well doing. Besides these efforts, there have been others by charitable persons. First, by that noble-hearted woman, Miss Burdett Coutts, whose life seems to be devoted to doing good. A gentleman of another country, also, Mr. Peabody, but who has realized a large fortune in this country, has devoted a great portion of it to relieving the wants of the people. A gentleman residing not far from this House, Mr. Gibbs, is entitled to similar praise. I believe my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham is a member of one of those societies which do not profess that their sole object is benevolence, but think they can combine charity with speculation. These societies have done much good; but it is impossible for them to accomplish the good which I anticipate will result from the measure I now propose. If I could be made to believe that charity and speculation could grapple with the evil with which we have to contend, I should not waste one moment in proposing a different plan of action. But I very much doubt whether charity and speculation combined can grapple with the evil, and I shall proceed, therefore, to propose a different course. Charity and speculation are but crutches at the best, and I wish to see the artizans of our towns, without obligation to anyone, inhabiting houses worthy the habitation of Christian men. I do not disparage charity and speculation, but I put it to the House whether that class on whose fidelity, loyalty, and persevering energy we rely for our greatness as a nation, are not entitled to have every facility afforded them, that they may have houses in which they can live with comfort, and in which their children can be brought up with decency. This is not so at present. From personal observation I can say that there are dark places in the metropolis in which the families of the working classes are packed together in a manner repulsive to sight and more repulsive to reflection. I am here to-night to say that if our Exchequer is full, if times are easy with the Treasury, if we can borrow any amount of money we require at 3 per cent, we should not forget the class without whose labour and loyalty these blessings could not be had. We are greatly dependent on the obedience to law, the loyalty, the order, and the sobriety of the working classes. There were times in this country when money could not be had on anything like the terms on which it can be had now, and if the country be prosperous it is because the people are orderly and loyal, and have faith in the justice of Mr. M' Cullagh Torrens

this House. There have been the means for more than twenty years for advancing out of the Exchequer sums to those classes who are more fortunate in being the possessors of power in this country. The landed interest have been abundantly helped by loans advanced to them at low interest to drain their estates. Mercantile towns, too, have had large sums lent to them at low interest, repayable, as in the other case, by easy instalments, and they have profited much thereby. Hitherto the working classes have not had any such concessions granted them; and I, in their behalf, now ask that they shall be allowed to share in the joint-stock credit. Will you deny to the working classes a share of the benefit? Will you refuse to lend money for improved dwellings if it can be shown that the security is good? The security which I would suggest is the rates of the district, or borough, or parish, where it is proposed to erect improved dwellings, or to pull down and rebuild. The plan that I suggest is, that wherever the Home Office shall be called upon by any corporate body, or, in default of the corporate body, by twenty ratepayers in any district, it shall direct an inspection to be made of any district where pestilence is supposed to prevail, or where the circumstances of the case from overcrowding have become so grave as to render the dwellings unfit for human habitation. The Home Office can then call upon the local authorities to form an estimate of the expense to be incurred by removing and rebuilding, these estimates are to be published by the Home Office; and then it shall be competent for the Public Loan Commissioners to advance on the security of the rates of the borough, or district, or parish, such sum as will enable the work to be done. I do not prescribe, or attempt to prescribe, or to limit the discretion of the Home Office, but I invoke its aid in this matter, because hitherto the local power and the central power have been placed in antagonism. I do not think we can depend on this need being supplied by permissive legislation. The Bill introduced a few nights ago by the Under Secretary (Mr. Childers) is, in principle, a permissive Bill. That Bill grants loans to municipalities, public companies, and private individuals for the purpose which I have in view; but it does not secure that what I have in view shall be accomplished. It is solely a permissive commercial Bill; whereas the ground of my application is that unless measures be taken to insist on the want being met, the people will be left

from the country perhaps drenched with rain or blanched with cold. All the employers I have spoken with on the subject agree in saying, "Whatever you do let us have our people around us." I indeed met with one exception, but in that case the employer said that he should take his factory out of town. What we have to do is to rectify that economical law by which capital exercises a kind of centripetal force over labour, causing it to flock to great centres of employment, and then neglecting the countervailing precautions which ought to be taken to prevent the mischief thus caused. Dr. Trench, of Liverpool, states, as the result of his inquiries there, that in 52,000 houses the work people of that town actually enjoy but one-third of the quantity of cubic feet of air which the law prescribes shall be provided for prisoners in gaols! Surely the working population are better than felons. I hope, and I believe, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will give the subject a wide, a broad, and statesmanlike consideration. I do not desire to alter one word of the Government Bill; but let us not leave the working classes to the mercy of charity, or to the chance of speculation. Speculators we all know will never do more than choose the sunny spots. But let it not be said to the people, now we have taught them to value education and to read a cheap press, that the House of Commons has not time, or inclination, or money to entertain a subject of this vital importance to their interests.

