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    C O MM EECI A L.

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    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 , a nd the increase is , in the main , of the middle classes . In Finsbury , and probably in Glasgow , the bulk of the new dwellings are above the value of 1 QZ . Each of them would give the inhabitant a vote . The increase of voters in the new population is , therefore , large in proportion to the whole population . 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 pf population year by year . The number ascertained at the last census , or the

    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 . Accordingly , 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 he estimated at 19 , 000 , 000 . the

    Between 1842 and 1859 , therefore , 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 Reform Aet of 1842 was passed , though there lias been such a decline of late years ; and the assertion that the increase of electors , which was much greater hi 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 . Borough Voters . 3832 :. 403 , 494 ....... * .... ' .. ' 317 , 290 . '' . 1 SoS-9 .... 571 , 001 501 , 3 ( 52 Increase . . . ., 1 (^ , 207 184 , © 7-2 Thus , in 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 5 . 8 per 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 tlieir present number , while the borough voters , then 383 , 144 , were 118 , 218 short of the present number . We have not the means of ascertaining

    population of 1851 , is put down in the book as the population in 1857 , both of Finsbury and Glasgow . Of other places a like statement is made , though year by year the population increases very rapidly . Such facts , probably , lead Lord Eicho 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 linfounded 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 bulk of the town population pay 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 in manufactures , as well as in the rent of land and in the rent of-buildings . The fact , however , is that there is no tendency to a rise in the price of commodities the produce of labour , while there is

    exactly the increase of the borovigh population m th » interval , butwe arecertain that it has been much more than 30 per cent . By these figures , too , we are bi'ought 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 101 . voters since the quantity of gold was lai'gely increased .

    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 the value of land in New York , Boston , Cincinnati , &c , &c , by wliich the Van llansellacrs , the Astors , the Abbotts , the Longworthys , have become millionnaires . They wore the fortunate holders or wise purchasers of plots of ground , which must , from their position , be required , for the dwellings of an increasing population ; and which arc now let or sold by tine square yai'd , in these new cities , fit prices almost equal to the sums given for land in

    GOLD ANP THE FRANCHISE . When the City writer of the Times can find no other subject for discussion than the ancient platitudes of Sh" Archibald Alison anertt the currency , the writer of commercial leaders in this iournal may , without departing from proprietyj refer to the bearing of the supposed decline ; in the value of o ^ old on the asserted extension of the electoral franchise . In truth , the great suspension of all 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 copfines commercial writers necessarily to a dry record

    of the prices and amounts of securities and of { roods sold . In finding a vent at GlasgOAv 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 much 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 castigation they receive from the Times . To propose a legislative interference to prevent the honest redemption Of an obligation is one of the expediencies , as contradistinguished from right , which , short-sighted politicians , in and out of Pai-lianient , 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 fo :: 11 ., and prohibits them in England for 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 their mouths full of boasts of

    their love of free trade . We cannot , therefore , in 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 writer 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 Free Trader . The errors of both concern speculative legislation rather than commerce ; but the vnlue pf gold , to which we have referred and are about again to ¦ refer , is a great element ot commerce , and just now it has , in the debates ot

    Parliament , found , in a different direction , a very important practical application . It was asserted by Lord Elcho , that the full in the value of gold was leading to a reduction in the standard of the franchise , and admitting continually a lower class of people to enjoy it , Ho quoted the Scotsman , to . show that what waa a 10 * . franchise in 1832 was now equal to a franchise of 71 . 10 s ., and that this change was the consequeupe of a reduction in the value , of gold . The discussion originated in this part of our-paper some time ago , therefore lias now a very important [ practical bearing , whioli justifies us in resuming it . In direct opposition to Lord Elcho and the Scotsmcm , however . Sir James Graham asserted that the " number or electors is gradually diminishing . " On tins account wo first ask the attention of our renders to the doubtful fact of the electoral body inci'casing or clecronsinff .

    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 bovoiighs at present disfranchised ; but these deductions would not much alter the general con-i elusion , that the increase of borough electors , in latter years * has not , on the whole , kept pace with the increase of population . We know there are some oases in wliich the electors have increased , in proportion ,, faster than the population . Edinburgh , however , is not one of those . According to " Dod ' a Parliamentary Companion" for 1845 , its population was then 133 , 692 , and the registered electors 5 , 346 ; in

    Glasgow or London . Clearly , as population increases , favourable positions— -on the banks of the Clyde or the Mersey , bordering the Frith of Fort ] i or the Bristol Channol , on the Hudson or the Ohio , wherever men do and must congregate to carry on business and get a living—will command a continually increasing quantity of the produce of labour . The rent in such places—rent wherever the land is already occupied and population increnses—must continunlly increase ; and the fortunate holders ui ' such a monopoly are continually enriched by tlic lncroascn

    labour of "other mon , As population , knowledge is increased , skill is mciviiHed ; ami uj j labour becomes more nkilful , cominoditioH of nil kinds are obtained at a less cost . Ah the pneo of them falls , more and more of them iniiHt bo nnd i « given by the producers to ( he owners ol the soil . Hence , aw the price ol' clothing , of pro- , visions , of what nro oallod luxuriow , l > "t uro really necessaries—suoli as toa , wigfuycoflbo , &C ..-& 0 .. — fulltj , or they nro obtninod by loss labour ami lit lens cost , the labouror i « enabled Htill to live and give more for his dwelling ; and hence a . greater sum is paid for the ront of Iioubch now than lfonnorly . Ah the Scotsman , says , the liouso that did lot for 10 / . now lota ibv 131 . , or the accommodation that did

    First , let it be remembered that this increase ov decrease must be in proportion to tho whole population ; and the popiilation of Groat Britain was , in 18 ai , according to the census , 16 , 564 , 108 . Augmenting it b y one per cent , to bring it to 1832 , it was then 16 , 729 , 779 . At present , taking 3 , 120 , 000 for tho population of Scotland , on the authority of tho statistical abstract , and 19 , 630 , 000 for tlio population of England nnd Wales , on the authority 6 f _ the Registrar-General , the total is 22 , 750 , 000 . Since 1882 , therefore , the population lias in--ereftscd 86 per cent . According to Mr . M'Cullocli ( Statistics of the British Empire ) , the number of

    1857 , however , the population was , according to the same authority , 160 , 302 , and tho registered electors 0 , 230 , the population having increased in the intorvnl 20 percent ., and the electors only 17 . But tho population was tlio number according to tho census of 1851 ; tho number of electors was given according to tho latost oflioial return , or for five years at least subsequently . In Ediuburgh itself ; then , there had boon no inorcaso oC electors , au the Scotsman imagjnoa to be caused by tho doprociatlon . of gpld . . In Glasgow , however , tho population , in 1845 , is put down by Pod at 257 / 592 , and the registered electors at 8 , 241 . In 1857 tlio population is put down

    C O Mm Eeci A L.

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    Ko . 471 , Aprii , 2 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER . 441

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1859, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2288/page/25/