recently occurred. We believed that men of great mark and standing were prepared to support this view, and possibly even now, before we have finished with this Bill, we shall find more than one hon. Member rising to propose a still broader and stronger principle than the one involved in the dual vote. The question is a profound one, and one that has commanded and will command great attention. But this is essentially a practical assembly, and it is the business of Her Majesty's Government to bring forward, and, if possible, to pass a measure of Reform. We must also defer to the wishes of our supporters. What encouragements have we received from this side of the House upon this point? [Laughter.] Do hon. Gentlemen mean to say that we are to disregard the opinions of our friends? Why, Sir, we are not prepared to disregard the opinions even of our foes. If there be any one question upon which the opinion of the House has been expressed more clearly than upon another, it has been upon this. And most certainly we have received no encouragement. From first to last no one has spoken a single word in its favour. I had hoped that some stray philosopher would have risen to say something in its behalf, and to have lent dignity to our forlorn position. I had hoped that the noble Viscount the Member for Stamford (Viscount Cranbourne) would have given it his support, but even he denounced it. VISCOUNT CRANBOURNE: I beg the right hon. Gentleman's pardon. I distinctly stated that I thought the proposal just. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: At any rate the noble Viscount said he believed it to be impracticable, and if practicable, would do no good. How can one fight against such difficulties? I am prepared to fight against the greatest difficulties. But we stand here as practical men, with a duty to fulfil, and that is to pass a Bill for the Amendment of the Representation of the People, and it would therefore have been worse than idle to persist against such opposition. One word before I conclude. I hear much of the struggle of parties in this House, and I hear much of combinations that may occur, and courses that may be taken, which may affect the fate of this Bill. All I can say on the part of my Colleagues and myself is that we have no other wish at the present moment than, with the co-operation of this House, to bring the question of Parlia mentary Reform to a settlement. I know the Parliamentary incredulity with which many will receive avowals that we are only influenced in the course we are taking by a sense of duty; but I do assure the House, if they need such assurances after what we have gone through, after the sacrifices we have made, after having surrendered our political connection with men whom we more than regarded-I can assure them no other principle animates us but a conviction that we ought not to desert our posts until this question has been settled. Rest assured that it is not for the weal of England that this settlement should be delayed. You may think that the horison is not disturbed at the present juncture--you may think that surrounding circumstances may be favourable to dilatory action, some of you may think, in the excitement of the moment, that ambition may be gratified, and that the country may look favourably upon those who prevent the passing of this Bill. Do not believe it. There is a deep responsibility with regard to this question, resting not upon the Government merely, but upon the whole House of Commons. We are prepared, as I think I have shown, to act in all sincerity in this matter. Act with us cordially and candidly, assist us to carry this measure. We will not shrink from deferring to your suggestions so long as they are consistent with the main object of this Bill which we have never concealed from you, and which is to preserve the representative character of the House of Commons. Act with us, I say, cordially and candidly, you will find on our side complete reciprocity of feeling. Pass the Bill, and then change the Ministry if you like. Question put, and agreed to: Bill read a second time. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: The Mutiny Bill must be taken on Thursday next: on the following Monday, there are Votes in Supply which cannot be deferred. On the 4th of April I propose to make the Financial Statement, and I will therefore give Monday the 8th for Committee on this Bill. MR. GLADSTONE: I cannot think that the arrangement proposed is the one which would be most convenient to the House. The right hon. Gentleman says it is a matter of great necessity that the Financial Statement should be made on the 4th. Now, no doubt there are some PUBLIC LIBRARIES (SCOTLAND) ACTS AMENDMENT BILL. On Motion of Mr. EWART, Bill to amend and consolidate the Public Libraries Acts (Scotland), ordered to be brought in by Mr. EwART and Sir JOHN OGILVY. Bill presented, and read the first time. [Bill 92.] House adjourned at a quarter after One o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Wednesday, March 27, 1867. MINUTES.]