of the gross estimated rental shall be prima facie evidence, until contested, of the clear annual value. Thus, we shall secure the double object of adhering to the present definition, and of avoiding all the inequalities inherent in rating, while, at the same time, we shall in this manner attain that simplicity, certainty, and facility, which is obtained by the use of the rate book, as a public and impartial document in each parish. Now, Sir, the gross estimated rental is, as we find, in exact correspondence with the rack rent. There will, of course, be an appeal to the revising barrister. But in all the boroughs except thirty, the gross estimated rental appears to be under the operation of the Act introduced by my right hon. Friend (Mr. Villiers), as nearly as possible equal to the rack rent. In these thirty boroughs one-half exhibit a considerable inequality; but it is only because the operations under the Act of my right hon. Friend are not quite completed. Certainly, before any practical steps can be taken under this Bill those operations will be completed. There are a few other cases of local acts, and certain cases in the metropolis, where in point of fact the column of gross estimated rental is not at present in accordance with the true principles of the Union Assessment Act. That is to say, it represents a mere conventional sum. With a view to correct this inequality, we propose to provide by enactments on the subject, and then we can with confidence recommend the gross estimated rental as the proper basis of the franchise. But then, even while these inequalities exist in a few particular cases, we have a means of applying a test with sufficient accuracy to the gross estimated rental as a whole. We have called for the Income Tax Returns. We know that these represent a sum considerably above the rack rent; for in every case where the landlord pays the rates he includes them in his returns, and consequently the income tax assessment is, in very many cases, much in advance of the rack rent. The gross annual Income Tax Returns, allowing for all excesses, give a total valuation of £39,238,000; and the gross estimated rental, though still defective in some places, amounts to £37,375,000. The difference at this moment therefore is only £1,863,000, or 5 per cent. We have therefore no hesitation whatever in what we propose, feeling that we can now found ourselves upon a secure basis of operation which will be the means of in troducing a great practical improvement in the administration of the law. It appears, Sir, that the present town constituency consists of 488,000 persons. Dividing those as above the line of the working classes from those below it, I find that in the former category there are 126,000, according to a large and liberal estimate, who belong to the working classes, while I take 362,000 as the number of voters in the towns who do not belong to them. We propose, as I have said, to add 60,000 to the present number of £10 voters. All these I take as belonging to the working classes. I do not now refer to the lodger, or to the depositor in savings banks; both of these would probably be of small numbers; the lodgers at any rate of mixed and balanced condition. Up to this point, then, I may roughly reckon that we have 186,000 persons, more or less, on the future register, who belong to the working class. If a £6 rental were added, I find that this would be the result. A £6 rental, calculated upon the most careful investigation, and after making every allowance and deduction that ought to be made, would give 242,000 new voters, whom I should take as all belonging to the working class. I should thus arrive at a gross total of 428,000 persons, which would, in fact, probably place the working classes in a clear majority upon the constituency. Well, that has never been the intention of any Bill proposed in this House. I do not think it is a proposal that Parliament would ever adopt. I cannot say I think it would be attended with great danger, but I am sure it is not according to the present view or expectation of Parliament. And although for my own part I do not think that much apprehension need be entertained with respect to the working classes, even if admitted in larger numbers than we propose, yet this I fully admit, that upon general ground of political prudence, it is not well to make sudden and extensive changes in the depositories of political power. I do not think that we are called upon by any overruling or sufficient consideration, under the circumstances, to give over the majority of town constituencies into the hands of the working class. We propose, therefore, to take the figure next above that which I have named-namely, a clear annual value of £7. I will give the House the exact numerical result, so far as we can distinctly make it out, of the proposal to fix the borough franchise at a clear annual value | savings bank franchise. I do not myself of £7. The figure of £7 is not very far attach any very great consequence to the from that apparently fixed by the Small general upshot of these various modifying Tenements Rating Act, but the result as circumstances. They may, I think, be to admission will be considerably larger. taken, on the whole, as balancing one. If Gentlemen will take the pains to add another, and, desiring to avoid all minor together from page 54 of the statistical points of controversy, I should say that volumes the gross total of the male occu- the addition to the working class voters by piers at £7, and under £10, and will then the reduction to £7 would be about make a Rule of Three sum, having for its 144,000. first two terms the gross number of occupiers above £10, and the present number of the £10 constituency, and for its third term the gross number of occupiers between £7 and £10, the fourth term will give the probable constituency upon reducing the franchise to £7. [Laughter from the Opposition Members.] I am very glad that these studies in arithmetic prove so amusing, as they are generally thought to be