SECOND READING. [ADJOURNED DEBATE.] (Hansard, 24 July 1885)

§ MR. MORGAN LLOYD
said, that at that late hour it would, in his opinion, be improper to take up a matter of this importance. The Bill ought not to have been put down at a time when there was no opportunity of going fully into the matter. The Bill proposed to enable the members of the Police Force to vote 1866 at Parliamentary Elections, and there was much to be said in favour of that proposal. But, on the other hand, there were some serious objections to such a proposal, and the question should, therefore, be fully and fairly discussed. That could not be done at that period of the Session, and when the House was in a sense demoralized by the immediate prospect of a General Election. The question should, therefore, be deferred until after the Elections.

§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Lord JOHN MANNERS)
said, this question had been already prominently brought before the House. The measure only proposed the enfranchisement of capable citizens; and he sincerely hoped the hon. and learned Gentleman would not press his Motion for the adjournment of the debate.

§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT
said, he wished to hear the opinion of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sir R. Assheton Cross) on the Bill.

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir R. ASSHETON CROSS)
said, he could not give his opinion on the Motion for the adjournment of the debate.

§ MR. FIRTH
remarked, that it was only a quarter past 12 o'clock, and he hoped his hon. and learned Friend would withdraw his Motion.

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir R. ASSHETON CROSS)
said, as the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Derby (Sir William Harcourt) wished to know his opinion on this Bill, he would say that he could conceive of no more capable citizens, in the fullest sense of the term, than the police. They were men who were intrusted with important public duties, and he did not see that the character of their duties bore in any form or shape upon the question of their politics. They were placed in their position on account of their abilities; 1867 and it seemed to him a very hard case, seeing that they discharged a public duty, that they should not be enfranchised. He should, therefore, support the Motion for the second reading of the Bill.

§ MR. RAMSAY
said, as the right hon. Gentleman had stated, the police were intrusted with the preservation of the peace. But who was to prevent political feeling arising in the minds of the police, as it did in the minds of other people? He did not see that any election could take place in which they took part without their being influenced by political feeling. He thought they would place these men, for whom they had a sincere respect, in a false position if they were to intrust them with the franchise, when they were almost exclusively employed in the preservation of the peace amongst the electors. He should, therefore, move that the Bill be read a second time that day three months.

§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT
said, he could not agree with his hon. Friend who had just spoken. The hon. Gentleman had said that the police were the preservers of the peace. But so were the magistrates; and he never heard that, because magistrates were preservers of the peace, they ought not to be allowed to vote. There were other classes charged with that duty also, and he did not understood that soldiers and sailors were deprived of votes in respect of the duties which. they performed. There was a time when it was supposed that officers of the Inland Revenue ought not to be allowed to vote, on the ground that political influence might be exercised over them. Considering how widely they were extending the franchise in this country, he thought that a class of men, certainly not the least deserving, ought not to be excluded from it. To select them as special objects of exclusion would be both invidious and unjust. He had asked for the opinion of the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who was mainly responsible in a ques- 1868 tion such as this. The right hon. Gentleman had given his opinion; and from his own knowledge of the position of the police, he should be extremely unwilling that they should be excluded from the exercise of the franchise.

§ MR. FIRTH
said, in view of the itinerant character of the police, he thought that the period of qualification in their case ought to be shortened. Ho should move that in Committee.

§ THE UNDER SECRETARY STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. STUART-WORTLEY)
said, he had spent some time the evening before in endeavouring to find some Statute which prevented policemen in Scotch burghs from registering their vote, and ho could find none. He therefore thought that it would be somewhat inequitable that Scotch burgh police should have the franchise, and not the English police.

MR. O'CONNOR POWER
said, he was sure the House would appreciate the difficulties which some hon. Members had in supporting the Bill. He thought the argument of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Derby (Sir William Harcourt) in reference to magistrates did not apply, because the magistrates were unpaid and the police were paid. That, he thought, was an important distinction. He did not think that the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary, or his Predecessor (Sir William Harcourt), had made any reference to the rules which prescribed that no part should be taken by other Civil servants in political matters, although they were allowed to vote. He hoped that the right hon. Gentleman would be prepared to move on the part of the Government that the Secretary of State from time to time occupying his post should have power to issue regulations of a similar character with regard to the police. With that limitation, he would have no difficulty in supporting the Motion for the second reading of the Bill; but in the absence of an understanding to that effect, he should not do so.

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir E. ASSHETON CROSS)
said, he certainly never intended that the police should be allowed to do anything else than exercise the franchise. He would take care that a provision of the kind indicated by the 1869 hon. Member should be put into the Bill.

§ MR. RAMSAY
said, that the feeling in favour of the Bill being read a second time seemed to be so general that he would ask leave to withdraw his Amendment.