The National Register. — London, England, 1812-10-11 00:00:00

If n‘lrr's"'W i "" ~. • .4 ' .1. ~~ ~ . ` 1 7 ~ ..~ , ~ /! ~ No. (250. REGISTER. titing, Constitution, ziiD ~..•411111 I STIED AT NO. 857, STRAI.D, CORNER Ok EXETER °CHANGE,. .. ~ . . 7 . PRICE 9d- If the electiyofranchise cuntribute,to ennoble the nature of man, by making' him conscious of-his dignity and hie !sights, thelimired duration of Parliaments, and the humilia, tion which most pretenders must undergo in contested elec. tiOns, to obtain their seats, are as many moral lessons that cannot fail to instruct hip., The public spirit of a candidates 1?e very ardent- and sincere, or his ambition very great, to induce him to submit to the numberless insults be ilk certain to net with in the course of his exertions. He must begin . by a disgusting, and not always a true panegyric, ow. his own iodependencestnd abilities, which he holds out to get votes, as a beggar 'does his hat, to receive alms from then charitable. Welcomed by a few, rejected by some, mockedi by (Awls, he next. appears on the hustings, in a situation. little more'enviable than that of an offender in the pillory. For Iw, too, must encounter the unrelenting fury of the mob; and if he incurs less personal dangers, because none but verbal missiles aft alloWed, Ft his character is aspersed. and every mode is used to hurt his feelings and his pride. Ilis whole life is dragged out to the light : his most secret follies aorl vices are drawn. from their concealment, and, Made to stalk threateningly before him. His honesty ia publicly impeached, and if crimes are 'not irotioted to him, Yet the most bitter taunts rain on him from all sides, until a, long doubtful triumph, attended with enormous expense, place him half ruined on the seat of his ambition, and either throws him, (to secure a place that.will repair his losses) inter the arms of the:Ministry, or raises in him an interested op , ponent,. to 'men, nut measures, .who, by the virulence of his_ abuse, disgraces his constituents, whilst he only seeks to be. bribed into silence. ' • Such is but too frequently the history of many candidates and elections, and to numerous scenes of this nature will the late dissolution of Parliament undoubtedly give birth:. Already has party spirit marshalled her hosts in various pal tsiof the country, and whilst, to the general astonishment of the nation, Lord COCHRANE and Sir FRANCIS BURDETT have been returned without the least opposition for the City of Westminster, which a few. years ago their cla!mi with uproar and disorder, the City c f London is become the seat of an obstinate but evidently unavailing contest. Wei were present at iluildhall when the candidates for Parlia montary honours were proposed, and the list of Aid! rams was truly edifying. It seemed as though political ambition, had smidenly stifled every. sense of civic appetite, and that in thel , their ea , ,r, ern ess to assume the hea v y responsibility oegisla tive duties, alm ost the wholesßoard had forgotten incbg. gencies of case and frequent feasting which their habits real einired to keep their cngstitution unimpaited,•and of which, a m the length fit* ndern speeches,' that has terrified Sid en A 10.114 1.31W4t: .00 an abandonment of . pu . 1.44 We' • • S - UNDAY, POLITICAL DIS:2111,5ITION. 1111. . ,CF.NERAL ELECTION.* The season of professions is returned : the emit invulnera bility of Parliamentary spendthrifts has ceased creditors:are once more met with dread, treated with respect, and their bills at least perused, if not paid : constituents resume their importance, and, as in the Saturnalia of ancient Rome, the • pride of the rich lies prostrate at the feet of the poor. What prelduced such : a sudden change throtnzhout the land ? Has a 'evolution in morals taken ;,lace, or a self-reform of the bewail heart in behalf of honesty ? No; such wonders can only he expected by sanguine inexperience : the cause oldie present phenomenon in political history is not so far removed. A di , solution of Parliament hap operated the mi:;lity altera tioe, filled the couvry with electioneering hustle, and turned most of our late haughty legislators it:to humble suitois. for a tradesman's or a peasant's vote. The periodical decease of Parliaments is not only a poli tical advantage, but a ii rat good. It is a political . admit ; tap, because it enables the nation, by the exercise of its elective franchise, to express its opinion of the conduct of atilths in a decided and effective.manner, and, if it be nc . cessary, to change the whole system of administration, by the election of its opponents.—Because it recalls the legislative powers entrusted to representatives, to their source, and if I they have been mismanaged. brings the culprits to the bar of their country ; and, because it repleniShes the Senate with those whose merits and abilities have been tried, and leaves out the unworthy and' the inattentive. It is` a moral good, be- • cause, at the 'same time that it dignities the character of man in all classes, by showing him his true weight and value in . the civil scale, it teaches him the varsity and fragility of that Fewer which he imfarts, and of which it checks the undue exertion. On beholding the wealthy and the titled at his feet, courting his support, the cottager hle-ses that Consti- 1 tation which secures him An equal der.,Tee . of freedom, and renders him, even in the obscurity of his retirement, an im portant and necessary member to the State. Ile considers the candidate to whom lie gives his vote, not solely as the re presentative of a particular borongh or county, butt as indi vidually his own, and follows afar MI his Parliamc Diary Course, With as much interest as a Monarch would qiie progress of a distant embassy, Through him he becomes a legislatoi himself, and whilst he ploughs his field or sows Ins grain, feels himself connected with the momentous dis• cessions that shake St. Stephen's walls, and the measures that are broukht forward there fur the public good. thence his attachment to his country encreases ; and hence the flame of paeiotisei that blazes in es•nri British Iviind, flom the pv:t. saut to the King. rul ' No. CUL. •