§ * THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS (Mr. HARCOURT,) Lancashire, RossendaleIt is my duty to ask the leave of the House to introduce, under the Ten Minutes' Rule, a Bill to limit the abuse and anomaly of certain classes of plural voting. In doing so I shall adhere strictly to the imaginary time limit imposed by this non-existent rule, and I will not, therefore, waste precious moments in a superfluous request for that generous indulgence which the House always so readily extends to a new Member making his maiden speech. The prohibition of plural voting has been enforced by Parliament for many years in our municipal and county council elections and also in the Parliamentary register, so far as the duplicate qualifications fell within the 581 same constituency. The Government propose to extend those provisions to the whole country for Parliamentary purposes. If I thought this Bill demanded any apology—;which I do not—;I should put forward the excuse which you, Sir, dignified by its use from the Chair in defence of a breach of procedure that it is "only a little one." I do not wish specially to minimise this Bill, because de minimis non curat lex, and I hope in future the law will have much care of this very necessary and desirable amendment to it. But though happily and conveniently diminutive in form, it will, I hope, be extensive in effect; and I think, perhaps, its value will be in inverse ratio to its size. It does not aim at one vote one value, because it is not a redistribution Bill, but it does secure one man one value. It does not give to every man a vote, because it is not a franchise Bill, but it secures that one man shall exercise one vote only. It is not an enfranchising and not a disfranchising Bill. [An HON. MEMBER: Surely.] No, because it leaves to every man all the qualifications which he at present possesses all over the country, though it limits the caprice and redundancy of their exercise. It removes that multiplication of electoral power which comes from the geographical distribution of real estate, and sometimes from the vagaries of boundary commissioners operating upon small areas. The scandal has become more obvious and more intolerable since the Redistribution Act of 1884, when the counties were parcelled out into smaller divisions. If we ever come to equal electoral districts with even more fanciful boundaries, the anomaly will be more glaring and more unjustifiable. This Bill does not abolish the property qualification, though much might be said for such a method of procedure. I personally should advocate it in any comprehensive scheme of general reform, because I believe—;though here I speak only for myself—;that the franchise is really and rightly founded upon manhood and not upon property, and I regard residence and ownership as only convenient methods of identification and localisation. But this Bill is only an Amendment and an extension of the existing machinery of the electoral law. Under the present system a voter with duplicate qualifications in the same 582 borough or county division is forbidden by law to exercise more than one of them at a time. The Government desire to extend those provisions to the country as a whole. We propose to make it a similar offence to do in other boroughs and in other county divisions what it is now illegal to do in one. The most effective method, no doubt, of carrying this out, would have been to say that the plural voter, after selecting a locality for the exercise of his vote, should be starred or put in division 3, or on the parochial electors' list, or omitted altogether from the register in the non-selected districts where he has a duplicate qualification But there are two obvious objection to that course. First of all, it would entail a great deal of labour and confusion in the intercommunication of the registration