The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-08 00:00:00

The struggk France and in_ Pravia is m

.ent a

much the some. It lies between the bureaucracies
and the people, the former supported by the army,
of which the officers forts a class and hierarchy of
placemen,with interests similar to the civilian servants
of the state. The people of both countries have the
satisfaction of seeing that they pay.
.largely to
support these classes for tyrannising over
them. Au aristocracy weighs over both coun-
tries, not an aristocracy of either birth,
wealth, or talent, but an aristocracy of plaeemen.
It is the system of centralisation which supports thou.
And it is for the people to devise how they can get
rid of these incubi, and govern themselves constitu-
tionally and monarchically if they will, but without
an official multitude to prey upon them and tynnise
over them. This is far more important than to decide
whether a legitimist, a quasi-legitimist, or a repub-
lican chief. shall be the bead man—the great ch./ de
borraw of the bureaucracy.

IN reference to the present and future representa-
tion of counties, we lately alluded to Wiltshire as •
county the staple manufactures of which have de-
clined to the lowest point, and where political inde-
pendence has been completely destroyed by the divi-
sion of the county into two electortil districts, and
the exclusive enfranchisement of the most dependent

class :of the inhabitants, the fifty-pound- yearly
tenants.

And here we may mention that the northern divi-
sion of that county has a population of 133,442 and
only 4,994 registered electors—numbers in our former
notice by a shp of the pen attributed to the southern
division—and that the southern division has a popula-
tion of 127,673 and no more than 2.559 registered elec-
tors. The mere statement of suchdisproportion between
the population and the number of electors shows
that the county representation is a farce. It is, in
fact, completely in the hands of the great land-
owners, and the members have no responsibility to
the body of the intelligent people of those clis-
triets. they simply represent in the House of Com-
mons the same views and interests which the peers
of the county advocate in the House of Lords.
do not represent the Commons of the county, but
only that class which, erroneously, as we think, be-

Neves its interests to be adverse to those of the
industrious classes. Nor Wthis all; while the toasty
members represent the landowners of the eawaly to
a mass, in what may be called their corporals do-
racter, the borough members of this county, with a
few exceptions, are returned by die direct and' ex-
elusive influence oj individual landowners. Oil
course the votes of Members thug:home moth with
tho political views and class interests of their
Pa??".

We have seen that Wiltshire, now mainly an
agricultural district, and with local interests almost
entirely agricultural, sends, by the nomination of its
•ners, four members to parliament, to repro-
spulation of about 260,000; while various
that population are penned off in boroughs
in such a manner as to add mach to the weight of
the far too preponderant landed interest. For South
Wilts, as we all know, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, the
brother and heir presumptive of the Earl of PEM-
BROKE, sits as the representative of the PEMBROILI
property; while the little town of Wilton, which
nestles in one corner of the park, gives the name
to a member of parliament, who is nominated bftohks.
PEMBROKE influence. Turning to Mr. boo's bo
we find that the constituency, consisting of the cor-
poration and the ten-pound householders, umbels
only 208 registered electors. But we find aim •
gnat disproportion between the population and the
number of ten-pound houses and the registered elective;
while the population amounts to 8,037, and the tam
pound houses to 1,113, the electors, 204, are not a
fifth of the number, which by the letter of the
existing law they ought to be. Within the bona-
dauies of Wilton, a considerable area of agricultural
land is comprised, most of which belongs to the
PEMBROKE estate, and therefore, although Mr. DOD
delicately says, "The Earl of PEMBROKE has consi-
derable influence in this borough," it is a fact as noto-
rious as the sun at noon-day, that Lord SostERTON
is as completely the nominee of the Earl of PEM-
BROKE, or those who act in his name, as his land-
steward or his bailiff. There may be, and probably
arc, a few independent men in Wilton, but they
must always be borne down by the immense local
influence of their great neighbour. All that can be
done with Wilton is to disfranchise it, and throw its
political representation upon the county members.
Salisbury, the county town, would naturally re-
tain its two members; but here there is the same
disproportion between the number of ten pound
houses and registered electors we see in the smaller
borough. The right of voting is vested in the cor-
ation and 2,327 ten pound householders—that
being the actual number of ten pound houses—
whereas the registered electors, the actual voters,
are only 695. Surely a city with a population of
11,626 can never be said to be fairly represented,
when such a fraction of its inhabitants alone possess
the right to vote.
Westbury is in the same position; with a popula-
tion of 7,434, and 1,697 ten pound houses, it has a con-
stituency of only 310. Here the boundary has
been so made as to comprise a large rural district,
though in this instance with the effect of enni-
cipating the borough from nomineeship. The
present member, Mr. WILsON, was elected as
a free-trader, and there is sonic genuine independence
in the place. In the olden days it was deemed, with
Bradford and Trowbridge, one of the strongholds of
the county liberals. A parliamentary group of
boringlis might be formed by uniting Westbury
with 'Trowbridge and Bradford, and perhaps Melk-
sham, that would fairly resent the still remaining
manufacturing interest of Wiltshire.
Devizes, next to Salisbury the meet important
town in the county, though its importance is declin-
ing, has a population of 6,136, and 1,413 ten pound
houses, though the registered electors number no
more than 333. There Is a considerable corn mar-
ket, and with an enlarged constituency and the bal.
lot, Devizes would probably be a fair specimen of a
provincial town in an agricultural district.
Cricklade, in the north of the county, is merely. a
portion of the county, and it should be merged in
the northern division. Its inhabitants have no in-
terests iii any way distinct front those of the rest of
that division ; its industry is purely agricultural,
and there is no mason, social, economical, or political,
why " the freeholders, copyholders, and house-
holders" of the hundred and borough of Cricklade
should not entrust their political interests to the
county members. Cricklade is only a largo village,
but the hundred comprises a population of 34,331;
the ten-pound houses are 6,094, while the re-
gistered electors are only 1,663. The present mem-
bers, Mr. JOHN NEED D and Mr. Gounaitu, arc sire.
ply nominees of the landowners of the district.
There are four other boroughs in Wiltshire which
ought to be altogether disfranchised: namely, Caine,
with only la 9 registered electors, a nomination bo-
rough of the Marquis of L ‘NSUOWN ; Marlborough,
with 254 registered electors, who are obliged to re-
turn any two members the Marquis of AMESBURY
may nominate; Chippenham, which has 314 regis-
tered electors, whom Mr. JOSEPH NEEL') relieves
from all care and turmoil in the election of parlia-
mentary representatives by nominating himself and
his brother-in-law, Captain BOLDERo; and Maims,-
bury,with 316 registered electors, who elect a member
kindly selected for them by the Earl of SUFFOLK.
Or, if. instead of total disfranchisement, these
four boroughs, with a household suffrage and the
ballot, should be formed into a group of boroughs,
and return two members, such members would pro-
bably fairly represent the real wants and wishes of
an independent and intelligent section of tho English
cemmunity. In each there is at present an inde-
pendent minority, but in each the prevailing influ-
ence of the local landowner is too strong to be en-
countered with effect.

