The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-10 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD

REFORM ASSOCIATION.

(CONTINUED ON MONDAYE! AND WEDNESDAYS)
Sir,—The leader of the retrograde Ministry has
laid before the public the distinct proposition, that the
Reform Bill has produced an increase of bribery, and
been an instrument of evil and not of good. Of
course there is no need for him to say, that he will
go back to the better state of things when he is able.
The words reported to have been used are, " the
gross and disgraceful system of bribery which has
increased considerably in the last twenty years, and
which in the intensity of the evils it has produced has
thrown into the shade the evils which previously existed
in the local influences by which constituencies were
controlled." Do these words bear out the conclusion
above built en them, or not ?

If yes, then it is for the constituencies to determine
what is the accuracy of the proposition. They must
appeal to history, written and oral. They must ask
whether there was a constituency before the Reform
Bill, with the exception possibly of the Universities,
where elections were not settled by the open notori-
ous payment of money which nobody denied or was
ashamed of, or else by the equally notorious exer-
tion of the powers of private ownership after the
manner of Old Sarum. If there was any such, the
onus is thrown on the Minister to show it. The con-
stituencies will declare by sound of trumpet there
was none, and throw down their gage to anybody
who shall maintain the contrary. There is no need
of struggle;—show it. Point to the letter of the
alphabet,—give hint of the combination of vocables,—
which may enable the student of the Gazetteer to
steer towards the phcenix in the list.
What was the condition of the olden constituen-
cies, is known to those who are old enough to re-
member it. Well do I recollect in early boyhood,
as portion of a religious end in fact Methodistical
household, hearing the feminine portion of the family,
always more direct and cormientious than those ex-
posed to greater contact with the world, inquire of I
the patriarchal chief, on what principle it was that
a devoutly and religiously disposed Member of Par-
liament, of that " most straitest" sect then recognized
under the title of " the Saints," (men who did great
good in their generation, though dashed with some
evil), in a borough of no small pretensions to
piety and morality, paid habitually ten pounds
for a vote, and twenty pounds for a plumper.
I remember, in my boyish ignorance, asking
searching questions of the aforesaid chieftain,—
not a man given to encourage the
iniqui-
ties of his times,—touching the precise market
value of a plumper; having, I believe, some childish
notion, that since a plumper did not count two, it
ought to stand at some intermediate rate between ten
pounds and twenty. I think I further troubled him
with a query, whether he got twenty pounds for the
plumper he gave in a neighbouring borough,—alas a
borough no more since the evil days referred to,—to
the candidate of his solicitude. To which I received
a frowning intimation that there were ranks, and
dignities, and friendships. and proprieties, which little
boys were not capable of judging of; only confirm-
ing me in my conviction, that ten pounds was the
natural price of a vote, as surely as ever five per cent
was the natural rate ofinterest.
In fact everybody, who knows anything about it
at all, knows that this was the existing state. The
thing had wrought its way into good society ; or at all
events there was no society into which it had not
wrought. The theory was, that when everybody
was bribed, nobody was bribed. There was no secret
made about it ; and even to a comparatively late
period, the system was openly defended in the House
of Commons under the title of " Head-Money." The
Reform Bill produced the first visible instances of
borough constituencies, in which the voters were not
openly paid either in meal or in malt.
Come then to the proof. It has been officially
stared, that " the intensity of the evils produced by
the Reform Bill has thrown into the shade the evils
which previously existed." Perhaps there is some
force or signification in the words which follow,—
" in the local influences by which constituencies were
controlled." Take these also,—pro majori eautelii,
as the lawyers say. Take the whole together, and
see what can be made of it. Where are the evils in the
local influences which throw the old ones into the
shade? What evil-disposed local influence has found
its sphere widened by the Reform Bill ? What new
ones have been created, to balance the old ones which
were cut off in the blossoms of their sin ? Either
the proposition is accurate, or it is not. If it is not,
then it is bread cast upon the waters, to be found after
many days in the way of assisting to return to the
state of things before the Reform Bill.
Rumour throws light on the intended budget. Ru-
mour is often wrong, but sometimes right; and
though a rumour may be in some sort said to be hy-
pothetical, it may at all events be discussed hypotheti-
cally. Rumour then thinks it has light on the " great
reform and revision of the tariff" which is hanging
over us. It says the malt-tax and the income-tax
are to be done away with, and there is to be a tax of
a shilling a ton upon coals at the pit's mouth. In
other words, the taxation is to be taken off the land-
lords and the rich ,and laid, in the shape of something
very like a poll-tax, on the poor. For as the peer does
not take a greater quantity of coals to make him
warm than the pauper, to this description it closely
approaches. It will be pleaded that the malt-tax fell
upon the poor; and so it did. - But people die fur
want of fire, and not for want of beer. The or
pro-
posed tax goes down as far as those charitable -per-
sons who are combining their energies
ri to encoueagesh hod "goose
or turkey at
Christmas.' It is to be paid by
clubs for giving the pour man
d
00 lan hishis
potatoes Sunday's
wbhaekne d
hemeats
rejoices
on
in thiesamed-imnnaen:
"barring the beef." But the malt-tax fell hard on
seal-bowners are to represent
the land-owners; so the
for the goose.powle
esru,bssthi touutl edd ihur
ocwh i
tmia e-
the two ducks which were
nmeeyn- sww eheepni n gthey have the tis so natural that
taxes upon anybody's shoulders but their own,
scandalized, But this is n
that there is no useut
toinprevporoettetnbdointhgin
seen. We are going with the jaws
four eyes open into
ax.
of a Boa Constrictor wax-work
a party. The very
ofwa
maker in the Strandbump-
kin,rigs out the likeness gtobeinbge
half idiotic us what has
and halfjubilant, to show
grown into our master. And for the time being,
good hopes
and
expectations are waiting as for the re
surrection morn.
I am, Sir, yours very sincerely,
AN OLD REFORMER.
Blackheath, 10th March, 1852.

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS.—An
ordinary meeting of this society wa.s held on Monday at the
Institution, Grosvernor-street. Mr. Fowler took the chair.
Mr. Donaldson resumed the discussion, which had been ad-
journed to the present meeting, upon the paper read by that
gentleman upon the tomb of Edward the Confessor, in West-
minster Abbey. Btlhr.
e.
dilapidated Donaldsonthen t
edoifretcht directed
mdtohnetimat teennttsi oin
ofall the more n
of tliemeemeeting
to
ancient edifices in. the country. He mentioned
a variety of instances where this had been done through
neglect and ignorance. Mr. Scott then gave a short account
of the.group of monuments in or near the shrine of Edward
the Confessor, which he stated was most probably erected by
Italian workmen, Odericus and Peter, a citizen of Rome, but
whose surname was obliterated. With regard to the subject
of restoring these monuments, there were two questions to
ask :first,
secondly,w if renovated
ouldthey,m•he, would
when, restored, the old monuments;
and
be h
much interest as they were at present? He eld wo.r
considere t e
best plan was only to preserve them in the state they were
now, by guarding more carefully against
of
has
fu-
ture. He thought that there oughtag
gmtohdeeml s. taken
The,
meetingw h b might ationsbte injuries
a s
survey
ef; rmt the
made of
all the ecclesiastical monuments in the kingdom, and engrav-
riensgtsoroirn be referred to herea,ter in
then adjourned.