The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-15 00:00:00

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LONDON. THURSDAY, JULY 13.

THE electors of Middlesex may do worse than
give each his half hour to a perusal and analysis of
the Ilarquis of BLANDFORD'S committee list. It is a
ve—,? instructive document. The committee is made
up in nearly equal proportions of Middlesex magis-
trates and Tory lawyers. How the latter came to be
there is obvious enough : it is all in the way of busi-
ness. P. is about the magistrates that we have a
word or two to say.
individually taken—in their private capacities—
thesi• Tory magistrates of Middlesex arc most re-
spectable men. They arc kind to their dependents,
never backward with subscriptions or other works
of cha• ity, inuffcusive, and decorous in their general
deportment. But OA magistrates they arc part of a
system neither harmless nor inoffensive in itself, and
what is worse. they have most of them been en-
grafted upon that system by the actual Lord-Lieute-
nant of Middlesex. They are, in short, the Mar-
quis of SALlsot•aT'n body-guard —a fact which
sakes their superlative real against Popery and all
Popish tendencies, real or affected, more unaccount-
able than ever.

Now. among the practical reforms which—as
appealing to men's pockets—are most longed for at
present, there is none of greater importance than the
reform of out system of local taxation. The most
popular, the most real agitation that has moved the
counties for some time back is that which aims
at infusing a representative clement into that
body upon whom devolves the assessing, the
imposition. !crying, and disbursing of county and
other rates. At pm-sent the management and
administration of the county rates is entirely in the
hands of the local nueristracv, who are virtually irre-
sponsible. If the Marquis IRA lonian is returned
at the Middlesev election, it will be not as a member
fur the county. but for the county magistrates. lle
will go to parliament to do the work of those who
have rent him there—the Marquis of SatiseeitY and
A's magistracy. He will go there to oppose every
motion to admit representatives of the ratepayers to
partivipate in the management of county finance.
Ile will go there to uphold a ,o stem under
which the ratepayers have no voice in deciding what
amount of county rates they shall pay, or how or for
what objects these county rates shall be expended. The
business of the Marquis of BLANDFORT in parliament
will be to perpetuate the system under which the
poor and industrious ratepayers are surcharged to
=dwelt' felon-palaces, or to build and uphold bridges
and construct lines of road, less for the accommoda-
tion of the public than of wealthy landowners.
.Inetlitr duty to which the nominee of the magis-
trates will be sternly held by his masters, if he suc-
ceed in getting into parliament, will be tlit of
abetting their crusades against the innocent pleasures
of the people. Whatever they may be in their pri-
vate circles, the Middlesex magistrates are in their
public relations notorious for belonging to the
Chin who have not music in their souls."
With their good will, to touch a fiddle in a
tea-garthn or tavern frequented by the less
wealthy would be made felony without benefit
of clergy. Their vexatious and oppressive proceed-
inv.. year alter Year, in the matter of music licenses,
are notorious. No hope is there for the introduction
of a more just and liberal system of adjudging on
applications for licenses, if our county magistrates
are to have the nomination of our county members.
Lastly (for the present—it would iv easy to add
more counts to the indictment, but these will suffice),
the Middlesex magistrates, like the aggregatecounty
magistracy of the realm, are strenuous enforcers of the
Game Laws. And here—as the luckless neighbours
of the Nlarlborough preserves can tell—they will find
a willing and zealous instrument in the scion of
the House of MARLBOROUGH to fight the battles
of the (lame Laws in the House of Commons.
Recent inquiries hare revealed many odious features
in the Game Laws, but the wont features of their ad-
ministration remain in a great measure undisclosed.
Strange tales are told, and by trustworthy persons,
of camp ac between worshipful members of the quo-
rum, by which each becomes bound to dispose of his
bench-fellows' poachers in a satisfactory manner—
provided the compliment is returned. We waive for
the present the consideration of the oppressive and
demoralising character of the Game Laws—they
have been sufficiently lectured upon—we speak now
of those laws financially. We ask farmers to re-
member how much the Game Laws coat them
annually in depredations on their crops? And we
ask ratepayershow much they cost them in additions
to the outlay for county gaols, county prosecutions,
end county police?
Leaving out of view for a moment the broad
objection, to Lord BLANDFORD as a candidate for
Middlesex in a national point of view, we ask the
electors for that county how their local interests are
likely to be promoted by the nominee of Lord
SALtsneitY's magistrates? The Marquis of BLAND-
FORD, they may rest assured, will be kept hard at
work to serve the interests and promote the
crotchets of those who have brought him forward
and are timesaving for him. He will be as staunch a
champion of the Game Laws as CRAVEN BERKELEY—
a stern withholder of innocent pleasure from the poor;
—a tyrant of all the less wealthy tavern-keepers ;
and an upholder of the absolute power and unaccount-
ability of the magisterial bench in the imposition and
disbursing of county rates.
Are these qualities likely, in the eyes of the
electors of Middlesex, to compensate for the ob-
jections they have to the Marquis of BLANDFORD as
the champion of the little loaf? The troth is, t at
local magisterial taxation is almost as heavy
general taxation of parliament, and even more din-
cult to struggle against; and that the petty lo al
oppressions of "the greet unpaid" are even more
galling than those in a more extensive sphere which
any Tory ministry would venture is inflict. These
intolerable local abuses the Marquis of BLANDPORD
is brought forward to support awl perpetuate in his
capacity of magistrates niseslase• -Every elector
who votes for htm votes far OM abominable Game
Laws: for the cureupt and ve licenaing ave.
tern; and for heavy county =lamer the expenai-
ture of which the ra: clay= Imen gm control.

A LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE.