The Sun.
London, England, 1830-11-09 00:00:00

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'EXTRAORDINARY ATTACK ON THE
FREEDOM OF ELECTION.
comm Et. EVANS'S LETTER TO HIS CONSTITUENTs.
thiNTIENIEN,...—My omission of the usual address
'efis candidate, after the close of the left election,
give rise, I understand, to observation. Acknow-
ledgements however of your noble and enthusiastic
conduct, though so well merited, seemed inadequate
:to the Oecasion,—and complaints would have been
Premature, while no possible constitutional means
were at hand to seek relief from. But the time has
now arrived when the vindication of your rights must
he again entered on, when I may redeem the uninten-
tional remissness alluded to, and when a sense of
duty compels me to communicate with you on that
which so deeply involves your interests, and no
less excites your anxiety.
. Gentlemen,—lf we may credit rumour, the extra-
ordinary proceedings which have been hazarded
*hist you have originated in the hope of crushing
lilt efforts in your behalf, and of perpetuating the
Insurable oppressions under which you have lan-
guished, by harrassing and exhausting me, with ex-
te,neive and accumulated petitions and appeals.
were such unworthy calculations to take effect, the
ithertion of the representative rights of the people
Or Englund would resolve itself into a question of
legal procrastination and pecuniary ability.
Gentlemen,—lf your suffrages, and an express
authority, of the noose of Commons be of any
t4llle, I sun at this moment your virtual and legal
l'eProgautative to Parliament. That the popular
branch of the Legislature reserves to itself an ex-
clusive judgment on the cleitna of Electors to vote
for Members of its own body, and that in doing so
1t is liable tots° OBSTRUCTION or CONTE:WM", are well
known facts. Equally certain, however, is it that
1;14 high sanclisn in our feiVOttr, (guaranteed to us
by the award acted on by the late Parliament) has
been set aside and put at defiance ; and , that I
me,
Consequently deprived of the trust reposed in
as you ure.of the privilege by which it was imparted.<
Thia is now a NATIONAL, not a local, isolated, or
personal question!
The peculiar nature and constitution of the
Cinque Potts, as, distinguished from all the other
corporate and incorporate boroughs of the kingdom,
teems to be very little knows). They may be
termed a Federalive body, not of one, but of twenty-
One towns, ports, or villages. It possesses territorial
and Maritime Courts of Adjudication, and a Chan-
tellor, High-Admiral, and Lord Warden—offices
the
bestowed on the highest subject of
, e realm. 'Tile whole appear to have been con-
-I°'J'ed by a Deliberative Assembly called the
isodhul: which still is even occasionally convened.
"ere is then Nu ANALOGY between this Federative
"rity Palatine or Prineipality, arid those inland
he local corporations it may inadvertentlye confounded with.
~ Your town enjoyed, as a .I:fentber of the Cinque
P,Dris, the privilege of Suffrage and Representation,
1,14,7. the origin. of a lower House of Parliament.
.II institution Of which you form a part Iles POW
4lured for about a thousand yeas.
Aid yet, vlimige to raiy, in the few previous at-
ierspts to recover the lost political rights of.• the re-
aiective towns (which have been more or less sub-
r_syted kince thetimes of the Mundt), the freedom-
ship has been contended for, as if h belonged to some
ljrdiony Municipality ; and what is no less surpris-
inir.i the Grtuvr PARAMOUNT CHARTERS to die COl-
fitetiYo HlStitlltloll have been entirely overlooked.
heiws though granted in various ages and by dif-
,lent dynasties, decree throughout, that " those
oo heat the burthens shall enjoy the ciivileges."—
Aiwild this, as the Charters expressly state, with a
area'h to induce inhabitants to resort to the Cinque
j. 11
Ott I owns, and settle in them. The Records of
1,1.4 Itrodhuls uniformly correspond with this 'Jaen-
-ITn :—.and it was in conformity with it that the
t'ommittee which decided in the case, consisting of
!ts unusual proportion of gentlemen of high consi-
stretion as public men, ItasoLvEti UNANIMOUSLY,
4t,sr 21 days' investigation, that the RESIDNNT
;*TANTIAL TAX-PAYERS were entitled, according
' 44tierit usage, to vote for those woo suPOsn Tills
i Atts.
txposell to the hostile attacks of the French,
''(l fiequently swept by the plague in ancient times,
the inhabitants of Bye do . not appear to have
ut,rn very numerous ; but at the present period
Ines. evils having ceased, and with the advantages of
alt time cad inland communications, your copula-
; tirt ought now probably to have exceeded ten thou-
-14141 souls. To' this fact let the frequent emigre-
''u;.ns from your port testify. In what way is the
ttenotry recompensed for this repression of a rising
c',"''n. and deterioration of a commodious harbour on
bag line of coast, so dangerous to our navigation ?
