The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-20 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, JAN. 20.

Bove of the gentlemen who met Mr. BRIGIFT in
Conference at Breaded the day alter he bad pre-
malgated his Bill. seem to Mee hem diapered to oh-
lett became he bad set given a mom decided pm-
Ihreem to eassulactsriag Merriam, and bestowed
the seats takes fres mall agricultural towns as
those of miser impetuses whisk derive their sup-
port szeinsively bum trade. Had the rural districts
ef the ►ingdom been is etreagly nopesented cm the
'cession as its anamsreial lemlities, the edam,
weld have dealther hem bead Omit with
for exactly the opposite seam. !Wembley,
Bkiptos, cad Bersaley weal& lilt, of coarse,
to come Ia be the esediscated seats, if
not of Bulk& sad Wilts, at all events of the Arm
Ridings of Yorkshire. On the other head, the
threatened ematry towns (or their ovum for them)
wee id se doubt gladly offer to take in say amber
of terroseding perishes, and so swill their
amainsi reil of *beton, if that would mare them hem
'abandon. Mr. Bawer truly says is reply that he
weald have been juetilled neither a atteseptiag
tars them into little ematies, new in substituting far
them another set of little teems. The first expedient
could Mn only tended to weaken the electoral
strength of the existing toasty constitamosies, with-
out creating new ones peemesing in themselves
any sufficient electoral vitality to least the
propel/tonal influence long established thesis.
Direct nomination might in some instances
give place to an oceseional show of elective
freedom calculated the mom decently to corer the
force of inexorable dictation. But the two or three
calm in which experiments of this kind have been
already made, are not calculated to lure reformers
satray by their example. If we cannot do anything
.hatter than multiply East Retfords and Shorehams,
we may as well remain as we are. As for the other
alternative, that the tall chimneys should be the
only legitimate centres recognised of tutors political
power, it is hardly necessary to do more than state
in plain terms the most conclusive of aU objections,
lamely, th►t the rest of the community would not
stand it.

No greater mistake can possibly be made by
those who world re-organise on a lasting WM@
our electoral system than that of confounding every
species of industry that is not commercial or mane-
Suturing with the territorial power of the landed
clan. It is undoubtedly true that to a great extent
daring the French war, and to a still greater extent
during the struggle for the maintenance of the
Corn-laws, the rural constituencies consented to be

politically taken in and done for by the lords of the
soil. But it is not true that in the history of the
growth of our national liberties the counties have
always or generally been behind the towns in spirit
and in independence. Not toepeak of the greatstruggle
of struggles between King and People in the depict
the Sic kITS, or the conflicts between the people
and the oligarchy of great families subsequent to
the Revolution, we may retell the fact that whew
Cn tennis and his friends first raised the my of
Reform in Parliament it was popular not only far
the free and equal suffrage they proposed, bat be-
ans they would have given one hundred additional
seats to the counties in Great Britain alone. Sixty
years later, when Lord JOHN Russr,t.t. introduced
the first Reform Bill, though circumstances had
greatly changed, and the proportion of the town
population to the whole community had vastly in-1
creased, our-third of the sequestered seats were given
to counties. In the conflict which ensued it ought
not to be forgotten that the county constituencies
rallied with even more unanimity than those of the
towns round the popular standard. Oa the dissolution
which took place in April, 1831, on the first rejec-
tion of the Bill, out of eighty-two English county
members six only were returned without a pledge
to support the measure ; and in Ireland the results
were hardly less decisive. But apart from all rea-
soning founded on precedents, however notable, we
are bound to believe that if once strengthened in
numbers by the addition of a 101. constituency, and
shielded against landlord intimidation by the Ballot,
the rural communities of England would use the
prisileges of the constitution as honestly and inds-
pittlently u any other class of their fellow-subjects.
In national spirit they have never been wanting.
In the contests waged in former days against
royal and oligarchic power they hare often
burns a distinguished part. They now porno
means of intelligence, enlightenment, and sympathy
with the rest of the community, a hundred-fold
greater than any their fathers dreamed of : why,
for the lint time, should they be distrusted new P

Mr. BIIGUT proposes to create sic-and-twenty
additional county sesta ; Lord Dritor would perhaps
suggest • good many more. The question, in oar
mind, ought not to be determined by any considera-
tions either of party, clam, or cal;ing. What we
want is to see the whole worth and intellect or the
country fairly and equally enfranchised, no matter
whose book it suits, or what purpose of the hour it
seems to serve. All such purposes are transitory
and rain. Earl GREY and his colleagues were
charged with having jobbed the repair and
remodelling of the ormstitetion in 1832, for Whig
uses ; and it looked veey mach at first se it they
had done so, when the sew Parliament met, sad it
was fend to contain a majority of more than one
kindred more or leis disposed to support them. Bat
what came of it? In less than two years the Ad-
ministration had last many of its adherents, end
some of its most distinguished members, including
its veteran chief; and it was soon after cashiered