of emigration , wo find that its tendency still is to leave British dominions . Although tho range of our colonies affords cvory choice of natural resources and climate , from tho clear , bracing air and wooded lands of Canada to tho clear , gonial air of Australia , with its boundless pastures , and its Egyptian fortility , tho desire is to get away from them . And when we look within tho colonios , wo see the same impatience oven there . The Canadians talk of " annexation" to tho United States . Tho

    Colonists of tho Capo of Good Hope are in open onmity with their rulors . Tho Australians have undergone irritations tho most exasperating , and talk of " independence " How valuable has Australia boon to this country ; how much more valuable might it bo 1 Almost as largo in extent us Europe , its populo

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    Feb . 21 , 18520 THE LEADER . 177

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    * SATUEDAY , ifEBRTTAKY 21 , 1852 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1852, page 177, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1923/page/13/