officials all over the country, or in the alternative it would compel the plural voter to take a considerable amount of trouble to divest himself of his redundant qualifications. We do not feel it is either necessary or just to ask this of him. But we do ask of him, and we think we have a right to demand, that he should select once a year, or if indolent or satisfied with the selection, once for life, which of his several votes he will exercise during the ensuing calendar year, and, unless subsequently cancelled by the voter himself, that selection will continue in operation in future years. On receipt of notice from the voter by the proper electoral authorities, he will be marked by some distinguishing letter or symbol in the margin of the register in the selected constituency, as is at present done with duplicate qualifications in the same constituency. We leave the plural voter on the register in all Parliamentary constituencies where he at present has a qualification, but without the distinctive mark which alone entitles him to record his vote. The object of this is that the voter, having the right to vary his selection once a year, should not be put to the risk or trouble of having to reclaim for his vote in a district whore he already possesses a qualification and to which he may wish subsequently to transfer his voting power. All that has to be done by this individual is this; I will take myself as an example; I assume that I am marked to vote in the register for St. George's, Hanover Square. If I wish to change my place of voting, I 583 notify in proper time the authorities at St. George's that I wish no longer to remain a constituent of the hon. and gallant Gentleman opposite. In that case the distinctive mark would be deleted from my name there. At the same time I should inform the authorities in South Oxford-shire that in future I wished to vote there, and I should at the proper time acquire in that division the effective symbol in the margin of the register. The method presents no difficulty to any plural voter who is not an illiterate or who cannot once in his life afford a penny stamp. To the property owner who cares so little for his constitutional rights that he omits to make any selection it is possible that this Bill may mean a temporary disfranchisement; but their number is likely to be very few. I do not think they will command much sympathy, and in any case their number is likely to be rapidly reduced by the activity and omniscience of those party agents to whom most of us owe our presence in this House. The difference in the currency of the register in England and Scotland presents a slight difficulty; the method of its solution will be better understood when hon. Members see the text of the Bill. I hope the time may be very near when England and Ireland will assimilate their electoral practice with that of Scotland, and bring into operation on November 1st for all purposes the register which is already in existence at that date throughout the United Kingdom. It is provided in the schedule of this Bill that a question may be put in the polling booth to any suspect voter; and it is also provided, in accordance with the present law, that to ask for a ballot paper without a title to vote shall be regarded as a corrupt practice. Under the Ballot Act of 1872 the attempt to vote or the act of voting twice in the same constituency is treated as personation. We apply the same provision and the same penalty to the attempt to vote elsewhere than in the selected constituency. I know the Bill will not secure the universal assent of the House, and I dare say there are some Members opposite who will wish to misquote some early lines of the Duke of Rutland—;
Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning, die;But leave us still our old mobility.This, with the help of the House, the Government do not intend to do. The 584 time has gone by when the pluralist can command the pity of the public. If he receives common justice in the ease of selection amongst the superfluity of his qualifications, he will have neither ground for sympathy nor cause for complaint. In moving for leave to introduce this Bill I do so in the belief that it will secure a more equable and a more equitable representation of the people as a whole, and that it will remedy the over representation of certain classes, arising not from the amount or the value of their property, but from the geographical accident of its distribution. I beg to move.
§ Motion made and Question proposed, "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to impose a penalty on a Parliamentary elector, registered in more than one constituency, who votes in any constituency except that selected for the purpose"—;(Mr. Harcourt)
§ * SIR WILLIAM ANSON (Oxford University)This Ten Minutes' Rule has of late years shown itself of a somewhat elastic character, but I venture to think no more startling development of it has ever taken place than the introduction of this Bill under it. I should have thought that a measure of this vast constitutional importance, which not merely affects the present distribution of political power but goes to the very root and foundation of our electoral system, would have been introduced by the Prime Minister, with all the pomp and circumstance of a First Reading debate. But we have it brought in by the First Commissioner of Works under the Ten Minutes' Rule. I say that it not merely affects the present distribution of power but it affects also the very root of our system of representation. What has that been in the past? You may found your representation on interest, class, ideas, localities or numbers. Our system has always been the representation of locality. That principle has been observed throughout the various changes of the franchise and of the distribution of power which have taken place during the nineteenth century, and it naturally follows that if a man has a substantial interest in two localities he has a right to a vote in each. That view has never been departed from in the successive changes of our system, and I venture to say that, looked at from that 585 point of view, the right hon. Gentleman's analogy of municipal government and of the municipal voter wholly falls to the ground. Moreover, there have been from time to time efforts to secure the representation of minorities—;to ensure that this House is, what I do not think it is at present, a true representation of the conditions of political opinion throughout the country. Mr. Gladstone, by a process of reasoning which I have never been able to follow, thought that single member constituencies would promote the representation of minorities. That has not been the effect, but at any rate, this measure, whatever else it is worth, will absolutely kill any possibility of the representation of minorities throughout the country. It involves a departure from the system of local representation and an adoption of the system of purely numerical representation. Henceforward neither localities nor the men interested in localities, nor the interests of localities, are to be considered, but the mere number of the voters in these localities, and the logical result is equal electoral districts. The right hon. Gentleman said he proposed to give one man one vote, and he was bold enough to say that there followed from that the result that each man's vote would have one value. But it is not the same value. The value of the individual voter in certain of the small constituencies of the
