ned in the preceding
session. The former bill, they said, containing precisely the same
number of disfranchised boroughs in schedule A, had been rejected by the
lords; and it appeared of great importance to ministers that as little
risk as possible should be run of its being again rejected by them,
while at the same time they felt it to be of equal importance, to
satisfy the country, that the great disfranchising principle of the
former bill should be preserved. Mr. Croker's motion was negatived; and
then a similar discussion took place regarding the next clause, which
enacted that thirty boroughs, to form schedule B, should in future send
only one member to parliament. This was opposed on the ground that no
reason was given why this number had been selected, and also on the
ground that the principle of giving only one member was an inexpedient
principle. Sir Robert Peel moved an amendment, that each of the boroughs
in schedule B should continue to return two members; but this motion
was also negatived by a large majority. The clauses giving members to
various towns hitherto unrepresented, and those which united different
places into one for electioneering purposes, were agreed to without much
opposition, and without a division. The provision, also, that each of
the three ridings of Yorkshire should return two members passed without
opposition. Colonel Sibthorp made an ineffectual attempt to prevent the
division of the county, but the clause was carried by a large majority.
On the clause which provided that the limits of all places having the
right of electing members, should be held to be such boundaries as shall
"be settled and described by an act to be passed for that purpose in
this present parliament," Lord Althorp admitted an amendment, that the
present act should not operate as a law until the boundary bill should
have been passed. The provision, that where no particular returning
officer was named in the schedule, the sheriff within whose jurisdiction
the place lay should annually appoint such resident person as he
thought fit to be returning officer, was strongly objected to; but the
objections to the clause were not pressed to a division. The clause
for dividing certain counties and giving two members occasioned much
discussion. An amendment was proposed for the purpose of getting rid of
it, and giving the four members to the undivided county. The principal
support of this amendment was from the reformers, who o