The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-04 00:00:00

a n 3 even grooms and gamekeepers might change their situation,
or in times of popular excitement, precisely where the ser-
vices of the faithfiel were most needed, both one and the other
might.x choose to. go with their own order.—( Hear.) Besides
al constituencies for six counties were deemed too many—
and the mac)stitery
ciall h too troublesome and complicated—espe.
Y ("le with proper management, one body of electors
might dr f.
held i
st. for all. Accordingly a council seems to have been
a eedinburgh, and the muster-roll then gone over—ai:d
r• -A of individuals made out, principally resident in that
L
etty--enen of ascertained sentiments and trust-worthy, who
ave no weak scruples, no defined principles of their own ;
but the whole thirty-nine articles of whose political creed are
summed up in that one watchword—party. These Gentlemen
are forthwith applied to, to provide themselves with fictitious
qualifications—not in one or two, but each of them, in four, five,
or all of the cesunties I have named, as need may be. What is the
result? Dc, you not see how fatal it must be ? Those counties all
.
closetogether—their polling-places may all be compassed from
Edinbetrgh in one day--and their constituencies are small—so
that, this well-drilled corps of Edinburgh citizens and recruits,
tret limited in number, be it remarked, but capable of being
expanded ad libitum, by making a rapid tour of those districts
during the contest, and invariably throwing all its weight into
the unpopular scale, may and must decide every one of those
elections. Sir, in my observations, hitherto I have confined
myself to a bare narration of facts. I have avoided all remarks
that could apply personally to any one. But I see no reason
for exercising that self-denial here, nor why I should refrain
from uttering my opinion of the individuals who are implicated
in this part of the system. For the zeal of partizanship in ordi-
nary cases we can all make ample allowance, and many acts of
even questionable propriety entered on amid the keenness
and excitement of party warfare, we can pass by without
observation cr reproof—( Hear)—but for the cold-booded
and deliberate iniquity of this roving band of political assassins,
as their business is without example, so I would feel it to be
beyond excuse. I hold in my band a list of the Gentlemen I
ant alluding to, and which I received to-day, and all I can
Igay is, that even the hasty perusal I have been able to give it
is sufficient to diminish my astonishment at the offence. It is a
list in which any Scotchman, at all versed in the Tory no-
m.enclature of former days, will recognise many old and fami-
liar acquaintances. Let me be just to our opponents. Happy
lam to say that little of the respectability of their body
Is found here. With a few exceptions, it is com-
posed of the very dregs and refuse of their party.--( Cheers. )
111 e ancient system is in every page and in every line. Among
the gentry, the old compliment in votes is here—he whom the
Reform Bill was intended to destroy—here is the pettifogging
laird, whose zeal of you was eveny essential to his import-
ance and his profit—and here, too, is the time-serving waiter
liPon a party providence, who had not only himself long fat-
tened upon the public purse, but had trained up his children
after him to regard it as their sure inheritance.—( Hear, hear.)
You have now the whole brood registered against you, the
ancient prejudices of blood being sharpened by the bitterness
of recent disappointment ; and after these is the well-knoem
tribe of wanting, jobbing, cringing subordinates and officials—
the herd of provincial functionaries and petty pluralists—the
Snenials and parasites of the camp, ever ready to fetch and
carry as their leaders bid them—the unblushing panderers to
Party vice, and feeders on party corruption. But enough of
this ; my object at present is not so much to expose the indi-
viduals, as to denounce the system. That system is yet in its
infancy ..what has been done hitherto has been mere matter of
experiment ; but preparations, I warn you, on a more magnifi-
cent scale are making for the ensuing registry. What has been
done around Edinburgh will next year be done around
Glasgow, and Perth, and Aberdeen, and then a sec-
tion of the inhabitants of a few large towns will have all the
counties of Scotland within their grasp. But I fancy I hear
his Grace opposite objecting to me, " Why do you direct all
Your censure against us ?—why do you spare your own party,
*which has also been guilty of these, which you describe as
improper practices ?" Because, Sir, I have discovered a
Vide distinction between the cases. In tracing the origin and
progress of the system, I have thrown the blame on those who
Were its inventors and its chief promoters ; and when indivi-
duals of their opponents have partially followed their example,
I am ready to prove that it was forced on them against their
will—that they acted tardily and reluctantly, and purely in
self-defence. I will show this by a reference to facts ; and
every word that I now state, I am prepared to make good be-
fore a Committee.—( Hear, hear.) The election of 1832
ended late in December, and, as soon as it was over, it
was currently reported that great, if not unlimited, power
had been given to a well-known Edinburgh agent to
create a sufficient number of improper votes to recover the
three principal counties that had been lost.--( Hear, hear.)
This report many people found a difficulty in believing ; but
eshen the registry came on, the claims thus made out were
produced—they had all been manufactured in the preceding
*January, and immediately after the election. The Liberals
Immediately saw what was likely to result from this—the
people must be annihilated. They held meetings and consul-
tations ; but they thought the proceeding so dangerous and so
disgraceful, that they would not resort to it.—( Hear, hear.)
