The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-13 00:00:00

ELECTORAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

This inland county ha; a portion of Wales for its
boundary on the south ; on the east, the counties of Worces-
ter and Gloucester; on the north, Shropshire and a part of
the county of Worcester; on the north-west and west, Rad-
norshire and Brecknockshire. Out of these limits the county
has four detached portions, which extend themselves in other
quarters: two of them belonging to the Hundred of Welply,
namely, one district about nine miles E.N.E. of Ludlow;
and • second about two miles south of the river Trent, near
Tenbury ; both of these detached portions being separated
from the main body of the county by Shrerhire ; the third
is • portion of Huntingdon Hundred, which is rerrounded
by Radnorshire ; and the fourth is a part of Eiryir-Lacy, on
the borders of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire' west
of Lanthony, in the Flatten' range of the Black
Mountain. From the north aide of Muektree-hill
to the southern border of the Lord's-wood, the greatest
length of the county is about 40 miles. Its gi eats at breadth,
computed from the west aide of the parish of Brilley to the
foot of the Malvern-hills, is 34 miles. The area of the whole
county is shout 860 square miles, or 650,000 acres. The
number of inhabitants tea *quart mile in Herefordshire is
only 129. In Gloucestershire the proportion per square
mile Is 307. In point of dimensions it is exceeded by 24
English and Welch counties; in point of population, by 44
English counties and by 1 Welsh. There are no considerable
rivers that have their source in Herefordshire. Those which
water it take their rite in South Wales. It abouuda with
fine hop gardens, and very extensive and celebrated orchards,
which produce the cider so universally known as the pro-
&:e of this county. Its breeds of sheep and horned cattle
are also very good. The latter are considered to form the
finest stock of these islands. The northern part of the county
raises an excellent breed of horses.
Herefordshire is divided into 11 hundreds. These contain
221 parishes. It hu 7 market towns. It has ore city (Hem-
ford), returning 2 member@ ; and one parliamentary borough
(Leominster), which still returns 2. The county itself is
represented by 3 members ; so that the whole body of its
representation consists of 7 members only; Weobley, which
formerly returned 2 more, as and buried in
" Schedule A." of the Reform Act. Other three very
ancient boroughs of this °county, Ledbury, Rem, and Brom
yard, were long since permitted to divest themselves, each,
of the elective franchise, on the ground of the expense that
privilege of so electing each of them 2 representatives to
serve en parliament entailed on such of their townsmen and
burgesses as posse reed, and had to exercise, the elective fran-
chise. Here fordahire is entitled to be considered as espe-
cially an agricultural county, and, indeed, it takes ranks@
fourth or fifth of the English counties coming under that
designation. It has long been renowned for the sagacity and
success 4 its graziers. They carefully maintoln the excel-
lence of the county breed of cattle, still, perhapt, on the
whole, an unrivalled stock even in this comae", It has been
computed that about onemventh of the whole estimated
ter:adnboufthildinettlerv"mabunliidetysofioliar,
tie...tor
sit.be
aldfdedunw..retoo,ded,rlLaindd:,
..(eitakti.
last, alone, occupying 50,000 acres). Among the mineral
prodneta of the county may be reckoned won and coal,
abundance of red and yellow ochre, pipe clay, and fuller's
earth. Yet it is observable, that where the industry of the
inhabitants is diverted at all from ernplopo efil! coming
under the description of agricultural occupations, is i',";;,41,*
cipally applied to retail trades. Of 23,566 familii a, reported
upon in Mr. Rickman's tables of 1831, there were found to
be 12,895 chiefly employed in agricultural labour or pur-
suits; 6,109 in trade., handicrafts, or manufactures; and
4,672 in all other employments, de. rp to that year (1831)
the numerical advance of the population of Herefordshire
had been aingulariy slow ; a fact not the len remarkable,
from the extreme salubrity of the climate (though in most
parts, a keen, and a somewhat harsh one, in irony), and from
the notorious longevity of its inhabitants. Moat of our
readers may remember the story of a learned serjeant-at.law
exhibiting—at his place in this county, when giving •
hospitable reception to King James I.—a morriedance by
ten Herefordshire performers, five old men and five old
women, whose united ages amounted to upwards of
1,000 years. And in the commencement of the present
century, " the average number of deaths taken from the re-
nd burials far ten. successive years appeared to have
been as 1t064 of the muting population." Now, it is quite
surprising to contrast the stow advance of the aggregate in-
' crease of their numbem as compared with the general average
of increase exhibited by the great majority of the other
counties of England ace. -Wales. Thus, in 1801, the popula-
tion of Herefordshire was 89,191; In 1811 it had beeves.
94,073 (as increase of 68 per cent. only); in 1821 it was
103,243, and in 1831 it was 111,211, Coosequently, in 30
years, the groat increase of inhabitants was but 244 per cent.
In 1841 the census returned only 114,348. This shows as
increase in 40 years of 23,167 persons; or 281 per cent. only
on the population of 1801. The poor-rate amounted in 180
to 46,4711. Let us pause, at this point, to yenta, k that, from
returns made under the act 16 Geo. 111., we find that this
charge for the sear 1776—past twenty-five years previously
—had been only 10,3931., a difference of 36,4761., and show-
ing an increase in the charge for poor-rate, between the fir*
and the last years of that quarter of • century, of
, 347 per cent.find that that average of this
test charge (tor such we may well call it, in estimating the
social or the economic progress of any given district), was,
for the years 1783, 1784, and 1785 ively, but 16,7281.
per annum. This (se ' what it was in the
16th of George III.) M.O shows a pee
l paiive increase frona , last at yoregcd years, my
ivoi
• . I
a
CIIF 1(+.• 174.;1 4--"/

