The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1838.

THE REGISTRATION OF 1838,

(From the .Morning Chronicle.)
The Tory party has at length put forth its manifesto,
and Fraser's Magazine for this month contains a docu-
ment which is intended to strike terror into the Liberal,
and to g:ve joy to the Conservative camp. The Times
and Standard republish this manifesto, happy to be relieved
from that trouble which the daily manufacture of numbers
for pretended Tory gain in different registrations imposed
upon them, and we may now take as the statement of all
the successes which Toryism can recount the following
list, contained in Fraser, and evouched by the Times and
Standard.

We shall this day confine ourselves mostly to the mum
tics, and we have added to Fraser but five additiona.
columns, to show facts more clearly :

" THE REGISTRATION OF 1838.
(From Fraser's Magazine for November. )
" We have taken the trouble, whenever an opportunity has
presented itself, of noting down the actual details, and shall
now offer to our readers a general view of these results, as far
as they are worth reporting.
" For there are many counties and many boroughs, let it be
borne in mind, respecting which there can be nothing to re-
port. Mere than half the counties of England are now no
longer the arenas of political contest. In South Derbyshire,
for instance, South Shropshire, East Norfolk, South Essex,
North Lancashire, Westmoreland, Oxfordshire, Nottingham.'
shire, Leicestershire, East Kent, and several other counties, in
which the Conservatives are in quiet possession, nothing of the
least consequence has been transacted. Theßadicals and Whigs
have resigned themselves to their fate, and the whole busi-
ness of registration has subsided into mere routine. In one
or two other cases they have been active, but without
any important result. They claim in the county of Hunting-
don an advantage of about 100 by this registration. They
were in a minority at the last election of nearly 400. In
North Shropshire they also claim a small advantage, without,
however, having the smallest chance of gaining even one seat.
In the boroughs they have better luck ; but the drawback on
their gains here is, that they merely triumph in a few select
places, which were constructed to be, and always will he,
Whig or Whig-Radical preserves. At Ashton, for instance,
and at Manchester and at Huddersfield, they have profited
slightly by the registration. At Liverpool and at Preston
neither party gained any thing of the least consequence. In
the great boroughs, such as Birmingham, Finsbury, Lambeth,
the Tower Hamlets, the registration had no result whatever,
as far as the character of the constituency was concerned.
Let us now, however, proceed to state such results as may
appear to be worth putting down, beginning with the

.3 r-;
2. .....' F
Present q-, -,,,,
•
Conservative Radical. Regresenta• '37 ?.:.''.
ties.
ga ..:,.,. I
:4.H-S'.
' COUNTIES.
'<: t. 4-
'6 I K 4 K ? r. '-'3 17 c::-:.!
C. .; r, 4. i;_,D cr 1:), ~ •B. ;.
a i i.i ,%`• • . z iri ', g= 2
5 5 Pr; 1:)-
5, 2,1. ii C P-
z ..4
Middlesex
523
Objections
Yorkshire, W R ......
0 jections
Wes
ClatimsK,nt .
Obj,ct ens
Smith Devon
Objections
North Devon
Objections
Claims
South Leicestershire ... ... ... ... ... 5
0 2
Objections
Bucks
Otjec. ions
Claims
East Gloucestershire ... ... ... ... 2 1 1
Objections
West Gloucestershire ... ... ..• 2 1 1
Objections
Claims
North Derbyshire 493
Objections
East Cumberland
Objections
Anglesea
Ujections
Rutland
Objections
North Durham
Objections
Isle of Wieht
Objections
Claims
•... ••• • ,i, ••• 15 32
S. Northamptonshire ... 2 0 2
Objections
:11 I 13 1 18
Thus the number of counties and divisions of counties
upon which the Tories claim to have rrninnel ie 1/1 rrknea

Thus the number of counties and divisions ,f counties
upon which the Tories claim to have gained is 16. These
16 counties and divisions return 31 Member 3 to Parlia-
ment, and are now represented by 13 Liberals and 18
Tories. Four have none but Liberal Representatives, six
none but Tory, and the remaining six are equally divided.
Upon two other counties, returning four Tory Members, it
is allowed that the Liberals have gained. So that, taking
all for granted which the Tory manifesto states, and ee-
ducting four from thirteen, the assumed Tory gain upon
the county registration of England goes to affect only
nine seat's.

