The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-31 00:00:00

COERCION OF VOTERS.

(free the Daily Kam)
The " menial of tenants" is a subject of general
complaint throophont the kingdom with reference to
the county elections. Sir GEORGE OBEY in North-
umberland says, in alluding to those who there
exercised an " undue influence and coercion over
honest voters," that their name is legion. He speak.
indignantly of the practice, and although he observes
that there are honourable exceptions to it, he seems
now to express himself in a tone of modified objection
to the ballot. The Conservatives resort to coercion
as s riflst. This is their only intelligible apology,
and when the Liberals practise the same iniquity,
they soothe their consciences by what they term the
necessity of self-defence. If a man of genuine
liberal principles dares to separate himself from his
class by proclaiming freedom to his tenants, he is
considered a disturber of its just privileges and a
traitor to its interests.

Attention must be drawn to this subject by a oorre-
spondence, given in another column, from the Montfort(
Mercury, between Mr. D'ETNCOVET, the late mem-
ber for Lambeth, and Mr. RHODES, a gentleman who
writes to him in a friendly spirit—both being parti-
sans of Sir MONTAGU CHOLIIELET, who was defeated
in North Lincolnshire by the Conservative coalition
of Mr. CHRISTOPHER and Mr. STANHOPE. Mr.
11T.Yricoutcr, it seems, acting, as he has ever con-
*latently done, upon the public principles which
ought to have sustained him in his late contest,
emancipates his tenantry, and allows them to judge
for themselves. The gratifying consequence is, as ap-
pears from the correspondence, that for the most
part they act with him, guided either by their own
cons ictions or by the affectionate reciprocation of u
noble confidence. But still this " liberality " (which
is the name unduly given to the simple honesty of
" mune cuigue") has—it would seem from its rarity in
that aboriginal region—challenged some untoward
remarks amongst the natives.
It is clear that both parties have, in the Lincoln-
shire and other county contests, to a considerable
extent applied the screw to their tenants, and that
the evil predicted from the Chandos clause without.
the ballot, is increasing fearfully. When both sides
coerce, it is a war of violence, not so much between
the contending parties, as against their tenants and
dependents, who are sacrificed in a manner which
reduces them to the condition of serfs. A slave may
be humiliated and subdued by corporal chastise-
ment; yet ho may not be demoralised. But the de-
basement of a mind coerced, and a conscience vio-
lated, is infinitely more cruel and crushing to the
moral being—to the reel and inner man—than the
moat sanguinary tortures. Independently of the in-
calculable injury to society at large by the derange-
ment of those genial ties which hold it together, the
most vital of all constitutional rights is invaded and
stolen by those who pretend that they will be its
advocates and protectors in the House of Commons.
The suffrage is given to a tenant in respect of his
own interest in, and capital employed upon, his farm.
If it were intended for the destination of the land-
lord, he would be the party appointed to exercise it,
and not the tenant. Moreover, this franchise is a
trust imposing on those endowed with it the sacred
duty of exercising their independent judgment to
select the parties most fit to deal with the lives,
liberties, and dearest interests of the entire people in
the great council of the nation. If, therefore, an
elector votes for a candidate whose views and prin-
ciples are in his opinion dangerous to the state, he
commits a treason ; and to compel him so to vote is
not only a great public crime which ought to be
severely punished, but an atrocity practised upon
a dependent entitled to his protection. Instead
of protecting—he not only robe him of his noblest
privilege, but forces him to prostitute it and betray
his trust by the vile and degrading operation of
voting against the dictates of his conscience.
Tenants are too often thus treated as the abject
tools of the landlord. The practice, as shown in the
present correspondence, of making courteous appli-
cations to gentlemen for "permission" to canvass
their tenants, proves that some—doubtless many—
landlords, fancy they may keep their tenants in a
preserve like their pheasants--encage them in a sort
of political harem—not permitting their seclusion to
be violated without a formal sanction from them-
selves. But a tenant may justly consider himself
insulted by the solicitation, on the one hand, and by
the deliberate granting on the other, of • permission
which no man has a right to withhold.
If bribery be punished, why should not coercion lie
punished also ? For this is bribery of an exaggerated
description. If an elector refuse the offer of 204 for his
vote, he is in no worse condition than lv was before ;
but a menace, expressed or implied, to deprive a tenant
of a farm where his family is domicihated, and his
I capital and labour have been embarked for years,
presents a desolation, to encounter which a larger
stock of patriotism and stronger nerves are required
than fall to the oriinary lot of humanity. Who can
doubt that it is at least as corrupt and base to
threaten an evil as to promise a benefit? And in fact
the species of threat to which we refer is the most
effective form in which corruption can be ad-
ministered. The law should either prevent or
avenge it.
Surely the denunciation of such men as Sir
amain GREY wholesome examples like that
afforded by the D'Enteouar oorrespondeuce—and
the stern agency of public opinion must have their
effect with those now inflicting upon us the scandal
of such proceedings. If not—as Sir Geogoe GREY
declaree—" the demand for the ballot will be irresis-
tible," even from that party who have been hitherto
its opponents.

