The Sun. — London, England, 1832-08-20 00:00:00

itIRIT OF VTR PUBLIC JOURNALS. The free navigation — of the Scheldt and the unrestricted trade of Antwerp form an English interest,— , form, we may add, an European in terest,—as. well as a Belgic. It could scarcely be more injurious to our trade, or more inconsistent Vf tf 1 our Maritime rights, to pro pose the shOting of the Sound, than the closing of the Sell elrlt. We are, therefore, convinced that no British Minister would listen for a mo ment to such a proposition as that lately made by the Xing of Holland to the London Con ferencse for imposing tolls on o: o• shipping in that river, even though he were no member of the C o nference itself, acting for Belgium, which had submitted to our propositions, but were eolely commissioned to act for British interests end rights. So long as the whole course of the Scheldt belonged to one Power,—so long as William of the Netherlands possessed all' the ports on its hanks, he might effectually close it, by denying to his subjects permission to trade with any other nation whatever. He might have issued an edict forbidding all foreign com merce ; and, whatever his own people would have lost by such oppression, foreigners would have had no right to complain. But it. is a different matter since the legal separa tion of the two sets of Netherland provinces was effected, by the interference of the great Powers. He has now no right to decide for both, and if Belgium desires to continue an un restricted trade, it is our right and our interest, as «ell as that of the Belgic Government, to resist a policy which would subject us to the payment of a Dutch tribute. Nothing could be more ominous for our own or Belgic rights, on this occasion, than the adoption, in the case of the Scheldt, of a reference to the treaty for re gulating the navigation of the Rhine. It will be remembered that the navigation of that river was declared free by the treaty of Vienna, but it was only on the 31st of March, 1831- 16 years afterwards—that a convention was con cluded at Mentz for giving effect to the gene ral principle laid down in that European Act. Nay, the river Commissioners of Mentz have been six years in bringing their labours to a ter mination ; and even in the first Year of the trial, the complaints of the States interested are so loud and numerous, that the labours of the Corn-- mission will have again to begin. Holland, after prolonging the negotiation and defeating the treaty till a new revelation had occurred at home ; and a new state of things in France, has at length ermsented to an arrangement, only from the difficulties of her position. To show how little the parties are agreed on the principle of their recent convention, we shall only quote its pre amble. It will he seen by that preamble, that the King of the Netherlands on cue side, and the states bordering on the upper part of the Rhine on the other, are obliged to declare their differ ence of opinion, and to reserve their respective rights for a future decision. " The framing of a definitive code of regulations for the navigation of the Rhine, according to the dispositions of the act of the Congress of Vienna, having encoun tered difficulties, in consequence of the manner in which the riverain Governments have under stood the application of the principles of that act to vessels corning from Germany and tra versing the Low Countries to the sea and vice versa ; because, on the one part, his Majesty the King of the Netherlands maintained that his rights of sovereinty extended, without any re striction, to the sea that bathes his States, even where it mixes with the waters of the Rhine. and that according the Conferences preparatory to the treaty of Vienna, the Leek alone should be regarded as the continuation of that river in the Low Countries ; while, on the other hand, his Majesty the King of Prussia, his Majesty the Kinr of Bavaria, and his Royal Highnes' the Archduke of Hesse, maintained that the act of the Congress of Vienna introduced re strictions into those rights, as far as they were applicable to vessels passing from the Rhine into the sea, and rice versrl ; and that, under the de nomination of the Rhine, the said act had in cluded all the course, all the branches, and all the mouths of that river in the Low Countries, without any distinction—views, to which his .Majesty, the King of the French, and his Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden hays given their adhesion ; the riverain States having judged it proper to leave untouched all the ques tions arising out of the general principles of the act of the Congress of Vienna relative to the navigation of the Rhine, as well as the conse quences which may be deduced from them, and to concert measures and regulations which can no longer be dispensed with under the express reserve, how ever, that this agreementshall not pre judice the rights or principles maintained by one .ride or the other." Such is the result of 16 years' 4is f ;ussion on the interpretation of the Vienna treaty as applied to the Rhine I Would any man, who is not disposed at once shut up the Scheldt, propose that the rights and principles of the parties, which are here more opposed than in the Ormer case, and of greater consequence to each, should undergo a similar process ? The Dutch project, indeed, seems to anticipate this objec tion of delay, and therefore its authors endea vour to 101 l suspicion by declaring that the King pf Holland is willing, in the first instance, to adopt provisionally the regulations aged tariff of duties contained in the recent Convention of .Mentz. These regulations, as we have above stated, have been already the sulsject of' loud complaints, and these duties, we contend, would be an absolute prohibition of all trade. The tariff for the navigation of the Rhine agreed upon b) Commission of Mentz, and consigned to their recent Convention, imposes a duty of 2 