among the drier class of subjects. But the result is that the figure is 156,000 persons. [An hon. MEMBER: The gross number?] No, the net number. The gross number will be between 207,000 and 208,000; and from the net number a deduction must be made of a certain number of freemen who have already the franchise. I take off from the 156,000 onethird of the total number of freemen now enjoying the franchise, and that leaves 144,000 who would be enfranchised by the reduction to a clear annual rental of £7. But it is right I should point out the causes by which, in the view of some persons, this calculation may be modified. There are some persons living in houses between £7 to £10 who do not belong to the working classes. The number of these, so far as our inquiries extend, is probably small. I believe that 5 per cent would be an over-statement of the amount, and it is needless to take into view the reduction by this number which may be balanced from other sources. Then, again, there must be a deduction, some would say a considerable deduction, made on account of the more frequent removals which take place among the holders of small houses. But, on the other hand, an increase will have to be made in allowance for the effect likely to be produced by the abolition of the ratepaying clauses on that class of persons. The Rule of Three sum is affected by all the causes I have named, including the abolition of the ratepaying clauses and the operation of the new provisions we propose to make for compound householders: also there would be some small addition to be made for the And, Sir, I wish to point out to those who may still think that this addition to the constituency ought not to take place, that all are disposed to admit that the franchise ought to be at the least attainable by the working man. I think that the most extreme speeches heard in this House in opposition to change are of this character. They all state that it is desirable that the working man should be able to reach the franchise. That, of course, means that he should be able to reach it by means of such efforts as it is really within his power to make. Let us consider his position with regard to the £10 franchise. £10 clear annual value, when you make the proper addition for rates and furniture, must imply that the man is at a charge for his residence of not less than £16. I am safe, I may even claim that I speak with moderation, when I say that the working man does not spend more than one-sixth of his income on his house. Therefore, in order that he may have a £10 house, his income must be £96, or, in other words, without making any allowance whatever for sickness and casual interruption of work, he must receive, at least, £1 17s. per week, or, if we allow for necessary breaks, about £2 per week. Now, Sir, it is plain that only a very small portion of the working classes can hope to receive £2 per week as the wages of their labour: many an able, industrious, and skilful workman, using his best exertions all his lifetime, would and must fail to attain to such an income. Accordingly, I do not think that a £10 franchise can be said to be liberally and fairly within the reach of the working man. A £7 franchise would work in a different manner. Adding 60 per cent, as in the other case, for rates and furniture, to the sum of £7, it would come in the gross to £11 48., which would represent an income of £67 48., or instead of 378. per week a little under 268. a week. Now, 26s. a week is an income which is undoubtedly unattainable by the peasantry or mere hand labourer, except under very favourable circumstances, but it is also an income | occupiers are 1,347,000. Of occupiers, very generally attainable by the artizans and skilled labourers of our towns, though perhaps not so easily in the country. occupying houses at and over £7, there are 847,000. The actual constituency of 488,000 represents 36 per cent of the male occupiers. The proposed constituency of 692,000 would represent 51 per cent of those male occupiers, and of the working classes there would be in the towns, according to these figures, 330,000 enfranchised against 588,000 unenfranchised, being less than two in five, but more than one in three of the working classes. Again, Sir, the gross constituency of the whole country will stand thus. There are already, taking the gross numbers, 550,000 voters in the counties of England and Wales. There will be 488,000 in towns, making a total of 1,038,000. But in order to know the actual number of persons a very large deduction must be made for those who possess a plurality of votes. I cannot think that even upon the most liberal estimate the present constituency consists of more than 900,000 electors. In addition to those we propose to bring in 400,000, making for England and Wales a total constituency of 1,300,000. The total number of adult males is 5,300,000; so that the whole number enfranchised in town and country would be one in four, as nearly as possible. So much for the figures. I do not know whether the House would like me to recapitulate very shortly the legislative proposals which form the basis of them. I will now, Sir, endeavour to give a general view of the figures in this case, in order that they may be placed clearly as a whole before the House. In the counties, as I have said, if our Bill shall become law, the working classes will be a much smaller proportion of the whole constituency than they now are, as the 40s. freeholders, among whom they are to be found, will form a smaller proportion of the aggregate number, and I can hardly reckon the agricultural servant at £14 rent as belonging to the class of working men. In the towns the voters of the classes, other than the working classes, amount to 362,000. The working class, as it appears, has now 126,000 persons, and there will be new electors of the working class for houses above the line of £10 amounting to 60,000, and for those below the line of £10, so far as we can calculate, 144,000, making the entire number of the working classes