§ United Kingdom is very different from the value of the individual voter in some of the overgrown constituencies in certain of the crowded parts of the country. If this measure is to be seriously considered in this House it should be considered as part of a larger scheme of redistribution of seats, and the redressing of all existing inequalities—;as part practically of a scheme of equal electoral districts, which can be adjusted from time to time in accordance with the shifting of population. I will not go into the question of machinery, with which the right hon. Gentleman dealt no doubt with clearness, but not for the purposes of this debate in a manner which affects our action on this side of the House. The real question we have to consider is the question of principle. Are we going to accept, without hesitation and without a division a proposal to recast our whole electoral system, to say nothing of the immediate change in the existing distribution of political power? This we cannot do, and under the circumstances we shall divide against the Bill, and I think, I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that in its subsequent stages it will be carefully considered, if not seriously opposed.
§ Question put.
§ The House divided:—;Ayes, 327; Noes, 66. (Division List No. 64.)
589| AYES | ||
| Abraham, William (Cork, N.E.) | Blake, Edward | Clynes, J. R. |
| Abraham, William (Rhondda) | Boland, John | Coats, Sir T. Glen (Renfrew, W.) |
| Acland, Francis Dyke | Boulton, A. C. F. (Ramsey) | Cobbold, Felix Thornley |
| Adkins, W. Ryland | Brace, William | Cogan, Denis J. |
| Agar-Robartes, Hon. T. C. | Branch, James | Collins, Stephen (Lambeth) |
| Agnew, George William | Brigg, John | Cooper, G. J. |
| Ambrose, Robert | Brooke, Stopford | Corbett, C. H. (Sussex, E Grinst'd |
| Armstrong, W. C. Heaton | Brunner, J.F.L. (Lancs., Leigh) | Cornwall, Sir Edwin A. |
| Ashton, Thomas Gair | Brunner, Sir John T. (Cheshire) | Cory, Clifford John |
| Asquith, Rt. Hn. Herbert H. | Bryce, Rt. Hn. James (Aberdeen | Cowan, W. H. |
| Baker, Joseph A.(Finsbury, E.) | Buchanan, Thomas Ryburn | Cox, Harold |
| Baring, Godfrey (Isle of Wight) | Burke, E. Haviland- | Crean, Eugene |
| Barker, John | Burns, Rt. Hon. John | Cremer, Wiliam Randal |
| Barlow, Percy (Bedford) | Burnyeat, J. D. W. | Crombie, John William |
| Barran, Rowland Hirst | Burt, Rt. Hon. Thomas | Crooks, William |
| Barry, E. (Cork, S.) | Buxton, Rt. Hn. Sydney Charles | Crossley, William J. |
| Beale, W. P. | Byles, William Pollard | Dalziel, James Henry |
| Beauchamp, E. | Cameron, Robert | Davies, Timothy (Fulham) |
| Beaumont, W. C. B. (Hexham) | Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H. | Delany, William |
| Bell, Richard | Carr-Gomm, H. W. | Devlin, Chas. Ramsay (Galway |
| Bellairs, Carlyon | Cawley, Frederick | Dewar, Arthur (Edinburgh, S.) |
| Benn, John Williams (Devonp't | Cheetham, John Frederick | De war, John A. (Inverness-sh.) |
| Benn, W, (T'w'r Hamlets, S. Geo | Cherry, Rt. Hon. R. R. | Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. |
| Billson, Alfred | Churchill, Winston Spencer | Dilke, Rt. Hon. Sir Charles |
| Birrell, Rt. Hon. Augustine | Cleland, J. W. | Dillon, John |
| Black, Arthur W. (Bedfordsh'e | Clough, W. | Dobson, Thomas W. |
| Dolan, Charles Joseph | Lamb, Edmund G.(Leominster) | Price, C. E. (Edinb'gh, Central) |
| Duffy, William J. | Lamb, Ernest H. (Rochester) | Price, Robert John (Norfolk, E. |
| Duncan, C. (Barrow-in-Furness | Lambert, George | Priestley, W.E.B. (Bradford, E.) |
| Duncan, J. H. (York, Otley) | Law, Hugh Alexander | Radford, G. H. |
| Dunn, A. Edward (Camborne) | Lawson, Sir Wilfrid | Rainy, A. Rolland |
| Dunne, Major E. M. (Walsall) | Layland-Barratt, Francis | Raphael, Herbert H. |
| Edwards, Enoch (Hanley) | Lea, Hugh Cecil (St. Pancras, E. | Rea, Walter Russell (Scarboro' |
| Edwards, Frank (Radnor) | Lehmann, R. C. | Redmond, John E. (Waterford |
| Elibank, Master of | Lever, W. H. (Cheshire, Wirral) | Redmond, William (Clare) |
| Ellis, Rt. Hon. John Edward | Levy, Maurice | Rees, J. D. |
