On Thursday the first clause of the redistribution section, which
disfranchises Totnes, Reigate, Lancaster, and Great Yarmouth, came on for discussion, and was carried by a majority of 72 (159 to 87), the House evidently wishing to earn a character for really objecting to bribery. The debate turned on whether it was fdir to take away the franchise from those who were not corrupt because others were corrupt,—Mr. Bright, for instance, advocating personal and not local disfranchisement. But Mr. Gladstone pointed out that in reality all boroughs selected to return members to Parliament are selected to dis- charge a public function because they are thought fit for it, and if they are found unfit, are no more aggrieved by being deprived of the function than towns are aggrieved which have never been selected for it. And he argued that it has become necessary to deprive of the franchise for abuses of this sort some big boroughs as well as small ones ; otherwise the big boroughs will always feel safe in their bigness, and will sin on. The practical question was between this disfranchisement and suspending the writs for fifteen or twenty years,—the effect of which would have been, as Lord Cranborne observed, even more " Draconic," as it would have blotted them out absolutely from the constituencies of England,—whereas their disfranchisement as boroughs throws them into the county constituencies, and leaves a county vote to all householders rated at 12/. The House preferred the more merciful course of absolute disfranchisement as boroughs,—leav- ing them the county votes.
Previous page
