The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-19 00:00:00

OUR REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM

RICHMOND (Yoameninm)
From the painful case of rotten Ripon we turn with
lively satisfaction to the political position of romantic
Richmond. Charming contrast. Here, far once, we
have a borough outdated, if not uninfluenced—a society
in which the public feeling is so nearly unanimous that
the demon apolitical discord has been unable hitherto
to distract its social harmonies. .Rare Richmond !
few are the towns of England, great or sniallithat can
boost, now-a-days, of each advantages. May it long
retain its enviable diatinction.
In popular phraseology, " Richmond is the Earl
of Zetland's borough :"—in parliaments:l'
" the Earl of &deed maintains his 12ueuare;
unimpaired." Take it whichever way you will,
both allegations are trim and false : true in fact, and
erroneous in inference. The townspeople will give
you this solution of the dificulty. It is tree, they say,
that Richmond is the Earl at Zetland's borough, in-
asmoeh as the Earl of &Wed and his relatives have
been returnedfer it for &century; but it is not true that
it is the Earl of Zetland's borough in the sense that
the Earl of Zetlend could return for it a member un-
acceptable to the people. The Earl of &timid main-
tains his influence here unimpaired : may be bang
continue to maintain it, for it is an influence arising
from respeot for himself and attachment to his
house. Bat it would be erroneous altogether to
infer that it was an influence either booed upon cor-
ruption or resulting from any apprehension on our
part of a bad mattes of the power his position may
confer. Sack is the statement of the Richmond
people regarding their own position.
a case. Suppose the improbable contingency
thatthis branch of the family of Dundee deserted those
liberal principles which they have endeavoured to
promote. In such an evestorneld they be enabled
to retain two tory representatives for Richmond?
The most influential people in the town will respond
with an indignant " No." This, they say, is an
essentially liberal town. We owe it probably to the
house of ftske that it is eo. They have fostered and
nurtured theme principles amongst us. " Our fathers
shared'tbsm in common with the family, and left them
us as legacies to cherish and maintain. We
should depart from them at no man's bid-
ding." It is a proud bout to make is
this boast of independence, and we give it
Mdasas it was given to us. Long may such
olYof opinion be maintained, and may the day
be distant when it would be required to make Rich-
mond a scene of party conflict in order to presorts
each sawed principles inviolate.
The &timid family, who " maintain their influence"
in this geed *ay in Richmond, are seated about four
miles from the town. They have some property
within it, but not an overwhelming portion, and
_sy rLre not amenable in any degree fo the charge of
• or jobbing fat the of vote-
"niTdsg7& boundaries of the boeo arranged
by the Reform Aot, include some portion of
the Alike property h . the outlying district.
_'there is a iron- g ft Ming in the cousity thattizt=
meat to include Cotten:2k, a parish of o
population which is cal y suparated from Richmond
W the river Smile. The brandary ommeindosers
stnigned no better reason for neelndiag thin raids
this that the people of Richmond were opposed to
its Introduction into the borough limits. 11 Cate-

risk mere iaeladed it does not seem.that the political
hang of the maatitnesey would be materially
dboted, whilst Silinflame by iedividgels would, by
the oatmeal= g! Illikelectoraw, be amemarily

