The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PL nuc JOURNALS.

The creation of .fictitious votes has been carried to a
great extent in Scotland, and we observe in the Scots-
man of Wednesday last, received yesterday, loud com-
plaints on the subject :
" Upon looking (says our Contemporary) at the system
of making paper votes, as proved by the experience of se-
veral years, in various counties of Scotland, it is evident to
demonstration that the Reform Act may be defrauded to
the most dangerous extent. One leading purpose specified,
in the preamble of that Act was the more general exten-
sion of the franchise to persons of property and intelli-
gence.' As the best general test of this qualification, a
certain amount of either property or tenancy was fixed on ;
and of course it was absolutely inherent in the proposed re-
form that such property or tenancy should not be
sham property, or sham tenancy, but bona fide and
substantial rights. Upon that essential condition, the
Reform Act was so conceived as to produce for these
Kingdoms the inestimable blessing of a national represen-
tation of the people in the Commons House of Parliament.
" The parchment votes were one of the crying grievances
of the old system, and their total extinction was a chief
object of the Reform Act ; yet it is now quite certain that,
as the Reform Act is worked in the Sheriff courts, a set of
paper votes may be fabricated, taking the same place with
the abolished parchpent votes, to the effect of swamping the
votes of the genuine constituency, and restricting the re-
presentation of the House of Commons to be the represen-
tation of a small party or faction only, and not of the people.
In short, paper votes have been allowed to eat into, and to
honeycomb so deeply, the registration-roll of many of the
Scottish counties—this Tory virus has been allowed to
spread so widely through the elective system—that unless
it can be speedily and totally destroyed, the Reform Act is
placed in the most imminent hazard of being practically re-
pealed so far as regards many, or perhaps all, of the Scottish
counties. In such an event, the most prominent change,
actually effected in our county representation would be that,
whereas the spurious vote regtored forme; ly a piece of pa, ch- '
went to its constitution, it may now be made on plain paper."
The above representation is not quite correct. The
parchment votes, uncli=r the old system, had reference
not to properly, but to feudal superiority, which
might or might not be connected with properly, and
might in all cases be detached from it. Thus, for
instance, the feudal superior, that is, the tenant in
ch:ef under the crown, might possess the qualifications
to lete of a whole county, without any other property
in it them a nominal feu-duty or quit rent, while the
actual owners of the land, and all other inhabitants,
might be without a vote. This, however, cannot now
be the case, as the qualification is always founded on
property ; though if one Irian possesses the property
equivalent to twenty votes he may lend nineteen of the
qorl;fications to persons who are only nominally owners
of the property. But we confess we are at a loss to
see how, with a property qualification, this evil
rr t 7 he remedied. If property he the qualification,
and if one individual, like the Mike of Bucckugh,
I,e the chief owner of the property of three or
four Scotch counties, he cannot, under a system of
voti!,g, be prevented from returning- the Mem-
!: r: for ouch counties. The Iteforin Bill, however,
cetotitme the oaner3 of the sol the only voters
in g.otch comities. Teeaws have also votes; and
thete4h in general they iney :o acid voting ,Nith Cieir
larollords, this is not necessarily the (else. The Ballot
would at all events rescaot the tenants from the Ilexes-
v of voting, against their consciences at the dictation
of landlords. Upon the v.-hole, were the Ballot to he
rrititted, fictitioui qualifications wou!d not be so great
n t oil as our Contemporary assumes their to he.
The great evil of the stete of things which exited
priur to the Reform Bill war..:, tl:at is enahled particu-
itidividuals possessed of laree propertie,, to de-
iye property in the reßss of its just influence. The
1:t form Bill gave to property in general its just infiu
once, but it could not prevent one individual possess-
ing as much property in land as ten otl:er
iruin having as much influence as these ten indivi-
duals. We are not, however, so apprehensive oil this
paint as settle of cur Coooooporaries. There may he
a fashion in voting, and a rich landowner of 20,0001.
a-s.ear, for instance, may draw after him a number of
smaller landowners ; but, upon the whole, we doubt
whether persons owning more than a moiety of pro-
perty in the aggregate can, even in this country, be in-
duced to support a bad C.16:-C1 nment. Of this we are
cart iii, that the owners of far more than a moiety of
the aggregate of the property of the country support
the present Government, and that the amount of pro-
p, rty of the Tories, ho sever rich individuals of the
party may be, bears but a small proportion to that of
the rest of the country. But the Ballot is the only
remedy for the undue ascendancy of individuals. All
atte:npts to limit undue influence without the Ballot
will lie found inefficacious.—Morning Chronicle.
