The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-16 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OP TEI EXPRESS,

•••• -
SIR,-1 very much wish that you would protest
against the practice of sending foreign letters in envelopes.
We have to pay for this favour an increased postage, three
or four times higher than the simple postage. People in
Eagliind are not aware of this, and during the last few
days I have had many requests that I would write to the
Express on the subjeet.—l am, Ac ,
A READER OF TILE DAILY NEWS IN NAPLES
Naples, July 4.

TIM COLLIERY EXPLOSION AT OLDHAIf..—The
inquest on the bodies was resumed yesterday morning, at
the Angel Hotel, Oldham, before Mr. D. F. Dearden,
coroner. On Saturday last %two men, named Timmons
Driver, aged 22, and Thomas Inman, aged 22, both un-
married, died of injuries received from the accident—
making the total number of deaths 20. The two govern-
ment inspectors and other witnesses had sti:l to be examined
when oar report left.

Ci3,lstetAA.

TO (I'ItitEgYONDWNTS.

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LOYDOS, SATURDAY, JULY 16.

Ascrritrn Election Petition from Ireland made its
appearance yestvrday. The recent borough contests
that have taken place in that country vividly remind
us of the absurdity and iniquity which still find
shelter in the unpurified corners of our present Par-
liamentary system. It is wholly impossible to con-
ceive a greater mockery upon everythin4 like the
idea of popular reprewmtation. From be4inning to
end, and from north to wall, in Catholic Cminaught
and Protestant tilstLr, it is all the same. With very
few exceptions, the return of Members to Parlia-

meat from the smaller Irish towns is either the re-
sult of direct nomination by the lord paramount of
each place, or of what is equally bad, the most dis-
graceful and unblushing corruption. Let us briefly
analyse the facts as they stand, from Which it will,
e think, appear that, if ever there txisted a stif

dcmonstrati;C case for Electoral Reform, it is to be
found in the borough rep esentation of the sistcr

kingdom.
Out of twenty-three borough towns returning to
Parliament one member each, there is actually but

one possessing a constituency of 400. Of these no
fewer than seventcoi contain less than 300 electors,
and two of them do not actually number as many as
200 voters. if we knew nothing of the practical de-
tails and deplorable working of such a state of things
we should be driven, without any breach of

charity, to infer that where dwarf constitu
encies exist, of the dimensions we have described,
the election of Members can be little better
than a mockery. We have recorded what sham
electoral bodies arc in England and Wales, and
what arc the appliances of corruption and intimida-
tion that are systematically brought to bear on them.
It is no imputation, therefore, upon particular per-
sons or places in Ireland to assert that electoral
bodier, averaging front a hundred and forty to two
hundred and seventy each, are utterly undeserving of
the national trust preposterously confided to them.
' Against the overbearing tyranny of landlord infin-
vice, where it is concentrated in one or two hands,
constituencies of the size in question are obviously too
weak to maintain a successful struggle. Some singular
coincidence may enable them for once in the lifetime
of a generation to brtak the bars of their political
prison, and to dance for a moment in their wean&
pated market-place. An instance of this occurred a
few months since at Lisburn, for which Lord HERT-
FORD had, for fifty years previously, periodically ap-
pointed the so-called representati%e, just as in the
same manner Lord BANDON has always appointed
a Member to sit for the little town whence
his title is derived. A sudden mutiny at Lisburn
among the electoral domestics of Lord HERTFORD
baffled on the last occasion the Most Noble Marquis's
will and pleasure, and a gentleman has consequently
been returned, not upon opposite principles to those
of his Lordship, but just for the sake, it would seem,
of reminding their absentee master of what rights
the ten-pound householders of the town were habi-
tually deprived by him. But nobody is silly enough
to believe but that, ere the next time of election comes
round, the presumptuous insurgents of Lisburn will
have been reduced to obedience, and that out of a
constituency numbering just 188 individuals the sole
proprietor of the town and adjacent county will
have easily made safe the requisite majority. There
is in the same county another borough—that
of Coleraine—whose electoral numbers do not amount
to more than 222. To this, as a last refuge, the
Derbyite Chief Secretary for Ireland, when expelled
from his own county on taking office in February'
1852, was fain to resort. The town is a poor and
declining one, though not ill situated for trade, and
thither, accordingly, when certain arrangements bad
been privately made for the purpose in London, Lord
NAAs was glad to betake himself. But as for a free
or popular election, in any sense of the word, the
thing was not to be thought of, for it was not possi-
ble. Now, here are two places ludicrously incapable
of exercising representative rights, both of which
are situated in a county whose population and extent
fully entitle it to return as many members as several
of those on this side of the Channel ; and we cannot
but think that it would be greatly for the advantage
of the people of Ireland, if their larger counties could
be divided and new county seats be thus created.
North Antrim, and South Antrim, would thus fur-
nish respectively sound and sufficient constituencies ;
and the burlesque of such boroughs as Lisburn and
Coleraine would be brought to an end.
But there is something infinitely worse in the
condition of places like Carlow, Kinsale, Youghal,
and Sligo. These may be taken as specimens of the
more numerous class of rotten boroughs in Intend,
the character of which is as notorious as that of
Sudbury, Stafford, or Harwich, in England. The
recent history of violence and venality at Sligo may
be taken as a sample of the whole. The constitu-
ency is stated in the last parliamentary paper to
amount to 336, but we have seen it stated, and we
believe correctly, that the real numbers fall some-
what short of that number. Be this as it may, we
know that at the general election of 1847 Mr.
CHARLES TowNELEY obtained his return by
means which a Committee of the House of Commons
declared to be corrupt and unlawful. The seat was
vacated accordingly, and the opponent of Mr.
TowNELEY was permitted to occupy it during the re-
sidue of the late Parliament. But at the dissolution of
1862 the conflict was renewed by the same antago-
nists. Much it was said had been done in the in-
terval to make Mr. TOWNELEY'S return secure; and,
after a bitter contest, in which the most disgusting
scenes of outrage and debauchery were enacted, that
gentleman was again declared to have obtained a
majority at the poll. His antagonist, Mr. Souuras,
again petitioned, and, upon proofs of corruption
still stronger than before the successful member woe
again unseated. Within the last few days another
contest has again been fought on the same
ground. Once more the indefatigable Mr. SOMMERS
has been vanquished by a few votes at the
hustings, and once more he has appealed against that
decision to a committee of the House of Commons,
on the ground of intimidation, bribery, and treating.
His opponent on the late occasion was Mr. JOHN
SADLEIR, one of the Lords of the Treasury, whom
rejection in Carlow some months ago was the subject
of so much discussion amongst opposing sections of
the Irish catholic party. Of the merits of the prang
case while it is pending we do not intend to speak,
but we presume that we may with confidence and
with propriety affirm that there is not an honest and
impartial Liberal on either side of the Channel who
does not feel that there is only one thing to be dope
with a place like Slip, namely, to disfranchise it
altogether, and give its seat to a larger and purer
assraitueney.
Beside the re-distribution of representatives in the
manner we have above alluded to, means might be
found for safely adding to the ntm►ber of members