The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-19 00:00:00

his son to be returned for it. It is true that ever
since 1832 a son of his has sat for it without inter-
mbsion ; but then Lord Lansdowne is so respectable,
and the heir of the family is—such a genius.
Your lordship has other colleagues besides Lord
Lansdowne—collelgues equally amiable, and equally
regardful of their interests when they ale in power.
Lord Carlisle was of greet assistance to you in
832
the Reform debates of 1. T here is an
hereditary borough of his in the north
of England: the limits of which prior to the Reform
Bill comprised the township of 3lotterrm Morpeth,
be it observed, had some elemeats of independence
about it before your bill was passed. The election
was in the corporation, and whilst a Howard always
tilled one seat, the corporation invariably returned an
independent member for the other. The boundary
etanmissioners describe Morpeth as " a small and
ancient county town sitnated on the river Wansbeek.
The stream is shallow nod rapid; and as it flows over
a rocky bed, it is very improbable that it will ever
be rendered naviguble. The neighbourhood is purely
agricultural. There are no manufactures earned on
in Morpeth ; but it is famous for its great cattle fairs
which are held within it weekly. The town is neither
flourishing nor decaying. Its condition has under-
gone little clung: fur the last fifty years. There are
no buildings in a et/MSC rf erection, nor has the town
any tendency to increase." Such being its couditiva,
it was neceosary to enlarge its boundary. "
Ad-
rert.aq to Mr aistrartians of Mc 21th Niaymber, fit
tchklt it is directed that separate towns are not h be
associated," the commissioners are forced to asoign to
Morpeth a district comprehending sir townships
extending in a straight line no less than nine
in one direction, from the town. It is somewhat
observable that ia the other direction the Commis-
sionen did not extend the boundary at all. Aud it is
still more ob errable that the boundary they did
assign covered all Lord Carlisle's property, whilst
any extension on the other side of the town would
have brought in rival and probably coellicting in-
terests. For the Earl of Carlisle this was certainly a
satisfactory arrangement. It rendered the borough
more completely his own than it was before the Re-
form Act passed; indeed, shale that bill, all the repre-
sentative of 3lorpeth has to do is to canvass the family
tenantry by means of the steward, whenever they
present themselves to pay their rents. As at Calne,
so at Morpeth, there has not been a contest since the
Reform 11.11, and a spec chke,s scion of the fam:ly has
held the repreientatum without the slightest inter-
ruption. Truly this use which is made of these
boroughs is of value to the state.
I have so many other illustrations of the manage-
ment of borough boendaries, and of the effects and
consequences upon the representation of the country,
that I am compelled to reserve them fur another oc-
casion. Befine, however, I conclude this letter, I
inn anxious to give one which really does show that
your lordship and the framers of the Reform Bill
acted in a truly accommodating spirit, and wherever
the interest ore friend was concerned, endeavoured
to assist him without reference to principle. Your
lordship will observe that in all the cases I have
cited, a very wide exteesion of boundary was held to
be absolutely necessary. At Woodstock and Buck-
ingham, the boundary was arranged to cover

the estates of the noble owners, both of
whom, in those days, voted fur reform. In the
Tavistock case, a very aide extension was con-
sidered wassail in order at once to protect the in-
dependence of the town and include the estate of the
noble house of Bedford. At Caine the Commissioners

oat of respect to the Piesident of the Council in-
cluded his park and demesne. At Morpeth they
curried the extensioa to such a leugth as to include
a tract of nine miles of country chiefly held by the
Earl of Carlisle, and to exclude every inch of land
that appeared to he held by any body else. But,
your lordship may say, that at any rate there was
one principle acted on iu all these cases—namely,
the principle of a widely extended boandary. In
the case I am about to mention this principle wr.s
held to be invalid by your government, though
it was adopted by the boundary commissioners.
The little town of ARUNDEL, which nestles, as your
lordship knows, under the feudal castle of your friend
the Duke of Norfolk, contained when the Bound:try
Commissioners visited it about lino houses actually
rated at 10/. a-year. It was said that there were
WO others worth that sum, but not assessed at it.
This, however, was a statement the Commissioners