Our Contemporaries appear for the moment so much
or clipied in skirmishin- amongst themselves—the
Tories in inventing falsehoods, and the Liberals in re-
futing and exposing them—that they have not thne
to direct public attention to that paramount subject of
national concern—the prospects of the approaching
Session. It is to this that all parties, especially the
Reformers, should now direct their most earliest solici-
tude. The Tories may find their account in distract-
ing and misleading public interest from the point
whereon the result of the contest must be decided, but
all friends to progressive improvement in our institu-
tions should watch coming events with unceasing vigi-
lance, endeavour to guard against adverse contingen-
cies, and devise and prepare means of overcoming the
obstacles which threaten to impede the accomplish-
limit of those leoislative ameliorations on which de-
pend the destinies of the British empire. The Irish
petition conspiracy—the systematic slanders daily
propagated against the Irish people and their repre-
sentatives—and the general tactics of the Tories, too
clearly evince their determination to resist in the
next Parliament as obstinately and contumaceously
as in the two last every proposition for the satis-
factory adjustment of Irish claims. Still in a minority
in the House of Commons, it must be borne in mind
that the faction has a majority in the Lords, which, in
defiance of Queen, Ministers, and Commons, can give
insuperable obstruction to every measure not harmo-
nising with the suggestions of bigotry and despotism.
Bow is this obstruction to be overcome ? This is the
question to the solution of which the most earnest and
serious consideration of every practical Reformer should
now be addressed. With the evidences around us on
all sides of the extent to which the Tories are preparing
to push their opposition, it would be folly to suppose
that any effectual Reform would be carried without a vi-
gorous and decisive demonstration from without. The
Lords may stand in immovable opposition to the other
branches of the legislature ; but when the might of the
people is called into peaceful, combined, and legitimate
action, they must, as on former occasions, yield to the
necessity which it would be madness to resist. It
being morally certain that no satisfactory reform can
be carried without a great and general effort on the
part of the people, it would be well to consider the ob-
ject to which this effort should more immediately be
directed, whether to a reform of the Lords, or a further
reform of the Commons ; for it would be little better
than a waste of strength to sail forth the po-
pular power to carry any but a structural re-
form in either House. It would be comparatively little
advantage to carry any one of the contested measures
without doing anything to facilitate the accomplish-
ment of the others—or clearing the way for the safe
and easy progress of future ameliorations. For our
own part we shoeld prefer seeing the popular energy
directed at once to the removal of the immediate
obstruction, rather than seek to overcome it by indirect
means, that is, to a reform of the House of Lords
rather than to further reforms of the House of Com-
mons, which would evidently place the two branches
of the Legislature in greater opposition than they are
at present. " But how is this to be accomplished ?"
exclaim some of our contemporary Reformers. " Let
ni to get the ballot, and an extension of the suffrage.
The Lords will never consent to an organic change in
the constitution of their own House." We ask, in
return, how shall we get the ballot, or an extension of
the suffrage ? The Lords will not consent to these
measures any more than to their own reform. Each
proposition must be effected by the same means—the
unequivocal arid determined expression of a nation's
will. The prospect of the approaching session in.
valves not alone the interests of Reform and the sta-
bility of Ministers, but even the stability of the mo-
narchy. The traitors who would exclude her Majesty
from her right of succession would not be. more scru-
pulous in conspiring against her crown. The cry of
" no allegiance" is already raised against her represen-

tative in Ireland for ruling impartially—if the incen-
diaries were not deterred by the fear of rousing the I
whole British public in vindication of their Sovereign's
authority, the same rebellious cry would be raised
against her Majesty herself. Under such circum-
stancesra it is time to reflect seriously on the prospects
of the coming session, and provide for its contingen-
cies.—Morning Advertiser.
