584
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.
however, to consider this mere matter of detail here ; and if I can satisfy the noble Earl, that all over England, except in London and a few other great towns, £10 is not too low, I may expect his vote after all. Now, in small towns—I speak in the hearing of noble Lords who are well acquainted with the inhabitants of them,—persons living in £10 houses are in easy circumstances. This is undeniably the general case. In fact, the adoption of that sum was not a matter of choice. We had originally preferred £20, but when we came to inquire, it appeared that very large places had a most inconsiderable number of such houses. One town, for instance, with 17,000 or 18,000 inhabitants, had not twenty who rented houses rated at £20 a-year. Were we to destroy one set of close boroughs, the Old Sarums and Gattons, which had at least possession to plead for their title, in order to create another new set of boroughs just as close, though better peopled ? In the large town I have alluded to, there were not three hundred persons rated at £10. Occupiers of such houses, in some country towns, fill the station of inferior shopkeepers—in some, of the better kind of tradesmen—here they are foremen of workshops—there, artisans earning good wages—sometimes, but seldom, labourers in full work : generally speaking, they are a class above want, having comfortable houses over their heads, and families and homes to which they are attached. An opinion has been broached, that the qualification might be varied in different places, raised in the larger towns, and lowered in the smaller. To this I myself, at one time, leant very strongly ; I deemed it a great improvement of the measure. If I have since yielded to the objections which were urged, and the authorities brought to bear against me, this I can very confidently affirm, that if any one shall propound it in the Committee, he