francs Ter quintal fitr ascending the river, and 1 franc 33 centimes for descending it, for the dis tance between Strasburg and the Dutch territory. This distance is computed at 143 leagues. The fax upon a ton of merchandise thus transported from the frontiers of Holland to Strasburg would be forty francs, or about a guinea and a half. Applying this principle to the navi gation of the Scheldt, and calculating the space of water to be traversed in the Dutch territory between Flushing and Antwerp to be 18 leagues, the proportion of duty by the Mentz tariff would amount to between nine and ten francs a ton, or nearly 401. sterling, on a small vessel of 100 tons,—a sum in tribute money to Hol land, which would Often exceed the whole ad vantages of the freight, or profits of the adven ture. Add to this excessive toll duty, the stoppage of the vessel to be searched . by Dutch officers,—the vexatious delays to which it night be subjected,—the trifling irregularities of which rival or hostile agents might take advantage to interrupt the trade, and nothing would be ;t , want- ' • 'o secure to the merchants of Rotterdam le and Amsterdam all the benefits of the mono poly which they derived from the closing of the eldt by the treaty of Aitinster. But the claim of Holland in the project of treaty submitted to the Conference, does not end with the payment of the toll or Few, however e xorbitant that may he, 41r however effectually that alone would have accomplished the object of the Dutch. His Dutch Majesty has the modesty to propose like wise the exclusive pilotage of the river :he offers to attend exclusively to the buoys, and insists upon enjoying exclusively its fishery. The con sequence would be, that no Belgians would be allowed to learn the pilotage of their own first of rivers ; the buoys might he neglected,and the Bel. Mans would have no power to intefere,—and for the enjoyment of a dish of fresh sea-fish, they would be exclusively indebted to their Dutch neighbours. The sovereignty claimed by the King of Holland over the mouth of the Scheldt would cover entirely all these demands, and would make Antwerp as dependent upon Dutch regulations as Utrecht or Nimeguen. But with the fishery we have nothing to do. It is an interest exclusively Belgian ; while those measures that affect the navigation of the Scheldt,—though in the first instance Belgian, —affect the trading interests of all nations, — particularly ours, which are the most extensive of all. And be it remarked, in conclusion, that the transit trade to Germany,—the ac tivity of commerce in the interior waters of Bel gium,—the advantage of the canal communica tion through Holland, in diffusing our produce, and that of other nations, by the Rhine to Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, and Switzer land, all depend upon the free navigation of the Scheldt. We are, therefore, confident, that our Minister in the Conference will listen to no mo dification of the treaty of the '24 articles, so far as the Scheldt is concerned, and that he will re sist every new attempt to renew the treaty of Munster. It would be absurd to allege, if such regulations are introduced, that the navigation is free to all nations, by con forming to the rules laid down in the Convention of the riverain Powers. In looking back at the convention of Mentz, which we consider an act prohibitory of the entrance of foreign shipping into the Rhine, by the restrictions which it im poses on that shipping, we find it stated, that la navigation n' est interdite a personae, " its navigation is forbidden to " nobody ;" but the • exceptions afterwards sanctioned close it against every body except the subjects of the powers on its banks.* The treaty of Vienna contains the same barren general proposition in its 109th ar ticle-f- ; but the interpretation of that article has always been left to the six States whose territory the river washes, and the Rhinish shipping has been practically reserved for their subjects alone. The Dutch project gives a hint that it intends the same restrictions on the Scheidt, for it states that "the proposed duties shall be the same on Belgic as on Dutch trade;" meaning, no doubt, to make its own conditions respecting duties on the shipping of other nations visiting the port of Ant werp.— Times. We foresee that serious consequences will result from the attempts at intimidating the elec tors now being made throughout the country, if the ballot be not soon resorted to as a peace maker. At a meeting of the southern districts of Edinburgh, on Monday last, Mr. Aber cromby (late Chief Baron) alluding to the attempts to intimidate in Scotland, observed— '. fir law, as it now stands, bas given the elective ft an cliise to electors, to he exercised as freely and indepen dently as any other property or legal right; and no man has a right to interfere with and control another in the way of intimidation or other undue means. Ido not mean to exclude reason and argument ; that is all fair; but beyond this the min who interferes with his neighbour's exercise of the elective franchise is an intrudrr. He does not violate the letter, hut he certainly violates the spirit of the lacy. .The Betio in Bill was passed to put down the power of the aristocracy in nomination boroughs; but if, , s bile it does so in its terms, these are defeated, and the aristocracy, instead of direct nomination, come with a tail procured by threats and intimidations, this is directly the reverse of the law, which meant that the elective franchise s`muld be enjoyed as an absolute and indefeasible property, nd the law must protect that as much as any other. I have great faith in the force and influence ef public opi. alga denouncing, all illegal attempts to deprive individuals of their right. Reason and argument are all fair, hut the argument of force—the assumption of power to affect tent oral interests, is unjust and oppressive, and if carried to any