LORD TEYNHAMrose to ask Her Ma- 732 jesty's Government whether, in preparing a Measure of Parliamentary Reform, they will take into Consideration the Expediency of not proposing any Property or pecuniary Qualification to entitle a Person to be registered as a Voter. The noble Lord said that there were involved in this question the political interests of the working classes of the United Kingdom, and not their political interests alone, but with them and through them their mental and moral advancement, and the welfare and improvement not only of the whole nation, but the human race. If he were asked why he introduced the subject to their Lordships at the present moment, when a measure of Parliamentary Reform would be so shortly presented for the consideration of the Legislature, he would reply that the question involved so many collateral considerations that it was impossible to consider it adequately if brought before their Lordships during a series of discussions on the general subject of reform. No doubt there were great difficulties in the way of carrying out the principle which he proposed, but at the same time they were far from being insurmountable. He asked himself the question whether it was just that the privilege of voting should be granted to the higher and middle classes, and withheld from the working and industrious classes? and he hoped to be able to persuade their Lordships that such a course was not just. He then asked himself whether it was expedient that they should be excluded? But if such a course was not just, he was quite sure that it could not be expedient. Every man had a stake in the country; every man was called upon to contribute towards the general taxation; it had been acknowledged by a high authority "in another place" that indirect taxation pressed most heavily on the lower classes, and on that ground, as being most affected by the legislation of Parliament, the lower classes had even a more powerful right to representation in the House of Commons than those which were superior to them. The right of voting was aspired to by the humbler portion of the population, and during the recent debates on the Reform Bill both the political parties had shown their willingness to extend the franchise to a certain extent among the working classes. The principle being therefore admitted, he asked on what principle could a property or pecuniary qualification for voting be said to rest? Every Englishman, no matter how humble, was passively 733 in the enjoyment of political rights; what he demanded was that they should be brought actively within the pale of the constitution. Every man had a right to say—"I am an Englishman of full age; I have learned a trade by which I support myself and my family; I am honest and sober, and I commit injury to no one. I have a right, therefore, to be entrusted with my political privileges." In asking, therefore, for the working classes the right to vote, independently of any property or pecuniary qualification, he was only asking that which would be beneficial to their Lordships and to the nation at large. There was no principle in a pecuniary qualification. It might be made use of to exclude the working classes, or to keep up what was deemed the right proportion between agricultural and town voters, but it was no test of the qualification of a voter, and was the exponent of no principle. The noble Lord was pursuing his argument, when
VISCOUNT DUNGANNONrose to order. It did not appear that there was any direct Question before the House. The noble Lord had given notice of his intention to ask the Government a Question, but the noble Lord appeared to be going into a discussion upon the Reform Bill, and about to occupy a great deal of their Lordships' time when there appeared to be no Question before the House.
LORD TEYNHAMwas just about to conclude the part of his argument on which he was then speaking when the noble Lord rose. There being no Reform Bill under the consideration of the House was the very reason he asked the Question, and deemed the putting of it opportune and proper. However, he would yield to what appeared to be the wish of the House, and would conclude by merely putting his Question.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, that it was very undesirable that he should anticipate the statement which the Government would make as early as convenient next Session, and he therefore hoped that his noble Friend would not think him discourteous if he declined to give any answer to his Question.