Rislialoted. at the period of the Rehm Bill re.
tuned es its representative a brother end the second
sin of the late Lord Dead's. The present Earl of
andrna hed represented the om 1818 to 1830,
when he 11911 returned for York, when the family
dims possund sure Winne& There were one
Wtwo ether sheep@ in the repneestation between
11132 and leak bet they were unimportant. In that
year however en event took place which is memorable
in Riche nd annals.
BebeleeetlY to the kinising of the Municipal Re-
hm Jib there had been seven] costestr in this
borough en offemien el the election of corporate
diem They amereed rather a personal than I
eheneter, ba t they it
for a time
whet ball not coonend in Richmond beton, $
division ef the town into two distinct prte., lathe
pm 1839 the present Earl of Zetleoa, by the leech
et his lease/ether, became a peer. Another member
et the foully was started to fill his place. The
pried wee ens of dimethdastion, and the par.y whe
were in the isbority in the municipal outsets
jested to this nominition. They found a candidate'
In Mr. Miles Thomas Stapleton, of Carleton-hall, since
better known as Lord Beaumont. Mr. Miles Staple-
ton's father was a banker in Richmond at the hheeaadd of
the respectable firm row known as Maxwell and Co.'
Toe will very often hear it said in London, "Oh,
Lord Beatiment is the person who contested the.
North Riding in 1832, and polled a very small num-
ber of votes." This is altogether a mistake and,
Canot a very fortunate one for the noble lord.
lisPer'o of that contest was a Mr. Martin Stspylton;
of Metton.ball, near Boroughbridge, whom father.
ands: the title of Dr. Ben, was a celebrated quack
doctor in Yak. The similarity of the names—" M.
Btapletcm "and " M. Stapylton,"—and the sasociation
of
,both Parties with the same district of the same
county, has frequently led to this not very enviable
confusion. Lord Beaumont, however, is the represen-
tative of a inner, but now the only existing, branch
of an old Roman catholic family. His father, aa his
been mentioned, was at the head of e banking firm
in Richmond, and acquired, late in life, the estate
of Carleton, left to him b a relative, who bad
no issue of her own. Mr. Milan Stapleton sue.
ended to this property in 1837 or 1838, and, being
a min of no small ambition, was just ready to outwit
Richmond when the opportunity offered in 1839.
The battle cry of the Stapleton party at this canted
wu one which shows the sense entertained by
those who know it best of the independent feeling of
the Richmond electorate. It was " Freedom of eleo-
tion"—" No nomination." The contest, it is right to
say, was conducted honourably and without acrimony.,
The number of votes polled shows that while the
prevailing feeling is in favour of the " House of
bilm," there is freedom of election in the borough of
Richmond. The numbers were—For Dundee, 162 ;1
Stapleton, 80. There are not many nomination bo.
roughs where, at the first contest for a century, a
third of the electorate would be found voting against
the ruling influence. Take Reigate, Morpeth, Lau-
oeston, Arundel, Wilton, and other small places where
the prevailing influence is differently exercised, and
you would scarcely muster the same number of votes
under similar circumstances in the whole of them put

torther. The result of this contest, therefore,
whist it indicates the attachment of the Richmond
people towards the hoses Of Zetland, shows at the
same time their freedom from an oppressive exercise
of aristocratic domination.
The influence possessed by the present bead of the
Zetland family has, indeed, been more lightly exer-
cised than it was even by his father. Up to 1841
both seats were filled by members of the family. At
the election in that year, however, the late amiable
Mr. Ridley Colborne was elected to fill awe,
of the seats. On his death, in 1848, Mr.
Rich, one of the Lords of the Treasury, succeeded
him • and in 1847 this gentleman was again
returned, together with Mr. Marmaduke Wyvill, Jun.,
son of a Yorkshire gentleman who formerly repro-
mated the county in parliament. These members are
both unconnected by any tie of relationship with the
Earl of Zetland, and though the oame to Richmond
under his auspices, they are des by the electors
to be highly acceptable to them as representatives in
parliament.
These articles are usually directed tt exhibit the
delinquencies of corrupt constituencies and the op-
pressions of eleetionseneg autocrats. In truth, in
reviewing " Our Representative System," with refer-
ence to the smaller boroughs of Ragland, we have
essay no choice but to exhibit in colours, more or
less dark, the venality of electorates or their sad
subserviency. It is a pleasing task to be able to vary
the picture, by displaying (as a good example to potent
nobles) a borough where the major part of the domi-
nant lateen°s is the result of hereditary
of lical opinion. The electoralaffection,sopersonal regard, and general ao
ccorrdd
ce-
an position of
Richmon is in many respects equally hanowable to the
house of Aake and to the independent electors of the
borough. With such a state of things little absolute
fault is to be found. At the same time it cannot bet'
be seen that the position is fraught with danger.
Another generation might see a more imperious lad
Zetland and a far lest independent Richmond electo-
rate. In recommending,. therefore, the extension of
this borough, we are only guarding that independence
which the present constituency are so anxious to
preserve. In further deciding that it ought to lose
one member, we are only doing a duty to the whole
empire. The town is muth,too small and unimportant
to be entitled to the privilege of double representa-
tion. Its present population is not 6,000 ; its °mai-
tummy only about 300. Being situated in the midst
of an agricultural district, it would be impossible to
increase these numbers without a very wide-
stretched boundary.

Richmond, moreover, hu no interest requiring repre-
sentation. It is *comparatively stagtent market town:
its populatioa for the most part enjoying the comforts
of human exultance, without posseastng opportunities
of rising to its luxuries. There are towns in
every respect of superior importance that have not
the privilege of returning even one member to reeve
in parliament whilst Richmond, rescued from
schedule B of the first Reform Bill, is permitted to
send two.