NOMMIOMI

=

4

- - -
1 715 to 1801,—that is, on an aggregate interval of 16 years,
of-177 per cent. In 1811 the poor-rate for Herefordshire
was R 2,9311.; in 1321 it fell to 62,7281. ; and in 1831 to
62,622/ At the nest decennial period, ending March,
1341, the sum expended in this county for the relief of the
poor was 43 5121., or lees by 3,0001. nearly than it had been
in 1801
Oa the jourrods of the House of COMOIO6II we find entries
of petition', complaining of the conduct of the sheriff of
the county at elections for the shire in 1703 and 1710, and
of the proceedings taken in respect e' such petitions. In
1802, several freAtolders of Herefordshire presented peti-
tions against the recent returns for it. Among these
was one from Richard Middleton Biddulph. Em., im-
S:ftriii;ig thee ele
Cction
nrclf r.Cietrtilereallineweir.Bani aretl!
The committee determined and reported " that Sir George
Cornwall, Bart., was duly elected ; that J. G. Cotterell,
Esq., was aot duly elected ; that R. M. Biddulph, Req. , was
Lot duly elected;" whereupon a new writ was ordered to he
issued, and a Mr. Mathews was returned as the colleague of
Sir George Cornwall for this county.
Of the three members at present repeal/eating Hereford-
shiro—and all of whom were returned, at the last election,
without opposition—Mr. Hoskins (who haslet for the county
ever since 1831, and is very populse with the constituency)
is a Whig. Mr. Bailey, jun., and Mr. Mynors Baakerville are
• Conservatives. There are few counties in which the strength of
family inflames' is more intensely felt; and that this state of
things must have existed centuries beck enmity infer from the
two.and.twenty lordly castles, the remains of which, in
various stages of preservation or of ruin, still attest the
vast estabbshments of their baronial masters, who have
thence overawed the neighbourhoods they protected and
overlooked. At the present day the Bishop of Hereford
and his 'epode./ clergy, err said to secure the return of one
member for this county. The Duke of Norfolk and Lord
Foley ore supposed to secure another. The third—thanks
to the Reform Bill—is, or should be, the free choice of the
electors. The bishop and his clergy are known among the
Herefordshire constituency under the " Very (it) Reverend"
deaignation of the " Black and Tons." The other principal
partite, who undoubtedly more or lea' infiwince the returns
for the county., are the heads of families, whose landed
posiondons in it are, for the most part, pattimonial and
hereditary; in some, mom recently acquired, hat very large.
Among the former, are these in whew line , like
the heirs to the peerage of Lord Bateman, titles have
become extinct, or lain dormant ; then have revived or
are again in abeyance. Among the latter may be instanced
the newer Arkwrights, and the older Mynors, Baakervince,
and Prices. This county is a pet seat of one, at least, of
the titled orders. We observe among its resident denizens
the following baronets: Sir Velters ComewaU, Sir Stanhope
Seedamore, 8' ir James Money, Sir Arthur Craft, Sir Robert
Price, Sir Harford Brydges, Sir Hu ford Hoskyns, Sir
Hattori Colt, Sir J. Cottcrell, Sir J. J. Washout, and Sir T.
Biddulph. The number of registered voters at the last
general election was 7,289. This was somewhat increased
upon the lest registry returned to parliament, the number
being 7,371. The history of the county returns since the
pewee o!' the Reform Act is remarkable. At the het 'dec.
tioo, es we have stated, Mr. Hoskins, a Whig, and his two
Conservative colleagues, Mr. Baskerville and Mr. Bailey,
jun., were returned without a contest. At the preceding
election of 1837 Mr. Hoskins and Sir Robert Price, Bart.,
both of them Whip, end Mr. Foley, a Conservative, were
returned without opposition. At the election of 1935 these
two Whigs -Mr. Hoskins, who had represented the county
since 1831, and Sir Robert Price, who had represented it
since 1618—were returned, the one by 3,159 voter, and the
other by 2,804, together with Mr. Foley, the Conservative,
who, like Mr. Hoskins, bad sat for the county since 1832,
and new polled 2,931 votes:—than defeating the other
'candidate, Mr. Poole, who, however, had 2,070 voted. The
previous genera election in the very first excitement of the
triumph of parliamentary reform, had returned exactly the
same candidates. Looking at the" fair chance " thus given
in turn to all the three sitting members; to the numbers on
the registry ; and to the severity of the contest just noticed ;
we axe inclined to allow to the constituency of Herefordshire
the praise of having set a highly meritorious example to the
other electoral constituencies of the empire, of fairness
and free:lom in the exercise of the elective franchise.
They have shown, in no ordinary manner, bow
far couttitueuts may be just to particular political
principles themselves, and yet, occasionally, give
their antagonists the chance of vindicating their opposi-
tion to the application of such principles in the treatment of
eertaia specific questions. They have also shown that there
are cams in which individual merit and integrity are more
certain claims to their confidence than even the ties of com-
munity of party. IL.

