§ SIR D. L. EVANS moved the Second Reading of this Bill, which, he said, referred to the ratepaying clauses in the Reform Act. Those ratepaying clauses were not in the original contemplation of the supporters of that Act; but in the course of the violent debates which ensued, a proposition was made that the payment of rates and taxes within a limited period should be a condition of the qualification of voters. A compromise to that effect was entered into, and the provision was introduced into the Act. The object of that provision was represented to be to insure the solvency of those who voted; but, on the contrary, in the course of the working of that Act, there had been found innumerable proofs that that condition had no effect whatever in that respect, for, either from the negligence of the householders themselves, or in some instances from intention on the part of the rate collectors, many persons in the most solvent circumstances had been disfranchised; and it had happened under the operation of those rate-paying clauses that both the right hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth and the noble Lord at the head of the Government had at one time lost their votes. In Marylebone alone not less than 16,000 bonâ fide electors had upon one occasion been disfranchised by the operation of the clauses in question; and thousands of persons in other boroughs suffered the same grievance. In the aggregate it was calculated that 150,000 bonâ fide electors were generally excluded from the franchise by the effect of the ratepaying clauses. At the present moment, in consequence of the recent changes that had taken place on the Continent, there was now scarcely a country in Europe which did not enjoy a more extensive franchise than that which existed in this country; and a feeling was therefore entertained by many that a large extension of the franchise here was necessary and expedient. Those who held that opinion might perhaps be dissatisfied with the proposition of the minute character which he now submitted to the House; but if 1141 any change of a much more extensive nature should take place in this respect, he trusted it would not be founded on the entire demolition of the present system in respect to the franchise, but on its improvement; and consequently the proposition which he now made would then not militate against, but would rather be in furtherance of such change. He thought all such changes should be gradual and temperate; and he would ask hon. Members sitting on the Opposition side in what state would this country have been if their advice had been followed, and if all those propositions for amelioration and all those concessions to liberal opinions which had been made during the last twenty years had been unfortunately refused? What would have been the state of this country, and of Ireland, if the Test and Corporation Acts had been left in their original stringency—if Catholic emancipation had not been conceded—if the corn laws had not been repealed—and, above all, if the Reform Bill were not now the law of the land? The Bill, the second reading of which he now proposed, was of such a nature, as he trusted would satisfy the scruples of hon. Gentlemen opposite. It proposed an alteration in the Reform Act merely to this effect, that no person should be required, in order to entitle him to have his name inserted on the register for any borough, to have paid any poor-rates or assessed taxes, except such as should have accrued due previously to the 11th day of October in the preceding year, thus substituting the 11th of October in the preceding year for the 5th of April in the current year, as was now the law.
§ CAPTAIN HARRIS said, he should certainly record his decided opposition to the Bill. On a former occasion a similar Bill had been introduced, and he believed that a majority of the Members of the Government then opposed it. Great inconvenience was experienced in consequence of persons well able to pay their rates and taxes not doing so within a proper time, and he was unwilling to remove any such check as now existed against that abuse. He thought that what was passing in a different part of the world ought not to affect their legislation when founded on justice, and they ought to legislate for themselves irrespective of extraneous events.
§ SIR G. GREY said, that the hon. and gallant Member had alluded to a Bill of a similar character introduced on a former occasion; but it was his impression that 1142 the principle of that Bill met generally with concurrence from the Members of the Government, and he could state that he himself had supported it. In his individual capacity he should give his vote for the second reading of the present Bill, which did not affect the principle of the payment of rates and taxes in reference to the franchise, but only extended the time, and came within the spirit of the Reform Act. The Bill had nothing to do with the present state of affairs; and, as he had supported the former Bill, he should now vote for this, not in reference to circumstances existing at the present moment, but because he thought it would have a beneficial effect.
§ The House divided:—Ayes 60; Noes 25: Majority 35.
| List of the AYES. | |
| Baines, M. T. | Kildare, Marq. Of |
| Baring, rt. hon. Sir F. T. | Labouchere, rt. hon. H. |
| Berkeley, hon. H. F. | M'Gregor, J. |
| Bernal, R. | M'Taggart, Sir J. |
| Birch, Sir T. B. | Marshall, W. |
| Blackall, S. W. | Matheson, J. |
| Bouverie, hon. E. P. | Maule, rt. hon. F. |
| Bright, J. | Melgund, Visct. |
| Brotherton, J. | Moffatt, G. |
| Carter, J. B. | Muntz, G. F. |
| Cavendish, hon. G. H. | Packe, C. W. |
| Chaplin, W. J. | Pechell, Capt. |
| Cobden, R. | Pilkington, J. |
| Davie, Sir H. R. F. | Rawdon, Col. |
| D'Eyncourt, rt. hn. C. T. | Rice, E. R. |
| Dunne, F. P. | Scholefield, W. |
| Ebrington, Visct. | Smith, J. B. |
| Ellice, E. | Smyth, J. G. |
| Fergus, J. | Spooner, R. |
| Fox, R. M. | Stuart, Lord D. |
| Frewen, C. H. | Tancred, H. W. |
| Gibson, rt. hon. T. M. | Thompson, Col. |
| Glyn, G. C. | Thornely, T. |
| Grey, rt. hon. Sir G. | Tufnell, H. |
| Hardcastle, J. A. | Walmsley, Sir J. |
| Hawes, B. | Wawn, J. T. |
| Hayter, W. G. | Williams, J. |
| Headlam, T. E. | Willoughby, Sir H. |
| Heald, J. | |
| Henley, J. W. | TELLERS. |
| Hudson, G. | Evans, Sir D. L. |
| Humphery, Ald. | Hall, Sir B. |
| List of the NOES. | |
| Arkwright, G. | Lincoln, Earl of |
| Baldock, E. H. | Lockhart, A. E. |
| Bankes, G. | Lygon, hon. Gen. |
| Buck, L. W. | Oswald, A. |
| Buller, Sir J. Y. | Patten, J. W. |
| Christy, S. | Plowden, W. H. C. |
| Cobbold, J. C. | Reid, Col. |
| Colvile, C. R. | Thesiger, Sir F. |
| Deedes, W. | Trollope, Sir J. |
| Duncombe, hon. A. | Villiers, Visct. |
| Duncuft, J. | Waddington, D. |
| Forbes, W. | TELLERS. |
| Grogan, E. | Christopher, R. A. |
| Herbert, rt. hon. S. | Harris, hon. Capt. |
§ Bill read a second time.