The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-07 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL.

THE ANTICIPATED CONTEST AT MANCHESTER gives
additional interest to the state of the register in that borough.
The new list has just been published. It contains the names
of twelve thousand eight hundred and forty-one electors for
the borough; and as, ‘n all probability, it wia be the register
on which the poll will be taken at the next general election,
we give the fo:lowing catalysis of it:—The borough is iiivided,
for the convenience of taking the poll, into 49 booths, the
number of voters apportion,d to each booth being usually
between 200 and 300; the lowest number at any booth being
202; the highest. 323. The township of Manchester has 14
districts, and as many alphabetical lists of voters, who ,all
in' .).`J booths ; the total numbs r of voters iu the township
on the register being 7,434. The fol'owing is a summary
of the number of voters in each township in the borough :
Manchester
Chorlton-uponlitedlock
Dubuc 1,50.1
Ardwicic
Cbmtham 7411
Newton, ilarpurhey, Bradford, and Bead* 270

To' II borough 12,541
REPRESENTATION OF MANCHESTER.—Our resdvrs wilt

comprehend the astonishment and regret we must have
felt, when it was announced that the candidate to
be opposed to Mr. Bright was the Earl of Laical°,
son of the Duke of Newcastle, and First Commissioner of
Woods and Forests in Sir It. Peel's cabinet. We rejoice to
dt justice to that noble lord as a young nobleman of talent
anti of liberal hie., who, in opposition to his father, and at
the sacrifice of hit seat for South Nottinghamshire, espoused
the tree-trade doctrines along with Sir R. Peel, and !twisted
to carry the repeal of the corn-laws. We do not doubt that
he adopted the free-trade views from conviction. But who
was it that forced this conviction on Sir Robert, his cabinet,
and so many members of parliament ? Was it not the
League ? And is it possible that any one can fer a single
instant compare the merit of a leader of that League with
the merit of one of its latest converts ? Cun there be such
a preposterous inversion of the order of things, as to
thrust out the gallant champion who bore the bruut of the
seven years' war—the dust, the heat, the desperation, and
' weariness of the strife—by one who came over front the op-
posite ranks when the battle was virtually won ? Is this
the way the country is to treat is benefactors? Is this the
example to let now set by Manchester, the manufacturing
metropo:is of the laird? Has Manchester so slialtt a per-
ception of its real honour and of its real interests? Is that
great constituency prepared entirely to shut out commercial
men from its representation ? It took Mr. M. Gibson, a
landed gentleman from Suffolk, because he wits a liberal,
able, and ardent advocate of free trade: and perhaps it did
well, on that express ground : but are both its members to
tbe connected entirely with the bind ? Is Mr. M. Phiiipe to
tic eueseeded by the Env' of Lincoln > Is every trace of the
glorious League to be thus obliterated in Manchester itself?
Are the Inn..setae% of that great town, who ought to regard
themselves as the bulwarks of trade, and guardians of the
democratic part of our constitution—that part on which
popular rights and liberties rent—to exclude the men whose
voice has so often rung in their great temple of Free Triple,
and to call to their representation a Conservative lord from
No•tingl.amshire, whose voice was never heard in that cause
till the contest was over ? We have n r words to t sprees
ouf tense of the injustice, the unbecomingness, and the want
of wisdom of such a choice. It is well known that we aro
no enemies to the aristocracy. Quite the reverse. But we
have long been deeply convinced that it is in the borough
representation that we are to find the strength and stay of
ropular liberty. The House of Lords is wholly aristocratic
and landed. The vast majority of the House of Coutmous is
so, and would be so undat any conceivable modelling of the
representation. The land, the church, the peerage, and
prerogative are thus abundantly fenced round. But there
are times at which every rtfl"ctivc friend of popular rights
must anxiously feel, that the democratic element of our
constitution is by no means strong in the leaisiature.
Numerically it is far too weak, and its only efficient
compensation is in the strength it derives from without.
Those who would redress the inequality of the con-
stitution by complete suffrage and equal electoral districts
would find, we can assure them, that they had positively
weakened the democratic iutluence, not strength lied it;
for it has been proved to demonstration that equal electoral
districts would actually increase the influence of the pro-
pel( tors of the land, by attaching a considerable rural popu-
lation to most of our borough constituencies. Where, then,
is the true strength and safety of the democratic and trading
interest ? It is in the spirit of the boroughs. If they
should be lured into a worahieping of lords end land,
when they ought to be stoutly and vigilantly guarding their
own intercom, by men who understand those interests, and
who are, as it were, bone of their bone and flesh of their
flesh, they will give up the only constitutional safeguard
of popular rights and of our commercial freedom.—Leeds
Mercury.
BAMFORD TESTIMONIAL.—WC learn with pleasure (says
the Manchester Guardian) that since last week, a very
respectable list of subscriptions has bean handed over from
Bolton, and intimation received of others from Stockport,
Asbton-under-Lyrae, and Bradford (Yorkshire) ; and we be-
lieve that the general feeling is now that a comfortable an-
nuity should be procured far this veteran reformer and ad-
mired author.

