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jord Clarendon had already stated , completed , by tsjspirit , force , and " pluck , " what was wanting a the Ministerial announcement . Lord John lussell declares war , and appeals to Parliament md the country to back the Ministry . The * generous and wise" speech of Mr . Roebuck ( whom all the House cheered as J * e rose to spea , k , after so long a silence , and still , we regret to-say Looking ill and feeble ) indicates what will toe the
answer . j Reform , howof ^ p , h a * beefl tie grand smfcject in Parliament ; bu % even by the end of the week the transitory interest in Lord John's explanation has . considerably faded . The bill involves several items , inore or less minute , of intended , improvement ; Several small boroughs are to be deprived of their members , and several minor towns are to lose one of two members ; tbese disfranchisements vacating sixty-two seats , of these
thirtynine ate . ta be given by various augmentations to several counties , in some cases * allotting three inembers to a <» nnty . In cases where three members represent a- district a new provision is to meet the complaint * that minorities of a size almost equaUing tke eflfective majority are at present excluded from any representation . The efeetdir in districts Tettirmiig three or four members , afife Oifly tibrlje allowed : a vote respectively for
two qrtaree members , which will let in the votes of the minority . for the remaining one . Existing freemen are to retain their vote 3 , but men newly taking up their freedom are not to acquire any , the race thus , xjying * out . Various new special franchises are to 3 > e created-r-tfee possession of a * . k Jj 0 () k in stocky of 501 . deposited fcr three years in a savings . bank , of a degree in any
university ; and two new geneial franchises are to ? be created—first , by extending , to counties the 107 . franchise ; and , secondly , by giving to boroughs a franchise based on a 61 . occupancy , with a residence of two-and-a-lialf years . Tne measure was only stated by Lord John , without debate ^ A few Questions were put , some in a fiostila sense ; bat the bill and . the whole subject stands ^ pver for a month . Out of doors the measure has excited much conversation , but no great stir-Other important subjects have been discussed , —Ihe law of settlement and removal , whaeh Mr Baines has introduced a bill to abolish poor-law rating , being extended to unkms instead of parishes ; arid the law of succession to land in cases of intestacy , Mr . Locke King having introduce ! a bill to make land as divisible as personalty . This ia a new concession to ptife commercial principles . The aj ) poitttment of a public prosecutor , authorised in a bill introduced by Mr . Gr . J . Phillimore ,
is likely to be carried out by a , Government bill The wine duties were discussed by Mr . Oliveira in a soliloquy recommending alolition , and terminating in a withdrawal of his motion , not to embarrass the Government . Ministers promise to introduce a meastttre to substiijtite affirmation in > lieu of oaths for those who have conscientious scruples . The necessity of a pressure from without to induce the University of Oxford to keep moving has been strikingly exemplified by the strange antics of the Hebdomadal Obstructives this week .
eight are to be professors , and the rest miscellaneous ^ The object , it will readily be perceived , of having twojEJoarda is to keep the present Hebdomadal Board as it is , and to save it from being blendedvi # ith the Professors and inferior members « C Convocation . The clumsiness and .
complication Of the machinery devised for this purpose are ^ orth y of the inventors . ¦ JJ Ite Tot ^ Cbancelfarj however , quite apfiroves , except tfiftt $ t € thinks they had better say , * "t ; onsider kw ^ propose , ' tnan * propose and consider , * no doubt the Heads will have all the Derby influence to carry through Convocation the petition in which , the scheme is embodied .
The Government seems to be hesitating ; much moved by the prospect of the Hebdomadal scheme being carried in Convocation , and so endorsed by the University , they have given ten days law at the prayer of the Vice-CbanC ^ lor , and this time will be spent in whipping up all varieties of anti-Reformers and obstructives . The scheme is known to be part ) j suggested by Doctor Pusey , who appears to have been weaned sharply from the quietism of a life of sanctity by a restless fear
of nineteenth-century new lights breaking through the stained glass of ecclesiasticism . He Trill no doubt give a good many votes to the Hebdomadals . Xiord Derby has manifested his lively sense of the ' genius of the epoch , ' and of the -wants of ithe University , by announcing that * founders 'wills' must be religiously respected , and by condemning unattached students in the strongest terms . The Heads have accordingly hastened to pass aresolution ] that all students shall be required to belong to a college or a hall .
No doubt the small but compact phalanx of Reformers will make a good fight in Convocation , but there is too much reason to apprehend that they mil be swamped by the obstructive forces of Hebdomadalism , Derbjism , and college monopoly . We are not surprised to hear that the Tutor ' s
Association ( an apocryphal affair from the first ) is backsliding in the direction of the Hebdomadal Board . Sir William Heatheote , who has been running the gauntlet of High Table and Common . Room festivities this week , appears to regard himself as a sort of testamentary successor to Sir Robert Inglis . He is found to be in favour of the Hebdomadal Board , and of all that is
obstructive . We accepted him , it is true , as we accept Oxford , * failing a . better . ' Meanwhile , on Friday next , the Government will announce its intentions on the subject of University Reform . It is not an unimportant event that the Manchester Town Council has decisively declared in favour of secular education : on the motion of Alderfman Heywood it has resolved , counter to the jLcoposition of the Manchester and Salford Association , that education should not be special pr sectarian , but general .
