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Ho. 471, April 2, 1859-] THE LEADER. 441
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CO MMiEC I AL.
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GOLD AND THE FRANCHISE. When the City wr...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ho. 471, April 2, 1859-] The Leader. 441
Ho . 471 , April 2 , 1859- ] THE LEADER . 441
Co Mmiec I Al.
CO MMiEC I AL .
Gold And The Franchise. When The City Wr...
GOLD AND THE FRANCHISE . When the City writer of the Times can find no other subject for discussion than the ancient p latitudes of Sir Arcliibald Alison anent the currency , the writer of commercial leaders m this journal may , without -departing from propriety , refer to the bearing of the supposed decline in the value of gold on the asserted extension of the electoral franchise . In truth , the great suspension of Jill speculative business , from political uncertainties , including much new enterprise , leaves as little to be said in , the public journals on commerce as on agriculture or manufacture , and confines commercial writers necessarily to a dry record of the prices and amounts of securities and of
goods sold . In finding a vent at Glasgow for the suppressed energies of a London journalist , the writer in the Times has been so eager to get at Sir Archibald , that he has overlooked objects that lie imich nearer the City . The exaggerated views indeed of the old advocate , of issuing promises to pay that are never to be paid , deserve all the eastigation they receive from the Times . To propose a legislative interference to prevent the honest redemption of an obligation is one of the expediencies , as contratlistinguished from right , which short-sighted politicians , in and out of Parliament , continually advocate . Another of them is establishing in
England an exclusively gold standard , and establishing in India an exclusively silver standard ; prohibiting in each country all debts , however contracted , and whatever the parties to them may desire , to be paid in any other metal than the one arbitrarily chosen by ignorant expediency . A third of these expediencies permits men in Scotland and Ireland to issue promises to pay for 3 I ., and prohibits them iiiEnglandfor a less sum than 51 . And a fourth expediency is to lay the growing trade of banking under foolish restrictions ; while the advocates of the measure had tlieir mouths full of boasts of their love of free trade . We cannot , therefore , in
electors in 1832 in Great Britain was 720 , 784 , and the number at present , according to Paper No . 140 of the present session , is 1 , 072 , 963 ; the electors , therefore , have increased in the interval 49 per cent ., or more than the population . When the difficulties of a first registration , the changes subsequently made in the rate-paying classes , and the exertions of the paid agents of the different parties to secure supporters , are remembered , a great part of this increase will be attributed to those causes rather than to a reduction in the standard of enfranchisement . Ac- ? cordingly , by a return made in 1842-3 , we find the number of electors in Great Britain had then
increased to 941 , 782 , or 32 percent . At that period the population may be estimated at 19 ^ 000 , 000 . Between 1842 and 1859 , therefore , the population of Great Britain has increased 19 per cent ., and the electors have increased only 14 per cent . These facts negative both the assertions , that there has been a continual decrease of electors in relation to population , since the lleform Act of 1842 was passed , though there has been such a _ decline of late years ; and the assertion that the increase of electors , which was much greater in proportion in the early part of the period than in the latter , is owing to the gold discoveries lowering the 101 . rate of enfranchisement . Let us now look at the relative numbers of county and borough voters at the two periods : — County Voters . Boroug-li Voters . 1 S 3-2 ...... 40 MP * . • • • • . " Sl / V-JOO 1 SJ 8-0 .... 571 , 001-. .... 501 , 302 Increase .. .. 