YORKSHIRE.
SHORT-TIME AOITATION.—The Leeds Mercury Igiyr.
W. Beckett, Esq., M.F. for Leeds, has declared himself in
favour of an Ekren Hours Factory Bill. C. 'Lindley, Esq.
the M.P. fur Ashton, is, ()wilier, according to Mr. actually
in '
getting up an agitation Lancashire for an Eleven Hours
Bill. The absence of Lord Ashley from the recent meetings
in Yorkshire and Lancashire, to promote the Ten Hours
Factory agitation, has occasioned some surprise in this part
of the country, and has not, we believe, been satiffactorily
accounted for, except that his lordshiii is not willing to sur-
render his own judgment to the dictation of much less cool-
headed men."
REPIIESESTATION OF EXARESlloROtrift.—There are, it is
said, already three candidates in the field for the representa-
tion of this borough at the next general election—the present
members and a connexion of sue of the most powerful
families in the district.
LEICESTERSIIIRE.
A FAhIIIONARLY-DRESsED SHOPLII-TER was, on Friday
last, committed for trial at Leicester. A gentlemanly-look-
ing man, far advanced in years, having the appearance of a
foreigner of distinction, wearing a " Victorine " fur round
his neck, and furs round his wrists, and displaying a gold
snuff-box iu a side pocket, having been observed to conduct
himself in a suspicious manner, in the shop of Mr. Jones,
jeweller, Market-place, on Monday, information of the cir-
cumstance was at once communicated to the chief constable.
That official sent one of his men to request the stranger to
attend at the County-office ; and although he at first indig-
nantly refused to accompany the policeman, he at last com-
plied with the request. On his arrival, Mr. Goselyer
tioned the distinguished-looking stranger as to his pursuit
and intended line of journey, and was so satisfied as
to the equivocal nature of the examinant's occupa-
tion, that he ordered hilt to be searched, in spite
of his earnest and dignified protestatiots to the
contrary. The first things that met the officers' at-
tention were three silk handkerchiefs in a piece (within
the trous, rs); the next were two gold seals, a ring, and two
gold chains ; his purse had previously been examined and
found to contain, instead of golden sovenigns, 12 brass
counters. The pocket-book was afterwards discovered, and
contained papers which afforded a complete clue to the route
already taken by this "illustrious stranger," and a forged
cheque for 1,260 francs upon Le Felber* and Sons. It
appears that he has pledged articles of jewellery in Man-
chester, Liverpool, Cheltenham, Bristol, and Bath, and is
supposed
to have been since in London. He had intended,
it seems, to honour Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds,
and York with his patrosage on leaving Leicester. The
name in which the traveller pledged the various articles
mentioned on the tickets was Muller, and he was professedly
a Belgian. He gave the name of Zeno Soloangen. The
ham:kin:hide have been identifi, d as the property of Mr.
Angrave, draper, and the seals as those of Mr. Gray, a
watchmaker.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
Usavett,rry PRIVILEGE OP IMPRISONING.—
sharer ~1 queen Elizabeth, granted to the Ulaer.
caintjri,i,_e in 1561, the authorities claim the
arresting without warrant any known vagrant at fden .
bad character, even though they may in no way beibreakfitir 4
-r---s I
the law. In the exercise of this privilege, the, Per. mg:N.4,
Kingsley, junior proctor of the University, was parading
town with a constable on the evening of the 6th noentbelrg: •'1
when they met Elizabeth Howe and another ell, whom, -
although they were peaceably walking the street, the rev. ,•-• „, -
proctor ordered the constable to take into custody.
They were accordingly escorted to the " spinning-house,"-s
temporary prison. Here the girls were confined in atoll •
cell and placed in a damp bed to sleep. The consequenlNl •
was that Elizabeth Howe, already in delicate health, was
seized next day—when she was liberated with an admonition

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