in the constituency 330,000 or a total addition of 204,000 to the 126,000 | now included in the constituency. The total enfranchisement contemplated in counties is, by the £14 occupation, 172,000, to which, however, is to be added whatever may be thought fit for copyholders and leaseholders having their qualifications within represented towns, and for the savings bank franchise. As in towns there The first is to create an occupation franwill be an addition of 204,000 persons, we chise in counties, for houses alone or are likely to have a total addition of houses with land, beginning at £14 rental, 376,000, so far as we may venture to and reaching up to the present occupation offer definite figures on this subject. With franchise of £50. The second is to introrespect to the lodger franchise, to the copy-duce into counties the provision that copyhold and leasehold franchise for counties, holders and leaseholders within Parliamenand to the savings bank franchise, we may tary boroughs shall be put upon the same be at least safe in throwing in the 24,000 footing as freeholders in Parliamentary which are necessary to make up round boroughs now stand for the purpose of numbers, and in stating that the total county voting without any alteration in enfranchisement will probably embrace the relative amounts of qualification for 400,000 persons, of whom, speaking rough-household and copyhold as compared with ly, one-half will belong to the working class and the other half to the middle class, including among the latter, in the counties, many persons of education, although, perhaps, not many of great means or station. And now as to the proportion which the new constituency will bear to the total number of our householders. There appears to be in our towns a population of 9,326,000. Of these the adult males may be taken at 2,331,000, and the adult male freehold. The third is a savings bank franchise, which will operate in both counties and towns, but which will, we think, have a more important operation in the counties. In towns, we propose to place compound householders on the same footing as ratepaying householders. We propose to abolish tax and ratepaying clauses, we propose to reduce £10 clear annual value to a £7 clear annual value, and to bring in the gross estimated rental taken from the rate book as the measure of the value, thus, pro tanto, making the rate book the register. I qualifications which the people possess for We propose also to introduce a franchise the exercise of the political franchise. We on behalf of lodgers, which will compre- are mindful that unhappily the limbo of hend both those persons holding part of a abortive creations is peopled with the house with separate and independent ac- skeletons of Reform Bills. We do not cess, and those who hold part of a house as wish to add to the number of these uninmates of the family of another person. fortunate miscarriages. We may have The qualification for which will be the £10 erred, but we have endeavoured to see clear annual value of apartments, without how much good, by the measure which reference to furniture. We propose to we propose, we have a prospect of effectabolish the necessity, in the case of regis- ing for the country. As to the completeness tered voters, for residence at the time of of the measure, I have given to the House voting. And, lastly—I say lastly because what I think are the clear and distinct though there are some other minor provi- objects which any Government attempting sions, I do not think it needful to trouble to deal with the question of the representhe House with them at the present time-tation of the people must have in view, we propose to follow the example set us by the right hon. Gentleman opposite and the Government of Lord Derby in 1859, and, sustained and supported I must say by many great authorities, to introduce a clause disabling from voting persons who are employed in the Government yards, while they continue to be so employed. Sir, I have detained the House very long in this explanation, and I have now briefly to consider what is the true representation to be made of such a plan as that which we now submit. It certainly makes a large addition to the constituency. The number of persons who will be enfranchised by this Bill, not upon an estimate wholly vague, but taken on the basis, as far as may be, of the positive and absolute figures which we have been enabled to present, will, I think, certainly be greater than the number of those who were enfranchised by the Reform Act; for no estimate of the enfranchisement effected by the Reform Act would carry it very greatly beyond 300,000 persons. As re spects the county vote, we do not apprehend that it will raise here any question of principle. As regards the borough vote, we hope that our plan is a liberal, as we believe and are sure that it is a moderate and a safe plan. It alters greatly in towns the balance as between the working classes, defined in the liberal manner which I have stated, and the classes above them; and yet it does not give the absolute majority in the town constituencies to the working classes. It is probable that, according to the various tempers of men's minds, we shall be told that we have done too little, or that we have done too much. Our answer is, that we have done our best. We have endeavoured to take account of the state and condition of the country, as well as of the but honesty of purpose equally compels us upon careful examination of the facts not to attempt, by any measure that we could lay on the table of the House at this given moment, that which we know to be impracticable, and in which, therefore, we must fail. If we are told that, with respect to the franchise itself, we ought to have done more, our answer is that it was our duty to take into view the public sentiment of the country, disposed to moderate change, but sensible of the value of what it possesses, sensitive with regard to bringing what it possesses into hazard. And, whatever may be the opinion entertained