Thus, if in place of the eighteen members at
present returned to parliament for the count• and
boroughs of Wiltshire, the representation should con-
sist of tour members for the county, two for Salisbury,
two for Devizes, two for a district of manufacturing
boroughs—Westbnry,Tro% bridge, and Bradford—and
perhaps two for a district of boroughs, consisting of
Marlborough, Caine, Chippenham, and Malmesbury—
altogether ten members; and if these members were
chosen by enlarged constituencies, protected by the
ballot, all the substantial interests of the county
would be adequately represented, and by a number
of members fully equal to the relative proportion of
its wealth, population, and importance.

Iv one very important respect there is a great
difference between California and the Australian

province in which gold has just been discovered.
California was essentially a waste; there was no
industry to be disturbed; no accumulated property to
be destroyed, by the sudden concentration of men's
thoughts and efforts upon gold mining. In New
South Wales there is an immense property in herds
and flocks to be left to go to ruin by the desertion of
their guardians, drawn from them by the gold as
irresistibly as tho nails in the ship of the Arabian
tale were drawn out as soon as it came within the
attraction of the kedstone island. And this diver-
sion of industry from its previous channels threatens
to be quite as destructive to the colony as the abstrac-
tion of its nails was to the ship.
New South Wales has, ever since the surcease of
convict transportation to that colony, suffered under
a deficient supply of labour. The progress of agri-
culture has been retarded from this cause; and the
great stockholders have had the greatest difficulty
in procuring men to take charge of their herds and
flocks. All recent accounts from the colony concur
in representing the distress of agriculturists and
stockholders by the desertion of their labourers as
extreme. The plough has been left in the furrow,
the harvest half garnered, by ploughmen and stock-
men rushing off to take part in the scramble for the
newly-discovered precious metal. With visions of
untold amounts of
.gold to be had for the gathering
floating before their imaginations, the forfeiture of
wages, and threats of dismissal without any chance
of re-engagement, are laughed to scorn. The has
on the eve of conclusion, was in imminent dan-
ger of being half lost, and few seemed to trouble
I themselves with forecast fur the next year. The
cattle might be able to shift for themselves, though
deserted by the stockmen; but they would run wild
and have to be captured by the lasso. And as for
the sheep, neglect of proper tendance would, in the
course of a week or two, cause them to die off by the
score. The owners of herds and flocks, who a few
weeks before seemed secure in the possession of more
than patriarchal wealth, had before their eyes the
t of beggary, and scarcity and hunger
prospect of begary, and scarcity and hunger
loomed in the distance over the gold-enriched colony.
MIDAS starving amid his gold reads like a prophetic
myth indicating the fate of New South Wales.
There is another danger threatening the colony