108 , 207 18 * , 072 Thus , iii the interval , the county population , which is comparatively stationary—the population of some counties latterly having actually declined—has had an increase in electors of 42 per cent ., while the borough population , to which the increase in the whole empire ¦ is nearly confined , has increased only 58 pel * cent . On looking to a classified return of the electors for 1846 , we find that in that year the county voters were 561 , 329 , or within 10 , 272 of their present number , while the borough voters , then 383 , 144 , were 118 , 218 short of the present number . We have not the means of ascertaining exactly the increase of the borough population in the interval , but we arc certain that it has been much more than 30 per cent . By these figures , too , we are brought to the conclusion , that since 1842 , or 1846 , the increase in the number of voters in the ^ boroughs has not been equal to the increase of population in the boroughs . The opinion of Lord Elcho and the Scotsman , that the alteration in . the value of gold has ' "lowered the rate of enfranchisement , and so admitted a greater number of the lower classes to the enjoyment of the franchise , has no foundation , for there is no such increase in the number of 10 Z . voters since the quantity of
at 329 , 097 , the amount in 1851 , and the elector registered at 15 , 502 . On this showing the population had increased less than 30 per cent ., and the electors nearly 90 . So Finsbury , according to Dod , shows , between 1845 and 1857 , an increase of only 22 per cent , in population , , and 70 per cent , in registered electors . These cases , however , may give us a clue to the relative general increase of population and electors , and to the mistake of Lord Elcho . Both these are cases in which the population is increasing very rapidly , and the increase is , in the hiain , of the middle classes . In Einsbury , and probably in Glasgow , the bulk of the new dwellings are above the value of 10 ? . Each of them would jrive the inhabitant a vote . The
increase of voters in the new population is , therefore , large in proportion to the whole popiilation Moreover it is great every year , and the registered electors are annually recorded ; while no efforts are made in the respectable publication quoted to ascertain the increase of population year by year . The number ascertained at the last census , or the population of 1851 , is put down in the book as the population in 1857 , both of Finsbury and Glasgow . Of other p laces a like statement is made , though year by year the population increases very rapidly . Such facts , probably , lead Lord Elcho and the Scotsman to suppose a greater increase of electors than population , which they ascribe to the depreciation of gold ; but the case-of' / Edinburgh itself shows how unfounded is the supposition .
The observation of the journal ' ' reiterated , in Parliament by Lord Elcho , brings under notice a very important distinction , which is worthy of attention . There can be no doubt , as they imply , that the ' biilk of the town . population pa ; y higher rent , or more money , in proportion , for their dwellings now than in 1832 . But if this were the result of a general appreciation of prices , in consequence of a continual fall in the value of" the precious metals , as is alleged , and notably of a very large fall in latter years , it would make itself perceptible in other things as well as rent— -in the produce of land , in wheat , cotton , and sugar , and n manufactures , as well as in the rent of land and
in the rent of buildings . The fact , however , js that there is no tendency to a rise in the price of commodities the produce of labour , while there is a continual tendency to a rise in the price ( rent ) of monopolised land . This is not confined to England . We read continually in American papers and books of the great increase in flic value of land in New York , Boston , Cincinnati , & c , & e ., by which the Van llansellaers , the Astors , the Abbotts , the Longworthys , huve become millionnaircs . They were the fortunate holders or wise purchasers of p lots of ground , which , must , from their position , be required for the dwellings of an ii- »< vi > nnsin < T ¦ nrmuin . finn ; rmrl wliifih fire 11 OW lot Or increasing population and which are now let or
; sold by the square yard , in these new cities , at , prices almost equal to the sums given for land in Glasgow or London . Clearly , as population increases , iUvourublo positions—on the banks of the Clyde or the Mersey , bordering the Frith of Forth or the Bristol Channel , on the Hudson or the Ohio , wherever men do and must congregate to carry on business and got a living—will command a continually increasing quantity of the produce of labour . Thy rent in such places— -rent wherever the land is already occupied -and population incrcaisos—must continually increase 5 and tho fortunate holders of
