e could be said as the proposition for
conferring the elective franchise on populous commercial towns. When,
therefore, Lord John Russell failed in transferring the elective
franchise of East Retford to Birmingham, he did not hesitate to bring
the subject before parliament again, by moving for a bill to confer
that privilege, independently of all other considerations, on Leeds,
Birmingham, and Manchester. He founded the constitutional nature of the
proposed alteration on the known practice of parliament, which extended
such rights to unrepresented places, when they had acquired importance
by their wealth and population. He remarked:--"It is true the proposal
hitherto had been, that the franchise should not be conferred till the
house had a forfeiture to dispose of; but it is now plain that if
the towns in question are to wait for such a transfer, there is no
probability of their obtaining it: so numerous are the difficulties
stated in both houses of parliament." His lordship said that it did
not seem very reasonable that the fitness of Leeds or Manchester to be
represented should be said to depend on the good or bad conduct of
the electors of Penryn or East Retford: their claims must rest on
circumstances in their own situation; and if that situation was such as
to render it just and desirable that they should be represented, where,
he asked, was the sense of saying, that what was just and reasonable
ought not to be done, because the electors of some other place had
refused to do what was wicked? Lord John Russell then entered into
various details demonstrative of the growing greatness of the towns in
question. In continuation he remarked that he could not discover any
sound reason why so many citizens, and so much wealth, should remain
unrepresented, when the principle as well as the practice of the
constitution, had pointed out the manner of admitting them into
parliament. He knew it would be said that there was no limitation to
the principles that if it was held good to admit three towns, it might
equally be extended to twenty, thirty, forty, or even indefinitely. He
confessed this; and he saw no reason why, if Sheffield, or any other
town should at some future period attain the same rank, it should
not obtain the same privilege. It was not probable, however, that the
principle could ever be applied to more than four or five towns in the
whole realm. Parliament, moreover, had not always been so fastidious
in regard to