The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-05 00:00:00

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NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.
The number of STAMPS boned by the authorities of the
Stamp-office, during 1847, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3.447,009
This, we believe, Is within eight per cent of the number
betted to the Morning herald, Morning CAronkk, and
Morning Post, ALL PUT TOOLII au.
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued ler the Erentni Hdits"
THE EXPRESS 778,714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued either to
the Globe or Standard. Evening Papers.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
"

11100 WATS& AT LONDON IMMO&
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LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 5.
OUR contemporary the Times has just discovered
that the Reform Bill is faulty in its distribution of
the representation, and imperatively requires modi-
fication. But the amendment proposed for this
defect is singularly incommensurate with the evil
admitted to exist. Another schedule A would be of
no avail, even were it an amendment in the right
direction, which it would not be. It could only '
effect the lopping off some branches from the condi-
' tutional tree, and enlarging the dimensions of others.
Now, the spirit of the age does not tend towards a
monopoly of legislation. It demands the distribu-
tion of legislative powers amongst all in-
terests, according to their relative degrees
of importance. We mnst have a rational dis-
tribution of the representation, instead of an arbi-
trary apportionment of it, designed with a view to
stifle the cry for justice in some quarters, at the ex-
pense of justice in others. To satisfy Manchester, we
are urged to disfranchise Harwich. We wish to see
no portion of the country disfranchised, but every
part represented in its proper proportion. Justice to
Manchester is compatible with justice to every
borough in the kingdom. We much mistake the
character of the Manchester people if they would
accept of an accession of representative strength at
the expense of any of their fellow subjects. But this
is what is recommended, in the hope that the popula-
tion of one large town will swallow the bait, and leave
the smaller communities to their fate.
The smaller towns are to be betrayed, that the
larger ones may be corrupted. Were so disgrace-
ful a compromise possible, the temptation pre-
merited to the latter is er below the induce-
ments which are held out to them to insist
upon the establishment of a more rational proportion
between population and representation. Were popu-
lation, or population and property combined, made
the basis of representative distribution, Manchester
and Glasgow, instead of the additional member who
might be accorded to each of them, by such a plan
would respectively more than treble their representa-
tion. What they have to contend for le, not that
they should each have three or four members in the
house, but that they should each have the seven or
eight to which their numbers, their intelligence, and
their wealth entitle them. And this they may have
without the disfranchisement of any constituency, all
that is requisite for its attainment being that petty
communities, which are now disproportionately repre-
sented, should be reduced to their proper dimensions
in the constitutional system.
We sincerely trust -that every section of the country
will steadily resist every attempt at compromise, which,
whilst offenreg but an instalment of justice to some,
would intl ict great injury upon others. Such attempts will
be made, and are already being made, in the hope that
should the pressure out of doors render necessary some
comprehensive measure of reform, the dominant chimes
will be enabled, by a timely appeal to the presumed
selfishness of the middle classes, still to retain in
their hands the greater portion of that influence,
which they now so exclusively wield. The cause of
the middle classes ire identical with that of the
working classes. Let not the former then
make common cause with those whose political
interests are inimical to their own, and to those
of the working classes. Let them cordially co-ope-
rate against their common enemy, and there is no
government in this country which will be found
strong enough long to resist their reasonable demands.
Already has the pressure from without made itself
felt within the recesses of the cabinet and the walls et
nt. The measure to be introduced next week
by
.Lord Joffe ItesseLL, to repeal the existing pro-
visions of the law which require the payment of
assessed taxes previous to registration, is a slight
concession to those who, but a short time ago, were
represented as wanting no reform. As a prop for
their waning popularity, the whigs selll find this a
failure. It is not enough to satisfy the demands of
the day, whilst it is sufficient to show that the go-
vernment is weak, and to encourage the people to
persist in their demands.
' " '• '" •

