The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28.

Tim division last night on Mr. LOCKE KING'S
motion to extend the right of voting in counties to
all who pay 101. a year rent—when the Ayes were
149, and the Noes 202—goes far to show that
the question of reform is gaining fresh friends every
session. When this same proposal was before the
house last year only 53 votes were recorded in its
favour; showing a clear gain on the present occa-
sion. Yet this waiting from year to year for a few
more votes is not very stimulating. The sanguine
are apt to become cool, and the zealous to feel dis-
heartened by such slow progress ; but both may find
consolation in the fact, that if justice is at times slow
in her approach, she is no less sure at last. If less is
done than should be done, the fault rests with the
people. If they do not stir, and compel others to
move also, they may be sure the political coach will
not progress very rapidly; more especially whilst
a large and influential section of the community
aro bent upon standing still, and whose interests lead
them to declare progress and destruction to be iden-
tical.
If we are really to advance with the spirit of the
age, it is time that the liberals began in good
earnest to "take stock" of their election prospects.
rho more active members of the party have, doubt-
less, long since run over the list of men now in the
House of Commons—have scanned the newspapers to
see what new candidates aro in the field—and what
changes seem likely to take place. Mr. HATTER
has long ago " gone over the thing" for the whigs ;
the Anti-Corn Law Leaguers and the Parliaments 7
Reformers have each their plans, their views, their
hopes, their intentions, their candidates and their
anticipations; whilst the tones have for weeks peat
had a " Carlton list" of boroughs and counties. kw
which men of their party—willing to work or to pay
may be entered for a race for St. Stephen's. Bat
all this time there is a party—the largest and mod'
important of all—who—busy with the real important
business of day by day life—arc too apt to leave the
vital stake of politics unwatched. Yet this nume-
rous party it is who have by far the largest interest
in the result. They are—The people. Why should
cliques and coteries hold possession of all the machi-
nery of political action? Why should combinations
and societies, and London clubs take the initiative
in affairs properly belonging to the community at
large? The people should not only form fur them-
selves opinions upon
.political matters, but should in
that cool, steady, business spirit which has made so
many business successes in tlus country—and the ag-
gregation of which has rendered England great and
wealthy as she is—in this business spirit the people
of various electoral localities should now turn their
serious attention to the coming elections.
And how should this be done? Most certainly
one primary rule might h, to advise electors to look
at lone for their candidates. Surely there must be
in hosts of places a sufficient number of persons fit for
parliamentary duty, upon whom the voters might
well place reliance. From the ranks of these some
man should be selected to contest the representation
of every county and borough where liberals and free-
traders are not already in the field. Hitherto the
"going into parliament " has been considered to be,—
and has in truth been,—a very expensive affair. But it
is not necessarily so. If free-traders in each locality
in the kingdom could fix upon some well-known man
on whose moral and political character they could rely,
and upon whose independence and honesty—upon
whose faithfulness to them and to their trust, and
whose superiority to the temptations of jobbery
in
and place they felt confidence in—if each
locality such a man could be found willing, for prin-
ciple sake and for love of active occupation and from
sense of public duty, to live in London some five or six
in
months the year—such is the man to be chosen'
for nomination. Many of the right quality at times
object to being put prominently forward. Many
of the very best men am diffident of their own quah-
Bastions, and are urged by modesty to shrink from a
task they may be well fitted to fulfil. But if they
have the other qualifications required for making an
honest and independent representative, scruples of
this kind should be overruled. When the Duke of
WELLINGTON took office, he wanted the aid of his
veteran friend, then Sir lIENIIT HARDINGE, and
seeding for him, he expressed his wisheson the subject.
" But, interposed the practical soldier, " I shall
weer be fit for official work in the House of Com-
mies." " Pooh, pooh," was the duke's reply, " you
will manage the parliamentary work very well. The
only rule you must follow is this : Never speak about
anything you do not understand; and never quote
Latin." So with upright local men ; they should not
,hesitate about getting well through the work. Let
their fellow citizens put them in nomination, and re-
turn them to parliament ; and the oratory will take
care of itself, if they never speak except on things
they understand and leave the Latin to the pedagogues.
Honest, earnest, independent men are what is wanted,
and not mere long-winded talkers. Indeed long
orations hastened the ruin of the last French

Assembly.
• As to the cost of electing genuine representatives
of the people, that need not be very great, if reformers
would be true to themselves. The " legal expenses"
of an election are a share of the cost of the hus-
tings and the poll-clerks. These cannot possibly be
ruinous. In a small borough, 1601. to 2001.
ought to be sufficient at the meet; in
a larger borough, double that sum should
be ample. Even in those places whore we know
tens of thousands of pounds have been again
and again spent—the " legal expenses" have been
only the price of putting up the poll-booths and pay-
ing the clerk, who take the votes in them. AU the
rest has been bribery and corruption. And so it is
still. There may be—nay, must be—some cost for
printing addresses and for advertisements; but if
local reformers are sincere in their wish for •
member who will faithfully serve them, they might
surely in all eases—es they now do in many cases—
pay these additional costs by a small subscription.
An active committee may canvass a borough
without any very large expenditure of either
money or time; indeed activity is, during an elec-
tion a really priceless quality. In boroughs not
very largo a few members of such a committee
might indeed supply two or three zealous men, who
by themselves or their clerks, or warehousemen, or
shopmen, might make out a set of canvassing books.
There is no magic required for such an operation.
Any common sense person may make such books as
well as all the electioneering agents in the king-
dom. A business glance over the register; a few
six-penny memorandum books; a little industry
—and the thing is done. With these books in the
•
r hands of an active committee, a borough may be
thoroughly canvassed in a very short lime when
those who have the task in hand are really in earnest.
. Then when they have done this for themselves, they
• are in the positron to require from the member whom
° they return a strict fulfilment of the duty ho under-
takes. If they send him to parliament free from
. cost, they are entitled to require an account of his
stewardship. But if they wait to be bought, they
may expect to be sold. 'When a man buys a scat,
• common sense ought to suggest he may feel inclined
' to regard his vote as hie private property. Let all
beware, then, of those who seek to purchase seats
in parliament.
If free.traders were wise, they would not limit
• their efforts, at the next contest, to towns. Why not
° start free•trade candidates for counties? Reformers
do not know their real strength in the country till
j, they try this step. The farmers have been humbugged
, by the landlords, and have been compelled to seek
in improved agriculture, greater intelligence, and ad-
ditional capital and energy, that success which the
° landlords once promised them from protection. The
•
farmers of the right sort are now under the
new regime quite equal to their new posi-
t lion ; and the intelligence that makes
them so also makes many of them the friends of
r free trade and political progress. Besides this, there
; are many counties where townsmen live in such
; numbers that they might help the real county people
to emancipation from the old territorial proprietors.