presumed to doubt, and which they declared to be
" inconsistent with the appearance of the town." In
consequence of this view it Lectors necessary to
extend the boundaries of Arundel, in order that it
might include a competent constituency. The Com-
misioners accordingly looked around them, and they
reported thus:
The town of Little Hampton has a natural connexion
with. Arundel by means of the river. Great port of the
adjmnin; country is supplied through this Fort, and its
commerce might, perhaps, be increased to the prem.-ice of
Arundel were it not for the situation of the mcdom-house
at Arundel, which compels the bond warehouses to be built
at the latter place instead of Little Hampton, where they
would be more conschiently pl reed for the shipping. Little
Hampton will give 106 qualif iug hon,e*, and we, the
tore, recommend that the new borough of Arundel consist
of the parioies of Aruodel, Leuminater, and Little
Hampton.
Could anything be more reasonable than this?
Could anything be more accordant with the spirit
and letter of their instructions? That the recom-
mendation mould be adopted anyone would conceive
to be a matter of course; but no—by the Boundaries
Mt as leased into a law it appears that the borough
of Arundel is confined to the first-named parish
only,—" the pwrish af Arundel."
The object of this, my lord, is clear. Little'
Hampton is a rising place—Arundel a decaying old
town. Little Hampton is independent of " the duke"
—Arundel entirely his own. With Little Hampton
added to it, Arundel would, in all probability,'
have been an independent borough; without Little
Hampton it became a nomination borough. Where
the extension of the boundary answered the purposes
of Whig peers, the " Retimm/' ministry of 1831 ex-
temkd it; where the limitation of the boundary
served their object better, the "Refurui " ministry
of 1831 circumscribed it ! _ _

But iu this case, at least, you acted on the prin-
ciple for which Mr. Macaulay awarded you his
praise. It was only where it better served the pur-
pose of the aristocracy that you effaced the "old
distribution between town and county."
I am, my lord, with all possible respect,
RUNNYMEDE.

SERIOCS ACCIDENT TO THE MAGNET, AMSTER-
DAX STEAMEIL—LaNt evening, an accident betel the Mag-
net steamship while proceeding up the river, on her return
from Amsterdam, which nigh involved her wrack and
damage to a valuable freight. The alagnA is an iron-built
vessel of considerable power, and when on the St. Peters-
burg station made one of the fastest p usages from that
capital perhaps on record. A day or two ago she left
Helvoct fur the Thames with a full freight of besets, calves.
sheep, butter, and other merchandise, and her trip was
prosperous enough until on reaching Limehouse Reach,
when she unfortunately touched upon some vessel's anchor.
The rush of water into her engine-room promptly inti-
mated that a serious hole had been pierced in her hull, and
much alarm was naturally excited for the tate of the live
stock on board, as indeed the steamer. The water kept
gaining upon her, and having reached the fires, they were
extinguished, and her progress stopped. The aid of a tug-
boat, however, was secured, and at length the Magnet after
some difficulty was got to e Dublin Steam-wharf, Lower
East Smithfield, where she was hauled in shore, and her
live stock got out the best way practicable. Her actual
damage is not precisely rocertained, but it was stated that
her engine-room and afterpart were full of water. As the
tide went down attempts would be made to haul her closer
in shore. Tho state of the tide was a most fortunate cir-
cumstance, for had it been flowing, the probability is she
would have sustained much mote serious damage.
THE COLLISION ON THE SOCTII COAST RAILWAY.
On Wednesday an inquest was held at Portsmouth, before
W. J. Cooper, Esq., upon the circumstances attending the
death of Mr. Josiah Groves, an outfitter, near the Dockyard
gates, whose death was alleged to have arisen from the
effects of a collision on the above railway, near the Arundel
Station, on the night of the 27th of November last. Tho
inquest was a protracted one, lasting to half-past 2 o'clock
yesterday (Thursday) morning. Details of the collision
appeared in the Express at the time, as did also the cir-
cumstance under which it occurred, as (Hefted at the in-
quest on the stoker, James Martin, who died a few days
after from the wounds he received, a verdict of man-
slaughter being brought in in that case against the driver of
the passenger train, James Pemberton. The facts in this
caw iu reference to the collision were the same as deposed
to at the first inquest : bat it appeared from the evidence of
Dr. Engledue, the medical attendant of the deceased, that,
although his death might have been accelerated by the shock
he received from the accident, yet that he had previously suf-
fered from disease of the heart and other aihnents. Dr. Gar-
rington, of Portsea, corroborated the testimony, and added
that deceased's heart was nearly three times its natural six:.
After a very able summing up by the coroner, the jury
gave as their verdict, That death had arisen font a com-
hination of diseases, which had been aggravated by the col-
lision in question, sad that to the driver and stoker of the
train by which deceased had travelled, great blame was
attributable for their inattention to tae signals."