Whatever may be done for the ap pl ication to the legis-
lature of that moral coercion, without which, as at pre-
sent constituted, it will not move one step in the direc-
tion of popular concession, the transcendent importance
of the question, which regards the distribution of the
representation, should not be overlooked. It has not hi-
therto occupied that prominent position in the movement,
to which its essential influence entitles it. If there is
any distinction to be drawn between it and the exten-
sion of the suffrage, it is to it that the paramount im-
portance must be accorded. The enlargetnen t of the fran-
chise without the remodelling of the electoral districts
would only be of prospective service—the remodelling
of the electoral districts, even with the franchise left as
it is, would be of immediate utility. It is, of course,
at both combined that the people should aim. But
in their relative importance they should not be re-
versed in the public mind. To every adult male
might be conceded a vote, and yet. with the repre-
sentation on its present basis, the whole power of the
state still remain in the hands of the landlords. Re-
presentation has a twofold aspect—that of persons,
and that of interests. The point to be striven for is
to reconcile them. Every person in the state may be
represented, and yet the representation may be so
distributed that one interest is rendered all-powerful.
On the other hand, with the franchise as it now is,
embracing only a fraction of the people, the represent-
ation might be so apportioned that, although the peo-
ple are but partially represented, the different interests
of the country, with the exception, perhaps, of that of
labour, would be duly represented. But, with
other interests powerful, as well as the landed in-
terest, the interests of labour could not long be over-
looked. We wish no other question to be sacrificed
for this of electoral districts—what we desire is that
it should be made constantly prominent in every
movement which takes place throughout the country.
Our friends may depend upon it that it is that which
the dominant classes regard with most uneasiness, as
being far more fatal, if adopted, to their legislative
monopoly than any extension of the franchise could
alone be. It is consequently the point against which
they will direct the most obstinate resistance. By
lug so much as it will diminish the power of the
anded proprietary will it increase the influence of the
trading, commercial, and manufacturing classes ; and
as it is these classes who are chiefly interested in the
reduction of expenditure, their accession to power
would be the most substantial boon which could be
conferred upon the overtaxed people of this country.

IT is a failing of oar nature that we are often most
undecided whilst we seek to appear most in earnest.
We may avow a wish for a particular course—we
may hope to attain a particular end—but we are so
weak in our plans and so wavering in oar mode of
carrying them out, that we not only fail in our object,
but have the discredit of imputed insincerity thrown
upon us. We not only lose what we profess to seek,
but we are lookeu upon as chartatt.i.s. Ti r House of

• 'lib,
Commons, la ib mode of dealing with electoral cor-
ruption, is in this unenviable position. It seeks, or
it pretends to seek, for a purification of the present
spit= t and it so falters and wavers in its move-
ments, that the sincerity of the desire is doubted by
most, and by many wholly denied. What bee the
house been doing—what is it now doing towards an
amendment—what does it intend to do—what is it
trying to do P All these are very pertinent questions,
and, in the words of the song,

