Suggestions for a conservative and popular reform in the Commons House of Parliament / by Augustus G. Stapleton.

  • Stapleton, Augustus Granville, 1800-1880.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions for a conservative and popular reform in the Commons House of Parliament / by Augustus G. Stapleton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    says: “ The fault of our representative system lies much “ more at the bottom than the top—much more with the “ electors than the elected. . . As it is, the repre- “ sentative body, with all its failures, is better than “ the constituent body,—the corrupters lest corrupt than “ the corrupted.” “ The Times,” when commenting on Mr. Roebuck’s return for Sheffield, observes, (May 7, 1849): “As a phenomenon in the history of Parliament “ we cannot afford to dispense with the single exception “ [Mr. Roebuck] to the consequences of the Reform Bill, “ which has left the representation of the people to men “ with large purses, or accommodating consciences—to “ men who will bribe with money, and those who will “ bribe with servility—railway directors, or platform “ declaimers.” Such are the opinions of those who advocated Reform. On the other hand, the original opponents of the measure, and many even of its original supporters, who ..have become Conservative, stand by the present system, not because they are satisfied with it—not because they think it “ works well,” but because they apprehend lest any further change in the same direction would be one with which they would be less satisfied, and whose working would probably prove still worse than the existing system. It is surely, then, contrary to all past experience, and reasonable probability, that a system, thus powerfully assailed on the one side, and thus weakly defended on the other, should be destined for much longer duration. Already a Bill for Ireland has been brought in by the Government, lowering the existing franchise; and, it is generally admitted, that should that Bill become law, a similar lowering of the franchise will take place in Great Britain.