MODE FOR AMENDING THE REPRESENTATION OF EDINBURGH, ETC.
During this session Mr. Abercromby moved leave to bring in a bill to alter and amend the representation of the city of Edinburgh, which, he said, contained a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants, while the elective franchise was in the hands of a town-council of thirty-three members, self-elected, and what were called the vested rights of that body were generally the principal obstacles thrown in the way of a better system. This motion was strongly opposed by the members for the town and county of Edinburgh, on the ground that no corruption had been charged against the corporation of Edinburgh; and by Mr. Canning, who considered it was intended to undermine the barriers which resisted the inroads of a more wide and sweeping innovation. Mr. Canning also brought forward the unexampled prosperity of Edinburgh, and the contentment which pervaded its population, as a convincing proof of the excellence of the old system. After expatiating on the advantages connected with the Scotch representation, he remarked that his objection to the present motion was its application, as a single instance of reform in a borough, to the general question. It was not unusual, he said, to bring forward an attack on a single borough by an allegation of the prevalence of abuses; but it was quite new to institute a charge against it because its elective was not in proportion to its actual population. This principle, if once admitted, would let in the general question of reform, which would lead to endless squabbles. At the same time he expressed a hope, that the motion might be repeated annually; but it was to this end, for the innocent gratification of Lord John Russell and those who advocated reform! On a division the motion was lost. About the same time that this question was discussed, Sir John Newport moved for leave to bring in a bill for the repeal of the Irish act, 21 Geo. 2nd., c. 10, relating to the elective franchise. By that statute it had been enacted, that, in consequence of the difficulty of finding a sufficient number of resident Protestant freemen, sufficiently wealthy and sufficiently educated to exercise the elective franchise, non-resident freemen should be entitled to vote. Sir J. Newport argued that the cause which produced these enactments had ceased to operate, and that therefore the act itself ought to be removed from the statute-book. On the other hand it was argued by Mr. Plunkett that the country had gone on for seventy years with the principle of non-residence applied to boroughs and corporate towns, and that the effect of the measure would be to affect vested rights, and disturb persons actually in possession. If that act were repealed, he said, the election of every officer of a corporation would be impeachable. The house should especially pause before it assented to such a proposition on the eve of a general election, a proposition, the effects of which upon existing rights, could not be measured. The motion was negatived by seventy-six against thirty-eight.