extent, it must be checked. It is an indefen sible outrage on justice and common sense. What man or woman—for the ladies, too, I am told, are very ' , usy at this sort of work—would not shrink to be held up by name in the public prints? They know that it is wrong, and therefore they will shrink from exposure." lists of persons attempting to intimidate were to be published in the newspapers—and it would not surprise us if this were done—the consequences would be most serious to all those so held up to public execration. The men and woman so marked out would be exposed to many evils, which we decline pointing out, lest we should be thought to encourage what all might in turn regret, and which it might be much easier to begin than to terminate. The people of property who act in such a manner as to drive the people, in self-defence, to measures which we have only obscurely indicated, must be little less than insane. The rich arc only powerful through the law ; physically speaking, they are feeble, from their smallness of number. But the attempts to intimidate must inevitably lead to anarchical proceedings, which all may lament, but which the rich in particular would lament in sackcloth and ashes. There is another evil connected with the exposure of names. It opens a door to the gratification of malice. A man who hears a grudge against another may seek to he revenged in this way. The unfair and avarici ous tradesman might place the loss of a customer, not to his extravagant prices or the badness of his commodities, to his want of skill, &c., but to his vote. Besides jealousy and suspicion would he at work. A man might suppose a customer left him on account of his vote, when he left him from accident or caprice, from a preference to some other dealer, &c. A door would un questionably be opened to great injustice ; but we need not say, that if the midi people do not seek to divest themselves of the perilous power over voters which an open election gives them, they will be made to suffer severely. In an in telligent age like this, men are quick in devising means of self-protection and agression. We should say that the rich are more deeply inte rested in supporting the ballot than the pour, for they will unquestionably be the victims, in many cases, of jealousy and suspicion of a self-inte est, always on the watch. Without the ballot, society will be torn to pieces, by the loose given to bad passions. Mr. Ahercromby thus argued respecting the supposed finality of the Refbrm Bill interposing a tar to any necessary change ; " I am no enemy to the repeal of the Septennial Act, but the question must be viewed with reference to the pcsent time. The enactment of that law was a strong and violent measure when it seas passed. You will all re collect that when Ministers brought forward the Reim m Bill, they laid aside the two questions of Triennial Parlia ments and Vote by Ballot; ana many supported them in nmrybig it through who would otherwi•e have been ad verse. It is idle, however, to talk of that Lill, or any other, being a final measure. It is nonsense. For nu * The ad article of the treaty of Mentz is the following : " Ships belonging to the subjects of the riecrain States, and making part of the Rhenish navigation, shall not be obliged to tranship their cargoes, or break bulk, in pa,sing from the wa ters of the Rhine into the sea, or vice versa, through the king dom of the Netherlands." All foreign ships arc, of course, excepted. Is not this a prohibition? t La navigation * * sera entierknent libre, et ne pourra i•tre interdite a peraonne. legislature can foresee all coming circumstances—and we must all bend to circumstances ; and it is now a question of discretion, whether it would he advisable to agitate these points in the present circumstances of the country." —(Cheers. Adverting then to the Ballot, he observed— ,' If, in the result, it shall lie found that the exercise of the franchise cannot be had with, nt control or coercion, we must vote by Ballot; for the voter must be protected —must be secured ; and if we are compelled to resort to Ballot, that would he the Ballot, not of the Reformers, but of the Conservatives. It would not be forced by the Reformers, but by the oppressive and unjustifiable conduct of the Conservatives." The Scotsman of Wednesday has the follow ing spirited observations on this subject of intimidation : " The attempts making in this city and elsewhere t.) intimidate electors are a remnant of the old Tory system, and a striking pro-,f of the arrogant feelings which that system nourished . in the breasts of the class who were lately the exclusive depositaries of power. The franchise is not a property, but a trust ; the use of it, however, is left Entirely to the elector's private judgment ; and (as Mr. Abercromby observed the other day) any person who interferes ceirli the free exercise of his judgment in dis posing of his vote, insults him as much as if he should dic tare to him what furniture he shall have in his house, or what cloth he shall wear on his back ! We can scarcely figure indeed a greater act of insolence. The Tories who indulge in it, we believe, are not fully conscious of its atrocity. If they had not been long accustomed to tram ple on the people of this country,—if they had not seen the mark of the yoke yet upon our reeks, they would not have dared to insult the tradesmen of this city as they have done. " We pray our brother electors, when threats of loss of business, of pecuniary injury in any other shape, are held out to them, to consider what must he p i•sing in the mind of the p,rson who addresses them. Let them try to put his or her thoughts into words, and see what the proposi tion really implies. It must amount to something like this— " You are poor ; you live by your industry ; you are much too ignorant to know what is right and wrong in politics, or who is fit to watch over the public interest. It is presump'ion in a