deductions would not much alter tho general conolusion , that , the increase of borpugh electors , in latter years , has not , on the whole , kept pace with the increase of , population . Wo know there nro some cases in which the electors have increased , in proportion , faster than the population . Edinburgh , however , is not one of these . According to " Dod ' s Parliamentary Companion" for 1845 , its ' population -was then 133 , 092 , and tho registered electors 5 , 346 5 in 1857 , however , the population was , according to the saino authority , 100 , 302 , and tho registered
electors 6 , 230 , tho population , having increased in tho interval 20 percent ,, ond the elector * only 17 . But U 10 population was the number according to tho census of 1851 ; tho number of electors was given according to tho latest ofiieinl return , or lor five years at least subsequently . In Edinburgh itself , then , th ' uj ' o had boon no increaso of electors , as tlio Scotsman imagines to bo eausod by the depreciation , of gold . . In Glasgow , however , tho population , in 1845 , is put down - by pod nt ' 257 , 592 , and the registered electors at 8 , 241 . In 1857 the population is put down
such a monopoly nro continually onriclicd Jiy the labour of pother men . As population ineroastv , knowledge is increased , skill in morunseil j ' ami as labour becomes more skilful , ooniniodilioH <> ' "' , kinds nro obtained at a less cost . A * tin ; prico of them falls , more nnd mom of Ilium munl-bo and is givon by tho producers to tlio owners of tlio soil . Honco , us tho price of clothing , of provisions , of whotnru called luxuries but are really necessaries—such m ton , sugar , colloe , & c , ike . — falls , or they nro obtained by Icsh Inborn- and at less cost , tho labourer is enabled still to live and give more for his dwelling ; and hence a greater sum is paid for tho rent of houses now tlmn fbrmorlv . As he Scotsman says , tho house that did lot ; for 1 0 / . io \ v lots for UJ / . j or tho accommodation that did
gold was largely increased . Some allowance should be made for the decrease of freemen , by death and otherwise , included in the number of registered electors , and one or two boroughs at present disfranchised 5 but those
• echoing the Times'" censure of Sir Archibald ' s gross exaggerations , both of the relative condition of France and England , formerly and now , and of the effects of a forced issue of paper ^ fail to record our opinion , that the City Avriter in that journal is as much in error , in defending the mass of absurd restrictions passed in 1844 , as Sir Archibald in his currency notions , and a great deal more inconsistent . The latter has always been a gloomy'Tory ; the former is at once a Restrictionist and a tree Trader . The errors of both concern speculative legislation rather than commerce ; but the value of gold , to which we have referred and ¦ are about again to refer , is a great element of
commerce , and just now it has , 111 the debates of Parliament , found , in a different direction , a very important practical application . It was asserted by Lord Elclio , that tho fall in the value of gold was leading to a reduotion in the standard of the franchise , and admitting continually a lower class of people to enjoy it . He quoted the Scotsman , to show that what was a 10 / . franchise in . 183 * 2 was now equal to a franchise of 71 . 10 s ,, and that this ¦ change was the consequence of a reduction in tho . value of gold . The discussion originated in this part of our paper some time ago , therefore has now a very important [ practical bearing , which justifies us in resuming it . . In direct opposition to Lord Elcho and tho Scotsman , however ,
Sir ¦ Jumps Graham asserted that tho " number of electors is gradually diminishing . " On this account we first ask tho attention of our readers to tho doubtful fact of the electoral body increasing or doci'easing . First , lot it be remembered that this increase or decrease must bo in proportion to tho whole population ; and tho population of . Great Britain was , in 1831 , according to the census , 1 M 64 , 108 . Augmenting it by one per oont . to bring it to 1832 , it whs then 10 , 729 , 771 ) . At present , taking 3 , 120 , 000 for tlio population of Scotland , on < ho authority of tho statiBtioal abstract , and 19 , 630 , 000 for tho population of England nnd Wales , on tho authority ¦ o f tho Registrar-General , tho total is 22 , 750 , OQO . Since 1832 , therefore , tho population hns increased 30 per oont . According to Mr . M'Cullooh ( Statistics of tho British Empire ) , tlio number of
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1859, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02041859/page/25/
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