The registry of 1834 came, and another inundation of their
mushroom qualifications ; but still their opponents, did not re-
taliate. They saw their danger, but they thought it preferable
to dishonour—(Cheers)—they had had one year of warning
and preparation, -and now a second, but they kept true to
their resolve. But then came the general election—and with
its in its most disastrous form, the fruit of those two registra-
tions. District after district was overwhelmed, and county
after county snatched away ; and then it was—and thee only
-that the forbearance of individuals could no longer be se-
red. The race was in many places commenced by both
Parties in good earnest, and is now being carried on by. such
4 deluging of counties with votes of all descriptions, that ere
ong the advocates of Universal Suffrage will have a favourable
ePportunity ofjudging of the practical workings of their favourite
theme. Ido not approve of the practice, or defend it either in
the one party or the other. I will screen neither—l have ever
set my face equally against both—and I will expose both
equally before the Committee. But is there not a great dif-
lerence in the culpability of the parties ? I say t here is the
same distinction as between a man who raises his weapon for
assault, and another who snatches a sword in self-defence.
The act of the one party is from choice, and adopted for eg-
r°ession and injury; the other only followed the example after
N. delay and repeated provocation, and from the imperious
necessity of personal safety. The aim f the one was to crush the
t..ivileges of the electors; the object of the other to protect them.
ho Right Hon. Baronet opposite, the Member for Tam-
*orth, declared lately at Glasgow that it was his determina-
tion to support the principle of the Reform Bill, and he called
on his followers to do the same. Sir, I honour him for that
determination, and I hope that I may now confidently reckon
on his support of my motion. The petitioners ask merely for
the principle of the Reform Bill to be carried into effect.
" Abolish fictitious qualifications," they say, " and we will
thank you and be satisfied."—( Hear.) There is no further
change asked here ; no demand for the ballot ; no petition
for short parliaments—and yet they have had their difficulties,
and formed their opinions on these topics as well as their
southern neighbours. But the elective privilege was so new
to them, and so sacred in their eyes was the proper use of it,
that they held it firm against all assaults. Intimidation was
tried with them, but they braved it all. Bribery was attempted,
but they were proof against it ; and then the manufacturing of
,votes was bad recourse to. The people were too firm to be
oulliedeethey were too honest to be bribed—but they were
not too numerous to be swamped. To swamping, accordingly,
they were doomed. The work proceeded at a rapid, a fearful
Pace, and since the hit was to: come upon them, they now
do feel at least grateful to their opponents fur having brought
it SO Ppeedily to a head—and that too by a process of operations
So open and undisguised that no man who has eyes to see can
ho.v.
- a doubt of its existence—or that has the capacity to rea-
son, can deny the necessity for a remedy.—( Hear, hear.)
The petitioners come before you with this plain, unanimous re-
Inonstrance—that if they deserved the franchise to be be-
Stowed, they may now, on stronger grounds, demand that it
should continue to them. That they did deserve it, they tell
You, is attested by the use that they have made of it. Look
at their elections. Wherever popular contests Lave taken
Place, they have been conducted with peace, and order, and
decorum. Wherever popular candidates have been chosen,
they have been men of experience, of ability, and of character.
( Hear, hear.) The anticipations of their friends on these
",eads have been more than realised. The hopes and predic-
tions of their enemies have been as grievously disappointed.
(Hear.) The people of Scotland now contemplate with
JOY the prospect that through their instrumentality the real
character of their countrymen may be understood. It was
'With a pang of shame and humiliation that they had hitherto
submitted to be judged of by the miserable samples of a beg-
ging, Aristocracy, which an exclusive system threw 111)--
thHear, hear.) Though their former representatives, being
eted by an oligarchy, were like the oligarchy that elected
,then—venal, and subservient, and corrupt--the great body of
nation, despised and disregarded as they were, were always
intelligent in mind—educated in habit—highly moral and reli-
gious in feeling—and nobly independent in their character.—
(Hear, And as soon as the power was given them,
these were the qualities they sought for in their Members ;
and they 'then saw, for the first time, a body of independent
than, the organs of the free voice of Scotland, enrolled among
babest friends of freedom iiithe empire, and welcomed by
eni as stout and valued allies in the great Constitutional
battles of the age. They bid you observe how the prejudices
of country have already died away, and the choice of a Scot-
tish constituency been admitted a title of distinction. On the
?sne hand, they point with satisfaction to the distinguished men
from England and Ireland who have been united to their
connection, and to whom have been confided the interests of
their wealthiest and most populous towns—their great marts
of enterprise and commerce on the Clyde or on the Tay ;
and,
a on the other, they remember, with a feeling of pride,
amounting to exultation, the tribute that was indirectly paid to
them by this very House of Commons; inasmuch as when it
was thought essential to its dignity that the assertion of a
Principle should be involved in the election of a Speaker, the
mober of their body, unanimously pointed at by all classes
°le Reformers to be put in competition with a gentleman of
great experience and acknowledged merit, as the fittest to
tpereede him in his exalted office, and sit in that chair as the
riumphant champion of their opinions, was no other than
with
Popular representative of their own ancient metropolis.
such feeelings, then, and such results-_so encou-
,l.Ned and so rewarded—the political mind has become
Peaceful haPPY, and contented—( Cries of " Hear")—and
• with political contentment naticnal prosperity has gone hand
in hand.
to But if you reverse the picture—i you endeavour
OrWrest from them the boon that has been soft ately conferred,
.sauffer it to be filched from-them by others—have you cal-
subl thd the effects? Will the people remain tranquil and
missive ? will the law be similarly respected ? will the
elections go
on (Cheers.) equally smoothly and undisturbed ?
(Cheers.)
to Even in the olden times, we are none of us too
be_ remember that the murmurings of the populace have
thy:oac_ know. n to swell to such a pitch as to blanch the cheek of
'voUnte of the Town Council, while he was undergoing