creature like you, who live by re tailing cheese or cloth, or by making chairs or watches, to meddle with such matters. Lave them to me, who own many acres and keep a carriage, and learned much Latin in my youth, which I have since entirely forgotten. I tell sou this in good humour; but I know you are cowardly and mean, and if you are not sensible of your own unworthiness, tl--re is a way to make you so. I and my friends will do all we can to take the bread from the mouths of your children, and make you a bankrupt, to punish your insolence, in pretending to judge of public matters !' " This is one version of a conservative threat ; but there is another depending on a different principle, which may be put into English thus— " You are a poor man, and being poor, it is merely hypocrisy in you to pretend to have any honesty It is true, you are hound to employ your vote fur the public good, and not for your own profit ; never theless, every body knows that a poor man's con science is always a marketable commodity ! There fore we shall strike a bargain thus: you shall have my cu , torn, which will put 101. per annum in yorr pocket, and I shall have your vote, which will enab'e a friend of mine to get into Parliament, where he will keep up jobs and sinecur. s, and provide for his family. There is no hitin in this exchange, whatever your neighbours may say. You get your loaves, and he gets the power of tlx ing and mi,ruling the nation. I tell you it is all right, and you know you may rely upon my word, seeing I have two thousand pounds per annum, derived from a Finecure got by my father for voting with Ministers in Parliament. It belongs to men like me to have a conscience; mean and poor devils like you should take my word for the rule of right and wrong, and surrender to me the power of think ing and judging, which you are too ignorant and wcrthless ti know how to toe.' We deny that this is any caricature. We maintain that every Conservative who addresses a threat to a trades man do; s, in fact, tell him to his floe that he is grossly ig norant, or cowardly, or venal, or a'l the tlaree ! It is quite fair and proper for one ciCz , n to advise another, or tea-on wi , h him about the disposal of his vote ; but if any person came to us and dictated whom we should elect, under a threat of injuring us in our worldly circumstances, we should Been It as great an insult as if he struck us a blow cn the face, or demanded that we should turn his spit, or put on his livery. It is a power which no conscientious roan would attempt to exercise even over a menial ser vant ; and when our countrymen have a proper sense of what is due to them as per,ons selected for their inde pendence to be the depositaries of a public trust, few will dare to insult flit-rat by such proposals." If the Conservatives proceed with such au dacity in large towns like Edinburgh, how g reat must be the intimidation in the agriculturaldis tricts ! Is it then to be wondered at, that the tenantry and freeholders gladly avail themselves of the pretext of unwillingness to pay the shil ling for registering to avoid offending their land lords in the one case, and becoming objects of public odium by voting for a detested represen tative in the other. We are lovers of' peace. We, therefore, strenuously urge all electors to make it a sina qua non with candidates, that if returned they will vote for the ballot. If the ballot be not conceded, the consequences will be mischievous, almost beyond conception.— Property in this. country is very unequally di vided, and it is vain to deny that rich men, whe ther Whigs or Tories, have the power of doing much mischief to electors, and causing them to apprehend still more. The Tories will conceive they have to dread the vengeance of a Whig landlord, and the Whigs the vengeance of a Tory landlord. The suffrage under the Reform Bill is given chiefly to the class of all others the most apprehensive—tradesmen and tenants. — These men are quick in discerning what may injure or benefit themselves; and we have no doubt that one of the parts on which they will most insist is the ballot. If the ballot he not carried, there is not a gentleman in England who will not soon have cause to rue the circum stance.—Morning Chronicle. So much ignorance and misconception prevail relative to some important provisions of the Re form Bill, that we may perhaps render an ac ceptable service to the public by an explanation of certain clauses, touching the qualifications of electors, which have been the occasion of much perplexed and unsatisfactory discussion, of late, both in and out of Parliament. If Mr. Lemuel Gulliver had, in his various peregrinations through earth, ocean, and air, happened to have met with a body of Legislators who pro fessed that they did not know the meaning of their own laws the moment, they were enacted, his plain recital of the fact would have been treated by his contemporaries as au indulgence in a propensity for satirical fiction which pre sumed too largely upon the credulity of his readers. Yet the English House of Commons, in the 19th century, has presented some scenes which realize what inventive malice would hardly venture to suggest ; for scarcely had the Reform Bill become a law, when we find both its supporters and opponents differing as to the meaning of some essential clauses, pro fessing au absolute ignorance of the meaning of others, and only making one thing clear by their discussions—namely, that neither party, Jong and angry as their previous conflicts had been, exactly knew what it was they sup ported or opposed. Thus we find the Chan cellor of the Exchequer acknowledging his in ability to explain the legal construction of cer tain passages most necessary to be rightly un derstood by the people, although with the Law Officers of the Crown at his elbow. We find the Attorney-General only rising to assist his Right Hon. Friend in involving the subject in a denser