MR. LOCKE said, he seconded the Motion, and would remind the House that this was no new question. The question was one that had been for several years before the country, and whatever view hon. Members might entertain with regard to the Bill about to be introduced, he was sure that there was not one of them who would not admit that the subject was one that demanded their most serious attention. He did not think the question was second to any that could be brought forward for consideration by that House. What was the condition of the people, not only in this great city, but in the other large towns throughout the Kingdom? It must be obvious to everybody that, in point of fact, there was not a sufficient number of habitations provided for the people, and the greater portion of the dwellings in which they did reside were totally unfitted for the purpose. Many benevolent persons had, no doubt, hitherto stepped forward for the purpose of rendering all the assistance in Mr. M'Cullagh Torrens

their power. A most munificent gift had been made by Mr. Peabody, and that gift he believed had been dealt with in a manner to make it as beneficial as possible. But that was really only as a drop in the ocean and could not effect much. It had, however, effected one good thing-namely, that with respect to the houses that had been built, it had furnished a model for other persons hereafter to follow. With respect to private speculation one thing was clear, and that was that capitalists would not invest their money in property of this description, because as respected ordinary house property the sum that ought to be received by a landlord was no less than 7 per cent profit upon his outlay, and he was not aware that Mr. Waterlow's scheme had ever been supposed to have produced more than 5 per cent. Such being the case, he did not think it at all likely that that improvement which was so desirable in the dwellings of the working classes would be carried out unless some compulsory Act was passed by that House. The proposition made to meet the difficulty was extremely simple. Where certain blocks of houses were discovered to be of a dangerous character, and unfit for habitation, the machinery might be put in force, which, under the Land Clauses Consolidation Act, enabled the local authority to take the property, compensating the owners in the usual way, and to fit it for residences for the working classes. The object in view could not, however, be effected unless the Government were to step forward and lend the money for the purpose, and he should appeal to his right hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract, who had already introduced a Bill on the subject, to take the proposal of his hon. and learned Friend into consideration, and to see how far its provisions could be accommodated to the end sought to be attained. He sincerely hoped that the Bill of his hon. Friend would meet with the best consideration from every Member of that House.

MR. KINNAIRD said, he wished to tender his thanks to the hon. Member for Finsbury (Mr. M'Cullagh Torrens), for having directed the attention of the House to a subject of such interest and importance.

MR. CHILDERS said, that as the House was anxious to proceed with the Cattle Plague Bill, he should only say a few words with regard to this subject. The Bill of the hon. and learned Gentleman differed from the measure of the Government in this respect, that it gave compulsory

would be assembled, and watching that they did not receive any improper assistBeyond this, he would probably be required to read three or four easy sentences, which, from his dictation, the candidates would write, as their exercise both in writing and spelling. The expense of these examinations would not be great, and I am assured it would be amply recouped by a fee of 1s., which I propose that each candidate should pay on presenting himself for examination, and a second fee of 1s. 6d. to be paid on the receipt of the certificate. Now this proposal affects, first, the classes who possess the required information, and to whom this examination will be a matter of very little time, and of still less trouble. Very many, as we well know, though it is difficult to calculate their number, in our own class of life, who from accident have no vote-clergymen, members of learned professions, and others; teachers, of whom there are 24,000; next, commercial clerks, of whom there are nearly 60,000, but few of them enjoying the franchise. After these we come to assistants in shops, the majority able to pass the examination which I require of them. As to the numbers of these there are no certain statistics, but I shall not be wrong in putting it as greatly in excess of that of the commercial clerks. As to these two last classes, I may say in passing that I have not questioned any one of them and I have spoken with many -who has not assured me that this proposal would be received by them as a most acceptable and sufficient boon. But these are the classes which all of us, so to speak, have expressed our willingness to admit to the right of voting, and whose admission we have contemplated by various fancy franchises," as they have been called in undeserved derision. My proposal would render all these schemes unnecessary. But there is yet another class, who already possess the knowledge which my Bill requires-I mean the most educated of the working men. My hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, acquainted as he is with the members of mechanics' institutes, and other similar societies, will be the first to admit that these are in no insignificant number. But Members from all parts of this House, and speeches on every hustings, have professed willingness to admit to the franchise the intelligence of the working classes, if any means could be devised of finding it out. I offer this plan, if not as a perfect, at least as the best way of making the selection. My proposal, however, equally concerns those who have little or

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no education, and who, to obtain a vote, must take no little pains to master the acquired knowledge; and these are, no doubt, the bulk of the working men. I have perhaps as much experience as any one of the demand made on the perseverance of these men-and even of men in a somewhat higher social position, say, the sons of small shopkeepers-in order that they may pass such an examination as I have described. For since the commencement of these examinations I have watched with great interest, and not without knowledge of the men themselves, and of the result of their labour, all the appointments in the Hull Custom House, which, as hon. Members know, is one of the largest in the kingdom. I say, then, with confidence, that though the working man of average intelligence can master this examination if he chooses to do so, he must, for this object, sacrifice to the schoolmaster his leisure hours, few and uneasy as they are, for three or four months at least. When he shall have done this I shall welcome him to the franchise. I shall trust him freely, not for his little smattering of learning, but for his earnestness; for I am fully convinced that the best guarantee we can have that a man will be a sensible and trustworthy voter is his own anxious desire to acquire a vote. I am not fond of the expression "an educational test," as applied, at least, to this Bill. As regards the educated, I look on this examination as a test of social position and trustworthiness-not, indeed, a perfect one-no such test can be perfect-but as being at least as good as the living in a £10 or a £6 house. As regards the uneducated, I look on it as something much better-a test-in this case a perfect test-of honest earnestness. There is a general belief in this House and in the country, which no one entertains more sincerely than myself, that something must be done in the way of extending the elective franchise. There is a desire still more general-that whatever is done may be a settlement of the question. There is a fear on the minds of many that any mere lowering of the property qualification, far from being a settlement of the question, can only make a further step in the same direction more rapid and inevitable. Nor is this fear unreasonable, for as long as we consider property to be the only qualification, it is clear that there is no sure standingground until we have reached the lowest symbol of property, whatever that may be. I offer, then, this measure as at least pro mising the condition of permanence; for