-SELECT COMMITTEE—On Fire Pro tection nominated. times peculiar circumstances which render it very desirable that that Statement should be made at a very early period indeed; but we have not been given to understand that there is on this occasion any great question pending which disturbs the public mind, or which agitates trade and throws it into a state of suspension, such as would necessitate the proceeding with the Financial Statement at a particularly early date. Moreover, it is very difficult, as I know from experience, to get all the facts connected with the finance of the country into a position to be presented to the House as early as three days after making up the year's accounts. If the right hon. Gentleman would tell us whether any great change is contemplated in our financial system, or whether there is any large reduction of taxation which he is able to promise, or any other topic of extreme importance, I, for one, should not, if such circumstances exist, at all object to the proposal which he has made; but otherwise it does not appear to me convenient to the House to postpone the Motion for the Speaker's leaving the Chair until the 8th. I am far from saying that the difference between the 4th and the 8th is one on which I, for one, should think it necessary to go to an issue with Her Majesty's Government, for I do not think the question is one of such magnitude, as to justify that course; but I hope the right hon. Gentleman will be disposed to re consider his proposal. ["No, no!"] Much more ample time would be allowed for the House either to go through the discussion which may precede the Speaker's leaving the Chair, or to enter upon the consideration in some other manner of the main provisions of this Bill, if he would fix the Motion for the 4th than if he postpones it till the 8th. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: We have, of course, considered the question from every point of view, and for many reasons we are convinced that the course we are taking is the most convenient for the public interests. Bill committed for Monday 8th April. COUNTY TREASURER (IRELAND) BILL. On Motion of The O'CONOR DON, Bill to amend the Law relating to the Office of County Treasurer in Ireland, ordered to be brought in by The O'CONOR DON, Colonel GREVILLE-NUGENT, and Mr. SYNAN. PUBLIC BILLS-Ordered-Sale of Liquors on Second Reading-Artizans' and Labourers' Dwell- Committee-Criminal Law [8]; Land Contracts Considered as amended-Lyon King of Arms ARTIZANS' AND LABOURERS' DWELLINGS BILL. (Mr. McCullagh Torrens, Mr. Kinnaird, Mr. Locke.) [BILL 14.] SECOND READING. Order for Second Reading read. MR. M'CULLAGH TORRENS, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said, that he would occupy as little of the time of the House as was consistent with the duty he owed to the many people throughout the country who had signified their adhesion to the principle of the Bill. When he had the honour of submitting a similar measure to the House last year he was careful to state that it was introduced from no predisposition or predilection of his own for any peculiar remedy for an acknowledged evil; and that if the House chose to devote that attention to the subject which it deserved, no doubt in its wisdom it would elaborate something much better than anything which his own limited experience could suggest. Without a division, the draft Bill which he then laid before it was read a second time by the Bill presented, and read the first time. [Bill 91.] House, and referred to a Select Committee, on whom was devolved the task of elabo- | benefited by the Bill. On the other hand, rating its provisions. Without a division, it was right to say that the only that Committee directed him, as its Chair- objections raised to the measure this year man, to report the Bill to the House; and emanated from a very small minority of the measure which he now asked the those corporate bodies and local authoriHouse to sanction was in ipsissimis the Bill ties upon whom it would impose additional which left the Select Committee. That trouble. Now, let them ask the House to Committee, as usual, was composed of consider broadly this question. They Members from both sides of the House; knew that the population was yearly inbut what was not usual, it combined a creasing, and that increment was in the degree of experience and ability peculiar great towns, and not in the counties. to the subject, which fairly entitled him to They knew that the tendency of the day, claim the favourable consideration of the which the House ought not to attempt to House for the result of its deliberations. control, was towards the concentration of He was quite aware that to many hon. capital and employment, and the Home Members around the principle of the Bill Secretary had daily evidence before him might seem novel, and a departure from that there was a tendency to the congesthat rule of non-interference in the ordi- tion of population in a few great centres nary concerns of social life which was con- of industry, in which it required all the sidered one of the corner stones of our vigilance which the Government could national policy in these matters, and he exercise to maintain order, keep the frankly admitted that if a case for the peace, and conserve the health of the necessity of such interference could not be masses of population. If such were the shown, he had no right to thrust the sub- tendencies of the age, it was not very ject on the attention of the House. He likely that the evil of which he comwould go further, and say that unless plained would cure itself. Many of those there was a general conviction in the who on the first blush of the subject public mind of the urgency of the mea- were not inclined to agree with him sure, the House would not be performing suggested, no doubt in the most disinits duty in giving its sanction to a Bill terested and philosophic spirit, laissez faire founded upon such a principle. No ob- principle as applied to this question. jection had been taken in limine to the They said, "We let commerce alone, consideration of the subject. Parliament we let religion alone; why not adopt had recognised the urgency of the evil. the laissez faire principle as applied It had been said by many that voluntary to the dwellings of the poor, and let them effort in the way of enterprize, and volun- alone?" He had been a member of the tary benevolence aiding enterprize, would great association for the liberation