medium' of the " palpable obscure," declaring that " the House of Common s was of the place to answer legal questions --givi ng to all people who wished to know their elective ' : 1 rights au intimation that, if votes are not t o be trafficked in, yet lawyers' opinions, although th e lawyer be also the legislator, are saleable com modities ; and then he refers the inquirers to the old law on the subject as to the qualifications of scot and lot voters, than which law nothing can he more perplexed and contradictory ; so that the " unlearned" persons who seek for infor mation there will get into a labyrinth, and, if they attempt to explore it without a golden clue, will " find no end—in wandering mazes lost." But, little as the Chancellor of the Ex chequer knew of the legal construction of his own Bill—a Bill which we know more than onelaa ver boasts of having assisted the Ministers to draw up Sir John C. Hobhouse, the Radical repre sentative of Westminster, metamorphosed into a most courtier-like Secretary-at-War, displayed still greater ignorance ;—so little did he know of the situation in which the Reform Bill has placed his own constituents of Westminster, that he thought it required them to pay up their taxes as a preliminary condition to being regis tered. Certainly he will find no such provision as to scot and lot voters in the " old law," and it will be equally difficult to discover any such in the new. This caused the Chancellor of the Exchequer to express his surprise that one who had been so long the representative of a scot and lot borough should know so little of the rights and qualifications of his own constituents ! We shall attempt, however, to relieve our readers from the necessity of applying for his profes sional opinion to the Attorney-General upon those points which he and the Chancellor left exceedingly obscure. A notion has gone abroad that all electors in boroughs and towns were to qualify themselves for registration by paying rates and taxes ; and there has also been much doubt and disputation whether the rates and taxes are to be paid up to the day of registration, or only to the 6th of April. There is only one class of electors, however, who are required to pay rates and taxes previously to registration, and they are the new constituency of 10/. householders. In order to understand the matter clearly, it is necessary to bear in mind that the constituency in towns and boroughs now consists of the new electors who occupy 10/. houses, and the old constituency, consisting of burgesses, resident freemen, liverymen, burgage-tenants, in some instances freeholders, and scot and lot voters— of which last class are the electors of Westmin ster, whose case, as far as regarded the parish of St. George, Mr. Duncombe brought under the notice of the House of Commons. Now all the new constituency of 10/. householders must, before the 20th of July, have paid their rates and taxes up to the 6th of April, to entitle them to be entered on the register, and without being registered no elector whatever, whether new or old, can be permitted to vote. Not so with the scot and lot voters—they are only af fected by the new law so far as to make it ne cessary that they should be registered, but they are not required to pay taxes as a condition pre cedent to registration. They must, of course, have paid their rates up to the day of registra tion, if legally demanded, because the paying rates is of the very essence of this franchise, scot and lot voters being defined to be those who vote in virtue of paying church and poor rate ; and it has been the established usage that they should be rated to the poor within six months of the day of election, and have paid their rates up to the day, if demanded. The Reform Act does not alter that state of the law except as to substituting the day of registration for the day of election, so that scot and lot voters must now have been rated within six months of the day of registration, ar.d have paid their rates up to that day, if demanded—but the payment or non-payment of taxes has nothing to do with the exercise of their elepive franchise. The authors of the Bill have complicated the mea sure by making the payment of taxes a prelimi nary step to registration in the case of the 101. householders. They have evinced in this as much anxiety to make the Bill a sort of revenue law as to extend the elective franchise. On principle it is bad that the elective franchise should be made to depend on the payment of taxes. The reform of the representation ought not to have been at all connected with the machinery of fiscal exaction. This is the first time that the elective franchise in boroughs has been made subservient to the rapacity of the Exchequer. We trust that in the next Parliament the operation of the Act will be simplified by the removal of this condition. The Exchequer has already been armed by law with, at least, sufficient powers to enforce the payment of its demands. The books of the tax-gatherer should never be made the criterion to allow or withhold the exer cise of a great political right. It has been doubted whether the taxes are to be de manded or not, so as to make the non-payment disqualify. We are of opinion that, although the Act speaks only of rates and taxes p a y. able before the 6th of April, the non-payment will not disqualify unless they have been de manded. As no person is bound to go to the Treasury with his taxes, but it is sufficient if he pays them to the collector, they are not strictly lit (.t a il v e a r b rv le ise u , n ‘ t v i i l lat de a ma d n o d o e r d. wou ß ldes i b d ees , o i i ) f e d w e t r o e fraud ? for the tax-collector might always have it in his power to disfranchise the voters opposed to the Government candidate, simply by not de manding their taxes. If such an election trick could be legally practised it would be sure to be tried ;—but the thing is too preposterous to bear a