of the growing capacity and intelligence of the working classes, and of their admirable performance at least of their duties towards their superiors-for it has ever appeared to me that though they have sins, in common with us all, yet their sins are chiefly, and in a peculiar sense, sins against themselves—yet it is true of the working classes, as it is true of any class, that it is a dangerous temptation to human nature to be suddenly invested with preponderating power. That is the reason why I think we have not done too little in the way of enfranchisement. We may be told, on the other hand, that we have done too much. I will hope that will not be urged. We do not entirely abandon the expectation that even those who have protested almost in principle against the extension of the franchise downwards will be disposed to accept a measure which they do not wholly approve if they think it offers the promise of the settlement for a considerable period of a grave, important, complex, and difficult subject. I would beg them to consider what an immense value there is in the extension of the franchise for its own sake. Liberty is a thing which is good not merely in its fruits, but in itself. This is what we constantly say in regard to English legislation, when we are told that affairs are managed more economically, more cleverly, more effectually in foreign countries. "Yes," we answer, "but here they are managed freely; and in freedom, in the free discharge of political duties, there is an immense power both of discipline and of education for the people." If issue is taken adversely upon this Bill, I hope it will be above all a plain and direct issue. I trust it will be taken upon the question whether there is or is not to be an enfranchisement downwards, if it is to be taken at all. We have felt that to carry enfranchisement above the present line was essential; essential to character, essential to credit, essential to usefulness; essential to the character and credit not merely of the Government, not merely of the political party by which it has the honour to be represented, but of this House, and of the successive Parliaments and Governments, who all stand pledged with respect to this question of the representation. We cannot consent to look upon this large addition, considerable although it may be, to the political power of the working classes of this country as if it were an addition fraught with mischief and with danger. We cannot look, and we hope no man will look, upon it as upon some Trojan horse approaching the walls of the sacred city, and filled with armed men, bent upon ruin, plunder, and conflagration. We cannot join in comparing it with that monstrum infelix-we cannot say— " -Scandit fatalis machina muros, Fota armis mediæque minans illabitur urbi." I believe that those persons whom we ask you to enfranchise ought rather to be welcomed as you would welcome recruits to your army or children to your family. We ask you to give within what you consider to be the just limits of prudence and circumspection; but, having once determined those limits, to give with an ungrudging hand. Consider what you can safely and justly afford to do in admitting new subjects and citizens within the pale of the Parliamentary Constitution; and, having so considered it, do not, I beseech you, perform the act as if you were compounding with danger and misfortune. Do it as if you were conferring a boon that will be felt and reciprocated in grateful attachment. Give to these persons new interests in the Constitution-new interests which, by the beneficent processes of the law of nature and of Providence, shall be get in them new attachment; for the attachment of the people to the Throne, the institutions, and the laws under which they live is, after all, more than gold and silver, or more than fleets and armies, at once the strength, the glory, and the safety of the land. Motion made, and Question proposed, "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to extend the Right of Voting at Elections of Members of Parliament in England and Wales.”—(Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer.) MR. MARSH said, he looked upon the measure which had just been so eloquently described to them as the beginning of the end. There had been no petitions presented in favour of a £7 franchise, and very few in favour of a £6 franchise. The tendency of the proposed Bill was towards universal suffrage; and he appealed to the right hon. Gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) himself whether it did not tend to that result? It was said that that measure would settle this question; but he (Mr. Marsh) maintained that, on the contrary, it was just such a measure as would keep it unsettled. The right hon. Gentleman himself had expressed the opinion that a £6 franchise would swamp the existing constituencies; and yet the £7 proposal was not very different from it. He thought the hon. Member for Birmingham (Mr. Bright) would hail the proposal as a step towards universal suffrage. The right hon. Gentleman said that the class of voters who came in under the lower franchises frequently voted for Conservative candidates. That might possibly happen in quiet times; but suppose there came a great political fight, instead of being on the Conservative side they would be on the other side, and the greater need there was for Conservatism the less Conservative would they be. Look at what had happened in Australia, where a popular House of Assembly, overriding everything, raised money without the consent of the other branch of the Legislature. He believed the fact to be that a very small number of the Members of that House really desired Reform; while those who did really desire Reform were those who wished to bring the country to the lowest level of democracy. And why did they wish for democracy? They wished for it simply because they had some particular hobbies to ride. At one time that hobby was for financial economy, at another peace throughout the world; but he denied that |