| Esmonde, Sir Thomas | Lloyd-George, Rt. Hon. David | Renton, Major Leslie |
| Everett, R. Lacey | Lough, Thomas | Richards, T. F. (Wolverh'mptn |
| Faber, G. H. (Boston) | Lundon, W. | Richardson, A. |
| Fenwick, Charles | Lupton, Arnold | Ridsdale, E. A. |
| Ferens, T. R. | Luttrell, Hugh Fownes | Roberts, Charles H. (Lincoln) |
| Ferguson, R. C. Munro | Lyell, Charles Henry | Roberts, G. H. (Norwich) |
| Findlay, Alexander | Macdonald, J. R. (Leicester) | Robertson, Rt. Hn. E. (Dundee |
| Flavin, Michael Joseph | Macdonald, J.M. (Falkirk B'ghs | Robertson, J. M. (Tyneside) |
| Fowler, Rt. Hon. Sir Henry | Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. | Robertson, Sir G. Scott (B'df'd |
| Fuller, John Michael F. | MacVeagh, Jeremiah (Down, S. | Robinson, S. |
| Fullerton, Hugh | MacVeigh, Charles (Donegal, E.) | Robson, Sir William Snowdon |
| Furness, Sir Christopher | M'Callum, John M. | Roche, Augustine (Cork) |
| Gibb, James (Harrow) | M'Crae, George | Roe, Sir Thomas |
| Gill, A. H. | M'Kean, John | Rogers, F. E. Newman |
| Ginnell, L. | M'Kenna, Reginald | Rose, Charles Day |
| Gladstone, Rt. Hn. Herbert J. | M'Killop, W. | Rowlands, J. |
| Glover, Thomas | M'Laren, Sir C. B. (Leicester) | Runciman, Walter |
| Grant, Corrie | M'Laren, H. D. (Stafford, W.) | Russell, T. W. |
| Greenwood, Hamar (York) | M'Micking, Major G. | Rutherford, V. H. (Brentford) |
| Gulland, John W. | Maddison, Frederick | Rutherford, W. W. (Liverpool) |
| Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton | Marnham, F. J. | Scarisbrick, T. T. L. |
| Haldane, Rt. Hon. Richard B. | Massie, J. | Schwann, C. Duncan (Hyde) |
| Hall, Frederick | Meagher, Michael | Scott, A.H. (Asht'n-under-L'ne |
| Halpin, J. | Meehan, Patrick A. | Sears, J. E. |
| Hammond, John | Menzies, Walter | Seaverns, J. H. |
| Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Lewis | Molteno, Percy Alfred | Seddon, J. |
| Hardie, J. Keir(Merthyr Tydvil | Montagu, E. S. | Seely, Major J. B. |
| Hardy, George A. (Suffolk) | Mooney, J. J. | Shaw, Charles Edw. (Stafford) |
| Hart-Davies, T. | Morgan, G. Hay (Cornwall) | Shaw, Rt. Hon. T. (Hawick B. |
| Harvey, A. G. C. (Rochdale) | Morrell, Philip | Sheehan, Daniel Daniel |
| Harwood, George | Morse, L. L. | Shipman, Dr. John G. |
| Haslam, James (Derbyshire) | Monton, Alpheus Cleophas | Silcock, Thomas Ball |
| Haworth, Arthur A. | Murphy, John | Sinclair, Rt. Hon. John |
| Hayden, John Patrick | Murray, James | Sloan, Thomas Henry |
| Hazel, Dr. A. E. | Myer, Horatio | Smeaton, Donald Mackenzie |
| Hazleton, Richard | Nannetti, Joseph P. | Snowden, P. |
| Hedges, A. Paget | Napier, T. B. | Soames, Arthur Wellesley |
| Helme, Norval Watson | Nicholls, George | Soares, Ernest J. |
| Henderson, Arthur (Durham) | Nicholson, Charles N.(Donc'st'r | Spicer, Albert |
| Higham, John Sharp | Nolan, Joseph | Stanger, H. Y. |
| Hobart, Sir Robert | Norman, Henry | Stanley, Hn. A. Lyulph (Chesh. |
| Hobhouse, Charles E. H. | Norton, Capt. Cecil William | Steadman, W. C. |
| Holland, Sir Willim Henry | Nussey, Thomas Willans | Stewart, Halley (Greenock) |
| Hope, W. Bateman (Somerset, N | O'Brien, Kendal (Tipper'y Mid. | Strachey, Sir Edward |
| Horridge, Thomas Gardner | O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) | Strauss, E. A. (Abingdon) |
| Hudson, Walter | O'Brien, William (Cork) | Stuart, James (Sunderland) |
| Hutton, Alfred Eddison | O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W.) | Sullivan, Donal |
| Illingworth, Percy H. | O'Connor, John (Kildare, N.) | Summerbell, T. |
| Jacoby, James Alfred | O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) | Sutherland, J. E. |
| Jardine, Sir J. | O'Doherty, Philip | Taylor, Theodore C.(Radcliffe) |
| Jenkins, J. | O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) | Tennant, E. P. (Salisbury) |
