the Earl of Chatham, Mr. Fox, the late Duke of Richmond,
Earl Grey, Mr. Lambton, and other authorities
of past times in favour of an extension of the suffrage
and short parliaments, concluded by impressing on the
house the importance at this particular juncture of
expressing an opinion on the subject.—Mr. H. DRUMMOND
considered the danger of any extensive widening of the
franchise to be that the House of Commons would
represent the poverty instead of the wealth of the
country. If he took up the part of reformer it would be
to reform the House of Lords. The power of
the House of Commons had increased, and was
increasing, and he wished to enable the Lords to
withstand that power. He suggested that the Crown
should have the power of naming peers for life.—
Sir W. P. WOOD argued that there was greater danger
to be apprehended from excluding the unproprietary
class from the pale of the constitution than from extending
the franchise to them. The case of France, which
had been put forward as a warning to us not to extend
the franchise to the majority, was in fact a warning to
us not to exclude them from all political power. Had
the Reform Bill not passed, and the corn laws remained
unrepealed, what a fearful position would this country
have been in in 1848! When disturbances were
apprehended in 1848, two or three hundred of the workmen
employed on the building of the new houses of parliament,
refused to be sworn in as special constables, on
the ground that they would not go out against their
order. He saw danger in that refusal—and the best
way to guard against it was to destroy the "order," by
admitting those who belonged to it into the pale of the
constitution. He had voted for Mr. Hume's previous
motions for reform, but as he did not approve of the
details, he should not vote on the present motion.—Mr.
ROEBUCK contended that that system of representation
could never give satisfaction or secure good government,
which excluded from political rights educated and
moral men. He was, however, of opinion that to unite
a number of small boroughs into one, for the purpose
of increasing the constituencies would be most
objectionable. The advantage of having the minority
represented in the House of Commons as well as the
majority, would be lost if the country were so cut up
into squares.—Mr. DISRAELI combated the proposition
put forward by Mr. Hume and Sir J. Walmsley, that
the town population was not fairly represented, by
quoting the number of members returned by the urban
and rural populations respectively, of some of the
largest counties, showing that the proportion of
members to numbers was far greater in the towns than
in the country. Against triennial parliaments he had
no inveterate prejudice; but how could those who
refused to allow a parliament to legislate in the last
session of its existence demand that the duration of
parliaments should be shortened to three, or, as some of
them wished, to one year? With regard to the ballot,
in an unlimited constituency it would be a conservative
measure; but he could not conceive a more cunning
device for an oligarchy than that the franchise should
be confined to a limited number, whose voting should
be concealed from the eyes of the unenfranchised
millions. And if on the other hand, they went to
universal suffrage, without which the ballot should not be
established, that would involve a new constitution—
that of the sovereignty of the people. That was the
constitution of America, but not of England, which was
that of the sovereignty of Queen Victoria. He denied
that the Earl of Derby, or any member of the government,
ever said or meant that an extension of the
franchise must necessarily involve an extension of
democratic power. What they were opposed to was
the tampering with the depository of political power,
than which nothing could be more injurious or
dangerous to the country. After some observations by
Mr. F. Berkeley and Mr. Osborne, Lord J. RUSSELL
did not consider that the propositions of Mr. Hume's
motion would conduce to the good government of the
country. Adverting to those propositions in detail,
he spoke strongly against the ballot, as applicable only
to a very wide extension of the suffrage, and gave it as
his opinion that with universal suffrage and vote by
ballot the monarchical principle and the hereditary
aristocracy could not long continue as parts of our
constitution; and as to triennial parliaments, he
reminded its advocates that the triennial act had been
repealed because of the inconvenience, expense, and
heat which it occasioned. He believed at present the
franchise was too exclusively confined to the middle
classes, and that it should be extended to those members
of the educated working classes who were in every way
fitted to exercise it. He also considered it important that
the constituencies of the smaller boroughs should be
enlarged. Some observations were made by Mr.
Walpole, and the house divided, when Mr. Hume's
motion was negatived by 244 to 89.

On Friday, the 26th, on the motion for going into
Committee of Supply, Mr. SLANEY made a variety of
suggestions for the Relief of the Landed Interest.
Amongst them, freedom from heavy stamp duties and
enormous law expenses on the sale, mortgage, or transfer
of property—a simple and general law to facilitate
disentailment, where necessary—the right to make
improvements, and obtain loans without the necessity of
having a private bill in each case. With free-trade in
corn there should be free-trade in capital. Capital,
which had increased enormously of late years, was
seeking investment; and, if perfect freedom were
allowed, would be invested in land, where it was
greatly needed. But for this, the law of unlimited
liability must be repealed. Freedom for labour,
which was restricted by the settlement law, was also
necessary.

Col. DUNNE, in moving the Ordnance Estimates,
stated, that having examined them he found they had
been prepared by the late government with the greatest
economy consistent with the maintenance of the
establishment in an efficient state. Though there was an
increase in the number of men, consequent on the filling
up of the artillery regiments and engineers, there was
only one other vote, that for the survey of Scotland, in
which there was not a decrease as compared with
former years. Of the various recommendations made
by the committee on the Ordnance estimates, many had
been already carried into effect, and others were under
consideration. He proposed a vote of 15,582 men.
After some slight discussion, the vote, together with the
money grants for pay and other charges, passed.

Mr. G. A. HAMILTON brought forward the
Commissariat Votes, and explained that the increase they
exhibited over the corresponding votes of last year was
consequent on the war at the Cape and the establishment
of a convict station at Western Australia, which
together amounted to £ 67,552.

The grants having passed, a vote of £ 17,742,800 was
taken in Committee of Ways and Means on account of
Exchequer Bills. Mr. Hume entering a protest against
the high rate of interest at which this class of securities
was maintained.

The President of the Board of Trade having moved
the second reading of the bill authorising the
Apprehension of Deserters from Foreign Ships, Mr. ANSTEY
moved that the second reading be postponed for six
months. If this bill passed, persons flying from the
tyranny of their own government must be given up to
what would be certain death. He inquired who were
the foreign powers at whose instigation this measure,
which was an insult to the country, had been brought
forward? We had had extradition treaties before, and
he was sorry for it, but this was the first instance in
which it was provided that simple desertion,
unaccompanied by scandalous crime, should be a sufficient
ground for extradition.—The PRESIDENT of the BOARD
of TRADE said the bill had been prepared by the late
government. On the part of our merchants there was
general complaint of the inconvenience they suffered
from the desertion of seamen from British ships in
foreign ports; and, having no means of reciprocating,
it could not be expected that any application for their
apprehension would be attended to. The object of the
Board of Trade was to protect our own merchant ships
—whether or not her Majesty's ships should have the
same protection, it was fur the house to decide. He
should not object to the bill being altered so as to
confine it to merchant vessels,—Mr. HUME thought
much discussion would be avoided if the treaties on