If in London organised bands of sledge-hammer
" Reformers" were allowed to assemble, and in the
open day, and in the face, as it were, of the constituted
authorities, to destroy the property of any man—some
eminent Conservative brewer, for instance, who had
voted for Mr. Horsley Palmer at the late election, in
opposition to the candidates of the " liberal" quadruple
alliance ;—if the sledge-hammer " Reformers" were
allowed to do this, day after day, in the most populous
parts of the metropolis and its environs, and then to
depart, laughing justice to scorn as a thing too powerless
to excite any other feeling than that of contempt, what
would he thought of the reverence for the law in this
country, and the protection which it afforded to society,
or at least that great portion of it which is called "Con-
servative ?" What is, happily, but an imaginary case
in London, is, unfortunately, a thing of actual and daily
occurrence in the Irish metropolis. The daily systema-
tic and audacious destruction, in the noon-day, and in
the most public places, of the property of Mr. Guinness,
the brewer, who voted for the Conservative candidates,
West and Hamilton, at the last election, is one of
the " most striking" proofs of " tranquillity" which
Ireland enjoys under Lord Mulsrave s Government.
It affords, also, in the impunity which attends the per-
petrators of such offences, a practical illustration of tire
even-handed vigour with which the law is enforced,
and the respect which is accordingly paid to it by all
" tranquillisers" who "carry out" the skull-and-cross-
bones system of " pacification," and by all sledge-
hammer " reformers." If in London the persons as
well as property of persons who voted for Mr. Palmer
against Mr. Grote were attacked and outraged by
liberty-boys," zealous upholders of the " freedom of
election," and Justice limped after such offences as
slowly as a tortoise waddling after a hare, what would
be thought of the manner in which the Home Depart-
ment, with its stipendiary magistrates and police, vin-
dicated the insulted majesty of the law ? We suspect
that such a state of things would be looked upon as
the most positive proof of the imbecility or the corrup-
tion with which the duties of public justice were dis-
charged, giving,, on the one side, encouragement to
crime ; on the other, destroying all confidence in the
law ; and producing, between both, a licentiousness
and suffering not far removed from anarchy. Such
is the state of things in Dublin under the govern-
ment of Lord Mulgrave. Beneath the very shadows
of the battlements of Dublin Castle, wherein the
Queen's representative resides, are to be found those
instances of Ireland's tranquillity ! What, then, may
he the stag of the provinces remote from the seat of
Government, and where the persecution of Protestants
seems to be considered the primary duty of an igno-
rant and superstitious population, hallooed on by an
intuLrant priesthood ? The answer is written in the
blood of those whose forefathers preserved Ireland to
the British Crown, and defeated the faction that would
have !rinded it over to the foreigner. When Mr.
Shaw, the Recorder of Dublin, brc.u,;ht under the no-
tice of Lord Mulgrave the other day the great in-
crease of cri:oe in the Irish metropolis, in consequence
of the process maltilig by illegal societies, through
whose en-rgetic ogeney force has risen superior to th;e.
law, the Lori Lieutenant not being able to deny the
fact, con:,oleil himself, and would fain conjole the Bri-
tish public, by asserting his belief that those illegal so-
cieties were ooly combinations of the worl:i:1;! classes,
12;iconnece'ed witfi politics. II that were even so, sic ask
if it won:d afrord any excuse for th.s conduct of a Go-
vernment rieficient in wisdom or proper energy as to
allory force to rise superior to the law ? The absence, of
political organisation front crime, instead of f'uruiehing
an excuse for GulTillillent, would make its want of
canacity and vigour still more apparent. But, we
ask, was the destruction of the property of Mr.
Crunness by hands of organised ruffians unconnected
with polities ? Have the beatings which Protestant
voters have received from way-laying bludgeon-men
since the election been unconnected with politics ?