• "-
Ws thoold "try inuchlike to know.
So much waiting, and manoeuvring, and vacillation,
has seldom been seen. Writs are suspended, the
full complement of the house is left unfilled, constitu-
encies
are virtually disfranchised, and the time of
the country wasted by motions for new writs; and
the reason of all this is that there is a bill in the house
—progressing we dare not to say—to make inquiry
into the corruption of some eight or nine boroughs.
If there is to be any measure of reform introduced
upon the report of the oommis4oners, and if there is
to be a suspension of the writs till the inquiry is com-
pleted, surely we ought to know what inquiry is to be
granted ; and having ascertained the amount of in-
quiry, we ought to have it prosecuted without
delay. Ordinary men of business, who find their
bade hung up or impeded by any want of
information, take the earliest and shortest moans
of setting their minds at rest, and allow-
ing the ordinary course of trado to be brought
back. Not so the Commons house of parliament.
To them it seems matter of small importance whether
their numbers are diminished or not, or whether
some of the largest districts of the country are left
for an indefinite period without any representatives.
The greatest of evils is the evil of meddling with
everything and settling nothing; and here we are, at,
the close of the first year of the new parliament, with- i
out any settlement of the questions "Who is the
member?" and " What towns have the right of repre-
sentation i'' That which ought to be the preliminary
inquiry—the verification of the elections—is put off
till the latest practicable moment; and when that
moment has necessarily passed, a new obstacle is in-
terposed by some now-tangled piece of legislation,
which may be good or may be bad in itself, but which
is absolutely bad if it linger for weeks, and then is
flung out or allowed to drop.
It is all very well to eay that some corrupt practices
have been proved to exist in certain tows.,, and that ,
other corruptions not now patent ought to be laid
open to the world, and that until this be done no writ
shall issue to the places suspected or proved to have
been tainted: this would be a very good argument
if the fresh inquiry were prosecuted with all vigour,
and if, when wholesale corruption were at once proved,
punishment directly followed : here, however, we are
suspended between the absolute impunity of the cor-
rupt and the "some time hence" inquiry under Sir
J. Ift:smelt's bill : the house is so anxious for inquiry,
and for the putting down of corruption, that the
Derby writ is not to go, and yet the bill for a
further inquiry into the corruption at Derby,
which stood for committee on the same night is
not advanced a stage. At the present pace
it will be the end of next session before the bill
authorising the further inquiries becomes the law, and
those who are so anxious for the further inquiry do
not move one step towards obtaining it. We quite
agree with Mr. Hume that where inquiry is neces-
eery it should be made, and that for a reasonable time
the writ should be withheld. The question is how
long this system of delay is to go on. Already we
have had another borough, Leicester, added to the list
of suspended privileges, and we may have more yet.
The Leicester committee call the attention of the
house to the practices which prevailed in July last,
and by which tws honourable members, who
meet probably knew so more about those prac-
tice's than the Speaker himself, have been un-
seated. If the house be in earnest it can ire.
stitute for itself--directly and immediately—an in-
quiry before one of its own committees in extension of
what has already come out : by a simple general
enactment, enabling the lower house to administer an
oath and grant an indemnity to witnesses developing
the whole truth, they may from time to time satisfy
their own minds as to what may be still latent after
an election committee has reported : the Louse might
refer the report of an election committee at once to
some such tribunal, and have an early statement of
what more can or should be done in each particular
case. But we may go on to the Greek Kalends
before Sir Ji)IIN Ile:emelt finishes his amateur
labour, and we put it to any one possessed
of common sense whether it is right to keep the
honest electors from their privileges till it shall suit
the convenience of the mover of an independent bill
to pass it through committee. The bill is worth pass-
ing, or it is a mere mockery and a delusion. If it be
worth anything, a month might have sufficed to
make it law : if it be a mere sham, it ought at once
to be east aside, and the writs issued.
For our own parts, we believe that the evidence
before the Derby, the Leicester, and the Carlisle com-
mittees, is quite sufficient to prove that the freemen,
as a body, are as corrupt as the sample at Great Yar-
mouth for which the house is legislating. It needs no
further inquiry to prove that the fishermen in Norfolk
are but a type of the freemen's class : and any govern-
ment which was siiicere in its intentions to stop cor-
ruption, would introduce a general measure dis-
franchising all the freemen; they were the greatest
blot in the Reform Bill, and their proved corruption
ought to be enough to procure their disfranchisement.
Admitting, however, that Lord JOHN RUSSELL has
neither the will nor the strength to carry such a just
measure, we cannot see that ho is justified in allowing
Sir Jolts RANVIER'S measure to linger from
night to night, and to permit some of the
largest constituencies to remain without members.
It is not constitutional that a majority of one house
should exercise the right of disfranchisement longer
than is required to determine whether any, and what,
alteration should be made in a particular constituency ;
if more information be needed, that ought to be pro-
cured at the earliest moment. We presume that no
ono will be hardy enough to say that the pure majority
in Derby and in Leicester ought to be unrepresented
because the corrupt few have rendered the former
elections void; and unless the whole are to suffer for
the miserable minority, it is neither just nor constitu-
tional to keep the towns in suspense. At present
the house and the ministers seem to be alike
ignorant of their intentions. Sir G. GREY and Lord
JOHN vote one way, their colleagues the otter ; the
majority will not let the Derby writ go, and yet they
will not press Sir JOHN HANMER'S bill. They will
have purity, and yet they will not take the means :
they will have a commission, and yet they will not
appoint it : they stop short where action is important :
they are very active—in talk. These are not the
times for playing fast and loose—decision and move-
ment are the qualities which gain respect, and this
shilly-shally mode of treating open and notorious cor-
ruption in particular classes of voters will disgust all
honest reformers.