"for this Nvilfui decay of the surest refuge of our
11)ing Gs it manifestly is calculated to be), 'be-
eel,
14', 6
Portsmouth and the Thames?
But,unhappily,f •the interest of Borough-
', it is 01
'lace, to discourage the prosperity of a
''e"tli(l to keep down the number of itiliabi-
-4'4. I speak, of course, chiefly of those whose
Power is derived from subtlety and intrigue, as in
Your nominee, not from the natural influence of pro.
mats' 'v., impoverish and dispeople enhance! the
eurhy, and thereb the value of this odious kind of
Possession. y l,lllO decision of the Committee in favour of the
71sebolder inhabitants of Bye, was not only for-
(elY tinnotniced-by the Speaker of the house of
it,4lQOl to the Mayor, for his guidance as return-
ro,„`",:e'rs but. it was affixed to the door of the
et`ii:eell under the authority of the Mayor him-
. du Hll' the information of all concerned. At Lon-
itneiit was . followed up by the unseating of the
tot elterfirr returned by the votes of the usurping
4791 ed corporator!; and the result was therefore,
ill "eatlTepea/ed, as much the law of the land as
9 'Vet within the statute books.
. le ottv,this state of thine, Gentlemen, a general
:1-us oeettra and what are the consequences?
jii„4; e tetertiing officer rejects. the votes he had
Dull' Ile
been compelled to put upon the amended
414114 r Ile receives.l2 votes of his own party, and
*Lel two Members on the strength of them;
,r,ir.t two rejects some hundreds', which the -House,
eiit stille Previous election, had obliged him to ad.
N14.1d recognise. Here the Cosnuoies and the
ilek OP RYE •
...I t 1 are at issue
order , le 17th of Alay the Mayor obeyed the
! the "i the House, by putting these votes upon
poll. othe 3d
following,
114,„“ _ n of August he re-
-1 ot:* le receive the same votes, and thereby dis-
cs the previous Miler of the House. In both
ts 'm
04 ,appeal from the farmer decision was avail-
, the to the select or usurping art In both eases
i g4ilveli,sirnatit voters were unswoPrn,Ya.nd unenrolledat
uns mid freemen brcausethe returning officer had
6,41„414 it, bout• '
instances, refused to udminister the
17..ig.°r enroll them. It was allowed that no alters-
..at titid .
tote... lakes' place in the qualification of the
trsu - It is clear that the Hoosti OF COMMONS
1 !it have b • • .
tition , been 'WRONG in giving effect to the de-,
i n' the Committee on the 17th of May, or the
41)2 !sect444l have been sarong in refusing to give
t •
Ar °e
we It, Pit the 3d of A wrong itl refusing to give
o it, Oil the 3d of Auguat.
c!,),t_ to infer then that the hustings are a
tit. eat of Appeal from the Commons, with audio-
-14 reverse, suspend, or set aside its proceedings ?
d
111, o 8 P9wer of a returning officer superior to that of
Petty pecker P Or is it to be supposed that a
. Ilrictu ufletioilary may taunt with contemptuous
.therwell the proceedings of the Legislature ?
the: 4,goete of' Commons may stuLify itself (said ,
tadi:;llYOr's Assistant or Assessor), but I will not
tino .9 myself." Such was the character of the
o,,tionee eo atutnatious eoinnaents passed on the oc-
Snail_
ph, c sTlll$ IS NOY AN ORDINARY crisis.
414;7, although my colleague and myself had a
itiiintlile4tYl °!*
.T.W,IINTY , to ONR in our favour of the.
Isounded innalmants whose votes had been pro-
tsott„ ,legul, and admitted by the House of Com-
the
l` r'
three months before, the nominees of
4b4l'are'icalpsttio were declared to be dull elected,
test,t, _ with ,_ this moment sitting and voting in Perlis-
. no •
More title to be there, as your Repro-
.