Iii.—: Practical Results of a Reformed House of Commons.

Constitutional changes, like the circulating medium, are valueless in themselves. They are not the good sought, but the instrument of its production. A reformed parliament is the machinery which is to extirpate the abuses of our institutions. When it has been obtained the discussion of forms of government, theories of civil rights, and plans of elective qualification will cease to be of interest; the people will naturally turn to subjects of more direct benefit—to the practical measures by which the condition of society can be improved. Let us, then, endeavour to ascertain the sort of materials which will be brought to the new legislative manufactory—the measures which will probably engage the attention of a reformed House of Commons. As this part of our task will be little more than a brief recapitulation of the preceding topics of our work, it will appropriately form the concluding section of our publication.

The first and most important result of the adoption of the Reform Bill will consist in the substitution for the government of an oligarchy with selfish and limited interests—a national government responsible to 500,000 electors, every one of whom has an interest in domestic peace, order, and prosperity.

For the interests of the few the Reform Bill would substitute the interests of the many; it would lay the axe to the root of all monopolies, and the community no longer be compelled to enrich the Bank Proprietary by exclusive privileges; nor profit the Shipping Interest by the consumption of the dear and inferior timber of Canada; nor the East-India Company, by paying double the price for tea the consumer pays on the Continent; nor would industry be impeded by corn laws which are only favourable to high rents—of no benefit to the farmer—and only tend to limit the exchange of our manufactures for the produce of America and continental Europe.

Reform would equalize taxation, and the redundant incomes of the great, not the wages and profits of the industrious, be made the chief fund of fiscal exaction.

It would remedy the glaring abuses of our judicial administration, and render justice prompt, protective, and attainable to every individual.

It would reduce the public expenditure to the lowest possible scale; abolish sinecures, unmerited pensions, and exorbitant salaries; cut off Colonies that are burdensome to the nation, and which, like useless Boards, Diplomatic Missions, and Consular Establishments, have been kept up solely to provide lucrative appointments for the Boroughmongers and their families.

It would destroy the oppressions of the tithe system, abolish the monstrous inequalities in ecclesiastical income, and improve the condition of the Working Clergy, who reside among their parishioners, and benefit them by their example and ministry.

It would reform the abuses of Corporate Bodies and render them, not only the faithful trustees of the poor, but the centres of local government, police, and judicial administration.

It would provide for the general education of the people—their profitable employment—and open new channels for redundant capital and industry.

It would put an end to the perjuries, drunkenness, riots, and immoralities of parliamentary elections.

It would be a guarantee against future liberticide wars; if wars were waged they would be the wars of the nation, not of an Oligarchy; they would be wars for, not against, the people.

Lastly, it would consolidate the empire, uniting in the bonds of equal rights and reciprocal advantages England, Ireland, and Scotland, and render them what, from superior wealth and intelligence, they ought to be, “the envy and admiration of the world!” England would recover her rank among nations, and be again the model of constitutional governments. Her government would be founded on Public Opinion, not on that sinister opinion fostered by a lavish expenditure of public money—by the abuse of collegiate and ecclesiastical endowments—by the restraint of discussion—but an opinion, the result of impartial investigation and expanded views of social happiness.

Such, we apprehend, are a few of the advantages that would result from the adoption of the Reform Bill, and which would form the subjects of deliberation of a reformed parliament, and which, in due course, it would endeavour to accomplish. That the people can be frustrated in the pursuit of so many national blessings, we cannot for a moment believe; we cannot believe that from supineness or want of union among themselves they will continue the serfs of the Boroughmongers, who, for their own emolument, have cherished every abuse in our institutions, and entailed on the country all its embarrassing calamities.

Our enemies are few in number, but mighty in influence. They are an united, active, and desperate band, exasperated almost to madness at being kept for the last fifteen months from their accustomed prey. If they succeed, they well know all the sacrifices they make will be amply repaid by the plunder of the people. But their rapacious hopes will be baffled. Corruption will never triumph over true patriotism—a mock representation over one that is real—private interests over the public weal—a mere faction over the king, his ministers, the public press, and the nation!

Cheap government—cheap bread—cheap justice—and industry unfettered and productive will reward our efforts in the triumph of the Reform Bill!

N.B. Whatever changes the Reform Bill may finally undergo in either House of Parliament, the subjoined “Statistical Tables” will be useful for reference; comprising as they do the elements of representation on any proposed plan, whether founded on population, on rental, the amount of taxation, or the household or universal suffrage scheme.

Totness, in No. IV., which formed one of the semi-disfranchised boroughs, has been removed in the committee of the Lower House; but as it originally stood in the Bill, it has been here retained.