The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-19 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBRR 19.

ThouGa there certainly arc insurrection and re-
bellion in the Dekery, there are not, it seems,
divi-
miens and dissensions amongst the Dukes. The
farmers of South Notts are resolved they will not have
a raw recruit from the aristocracy as the successor of
Mr. BROMLEY, and the Dukes are determined that
the farmers shall. The farmers think that a beard
and some little experience of the world would pro-
bably be useful in their representative; whilst the
bakes are stoutly of opinion that down on the lip
and trifling in the head are the fittest qualifications
their nominee can have.
Both aro right. Their respective choices are admi-
rable. If the farmers want a man of their own way
of thinking, of their own kidney, and of their own
prejudices, then they have one in Mr. Beartow,
and in him, we must say, an unusually good
specimen of a Protectionist squire. And if the
Doles want to show the farmers that they are
ducal creatures—ducal oxen, asses, beasts of burden
and household stuff—to be ordered about as accord;
with ducal humours and ducal family arrangements ;
if they arc mere couduit pipes through which 89w
duoal opinions, and have no more right to have a
representative of their own in the House of Commons
than they have to control coonty expenditure, the
Dukes cannot have • fitter elegant than Lord
NY.WARK to proclaim that to the world, and to make
the farmers of South Notts feel and appreciate their
actual and most slavish condition. Between two such
candidates there can be no mistake: what is meant
by their selection is clear, and plain, and instructive
enough—it is Mr. atanow and real representation;
Lord New/ ate and sham representation. Nothing

more nor less.
The question simply is, shall the 3,000 electors of
South Notts send to parliament a member of their own
free, spontaneous, unbiaesed selection and choice; or
shall fire peers, legislators of this country by the ac-
cident of their birth, and aa such forbidden by a re-
solution of the House of Commons, either to vote at or
interfere with elections to that house—shall the will
of five Leeds of parliament prevail over the rights
and wishes of 3,000 Englishmen in the exercise of
the highest duty the constitution and the law of their
country has confided to them? This is the contro-
versy that now agitates the Dukery. And that
the thing may be as transparent as the
Chrystal Palace, the Dukes have engaged all
the attornios in the Dukery to help them
to put down electoral independence ; so that
all which territorial influence, lordly dictation,
social power, rcientiflo erganiastion, legal chicanery,
and hard canvassing can do will be done, on behalf of
the Dukes, in Ilassetlaw. In all probability, too, the
parsons will join the lawyers; and then in every
parish and ecclesiastical district in the division the
Dukes will have an agent far more useful than the
attoruies to whom they pay three guineas a day; and
all the Dukes, all the lawyers, and all the parsons are,
apparently, a formidable phalanx to resist.
Yet the struggle is, in reality, a mental one; it is
an affair rot to be settled by a counter organisation,
by a host of agents, by heaps of money, and by cutting
and slashing shoot tM Dukery like whiskered Pan
dour*, or as fierce Hussars in an enemy's country. It
is a matter to be decided, at the cost of
very little trouble, quietly at home; by a
simple operation of the mind. All that the
farmers have to do is merely to resolve that
they will vote for their own man and to fulfil
their resolution at the polling booths. What can be
easier—what simpler ? There is no occasion to tear
and gallop about ; to get into collision with their
landlords or to hard words with their landlords
agents. If they think Mr. Ilaaaow the better man ;
let them my 'Nand vote so ; and the thing is done ;
the Dukes defeated and South Notts an example to
the rest of England—instead of a discredit to our
representative system. Success and independence
and self-respect are lying at the door of every elector,
if he will only pick them up and use them; and not
let them be snatched out of his hands by dictation,
corruption, and treachery.
Mr. &meow and Lord Nsorsax are both protec-
tionist:, both tories, both high churchmen. What
interest, then, have we free traders, liberals, and
church reformers in the succeed of the one and detest
of the other ? All the interest in the world. First
there is the question of freedom of election and of
electoral independence at stake ; and that is a matter
of primary and surpassing importance to every one
who is sincere In his opinions. There can be no use-
ful available intelligence where there is not inde-
pendence. When men are independeat they begin to
feel their feet, as an expressive phrase has it: to walk
without assistance, to go where they cheerer, to observe
what goes on around them, to drew conclusions
from their observation, to think, and to possess
opinions. From independence they thus proceed to
intelligence. So that, though in choosing Mr.
tenow, the &emirs of South Notts may not send
to parliament such a member as we thick most
desirable, they will have taken the first step
either to improve Mr. BARROW, or to find a better
man hereafter ; and that is gain enough for an
election.
But what a difference between Mr. BARROW and
Lord NEWAILIC. The one a frank, hearty, free
spoken, honest thinking, active, sincere man, loving
apiculture for its own sake, knowing and appre-
crating and performing the duties of a resident
country gentleman, respecting the teneatry of the
county and by them respected, busy and foremost in
that system of local administration, which Is, with
all its faults, of inestimable value. The other, a
stereotyped re-production of unmeaning, senseless,
stupid conservatism venting fie.itions opinions; a
sham himself, and willing to be a sham in the hands
of others. Why, in Mr. BARLOW there is hope, and
heart, and work ; in Lord NZWARK, nothing bat
empty words, and, we reprise, a well-dressed person.
Nature and a generous ftosition made the one ;
art and the tailor the other.
For Mr. Beneow, to do him justice, feels; he
wants high prices for bread; that is a great pity;
but as we know he can't get them, so let us pass
lightly over his fault, and encourage his good point.
But, besides high prices, he wants lon taxes; he is
an advocate for reduced expenditure, greater economy,
and lower establishments, both in imperial and local
concerns. And it is herein that be is emphatically
a manifestation of the farmers want; it is because
of this exceptional qualifioetion in protectionists, that
they have find their hearts on him ; it is because oil
this that he his our hearty wishes for his sucesse.
There is no class in the kingdom so deeply interested
in cheap government, imperially and locally, as the
farmers. They are sewing from high rents, high
taxes, and low prices; and until they can make taxes
and route comforts to Firs, suffer they must. Yet it
11*" timid kies4 who keep up gents; sad