The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-08 00:00:00

OUR REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM

DROITWYCH.
In one of the pleasantest valleys of a rather remote
part of Worcestershire is one of those eternal sources
of health and wealth, a brine-spring. The American'
cell thus salt-fields " ticker the Suns, whoa lite-
rature was more polite, and probably to their own
ideas quite u expressive,
denominated them
" wyehes." In the time of the Normans this" wyche"
was a royal property, and hence it C.. 1210 to be called
"Droit-wych," which has given the name to the
borough we are about to treat of.
The town of Droitwych consists chiefly of one close
irregular street, built, singularly enough,orer the very
bed from whence the hens is supposed to spring.
Etch freeholder, therefore, may have his own saline
bath in hie own back yard. And singularly enough
many of the Droitwych pr ple have taken lately to
the enjoyment of this luxury. For, in consequence
of the proceedings of an influential company who
have been trying to monopolise the salt manufacture
of the place, the smaller makers have found rt SOC4IIF
nary to sink brine pits in various nooks and corners
of the town, in places that might be considered sin-
gularly inappropriate, if it were not recollected that
the brine is alune to be obtained on the spot where
the houses stand.
Droitwych was originally a royal boroegh. Its
charter was granted by the 23rd Edw. I. to " the
burgeasesof the salt springs at Droitwych;" and in the
early history of the place the Crown appears to have
hen the dominant influence. From the period of the
Restoration, however, the borough was exercised by the
family of Foley, who had become lords of the manor
and proprietors of much of the property in the town.
The Pakingtre s contested it with them in 1690, when
the question was raised weether the right of election
was in the " burgesses" or in the " proprietors" of
the salt spring.. There voted on that occasion—for
Pakington, 26 ; for Foley', 22 ; nut of Pakington's 26
only 8 were " burgesses," and in these the right of
election was subsequently determined to be vested.
From this period to 1747 tree.• were contests for the
representation in which the Foley family had the
advantage. But from that year to the period of the
Refers Bill they retained the representation without
on any occesien experiencing opposition. This is
almost the only cas m England of a borough in which
an electorate existed having for a hundred years re-
turned its representatives without the occurrence of a
single contest.
Tie Foley family bold Droitwych during this pro-
tracted interval, by the influence of old association, by
acts of kindness to the inhabitant*, and the dispensa-
tion of patronage among the voters. They had no
direct sway over the town, their property in it not
being extensive, and their r. sides°, bring ate con-
siderable distance. Their affairs in Droitwych were,
consequently, for the most part, managed by an agent,
whom it was easy enough for so powerful a family to
make a man of weiet and influence in so small a
place, and among co unimportant a population. Teat
the firefly had been well 'tiered was evident from
the say way in which the double representation was
secured.
Droll wyeh was one of those Whig boroughs which
the Wnig adminis,ration of 1831 were anxious to pre-
serve. They had never the most dis ant idea that
the Foley influence in this town could in any way be
shaken. Nor; it would stem, did each a problemati-
cal contingence present its If to the imagine ion of the
Foleys theme lv. s. They scarcely interested them-
selves at el snout the new arrangements under
which the town was to be plic d. The population
of Droitwychi was thee more than 2,000 ; it was
therefore necessary to exte rd its boundsry. As we
have since seen, the arrangements respect-
ing bouedaries have hen the key to half
the boroughs in the kingdom. Where the
boundaries were well anew cl, as at Mor-
path, or at Maltose where whig noblemen in
on were alive to their own interests, there
rir reel) no difficulty in man iging the boroughs
since. But the Foley' were easy, careless sort of
people ; or, it may be, thought of making pablic
larrangements of this sort subservient to their own
purpose s. Accordingly they let the commissioaers
I manage the beuediry of Droitwych pretty much as
they ttought beet.
Nething seems to be on record u to the mode in
which the boundary commissioners were induced to
I arrive at the eoeclu-ions to which they came. The
I probabilities see, the ratite, that they were left to
themselves, and that they willed the matter over their
port wine and walnuts at the Droitwych inn. They
included in the borough a number of agricultural
parishes about the town, extending in oce cirection
two milt s, in another three aid a half, and in no-
, ther nearly five, and including the following very
miscellaneous ist f places :
Tae oil hor..ng . of Droitwych ; the several parishes of
Doddeihill, Hemp cr Lovett D Salearp, Martin
Hum.ineone, oJdn.sley, , Hindlip, Hinableton,and
; the 111. rewsy end division of the pada of
Hanbury ; the extrepuerreal places celled Cru•ch sad
Wntwood Park; togs her with the two parts of the re
species parehn of C.aines and Warndon, which are MI,
rounded by the remiectin pariihee of Hindlip and !thrift
I Huningtree; and ale th- ex aa-paro.bial pion cal Shell,
and the detached parts of the parish of Inkbi now, which
are re.peetively con.abitd 'startle the parish of Hintbletaa
and the Broughton divisi in of the parish of Haobary.
Such a catalogue of places, huddled together for
the purpose of seeking up a borough, probably is not
to be awaited. Tome is a manufacturing town, tea
rural villages, half a parish, two or three "extra-
parochial places," and en abundance of "detached
parts" of districts which are not themselves interested
or included in tee borough. The sole object of the
coinniesioners appears to have lean to make up a
eufficient population. Having added the ten parishes
to the old borough, they found probably that they
were still 500 short of the requutite 5,000. "Then
stick in the p rash of Hanbury," said Commissioner
A. "That will overdo it," says Commissioner 8.,
sipping his port. " Tcke half of it, then," climes
in the first ; " and here are acme extra-parochial
place., with uncouth names, stick them in also
" That will give 4,500," remarks the other, cracking
a walnut; " but here I find some parts of perishes
which will give a few more." tr And the detached
Parts of Inkberrov," rays A. a Inkberrow ! what
is tale now r inquires B. " Never mind what the
parish may be," impends A, " the detached parts
thereof elute between, 80. make up all we want,
so let us pack up cur papers and have done with it.'
In some such way as this most the borough el
Droitwych have bean settl..d, or it would never have
included S 3 strange a compound as it does at present.
Here every sort of interest is brought into until.%
and as might be expected, each complains that it
goes unrepresented. Town and country, salt maker and
farmer, ploughman, bsine-pumper, and canal nevi- I
gator, are all classed terteer ; and what makes the
matter worse is, that in Fxing their boundary the
commisstoners I,ave abedutely left out altogether the
meat important „Lee of all, namely, the neighboer
ing town of Bremsgeuve, to which it was duirable,l
on many accounts, to afford a snare in town reps..
sentation, but which ucder the present arrangement