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that George the IV. was gathered to his fathers, startled Europe from its repose. Almost before its tones had ceased to vibrate on the ear, a shock came as of an earthquake, and the dynasty of the elder branch of the Bourbons was seen to pass. away like a dream. Ten days after the remains of the English monarch had been interred at Windsor, the celebrated ordinances of the Polignac ministry appeared in the 'Moniteur.' The Revolution of July followed, and Charles the X. was an exile in England. By the people everywhere the events of the Three Days were hailed with an enthusiasm that knew no bounds. An impulse had been given to the progress of great public or national questions, which it was seen nothing could then resist. Its results were immediately manifested in the separation of Holland and Belgium, the revolutions of Poland, Spain, and Switzerland; and in the modifications introduced into the constitutions of various German States. In England its fruit was the Reform Bill."

When the Whigs came into power, soon after the accession of William the IV., an expectation became general that a great reform was about to be achieved. The largest portion of the people had always been disfranchised, and even the few who were not could not vote with freedom. The House of Lords and the landed aristocracy had complete control over the elections. Earl Grey declared, in 1793, when he brought his motion for reform into the House of Commons, that "307

members of Parliament were returned, not by the collected voice of those whom they appeared to represent, but by the recommendation of 154 powerful individuals, who returned a decided majority of the House of Commons; and that more than 150 members owed their elections entirely to the interference of the Peers." Thus the people remained disfranchised and unrepresented.

Dissatisfaction with this state of things became more and more manifest as discussion increased, until at last the people awoke in their might, and shook the whole fabric of society. Interpreting, with no uncertain forecast, the signs of the times, the leaders of the liberal party did not hesitate to declare that the time had at last come, when nothing could save the throne and the constitution from overthrow, and the whole empire from revolution, but a radical reform in Parliament. Committees were appointed to inquire into abuses, and well did they perform their work. Meetings for agitation and discussion were everywhere held, and crowded with excited men. The Press brought its engines of power into the field, and scattered light over the ranks of the people. Truth was dragged forth from its hiding-places -corruption was stripped of its covering-aristocracy was laid bare, and a mass of rottenness and tyranny exposed to the gaze of the nation, which roused its deepest indignation. It became evident to all, that "something must be done, or

something would soon do itself, and in a style that would please nobody."

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As the Reform Bill was first proposed, it embraced many beneficial changes. It proposed the disfranchisement of sixty rotten boroughs, and that sixty others should, in future, return but one member. Representatives were to be given to all large towns, and every £10 householder was to have a vote. These were the general features of the bill, and "when they became universally known the following day through the press, the whole people gave themselves up to an intoxication of joy. Three nights of public illuminations succeeded, the only illuminations," says the writer, we have ever seen, in which the middle and working classes spontaneously and universally adopted this mode of expressing their approbation of the conduct of their rulers. The public offices, the mansions of the aristocracy, the fashionable clubs were dark; but every street in the commercial part of London and the suburbs, every lane of humble tenements, both banks of the river, from Chelsea to Greenwich, were a blaze of light, and the examples of public rejoicing set by the metropolis were followed, not only in the towns, but in the villages of the most obscure hamlets in the United Kingdom."

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But the hopes of the people were in a great measure destroyed. The bill was under discussion fifteen months, and before its final passage, it was deprived of some of its most beneficial fea

tures. This was a greater misfortune, since as originally proposed it did not reach any considerable share of the evils which had called it into existence. The joy of the people began to subside when they feared what has since proved true, that the Reform Bill, as finally passed, was only a temporary, but ingenious expedient to allay the agitation of the times.

It was a radical defect in the Reform Bill, that it made no provision for securing any fixed and fair proportion between the number of representatives and the number of electors. A few rotten boroughs were disfranchised it is true, and the elective franchise somewhat extended; but Manchester, with 8,000 electors, and a population as large as New York, sends no more members to Parliament than Thetford, with only 160 voters. No distinction is made between Liverpool, with 12,000 electors, and Chippenham, with only 217. Harwich, with only 181 electors, returns as many members as the West Riding of Yorkshire, with 30,000. It is still an unequal and unjust system upon which the House of Commons is constituted, the mass of the people are still disfranchised, for of the total male population of the three kingdoms over twenty-one years of age, only one man in six is allowed to vote.

From Lewis's "Four Reformed Parliaments," and the "Registration Returns for 1841," I find that the total number of electors in Great Britain and Ireland is only 994,731.-A large deduction

should however be made, even from this number, for a plurality of votes, as the majority of freeholders have at least two votes- -one for the borough and one for the county. This would very much reduce the number of electors. From the authorities I have quoted above, it appears that a sixth part of the constituency of the three kingdoms, returns a clear majority of the House of Commons. While the entire constituency is only 994,731,-THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE MEMBERS OUT OF 658, ARE ELECTED BY 164,810 VOTERS!

The following Table prepared from these works, will make this clear to any reader.

BY CONSTITUENCIES AS UNDER. above

MEMBERS RETURNED.

10

100 and under 200

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