SUBSTANCE OF THE SPEECHES.
On the Tenth Clause being proposed,
Mr. Praed rose to move, in the shape of an amendment to this clause, the proposition which he had originally intended to move as an instruction to the committee, before the bill was committed The object of moving his present amendment was to bring under their consideration the operations of this bill, as they affected the constituency provided for the country by the Reform Act. The question involved in it was, whether it was material to diminish the constituency of the country, and to deprive them of the rights which had been guaranteed to them by the Reform Act. He claimed for the freemen of corporate towns, and for their successors, the right of voting secured to them by the Reform Act, on the ground that rights of that nature ought to be secured to their possessors in perpetuity. The hon. Member then proceeded to contend that there was no reason for this wholesale disfranchisement of the freemen, and in proof of his argument, quoted several extracts from the report of the committee on the Stafford election, to show that the 10l. householders of Stafford were as open to bribery as the burgesses. He also read the evidence of an inhabitant of Stafford, relative to the transactions at Sir John Campbell's election for that place. "Out of 536 voters." said that gentleman, "who voted for Sir John Campbell, I myself paid 53l." After such a statement it was a mockery to say that those who were electors on the 10l. franchise were in any respect superior to the poor freemen. When he had these great constitutional points to go upon, he was unwilling to put the question on the ground of hardship which this bill inflicted upon individuals, and yet the hardship was not an inconsiderable one on those whom it disfranchised. Individuals had paid large sums of money for their freedom, and downright robbery was committed upon them when they were deprived of their usual privileges. There were also some persons whose rights were not inchoate but perfect, yet incomplete from their being absent as mariners from the town from which they sailed after their apprenticeship was completed. They would have been entitled to be placed on the roll had they been in the country, but by this Bill the right of enrolment on their return was taken from them. There was great dissatisfaction among the poorer classes, arising from the notion that the House was accustomed to neglect their rights in its legislation. He did not think that notion correct, but certainly many things had been done of late years which appeared hard and harsh towards the lower orders. He contended that if it was not desirable to bring more of the poorer classes into the constituency, it certainly was not desirable to put more of them out. He concluded by moving the following amendment:—"Provided always and be it enacted that in every borough, whether the same be a county of itself or not, where the right to vote in the election of members or a member to serve in Parliament for such borough is, according to the laws now in force, enjoyed by persons entitled to vote in virtue of some corporate right, nothing whatsoever in this act contained shall in anywise hinder or prevent any person or persons who now enjoy, or who hereafter according to the laws now in force might have acquired such corporate right, from enjoying or acquiring such corporate right for the purpose of voting in such elections."
Colonel Sibthorp objected in the strongest terms to the poor man being robbed of his little remaining right by the present Bill, which involved a gross violation of the compact contained in the Reform Act, and such being the case, he thought no man who had a regard for faith or honesty could support the measure.
Lord J. Russell would not enter at length into the subject of the amendment, having on a former occasion stated his reasons for refusing his assent to the proposition. He would state dryly and simply what he took to be the natural consequences of the plan, without any attempt at that kind of beautiful declamation and pre ended sympathy for the rights of the poor which had been to-night poured forth