moment's investigation. Electors of the 10/. franchise should know that, besides the payment of the rates and taxes assessed and pay able up to the 6th of April, it is essential to their claim that they should have occupied their t p o re xe is l e a so st f d r ay l2 calendar ofu ly m in such nest iiiyear,ati:redyio 'have been rated to all poor-rates made during such m months s thatthey next e shall u o h c a c v u e re t s i t to the last day of July in suc h y ear within the bo roughs or places for whic h the y claim to vote, or within seven miles of t he same. The p remises, the occupation of which give a title to be re gistered, may be different premises, occupied in immediate succession durin g the 12 calendar months, the same condition being observed with respect to the payment of rates and taxes. Also, every tenant so entitled to be registered may claim to be rate d to the p oor-rates, wheth er his r landlord is or is not liable to be rated, and, upon tendering the full amount of rate then due upon the prem i ses , the overseer is bound to put his mine upon the rate ; and, in case the overseer shall refuse to do so, the elector shall be deemed to have been rated from the period at which the rate shall have been made in respect of which he claimed to be rated. This last provision, as we understand the Act, applies only to tenants °c eapeieo- 10/. houses ; but, if the Act had been properly and lot voters also, res p ec ti ng whose qualification, as to the paym en t o f rates , great discrepancy .is observable in th e o ld l aw . to drawn sco op, it would have been ma d e t o , i t For example, o n one occasion the Committee upon the Bridgewater election came to the following resolution :—" That persons rated, and not having paid their rates before the day of election, the rates having been legally demanded, and no fraud ap pearing on the part of the overseers, are dis qualified from voting ;" but subsequently the Committee on the Shaftesbury election, having heard argument on the question " whe ther persons rated, and not having paid the rates before the day of election, the rate having been legally demanded, and no fraud appearing on the part of the overseers, were disqualified from voting," came to the resolution that " this Committee does not confirm the resolution of the Bridgewater Committee." It has also been decided that where a voter, upon a public notice, paid one rate, and said he did not know that he was two in arrear, the overseer promised to call on him, but never saw him, and the voter hav• ing tendered the money at the poll, the vote was good. But, again, when a voter, having been two rates in arrear, was rejected at the poll, went, with others, to the house of the overseer, who was in bed, and offered the rates to the wife, who declined taking them, upon which the money was left on the shelf, and the voters, having returned to the poll, were admitted, the Committee struck the votes off as bad. In the case of " Cullen v. Morris," tried in the King's Bench in 1820, it appeared that Mr. Cullen tendered his vote for Mr. Hobhouse (the pre sent Secretary-at-War). It was objected, that he had not paid his poor-rates for three quarters of a year preceding. On the objection being take❑ he went away, and on the 27th called upon the collector, and paid the amount of four quarters of a year poor -rates, there being only three quarters then due ; after which he again tendered his vote, which was rejected. It appeared in evidence that the collector had made application at his house for the rate on two different days, but (lid not see him, and left no written memo randum of the object of his visit, nor (lid he make at any time a personal demand. It was also admited that, whenever he had previously applied to him for the rates, the plaintiff had paid them, unless he happened to be particu• larly engaged. Afterargument heard upon those facts, the judgment of Chief-Justice Abbott (now Lord Tenterden) was, that " Mr. Cullen had a right to vote ;—he paid rates for some years befbre, and no personal demand was made upon him, or any paper left at his house to say that his rates were in arrear, though a demand might have been made at his house, of which he was ignorant." These are only a few of the cases which prove the uncertain state of the law as to the disqualification of scot and lot voters by non-payment of rates. We have quoted them merely to show what a labyrinth of litigation the Attorney-General opens to scot and lot voters when he refers them to the " old law." We say that the Reform Bill ought to have been so framed as to set those disputed points at rest ; but never was there a Bill, involving great prin ciples, that was inure clumsily framed, or worse managed in the details.— Morning Herald. The hardship of being called upon to pay rates, and the excellence of insolvency as a qua lification to vote in borough elections, continue to occupy much of the attention of the most thinking people in Wapping and Tothillfields. The intelligence of the metropolis manifests itself in the usual way ; meetings are called, speeches are made, resolutions are adopted ; the majesty • of the many assumes a sturdy attitude of resist ance, such an attitude as practice has rendered familiar to the Honourable Members for Essex and Hull. The orators of the million scarcely know whether, for this untoward event, they should blame their own folly or the faithlessness of their allies. This only is clear, that the finan cial statement of the new constituencies is as unsatisfactory as that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and that the electors of the first Reformed Parliament have conceived a most unfortunate fondness for the beauties of the fruc tifying system. Finsbury frowns, with her hand upon her purse-strings, and the Tower Hamlets shout, with ancient Pistol, " Base is the slave that pays !" It is very amusing to remember that from the blame of this