Have such outrages been committed by combinations
of workmen who have no views beyond the regulation
of their mechanicel interests ? Let us take the latest
instance of the energetic application of the principle
of " popular controul," alias the skull-and-cross-
bones system of intimidation, to the person of one of
her Majesty's subjects, and see whether it savours of
political motive or not. It is the case of an unfor-
tunate man thus related in the Dublin Evening
Mail :—" On Friday, the 23d ult., an industrious
and respectable man, named Ganley, was murderously
assaulted in the heart of the city of Dublin, within a
few perches of her Majesty's gaol of Newgate. His
alleged offence was that he had voted for West and
Hamilton at the last election. From the first his case
was declared to be hopeless, and he expired after ten
days of mortal suffering, leaving a wife and five
young helpless children to mourn his loss, and to
bless the vigilance of a paternal and peace-restoring
Government,' " This case, the Mail informs us,
did not find its way into the Dublin Gazette. Com-
ment is unnecessary.—Morning Herald.
The Ministerial papers, in pursuance, no doubt, of
their instructions, labour to depreciate time effect of the
Irish election petition subscription. We sincerely
hope that they may persevere in this valuable labour.
There cannot be better evidence than it affords that
the undertaking is a good one, and that it promises
to be steccessful in proportion to its merit. We pub-
lish to-day the fifth list of subscriptions. It is a long
one ; and, what is of much greater importance than
the mere number of names contained in it, the names
are those of persons of the highest respectability in
the places in which they severally reside—of persons
who can have no interest to serve other than that
which they hold, in common with every subject of
the British Crown, in the constitutional character and
legal integrity of the national representation. That
thei House of Commons should be vitiated in the
first Parliament of the reign of her Majesty by
the presence and the votes of a number of Members
who represent nothing but the fraud and perjury
which Mr. O'Connell and the Roman Catholic
Priests of Ireland, under the patronage of Lord
Mul-
grave's Government, wield to their own purpose, is
an evil which the people of England, notwithstanding
the ineffectual sneers of the Ministerial party, think
they should contribute to avert. The people of Eng-
land have contributed, are contributing, and will still
further contribute, to shield their Sovereign and coun-
try from this :disgrace and calamity. And they will
exert themselves with the greater zeal and alacrity in
pursuit of this important object in proportion to the
malice and rancour which their efforts excite among
the friends and supporters of an Administration de-
pendent for its slender majority in the House of
Commons upon false and fraudulent returns. The
case is evidently one in which it would be mean
' and unjust to leave the loyal portion of the Irish
'people to the unassisted 'task of protecting the
integrity and legitimacy of the representation of their
country. The integrity of the Irish representation
has been invaded, and its legitimacy stained, by a
faction which seeks to perpetuate its sway, not over
Ireland only, but over the whole empire ; and the
false and fraudulent returns procured in aid of this
object will be maintained by means in the employment
of which the leaders of the faction have acquired
much skill, and with a pertinacity and vigour pro-
portioned to the magnitude and value of the prize for
which they are struggling, we hope in vain. The
cause is a B..atish rather than an Irish cause, and Bri-
tish aid is not and will not be withheld from it. It
is gratifying to find that this view of the matter is
taken by so many and such important classes of
the British community. The success of the sub-
scription among the middle ranks of society in
the provincial towns of England affords a satis-
factory proof that its object is rightly appreciated by
those who are the farthest removed from the sus-
picion of interested or merely party feeling. We hope
and belisve that it soon will be in our power to an-
nounce that there is no considerable town, or even any
considerable village, in England, in which a local con.-
; mittee has not been funned to promote this truly patri-
-1 OtiC subscription. The utmost facility should be af-
I forded to every Englishmen to show that, while he

respects and would strenuously maintain the constitu-
tional right of his Irish fellow-subjects to thcir law-
ful and honest share of the national representation,
he is anxious that the use which Englishmen have
made of their elective franchise should not be ren-
dered abortive, by the introduction into the House of
Commons of a multitude of sham Members from the
sister kingdom.—Morning Post.