of trade, overtake the evil, but he did not then and all his life a free trader. He was believe that that expectation was well quite willing to give that consideration to founded, nor did he now, and his opinion others which he claimed for himself in all was strengthened by the petition which matters of conscience. Wherever they had been presented to the House on the had a fair field and no favour, and whersubject. The delay which occurred be- ever an evil existed which they could tween the consideration of the Bill in the counteract by investigation and inquiry, Select Committee and the subsequent whether it related to trade, or to an unchange of Government which prevented popular creed, no doubt the laissez faire it passing its final stage last Session, principle would apply; but he, for one, did gave an opportunity for its public re- not undersand the application of that princonsideration; and he appealed to every ciple when they had to encounter such hon. Member who watched the tide of evils as fever dens and fever nests. He popular opinion upon public questions to did not understand how they were in such say whether there had not been a con- cases to admit Mr. Carlyle's terrible maxim, sentaneity of opinion in favour of this enunciated in a moment of sarcasm and measure. He had had the honour of pre-scorn (which he feared was literally true), senting petitions signed by hundreds and that the doctrine of free competition, carthousands of persons, some being clergy-ried out to its logical result, meant "sucmen and ministers of other denominations, cess to the strongest, wreck to the weakest, others employing great numbers of arti- and in the race the devil take the hindzans and labourers, and others again arti- most." Let them ask any man who was zans themselves, who were to be primarily in the habit of going amongst the poor to 669 Artizans' and Labourers' (MARCH 27, 1867} console, to instruct, or to relieve them, what was the universal testimony borne as to the result of their operations? Was it not that it was labour in vain ?—that it was sowing the wind; that they were met by the mock of people who had not, literally, a place wherein to lay their heads in peace; who had to work from morn till night, from ten to twelve hours a day; and who on their return had to herd together in places to which not one Member of that House would consign his horse or his dog. How could they expect that a man who found himself surrounded by an infirm wife and sickly children, confined in a dismal den in which all the offices of nature had to be performed, could devote his mind to intellectual pursuits or mental improvement with a view to his regeneration in the social scale? much less could they expect a man under these circumstances to abstain from going to the public-house round the corner and getting threepennyworth of paradise in the shape of gin. The House was not accountable for the acts of Providence; but they were accountable if, having means in their power, they neglected to use them for the purpose of giving these people a chance of moral and physical redemption. Every day they heard it said that our industry was jeopardised by competition arising around them in all quarters. He, for one, did not In that much fear or much regret that. respect he was a free trader indeed. The force of that competition no one could deny, and it was likely to be more or less advantageous or disadvantageous; but what was the greatest interest in this House or of society in this country, in comparison with the performance of that duty which consisted in keeping the skilled classes who lived by labour, in a physically, socially, and morally healthy condition? They had spent two months in debating whether they would enfranchise and give to that class political power. He was ready to go the whole length in that direction; but did they desire the franchise in comparison with a measure that would give them decent homes, without which the possession of the franchise would be a mere mockery, and might become a snare? Everybody who had fought as he had a contested election knew the difficulty and danger of giving political rights to such men. They could not apply the same principle to men in diverse conditions. To men whose extreme poverty had led to the loss of all self-respect, and who He He might were broken down by habits of selfdegradation, their patriotic speeches was as idle wind in empty space. be told that they could not afford still further to burden the rates, that corporate bodies were afraid to impose any additional rates; but he maintained that it would rather have a contrary effect, and he would ask whether they could afford, in the interest even of the ratepaying community, to leave these evils unredressed? was prepared to withdraw the Bill, if any Gentleman could get up and say that, as a matter of arithmetic, it would have an injurious effect upon the rates. In the heaviest rated districts the want of such a measure was felt to be greatest. He had presented petitions from the most heavily taxed districts in the borough of Finsbury, where people instinctively knew that if they substituted decent houses for miseraThey had inble hovels not worth rating, they benefited the general rate. stinct or common sense sufficient to know that if for a class of inhabitants living in perpetual fever nests, generating distress and pauperism, they substituted a class living on their own skilled labour in healthy dwellings, they created customers for the small shopkeepers, and by that means diminished the chances and incidences of pauperism. They saw well enough that every skilled man who was prostrated by preventible disease was so much capital withdrawn from the stock of the community which they could not supply by