outrage upon popular rights the Tories are well shielded. In the blunder or the trick which, in the belief of Co lonel Evans, has made the Reform Bill practi cally a dead letter, and turned Manchester into a sort of overgrown Old Sarum,:the Tories at least had no share. No Sugden deceived on this point, by a professional subtlety, the unsuspect ing simplicity of Lord Althorp. No Wetherell wr ui) wrung an of Lord jo co h i n icesio sn from Russell. the The mo deration pro vision effctsbeythehaveben Whigse was ofwh i i ) c r i o ) jetcit'eedand terrible applauded by the Radicals, and it be longed to that part of the great measure which the country received with the most clamo rous delight, which to attack was blasphemy, and to amend profanation. There are many who upon this occasion give our Ministers credit for a marvellous ignorance, and there are many who give them credit for an ingenious fraud. For ourselves we believe that they were perfectly prepared, when this part of the Act was framed, for the manner of its operation. They feared, as their adversaries feared, the undue infusion of the democratic influence, which, for the securing of a brief popularity and the fulfilling of an ill advised pledge, they were about to pour into the Constitution. They narrowed, therefore, by every means in their power the limits of the original grant. They insisted upon the pay ment of all arrears of landlord's rent as part of the voter's qualifications ; and this they were compelled to abandon. They pro vided for the continued occupation of the same premises as necessary to the voters qualification ; and this they were compelled to abandon. They proposed that a half yearly reservation of rent should be essential to the voters qualification. Poor Mr. Gregson ! lie could never make the innocence of the Cabinet comprehend the extent of such a change. But this, too, they were com pelled to abandon. There remains yet this one security against the evil, we apprehend, that the voter, lor some time previous to the period at which he claims to be registered as a voter, must have borne his share of the burdens of his parish. The day of registration was well chosen as the day on which the claims of the parish must ap pear to be fully satisfied. We know well by what means, in the hubbub of a contested elec tion, the rates are paid up, which nothing but t h e flags, and the feasting, and the drinking , and the drums could have drawn from the pockets of the electors. On the day of registration there is none of this intoxicating display ; and the candidate is not so certainly ready to smooth the difficulties of disbursement, and assist a worthy citizen in the discharge of the duties of his citizenship. There is a hope, therefore, that under the Reform Act, as it now stands, our registers may include the honest householder, who pays his rates because his rates are due, and exclude the zealous partisan, who pays them only that he may give his valuable vote to Blue or Orange. We shall see whether Ministers will defend with courage what we think they devised with prudence. When the lists of voters for counties shall be made up we are afraid that complaints more loud, and assuredly more just, will be heard from them than those which we now receive from the borough constituencies.-- Heretofore it has not been necessary for the voter to prefer his claim ; and it is difficult to make the new necessity for this step fully understood. In one parish, which contains upwards of a hundred voters for the county in which it is si tuate, only twelve voters had sent in their claims on Thursday last.—Morning Post. THE ARMY. The 27th hen.d.quarters leave Buttevant, as do the four companies encamped in Limerick, the first week in Sep tember, for Athlone, where they remain during the winter, and thence proceed to Enniskillen, the capital town of that county, in which this distinguished corps was origi nally formed The grenadier company of the 27th arrived from But tevant to do duty at Charlevi!le on Monday. The 83d Regiment are to take up the encampment of the 27th in this garrison; they are at present in camp at Ca9tiebar. The 68th Light Infantry, in camp near Clare Castle, expect to break up in three weeks or a month, and march to Dublin. Captain Ellison's company of the 60th Rifles have ar rived at Newport, Tipperary. The 28th, 58th reserve, and 92d, are quartered in Fertnoy, where the military are particularly healthy ; only three cases of cholera appeared amongst the entire corps. Captain Gunning's company of the 52d Light Infantry marched on Saturday from head-quarters, Waterford, for New Ross, to relieve Capt. Lord Charles Russell's com pany, which returns to head-quarters. The depots of the 36tb, 56th, and 69th Regitnenti are now stationed in Kinsale. Lieutenant Persse and a detachment of the 17th Regi ment are stationed at Shannagolden. Major Noel and his division of the 9.2 d Highlanders have removed from Newport to Fermoy head-quarters. COUNTRY CORN MARKETS Per Quarter. Cat lisle Hexhain, Mirpeth Penrith Sheffield Winchester Per Bushel. Carmarthen C.)ventry Newcastle (Staff.) Nortliallerton Stone Swansea Warwick s. to s. 68 60 68 Per BOIL Barnardeastle Durham Richmond Stockton 120 6 5 16 6 DURING LAST WELK. Wheat. i Barley. s. to s. —1 35 70 36 42 72 ; 36 40 66 i 34 66 —26 67 32 35 s.d. 6.41. s.d. 70 39 43 9 0 4 8 5 4 99 64 66 93 36 46 99 56 60 79 36 40 100 46 50 21 0 9 0 10 0 1136 90 106 21 0 94 100 190 96 100 Oats. 8. to 8. 22 27 22 27 22 - oo 2'2 24 s. d. s. d. 16 2 0 36 40 36 39 33 40 38 47 20 24 22 26 66 74 56 76 58 90 54 70 Beans. !... s. 41 34 37 38 42 46 a. d. v. d. 00 00 56 60 53 56 5 6 6 0 6 2 6 6 00 00 73 76 00 HO 106 120 86 90 00 00 WAKEFIELD CORN MARKET.