IRELAND.
DUBLIN, MAY It.
The official bulletin of this morning thus described

Lis excellency's state :
The Lord Lieutenant's state has undergone no material
change since yesterday.
To inquiries this afternoon, the answer was that he
continued as in the morning. I need scarcely remark
that such accounts are, in his condition, very
unfavourable. _ _ . . .

People cannot be induced to believe, without
ocular testimony, in our hideous social condition;
but there can be very little doubt that Ireland now
labours more severely than at any period since the
commencement of the crisis. April has proved a
most disastrous month, more particularly in the
remote mountain and maritime districts. The
government depots were tilled and drained
over and over. The supply was liberal; but
where the daily pressure consisted of hundreds of
thousands, the granaries of ancient Itome would be
inedequate to the demand. In a north-western dis-
trict, where a large depot was in continuous flow, the
pariah priest gives the names of " seventy-two indi-
viduals" who perished of west and hunger in " three
villages " on the highlands during the month of April,
out of a population of about 300 families. At West-
port, a town of some trading pretension, the state of
the markets will afford an illustration of the state of
tho poor. Miserable moor-fed mutton sells at 10d.
per lb. ; butter of an inferior description, Is. 4d. ;
bacon, from 10d. to Is. per lb.: while bread and flour
are higher than in Dublin. Spotted fever prevails in
• every street.

SCOTLAND.
Our Edinburgh correspondent's letter of 11th May,
is to the following effect The money pressure is
being felt in all branches of business and at Glasgow
it threatens a collision between the banking and mu-
nicipal authorities. One of the banking houses of the
western metropolis has suddenly called on the police
board to pay up 25,6501. at Whitsunday, that is four
days hence. In general, ouch a good understanding
prevails between the Scotch banks and public trusts,
that a demand of this kind indicates no ordinary crisis.
Should there be no modification of the Bank Acta, Scotch
members may lay their account to Peel's bill being
made a hustings question. The Scotch banks, from
their widely-spread constituencies, caution, and, above
all, their twice-a-week exchanges of each other's
notes, rest on foundations so solid, that nothing short
of national insolvency could shake them. Our mer-
chants cannot, therefore, divine how any limit
should be put to the issues of parties, who, in
all past times, have shewn • wise discretion
. in the administration of their own affairs, and
subordinately a reasonable amount of attention to
public wants. The bankers themselves, who, at the
passing of the act, chuckled at the idea of the mono-
poly which was conferred on them, and trusted to the
chapter of accidents for escaping the troubles of the
restrictive clauses, are now in despair at finding
themselves surrounded with full coffers which they
dare not open to satisfy the clamorous reqnesb of
their most stable customers. They are not, however,
isactive in their movements, as they are still plying
government with deputations, petitions, and ad-
dresses."