any Act of Parliament. It was not the rent of land or the interest upon money, but the wages of the labourer day by day, out of which the taxation of the country to the amount of some £60,000,000 annually came, and every hand struck down by fever or disease was so much destruction of capital; for he could appeal to hon. Gentlemen in that House, great authorities on political economy, whether the destruction of every hand that could construct a machine, a watch, or an article of commerce which entered into home or foreign competition, was not the destruction of so much capital, which was to be deducted from the aggregate amount devoted to the mere matter of arithmetic, he believed employment of labour? Therefore, as a that this Bill was not calculated to add to the incidence of rating. The machinery of the Bill clearly indicated that in the opinion of the Select Committee it would not increase the burden of the rates; because one of the clauses provided that 672 whenever the local authorities of any dis- without complaint, although the only altrict considered that it ought to be cleared ternative was being turned into the of houses unfit for human habitation, and streets? He would give one instance of that no others ought to be erected owing eviction that came under his own notice to the crowded state of the buildings upon last autumn. Union Court was in that way that particular site, they should in that doomed to demolition last autumn, and case be subject to such demolition as they scores of families were told they must find would be by law subject to under the pro- other shelter where they could. A deputavisions of the Act of last Session, which tion of the poorer inhabitants waited upon was introduced by the right hon. Gentle- the President of the Board of Works, and man the then President of the Privy pointed out that the effect would be to Council. He thought he was not stating turn them into the streets, and accordthe matter unfairly when he said that that ingly asked what they were to do. The Act was brought in with a consciousness right hon. Gentleman, of course, deplored that a proper complement to it would the hard necessity under which they were be found in some such Bill as the present; placed, but he could suggest no remedy; and when the present Government assumed they must, he said, find other places office last year, he had the satisfaction where they could. What happened? of hearing from at least one Member of One man, an honest industrious artizan, the present cahinet the acknowledgment who was able by his labour to earn 258. that the operation of the Public Health a week, and who supported his wife Amendment Act alone would rather tend and a family of several children on to aggravate than to cure the evil com- the produce of his industry, was driven plained of. He believed that in many from his home. It had been said that the cases that Act had been wholly inopera- railways provided facilities for persons so tive on account of the officers of health situated, and pleasant pictures of beautishrinking from the performance of the ful little cottages, the doors and windows terrible duty of wholesale eviction. He covered with honeysuckle and wild roses, had been through crowded districts in the had been drawn by ardent imaginations, heart of London where public improve- where the tired artizan might rest from ments had been contemplated, and where his labour and breathe the pure fresh air with that view it had been sought to bring of the country; but he could tell the the Public Health Amendment Act into House that such things were a frightful operation for the purpose of removing the mockery and delusion, and that the necesmiserable dens and hovels of the poor, sity for workmen to live near their work and where the whole thing had come to precluded them in most instances from a stand-still; because, in the event of the availing themselves of those facilities were houses being pulled down, the inhabitants they never so great. It was a melancholy would have no refuge but the street, and thing to reflect that the hardest things to the officers of health shrank with horror convince people of were those which were from reducing them to that alternative. most obvious, and it was no wonder that They talked about the necessity for public when this class of men found themselves improvements, and the impropriety of turned out of their dwellings they should making any resistance to the law; but manifest some impatience. In the case they must remember that the plough-share he was alluding to, the man was turned of improvement had been driven remorse- out of his home. He looked about him lessly through the homes of hundreds of a long time in vain. He was, however, poor men living on the process of their necessitated to live near his work, and at labour, and contributing to the wealth of the State. Was it a question beneath the notice of the House how they were to be dealt with? Was it a matter of no im. portance to secure contentment among that great class? They might possess generosity and benevolence; but were they to content themselves by telling these poor classes that law and order must be preserved, and that when they receive a notice to quit their homes, miserable though they might be, they must obey last he discovered a single room, overlooking a dirty court-yard, in the neighbourhood of one of our great inns of court. He paid a heavy rent for permission to lay his head in that room. It was in the sweltering days of autumn. Fever watched his victim, tracked him to his new abode, and laid him down on a bed of death. His wife and six children had to remain in the room, breathing the pestiferous fever-laden atmosphere. Why did fever make sure of its victim? I will tell you: |