| Johnson, John (Gateshead) | O'Grady, J. | Tennant, H. J. (Berwickshire) |
| Johnson, W. (Nuneaton) | O'Hare, Patrick | Thomas, Sir A. (Glamorgan, E.) |
| Jones, David Brynmor(Swansea | O'Kelly, James (Roscom'n, N.) | Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr |
| Jones, Leif (Appleby) | O'Malley, William | Thomasson, Franklin |
| Jones, William (Carnarvonsh. | O'Shee, James John | Tillett, Louis John |
| Jowett, F. W. | Parker, James (Halifax) | Tomkinson, James |
| Joyce, Michael | Paul, Herbert | Torrance, A. M. |
| Kearley, Hudson E. | Pearce, William (Limehouse) | Toulmin, George |
| Kennedy, Vincent Paul | Philipps, Col. Ivor (S'thampt'n) | Trevelyan, Charles Philips |
| King, Alfred John (Knutsford) | Pirie, Duncan V. | Ure, Alexander |
| Kitson, Sir James | Pollard, Dr. | Verney, F. W. |
| Laidlaw, Robert | Power, Patrick Joseph | Villiers, Ernest Amherst |
| Vivian, Henry | Wedgwood, Josiah C. | Williams, W. L. (Carmarthen) |
| Walker, H. De R. (Leicester) | Weir, James Galloway | Wilson, J. W. (Worcestersh, N.) |
| Wallace, Robert | Whitbread, Howard | Wilson, W. T. (Westhoughton) |
| Walsh, Stephen | White, George (Norfolk) | Wood, T. M'Kinnon |
| Walters, John Tudor | White, J. D. (Dumbartonshire) | Woodhouse, Sir JT.(Huddersf'd) |
| Walton, Joseph (Barnsley) | White, Luke (York, E. R.) | Young, Samuel |
| Ward, John (Stoke-upon-Trent | White, Patrick (Meath, North) | |
| Ward, W. Dudley (S'thampton | Whitehead, Rowland | TELLERS FOR THE AYES—;Mr. Whiteley and Mr. Herbert Lewis. |
| Wason, Eugene (Clackmannan) | Whitley, J. H. (Halifax) | |
| Wason, John Cathcart (Orkney) | Whittaker, Thomas Palmer | |
| Waterlow, D. S. | Wiles, Thomas | |
| Watt, H. Anderson | Williams, J. (Glamorgan) | |
| NOES. | ||
| Anson, Sir William Reynell | Duncan, Robert (Lanark, Govan | Parkes, Ebenezer |
| Anstruther-Gray, Major | Faber, George Denison (York) | Percy, Earl |
| Arnold-Forster, Rt. Hn. Hugh O. | Fardell, Sir T. George | Rasch, Sir Frederic Carne |
| Ashley, W. W. | Finch, Rt. Hon. George H. | Ratcliff, Mafor R. F. |
| Balcarres, Lord | Gardner, Ernest (Berks, East | Ropner, Colonel Sir Robert |
| Baldwin, Alfred | Helmsley, Viscount | Rothschild, Hon. Lionel Walter |
| Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornesy) | Hervey, F. W. F. (B'ry S. Edmd. | Smith, Abel H. (Hertf'd, East) |
| Barrie, H.T. (Londonderry, N.) | Hill, Sir Clement (Shrewsbury) | Smith, F. E. (Liverp'l, Walton |
| Beach, Hn. Michael Hugh Hicks | Hunt, Rowland | Starkey, John M. |
| Bignold, Sir Arthur | Kennaway, Rt. Hon. Sir John H. | Stone, Sir Benjamin |
| Bowles, G. Stewart | Lane-Fox, G. R. | Thomson, W. Mitchell-(Lanark |
| Bridgeman, W. Clive | Lee. Arthur H. (Hants., Fareham | Thornton, Percy M. |
| Brotherton, Edward Allen | Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage | Walrond, Hon. Lionel |
| Castlereagh, Viscount | Lockwood, Rt. Hn. Lt.-Col. A. R. | Williams, Col. R. (Dorset, W.) |
| Cavendish, Rt. Hon. Victor C.W. | Lonsdale, John Brownlee | Willoughby de Eresby, Lord |
| Cecil, Lord John P. Joicey- | Lowe, Sir Francis William | Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm |
| Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. J. (Birm. | MacIver David (Liverpool) | Wortley, Rt. Hon. C. D. Stuart |
| Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. | Magnus, Sir Philip | Younger, George |
| Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) | Marks, H. H. (Kent) | |
| Courthope, G. Loyd | Mason, James F. (Windsor) | TELLERS FOR THE NOES—;Sir Alexander Acland-Hood and Viscount Valentia. |
| Craig, Charles Curtis (Antrim, S | Meysay-Thompson, E. C. | |
| Craig, Captain James (Down, E. | Middlemore, John Throgmorton | |
| Craik, Sir Henry | Muntz, Sir Philip A. | |
| Dixon, Sir Daniel | Parker, Sir Gilbert (Gravesend) |
Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Runciman.