But let us look a little closer into this Tory claim of
gains. There are six seats which the Tories tried to
carry at the last general election, and which they failed
in obtaining or retaining. These were the following,• and
their unsuccessful candidates lost by the numbers affixed
to each ;

Middlesex 1 523
West York 1 403
West Kent 1 lO2
North Derbyshire 1 493
East Cumberland 1
North Durbam 1
These majorities the Tories do not pretend to have over-
come in any instance, except in West Yorkshire, by a
statement of claims, and in West. Kent by five, leaving the
other four seats secure in their majorities, and therefore we
may fairly deduct the four not threatened from the nine,
leaving a chance only of probable success upon the attack-
ing of five county seats.
The county representation of England and Wales com-
prises 159 Members ; for weeks past the Tory Papers have
been dinning their songs of pretended triumph into the
public ears ; many of the Liberal party have taken for truth
that which was so broadly and so unblushingly asserted,
and have been disheartened thereby; they thought the
counties were all delivered to the tender mercies of the To-
ries, and now, when the revisions are completed, out conies
the Tory manifesto, claiming only a gain upon the regis-
tration of sixteen counties, or divisions of counties, and af-
fecting only the occupation of five seats. And be it re-
membered that this result is, upon their own published
statement, deliberately concocted, gravely put forth, pro-
claimed by Fraser, and reiterated by the Tory organs.
But further :

It is within our own knowledge—the proofs are now be-
fore us—that in Middlesex, West Yorkshire, North DevonAnglesea, and the Isle of Wight, the numbers published by
the Tories are totally incorrect: they are in truth manu-
factured for the purpose by paid agents, and are solely in-
tended to operate upon the credulity of the public. It may
be said that this is mere contradiction against assertion—be
it so ; the party asserting a fact is bound to prove it, and
we will bring this to a very narrow but certain issue. Let
Fraser, or the Standard, or the oracle of Printinghouse-
square, whose false statements we exposed only two days
ago, publish a list of the 608 voters the Tories boast to
have expunged from the Middlesex register, and if they
can show names of living men expunged upon their ob-
jections to within any reasonable number of that amount,
we will beg pardon for our unbelief, and more, we will give
to any hospital in the metropolis named by them the sum of
fifty pounds. If they do not adopt this course, we brand
the statement as false, incapable of proof, and only put forth
to mislead the public. Ex uno disce wanes.
The county registration in England and Wales is not, as
a whole, in favour of the Liberal party, nor can it ever be
so. The Reform Bill created a constituency of acres, not
of mind ; it made the tenantry mere tools of landlord or of
agent, and passive recorders of their will. It is only in
certain counties, where property is much subdivided, where
manufacturing towns offer some resistance to agricultural
despotism, that the Liberal interest can stand its ground.
But the sheet anchor of reform is in the towns and
boroughs ; and, knowing as we do, that in the boroughs of
England a Liberal majority has been increased by this re-
gistration, we were amused by the hardihood that dared to
claim triumphs for the Tory party in Westminster, Bris-
tol, and in sixty-three other places. There in England and
Wales 203 boroughs, so that even if the Tories had sixty-
three out of that number, no great harm would be done ;
particularly as the Tory list includes such virtuous
boroughs as Maidstone, Beverley, and divers others, in
which registration has as much to do with the return of
Members as the man in the moon, and no more. But we
have the means of dissecting and exposing the list of Tory
gains in the registration of towns, and we shall give a list
In the
moanistra t of v t
of a very different complexion in a few days.
titre
cani comnplyire the
repeat,
Ltiiibaetrai "upon the united re•
g
b
ground," and we will very shortly give indisputable proof gained
fed
of
the truth of this assertion,

GLECTING TIIE ANTECEDENT.—The Albany
Journal gives the following, as Dr. Morse, the geographer's,I
account of Albany, as it was some thirty years ago : t
cootains," says the doctor, about 2,000 houses and 9,000 in-
habitants, all standing with their gable ends to the street."
VERY ODD MlSTAKE.—There's been a aood deal
of laughing in New Orleans latelY—at least so says the N. O.
Picayune, and nobody ever doubts the N. 0. Pioayune ; and
,
Messrs. Snobbs and Doolittle of that city were the subjects.—_
I say, neighbour Snobbs, if you dont keep your hens out of.
my garden, dash my blunderbuss if I don't shoot
Very well, Master Doolittle, shoot away;—only, if
ou kill any of my hens throw 'cm over into my yard. ”
Crack ! Crack ! went the old blunderbuss, morning after
mort.ing ; and the great fat hens were pitched into neighbour
Sn ,bbs's yard like rain ! At last, after a fortnight or so, Mr.
Doolittle discovered that Snobbs never had any hens; and
that he Doolittle had been shooting his own hens, and tossing
them over for Snobb's pot. 'em—that's