TIMM= AND FATAL ACCIDENT NEAR BRISTOL.
—A puled degree of exeftement and alarm was produced
yesterday at the ihshienable neighbourhood of Clifton, near
B Li scassquesee of a anchcity and fatal accident
tea mmo Cliff*. lir. Cliffe was the son
of • leaming ha a bothers' of great extent at Wine-
street.. *MA ad ha was, it is said, a youth of consider-
able pramise. On Thursday evening he went, in company
of a roma brother, to the Clifton Botwells, for the poi.
pose braking Wrist ea the beaks of the isp-irsal river
Avon. Oa sma
anitlea Mg a 11111 e Yore es Oh Mess side
of the rher, the lewthite messed lathe Rewshma Ism boat
and followed the river's bank towards Leigh. They
ilisiiitramd a paths a the Leighweed and Night-
s sad Sehmor Rosa Valleys, when they
mere to some quarries from which stone fs
=lssiwarked. The el* at this point are ex.
y deepe cad usibitinately young Mr. Cliffe
thalibusd ap the of diver the purpose, ft is thought, of
ppthesing ewe behmied apiehaens which are to be found
:km. ' us the intendest Mike rock. He had Landed
with Xe a couithaallie height, whoa either from
nail, or des bens Wean his feeling, he ins
• e timale:repee Wpm In it &scent his
pewees bad ulsisidy dee ciztisi plats of the
reek, ore denies mss who
were worlds'. sear esOifigt:lserealli. ye the eseidesdixan to
the as did ease who haled heat • t in
name =Els dews the lOW, sad the un-
well seamed by hem to Weem-
s Inn whores shales was procured. is whisk
he was eolieepail with ell pails speed to the &Mei Wk.
wary. Tis sleek he had peeked, hawever, was of so
sever* • thallear as to plate 11111 utopia' the skill of suf.
pry," mad be died with& a may sheet time of his reaching
that ballades. The 1114 hem whith the deceased fell is
sot far baler the Lies-bad our, from willeh • young lady
was killed sew dm* skean
Gin 011 A CHILD IT ITS PATRIIZ To A Gun.— '
A eery de Bier dreemstaace 'sewed on Wednesday
ems*" la ille asighbassiood of Dftcaster- street, Shef-
field—eadeing low, la but, then the giving of a child to a
strolling Elm, the aerie bobs the child's own father. It
appears that abaat MIS tesimak a member of that wander-
ing tribe.was pama. along the street, when he we, accosted
by a man who inquired if he wanted a child ? The gipsy
said he did, and forthwith the hard hearted father fetched
from his how a fine young boy, and handed him over to
the tender mercies of the swarthy stranger. Forthwith
the gipey trotted of with his charge, and, more considerate
than its aunt. took from his bead him own cap, and put it
on that of the child. Awhile afterwards the mother come
home, sad haraing what had transpired became almost
frantic. blatant permit was determined on, but some time
dared before any traces could be discovered of the way
which the 'Jay had taken. At length it was found that
he had gone in the direction' of Waitaki, and learning after-
wards that there was an encampment of these wanderers on
the beak of the Rivelin, the place wu visited, and there
was band the child, which was given back to its mother,
who remised home again, after an anxious earth, about 10
o'eleck.—Shifuld hidirseulent. I
.EXTIAOSDINAST, IP TRUlL—According to some 1
Italian journals, a law organised being has been discovered
in the Interior of Africa, which seems to form an imme.
&ate lick between vegetable and animal life. This singu-
lar production of nature has the shape of a spotted serpent.
It drags itself aloe( on the ground ; instead of a head had a
Sower, shaped like a bell, which contains a viscous liquid.
Flies and other insects, attracted by the smell of the juice,
enter into the flower, where they are caught b 7 the adhe-
sive matter. The flower then closes, and remains shut un-
til the prisoners are bruised and transformed iato chyle.
The Indigestible portico, such as the Mad sad wings, are
thrown sot by espial openings. The vegetable serpent has
a shin resembling leaves, a white and soft flesh, and instead
of a bony skektoo, a cartilaginous frame, filled with y el:ow
marrow. The natives consider it a delicious food.

THE NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE CONTEST.

(Prom the Muoferel Memory.)

_ .
Some observations having been made as to the •r
COUrell taken by Mr. D'Eyncourt during the late contest for
North Linenhashiro with regard to his tenants in that t
trict, we publish the following explanatory correspondence: 4
MA. SHODZII TO 211. D'ITXCOCRT.

"Market Essen, July 22, 1942.
"My dear mentioned to you on Monday last that *
Sir Montague Cholmeley's friends complained of some let-
ter which you had written in answer to an application from I
Mr. Christopher's committee for leave to cancan your te- .4
tantry in this part of Lincolnshire, as giving moorage-
meat cad assistance to the conservative party. I have.
since our conversation' stated to many what I understood
from you to have been the contents of that letter • but still -v
such an impression remains that some more distinct expla-
nation is due to yourself. Can you send me a copy of the
letter in question 7 lam confident it could not authorise
the use of your name to influence your tenants to vote for
Mr. Christopher ; indeed, I find that the great majority of
them voted as you did, for Sir Montague Cholmeley alone ;
and, with two or three exceptions, they all gave Oita a
hearty support.
' I am, dear sir, sincerely 'ours,
TI14111•11
" Right Hon. C. T. D'Eyncourt."