The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-08 00:00:00

strife is excited (of which this town is a uotable
example), and the right of returning representativesl
for the borough becomes no longer reseed in tho
people, but in the vote manufacturers who, in the
balance of parties, are best able to turn the scale.
Observe, my lord, the polls for this borough of
Totness since the year 1839, and picture to yourself
what must be the state of a town with so limited an
elect Orate, .ind in which there is so considerable a
proportion of fictitious qualifications. The first time
this system came into play was in 1839, when there
was a contest between the nuke of Somerset's son-in-
law and Mr. Burry Baldwin, which resulted in a dead
heat. The numliers on the occasion were :

Ycr C. liner IlJJwis, 6,..(t0 r 7)
For William Blount, Em kw big)
That election being void, there was another in
April, 1810. The poll was na follows:
For C. liarry Baldwin, E.g. (tnry)
For T. limy tiiaborne, Rm. (whig)
At the last contest, in 1817, the numbers were :
For t!. Barry Baldwin, lhq. (tory)
For Nampo= Iticanlo, Way. (tang)
Eight years, therefore, have made scarcely any dif-
ference in the state of things in Totness. The times
have changed, but the voters have not changed with
them. Governments have changtil ; the state of
parties has undergone the greatest alteration ; but
the " linney voters" are the same. Intik again,
shat can the authors and abettors of this system
say why your lordship should not step in to reform
it altogether ? My lord, if there is a whisper of dis-
satisfaction in your cabinet from the son of a duke who
thinks you inclined to go too far, tell him that you
know the circumstances of Totness, and let hint re-
cover his confusion as he may.
In proposing in 1812 a largo extension of the
franchise, you doubtless hoped and expected to create
an independent body of electors. It was a laudable
aspiration; an expectation that deserved to be grati-
fied. There could be no higher obj Act of ambition to
a statesman than that his Haute should bo associated
with a measure which had purified the representation
of his nation, and secured the electoratal freedom of
his fellow-countrymen. free state can exhibit
no spectacle more honourable than that of a citizen,
erect in the consciousness of independence and
integrity of motile, walking to the poll to give an
unbiassed suffrage as the result of his political con-
viction. Could you here seen the pol Eng booths of
England filled with such constituents, how glorious
to you would have been the mflecaott that you had
successfully laboured to enfranchise them.
Turn from what might have been to the painful
reality. See your county yeomanry abjectly
marshalling thentsches under the leadership of the
landlord's rent-collector. See your townsfolk
debauched stud corrupted by the base election
agents to whom your bill has given birth.
Mark the crouching faggot voter brought up to pay,
by a vote against his conscience, the rent of the
" honey" he has been permitted to hold, and for
which he was unwittingly registered a voter. Look
at Mr. Attwood's debtors coming to pay their pound
of flesh, the money-lending boroughmonger waving
over them their notes of hand, as the banner of their
independence. Observe the humble shopkeeper
trembling lest the act one customer has driven him
to perform, may lose him the advantage of another
customer he is little less anxious to eoneuiate. here
is a drunken man, who his saweely power left him
to ejaculate the name of the candidate whose beer he
has consumed :—Yonder iv a bribed voter, trying to
shirk the administration of the oath, or saving his
conscience by kissing his dirty thumb instead of the
cover of the Bible. My lord, these are faint outlines
of scenes which otter at every election; and for these
scenes sour partial measure of reform is, to a
great extent, responsible.
(To be continued.]

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

THIS DAY.