-Aug. 9. Wheat, Red, Norfolk and Suffblk -s. 535. to tits. fine 645. Lin. and Cam. -s. 535. to tile. fine 645. Yorkshire -s. 575. to 625. fine fils. - White -s. 595. to 655. fine 678. - Foreign, Red -s. 48s. to &fie. fine 6'28. White -s. -s. to -s. fine 665. Barley, Norfolk and Suffolk 32s to 345. tine 375. - Lincolnshire 3ss. to 3As. fine 40s. -- Yorkshire Wuld -- Foreign -s. to -s. fine -s. Beans, Small --- Tick 33s. to 355. fine 368. Oats, Potato 22s. to 245. fine 2.50. -- Poland -s. 20s. to 235. fine 24g. - Friezland and Small -s. l7s. to 225. fine 235. - Healing I Id. to 12M d. per Stone. Shelling 2ss. to 2SL Od. per Load. Malt 34s. 435. tine 465. per Load. Rapeseed '.431. Os. 251. Os. 271. Os. per Last. SCOTCH MARKETS. Barley Oats. 18 22 15 17 16 18 22 25 22 25 18 21 20 24 17 18 25 I'2 24 26 ies throus Wheat. Beans, tiatinua , . 30 31 22 24 34 37 22 23 27 29 29 30 --- 23 30 .- 22 30 46 23 25 45 48 43 44 26 30 'hout the countrv. Aberdeen ... Berwick...—. Coldstream Cupar Dundee Elgin —..... Inverness, M,,. Kelso -- Kirkald y Perth L The size 50 58 49 50 46 50 68 71 58 70 60 62 57 60 50 53 , 40 45 65 72 of the ri 25 28 22 24 23 25 30 34 33 34 30 30 32 24 ?6 27 39 30 35 asure va EDINBURGH COR We had a small supply of the sales were heavy in general Wheat. Barley. Oats. Pease. First B4s Oct 37s Od 26s RI 34s Oct Second 76s Od 36s Od 245 Od 32s 0.1 Third-- 625 Od 345 Od 225 Od 275 Od PRICES OF PROVISIONS, &C. Beef, per lb. Os. 31d.t0 05.70. Fresh Butter, lb. s. 100. to IL Od. Mutton----- 0 4 0 7 Salt Ditto--- 0 9 010 Veal 0 6 0 8 Ditto,per cat. 0 0 80 0 Pork... 0 4 0 6 Eggs, per doz. 0 8 0 0 Lamb, per qr. 0 6 3 0 OatStraw(kpl.)l2 6 13 0 fallow, cwt.... 31 0 35 0 Wheat Ditto,..ll 6 13 0 Quartern Loaf 0 9 010 Barley Ditto 0 0 0 0 Potatoes, 1711 b. 0 5 0 0 Hay, per 1 0 1 1 EDINBURGH MEAL r MARK all kinds ET—Aug. of Grain Beans. 34; Od 39.4 Od 271 Od The supply of Oatmeal at tl and sold heavily, at last week's Per Sack of 2801 b. Imp. First Oatmeal Second ditto 1 15 0 Barleymeal 1 13 0 Peas ens eal 1 6 0 Pot Barley—No. 1, per cwt. 13: MARKET.--Aug. 14. its day's market was middling. prices. Per Stone of 141 b. Imp. First Oatmeal £0 2 0 Second ditto Barleymeal 0 1 10 Peasemeal .-2d, 153.-3 d. 20s.—Pest1 245. GLASGOW CORN MARKET.—Aug. 15. Our Grain market continues dull, with little alteration in prices. Wheat, per 240th. s. 9. s. 9. Oats, per 2641 b. S. d. .. d. British, old 250 to 30 0 Irish l4 otol6 6 new 32 0 33 0 British Canada, free 2B 0 29 0 Beans, per 2601 b. Irish Barley, per 3201 b. Scottish English — 0 C Pease, Scottish ... 16 0 18 0 Scottish 2B 0 30 0 Oatmeal, per 1401 b. IS 0 16 0 Irish CORNWALL. MARKETS. TRURO—Wheat (average) 9.4,4.9,1.—8ar1ey, 133.—0at5,95. 6d. ST. Au TELL—Wheat, to 25s.—Barley, —s. to 128.—Oats, 118. to 93. 3d. PENLANCE—Wheat, `2.65. to 9.Bs.—Barley, —s. to 135.—Oats, Os. to Os. Od.—Beef and Mutton, 50. to 60.—Pork, Od. to 4,1,—. Butter, 100. per lb. LAUNC ESTONNV heat (average) Ell s. 01.—Barley,1 Is. 3d.—Oats. 7i. 01.—Beef, 50.—Mutton, 60. LISKRARD--Wheat, —S. to 245. 6d.—Barley, 133. 61.—O a t s , Os. to Bs. 01. _ noomiv—Wh eat (averag b e 4 l . 9.4s. Od.—Barley, 12 3 .6d . —0 at5, 9s. HELSTON—Wheat, '2ss. ' —Barley, 143 Od. ST. COLUMB—Wheat, 245. to 2 5s.—Barley, I. to 139.—Beef, and Mutton, sd. to 6d.—Veal, Od.—Lamb, tkt. LIBRARY ARRANGEMENT.--in the library in Trinity College, Dublin, " Wordsworth's Excursion" i , placed among the books of ttavel3..—Athenteum. WANTED FEMALES.—By the Governor's direction, a circular is to be dispersed among the respecta ble order of married settlers throughout the colony, stating the intention of Government to defray the expenses of passage of free young women from the agricultural coun ties of England, as more fully stated in our last, and re questing information from the settler, as to the description, number, and wages each settler may be disposed to pro mise. This is very proper. Extending them to towns also, where a lamentable dearth of decent female servants is experienced, would be an improvetnent....—Atestralian of Marsh 2. BIRTHS. On the 19th inst. at Portland -place, the lady of Sir Henry Willock, of a son. On the 13th inst. at Elm Park, county of Limerick, the Lady Clarina, of a son. On the ltith inst. the lady o f George Adolphus Owen, Esq., of Buntingford, solicitor, of a daughter. MARRIED. r at George'sSt..s,if Lord . O , rc HowardHano of Effingham, Hanover-square, - s q f u a n r glm e to Eliza, y d e, , a th HeOn the nry inst. ali d, eldest o, ter or General Sir Gordon Drummond, G.C.B. On the isth inst. at Trinity Church, N ew i ngton- b utts, Mr. George Taylor, of Fenchurch-str ee t , to Mary Caroline, eldest d aug hter of Mr. James Brand, Bl ac k man -street, Borough. on the ISth inst. at St. Mary's, Bryanstone-square, Harry Sur man, Esq., M.A., of Trinity C o ll ege, Oxon, and of John-street, Berkeley-square, only son o f William Henry Surman, Esq., of Eastdene, in the Isle o f Wi ght, to Ellen, youngest daughter of John George Donne, E sq., of Gloucester-street, Portman-square, and of W,h itlands, D evon. On the 18th in s t. a t M arylebone Church, William Goodenough Hayter, Esq., of Li nco l n ' s Inn, barrister-at-law, to Ann, eldest daughter of Willi am P u l sford, Esq., of Wimpole-street, On the 18th in s t. at S t. George ' s, Hanover-square, Anthony Daniell, of Wimpole-street, Esq., to Harriet, eldest daughter of Edward Ellis, of Gloucester-place, Portman-square, and of the Grove, Hendon, Esq. DIED. On the 15th inst. at llaylands, Isle of Wight, Sarah Ann, the wife of Vice-Admiral Lock, in the 72d year of her age. On the 17th inst , suddenly, Helen. the wife of Walter Lear. month, Esq., Russell.square. On the Itith inst., of the cholera, after a few hours' illness, in Great Dover-street, Southwark, the Rev. William Aikin, aged 58. On the 19th inst., after a few hours' illness, of cholera, Mr. William Gloster Daniel, of Broad-wall aged 50. On the 17th inst. at Lambeth, of cholera, Mr. Joseph Burn, brother of Mr. J. 11. Burn, late of King-street, Covent.garden, bookseller, aged 24. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY MURDO YOUNG, ♦T THE SUN ORFICII, 112, STRAND, LONDON, ty, and