After eighteen months of inert resistance and sulky indifference on the part of the Board , the Vice-Chancellor floundered up in hot haste to Lord Derby , on Wednesday last , with a ' ¦ scheme ' which has sprung all armed from the Heads— -we will not say the brains—of Houses at tho last mometit , not without sore divisions and spasmodic throes For a new constitution . This pTecious ' scheme , ' just printed , consists of two initiative BoardB , with complicated regulations for their combined motion , or rather for their combined inaction . Tho ' second Hoard is to bo elective and , like the Hebdomadal Hoard , te consist of t ^ enty-ftve members , of whom
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THE PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK . The great Parliamentary event of the week is the aotu ^ l app earance of the new Reform Bill . The Important step was taken on . Monday , wlien Lord John Rt / sstxl rose in his place , and delivered a long but concise statement of the provisions of the bill . At the outset he rather depreciated the importance of the question , which he said had been unduly magnified ; and he diew a comparison between the
excitement which attended the discussions of the Reform , " when we deliberated amid the flames of Nottingham and Bristol , " and tlie present time . Ho successfully disposed of tho objection that it is not a proper time to bring on tho subject now tliut wo are on tlic brink of a war , by aaying that no time seemed fitting to the opponents of reform , and winding up with this sweeping assertion : — " Much , sir , as 1 abhor war— -much us I doploru the evils of wur , 1 must confess I do not look on u war with Kua . sia
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with anything like that apprehension which some gentlemen do . ( Hear , hear . ') I carmot conceive tliat we should not he able ^ proceed with the means necessary for carrying on that war 'with vigour—and , if carried on at all , it ought to be carried on with vigour—( loud cheers . )—and at the same tim « rT » are fall / opportunity for deliberation in our domestic matters "winch appear to us most to require attention . Sir
I cannot ln&'fhfaik that thus apprehension of our being unable to attend fa * ihe consideration of questions of this character fcojartftts ^ fro ^ ch -of war , if war should be unhappily declared tp bSfaefcitable , and , at the same time , to increase our » rma * fBJI *»^ BraTfew ' to oppose the forces of Kuesia , appears toii-one o £ - * h « se * thoughtsJ ! thich are declared to consist of only one / part- wisdom and three parts cowardice . " ( Laughter ^
Having so far cleared the ground , he made a further preface by a striking statement of what , since 1793 , has been done towards the attainment of a fair and free representation . " In the petition presented to this House in the name of the Association of the Friends of the People , I find several statements , which I will repeat to this House , that they may see how .. different was the state of thfngs in those days . They state that at that time 70 members were returned by
burgage tenure—electors none . There -were no members so returned lia 1853 . They state that 90 members were returned 1 > y places where the number of electors did not exceed 50 . There are no members now returned for such places . They statej fcesides 160 so returned , 37 were returned by places whore the ntnnbei of voters did . not exceed 100 . There are at present no members thus returned . Besides these 197 , they also state that 52 were retnrned by places -where the number of voters did not exceed 200 . I believe there is not now more than one member so returned .
They state again / that SO inembers for counties ia Scotland were returned by less than 100 electors each ; 10 "by lessthan 250 each ; and that there were 13 districts of lurghs not containing 190 voters each , and two not containing 125 each , returning 15 members . There are now no members so returned- They state that in this manner 294 members were clioseji , being a majority of this House . Instead of those places referred to at the commencement of this statement , there are now members returned to this House from Manchester , Sheffield , Leeds , Birmingtoatn , and other place * which are now' the seats of wealth and industry . They go
on to state that in the iigbtof voting there were distinctions which perplexed and confounded them . Those rights have , most of them , been abolished by the Beform Bill , and those rights which have been established are comparatively easy of attainment . They state with regard to freedom , there were freemen resident and non-resident , and that there was freedom by redemption , by election , and bj purchase . Freemen by those rights do not at present exist . They state that religious opinions created incapacities for voting for membersto serve in Parliament ; that all Papists were excluded generally , and by the operation of the Test Laws Protestant
dissenters were deprived of a voice in the election of representatives in about thirty boroughs , -where the election waar confined to corporate officers alone . Those laws excluding Roman Catholics have been repealed , and by the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts Protestant dissenters have been admitted to vote- They state tliat householders were * generally excluded . A particular class of householders were-subsequently admitted by the Reform Bill . Tliey state that in Scotland superiority , without any property whatever , gave the right of voting . They state , lastly , that the polling at elections for counties was taken at only one pluce , and
lasted fifteen days . It is now taken in one day , and we had an instance only last Saturday , that instead of its being taken in only one , it was taken in many places . Now , I state these things to show that we have made great improvements on the position in which tho House stood as the representatives of the people in 1793 . I need not state , because tho House will have fresh in its recollection , tho important measures which have passed during the period that has elapsed since the Reform Act received the assent of tho
Legislature . The abolition of slavery—the opening of tho trade with China—tho reform of tho Irish Church—tho reform of the corporations of England , Scotland , and Ireland —the measures that were taken for tlie reform of the tariffthe repeal of the corn laws—tho repeal and equalization of the sugar duties—tho repeal of the navigation laws—these nro onl y some of tho measures which have occupiod theattention of ParlimuonL during tho period that has elapsed , ginoo that event . " Lord John then dealt with the first of thTec main defects in the Reform Act—tho small constituencies left by that act ; but he expressed his belief that variety of numbers in the constituencies is necessary , and that they should by no means be all c ( iiml ; and he gave these reasons : — " If anybody will look at tho history of tho last few yeans , ho will sco that , dunntr the contoiitioua which oxialed on the
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146 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1854, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2026/page/2/
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