Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

THE CAMBRIAN QUARTERLY MAGAZINE AND Qttltit Bepertorg* No. 11.—JULY 1, 1831.—Vol. III. THE REFORM BILL, AND ITS OPERATION IN WALES. In our last publication we gave a brief notice of the great measure of Parliamentary Reform, introduced into the House of Commons, on the 1st of March, by Lord John Russell, as the official organ of his Majesty's ministers. This important subject having occu¬ pied the almost exclusive attention of the country since its intro¬ duction, and its merits and bearings having been so fully and ably discussed by the public journals, it will be unnecessary for us here to add more on the general question, than a mere outline of its leading features. But it is our intention, as in duty bound, to enter more at large on the provisions of the measure, with re¬ spect to its operation in that part of the kingdom, in which most of our readers are peculiarly interested. The whole measure was laid before the last parliament, by means of three Bills. The first, of these, and "the bill" on which the general debates arose, is intituled " a Bill to amend the Represen¬ tation of the People in England and Wales:" there is a similar bill for Scotland ; and a third for Ireland. The bill begins by reciting, that "It is expedient to take effec¬ tual measures for correcting divers abuses that have long prevailed in the choice of members to serve in the Commons House of Par¬ liament, and to deprive many inconsiderable places of the right of returning members." And accordingly, by the first clause or section, it is intended to enact, " that certain boroughs, enumerated in schedule (A) to the bill annexed, shall cease to return members to parliament;" and by the next clause, " that certain boroughs, enumerated in schedule (B), shall return one member, and no more." These two clauses, together with the third, (which takes two members from Weymouth,) are the disfranchising clauses which have excited so much discussion. According to the last arrangement, as announced to parliament by Lord John Russell, NO. XI. u