The Sun.
London, England, 1830-12-02 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL ELECTION.

(From the Liverpool Albion.)

If any 'man, after having witnessed the scenes of which
Liverpool has, during the past week, been the theatre,
can deny the necessity of an immediate as well as a radical
change in the distribution of the elective franchise in
towns like the one in which we live, such a man must he
either a fool or a knave. If a fool, his folly renders him
proof against the force of the most convincing evidence of
the infamy of the present system ; if a knave, his knavery
either prompts him to profit by the abominable abuse of a
sacred constitutional right, which ought to be exercised
with the purest and most patriotic intentions, or to em-
ploy the wealth which fortune has placed at his disposal,
for the purpose of corrupting the small portion of virtue
and independence which, in these degenerate days, apper-
tains to human nature. Base and infamous as is the con-
duct of the poor man, even when he is placed within the
sphere of temptation, baser and more infamous still is the
conduct of the rich man who lavishes his gold on the
wretched beings who reel and stagger through the public
streets, the victims of drunkenness and debauchery--beasts
in the shape of men, who are not merely a disgrace to free-
dom, but to human nature it.elf. It make. one's blood
boil with indignation to see the proudest right which the
citizens of a free and enlightened state can exercise com-
mitted to the keeping of ignorant and depraved men, the
majority of whom are composed of the very dregs--the
very scum of the town ; whilst the employers of labour,
the middle and the educated classes, and even most of the
higher ranks of our fellow townsmen, who, from educa•
tiou and station, are the best qualified to estimate and ap-
prechte the abilities of public men, are denied the
possession of a privilege which is prostituted under
one's very nose, and the vote which it confers sold for
a base bribe. Yet the men who, from their standing
in society, and especially from .their electioneering expe-
perience, have enjoyed the best means of knowinz the ex-
tent to which bribery and corruption have prevailed in the
successive elections which have taken place in this town
during the last quarter of a century, are the very men who
affect to tremble when en enlargement of the franchise is
proposed; who have uniformly opposed the attempts
which, from time to time, have been made to reform our
elective system; and who talk of revolution as the secret
aim of the tt nest patriots ! Such men are beyond the
reach of Egument. • Experience itself would even seem
to be wholly lost on dolts and idiots who have not the
sense to perceive that revolution is inevitable, if the pre-
sent system is allowed to continue but a short time longer,
and that the only way by which it can be prevented is, to
amend the shockingly defective and iniquitous system o
suffrage and representation which now prevail througboui
the empire.

We do not, however, test our hostility to the present
partial, unjust, and iniquitous system on the notorious
fact of the right of suffrage beingihamefully abused.
Were the electors as pure as it is possible fur peccant
mortals to be, we should still be hostile to it, because
it makes a distinction where none should be allowed to
exist. For why should one man be admitted to enjoy
and to exercise a sacred political right, and another,
whose claim to it is equally unquestionable, be wholly
denied the privilege? If I contr►bute my quota towards
the exigencies of the State, why should I not have a
voice in choosing the men whose business it will be to
watch the expenditure of the money so contributed ?
The truth is, that the only reason which can be given
for the existence of our unequal system is, that, at the era
when the right of voting was conferred, people were as
indifferent to its possession as the majority of parishioners
now are to the right of voting in parish vestries. It was
not then a power by the abuse of which its owner could
make money, and fill his pockets at the expense of his
integrity and his independence. The ambition of the rich,
however, and the venality of the poor, have made bribery
and corruption part and parcel of almost every English
election ; and the electors of the freest state in Christen-
dom are, taken as a whole, the most corrupt that the world
ever saw. The_ system has now reached the very highest
pitch orenormity, especially in the great and enlightened
town of Liverpool. Bribes were, last week, offered and
accepted in the public streets. Drunkenness prevailed
among women as well as tnen. Habits of industry were
wholly thrown off; and all sense of decency and of deco-
rum utterly lost. Can, we a►k, can such a system ),e
permitted to continue by any legislature which is not
Wind to the consequences which must inevitably spring
from its perpetuation in the present enlightened era, and
particularly in the present state and temper of the people
of England? No! we unhesitatingly answer. It must,
it shall be reformed, Thination wills it; and our rulers
cannot, if they dare make the attempt, resist the united
cry of the middle and the educated-classes for a share in the
elective franchise; a franchise which they demand, not
only because its pr scent possessors have abused it, but be-
cause they are entitled to it as men and as, above all, free
men. Right and Justice are both on their side ; and the
people, not the rabble, are determined that the great prin.
ciple of making representation co-extensive with taxation
shall he recognised and acted upon in any contemplated
amendment or remodelling of the constituency of England.
We do not think, that the new administration contemn,
plate such an alteration in the present system of voting as
will satisfy the just and reasonable expectations of the
country. They do not seem to contemplate the enfran-
chisement of every adult male who pays direct government
or parochial taxes. It matters little whether they do or
do not contemplate such a measure. Esther the present
or some not distant administration must not merely cun-
template, but carry it into practical effect too. It is merely
a question of time. The nation know their moral, they
never dream of employing their physical strength ; and no
ministry, however powerful, can withstand " the mighty
power of public opinion, embodied in a free press, which
pervades, and checks, and, perhaps, in the last resort,
nearly governs the whole."
Meanwhile, the people must make a constitutional de-
monstration. They must tell the Government what
changra in the elective franchise they expect and must
have. For this purpose, meetings ought to be held all
over the country, and petitions, embodying their wishes,
must be prepared for presentation to Parliament, when
the Ministerial plan of Reform shall be brought under the
consideration of the House of Commons. It has been
suggested to us, that meetings of the parishioners in vestry
would be preferable to what are known by the name of
towns meetings. None but rate-payers would be suffered
to be present ; and, as they must be interested in any
measure which would reduce the immediate and prevent
the future waste of the public money, petitions from them
would have snore weight, as expressing the sense of the
people on the subject of reform, than any emanating from
meetings in which persons interested in the continuance
of the present infamous system might mingle, and in
which they might attempt, by clamour and confusion, to
defeat the great object the petitioners contemplate. There
seems great force in this view of the case. It is therefore
with touch pleasure we have heard, that a requisition
will, in a day or two, be ready to receive the names of the
parishioners who, being friendly to an extension of the
elective franchise, think that the Churchwardens and the
Select Vestry ought to he solicited to give them an oppor-
tunity, in vestry assembled, to state their sentiments ,e►
this momentous and nationally important question. We
cannot doubt that such a requisition will, after the dis-
gusting scenes which all have witnessed, be signed by the
parishioners of Liverpool generally, without any distinc-
thins of party in religion or in politics.