The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-05 00:00:00

not be enumetated. In some towns of 7,000,
8,000, or 9,000 inhabitants, the number of 101.
householders does not often exceed 350 or 'lOO, over
whom the great proprietors in the neighbourhood
will always be able to ettercise a considerable in-
fluence. Newark, for instance, will be more under
the command of the Lord of Clumber of er the
passing of the Reform Bill than it has hitherto been,
and the whole county of Bedford, which has only
'123 rated 101: householders, would scarcely supply
an independent constituency for one Moderately sized
borough. Notwithstanding, these objections to the
Reform Bill.—notwithstanding this almost irre-
sistible evidence, that in its present shape it must
add to the influence of the landed Aristocrat
notwithstanding even those two pt'ovisiens of it
against .which we loudly aised our voice at the time,
namely, the tißuses for the division of the counties
and for admitting to vote farm tenants at
we should have been satisfied with ir, had it
passed, as the mightiest Cotstitutional improvement
in English hietor'y, affording, as it would have
done, tl4:intigh the fair extension of suffrage to towns
hitherto unrepresented, and the suppression of the
rotten borough monopoly, the certain means of re-
turning representatives who would really have ex-
pressed the opinion of the nation, and controulled,
!Or the public interest, the measures of the Execu•
tive. But since the Bill has been rejected in its
original form, and is again to be submitted to discus-
-ion under the influence of the knowledge gained
during more than nine months' deliberation and in-
vestigation, we have no sentple in suggesting that a
much simpler, mon intelligible, and equally safe sys-
tem of consliittency may be formed by taking the
101. house qualification as the basis of the whole. It
must seem, on the least reflection, to be not a little
absurd—(unless we hail been accustomed to it, it
would so ftrike w0—to place one interest against
another in forming our electoral body—to make
voters on different qualifications and with different
denominations—to keep up the distinction, in men
concurring for onti common object, between free-
holders, copyholders, leaseholders, and householders,
—to coop up some of them in towns, cities, or
boroughs, prohibiting them from passing the barrier
into counties, unless on a different kind of pro-
perty—and to bar the gates of our towns, boroughs,
or cities against others, unless they change their
tenure,—to assign to some the manufacture of
knights of the shire, in boots and spurs ; and to
others that of Burgess Legislators, who suffer no loss
or degradaiion from the want of these symbols of
knighthood,—in short, to maintain such inconve-
nient, cumbrous, and ridiculous distinctions, when
society has outgrown the circumstances in which
they originated, and has succeeded in its demand of
an improved representation. In framing a con-
stituency for the first time, what Legislator would
be so irrational as to make a rotten borough one of

its elements ? And as we have now so far con-
quered our reverence for anticp4ry as to dispense
,vith this venerable ingredient or our system, why
retain any part of the ancient machinery connected
with it ? At any rate, if the form is to be kept up,
not because it is good but because it is old, let not
he anomaly extend to the substance of our rights.
Why is a roan who rents a house of 10/. in annual
value debarred from a vote in his county, N 4 title his
neighbour, the owner of a thatched cottage, or a
pig's-sty worth forty shillings, is admitted to the
polling-booth, because his trumpery possession gives
him the title of freeholder? The enormity of the
proposed injustice, and the safety of a ruolte uniform
rate of qualification, is prcvzd by the juxta-position
of two Parliamentary returns now before us. One
of them shows us, that the number of householders
rated at 101. and upwards, over the whole of Eng-
land and Wales, exclusive of the metropolitan
county, amoun•n only to 262,509; and the other,
that more than a half of these householders do not
reside in any town, city, or borough, and eont,e-
quently as householders can hnye ho vote. In the
county of Middlesex, including London and West-
minster, the number of houses of 101. and upwards
amounts to 116,279 ; but lest this broad basis of the
metropolitan constituency should excite alarm for
mob elections, let it be remembered that there are
only I 5,n3 houses rented so low as between 10/,
and 15/., that there are only 13,093 between 151.
and 20/., that there are 24,03 S rated est between 201.
and 30/.; 18,723 at betwten 301. and 401.; and
all the rest, comprising nearly a half, at above 40/.
There Could Its no great danger of admitting the
whole of these householders to a vote) which would
only give a constituency of 378,786 to the whole
kingdom of Ungland and Wales, to return about
500 members, or make about 717 voters for one re-

presentative. By the proposed distributicn of the
electoral qualification into the different kinds of free-
hold, leasehold, and household, a gross injustice must
be inflicted on a considerable number of this

body who reef houses in the country, and who,
being debarred from voting in counties because
they are not freeholders, have, by their residence
out of town, no right to a borough or city
sufirarre. Titus, all householders in the parishes of
St. Pancras and Miryiebone will be admitted to vote
on a 10/. rent; but proceed to Highgate and Hamp-
stead, and you must rent a house of 50/., othtrivise
you need not go to Brentford on the day of an elec-
tion. The only general admissible and unobjection-
able qualification would appear to be, the occupation
of a house of a certain value, or paying a certain
rate of taxes. It is liable to no abuse in ascertain-
ing the right of the voter, and from its extent would
exempt him from all temptations to corruption. It
supposes something to protect by good government,
and something to lose by anarchy cr misrule,—it
supposes civil privileges and civil duties equally im-
portant and equally binding as the election of a Mem-
ber of Parliament, and it would give every house-
holder an additional motive for supporting all the
burdens and discharging all the obligations imposed
upon him by the State, by enabling him to enjoy
his share in the election of one of its guardians.
The Constitution should enlarge its basis so as to
include all the independent hearths in the kingdom ;
and the chimney of the 10/. householder, as well as
the turrets of the landed lord, should mark the en-
joyment of all civil and political rights.—Times.

We have received a letter addressed to Earl
Grey, from General Sir George Cockburn, on the
subject of Reform, and the formation of a National
Guard, which shall appear tc-morrow. In a P.S.
he recommends, in order not to give offence by
drawing an invidious line of distinction, that the
armed force should be composed of those to whom,
under the Reform Bill, votes will be given. We
have never heard any good argument against the
measure recommended by General Cockburn. No
man can say how soon in these eventful times
tranquillity may be interrupted. Every man,
down to the individual who subsists by his daily
labour, is interested in the maintenance of order,
because the interruption of order would deprive
him of employment, and deprive him of the means
of subsistence. The knowledge that due prepara-
tions had been made to meet attempts to disturb
the peace, would go far to prevent the attempts be-
ing made. A want of confidence in the possibility
of order being maintained, should the Reform Bill be
again rejected, is at present throwing numbers of work-
ing people out of employment. But the knowledge
that all honest and well-intentioned men, are by
arming, in a condition to repress the attempts to
disturb tranquillity, would contribute to the restore-
!ion of confidence, and consequently retain the work-
ing people in employment. We believe the Anti-
Reformers are capable of any degree of wickedness
—that any of them would rather see their country
a prey to anarchy and bloodshed, than abandon I heir
unholy pretensions to plunder, anti oppress the na-
tion; and that if not deterred by witnessing the
preparations of the people, they would speculate on
a national calamity as a meansof defeating Ministers.
It must not be forgotten that a very small number of
men in a town are capable of doing much mischief,
as we have seen at Bristol, where the rioters, ac-
cording to Dr. L. Carpenter, did not exceed five or
six hundred. " It was a small number (he says) that
did the mischief. At the time they were proceeding
from the briderrell to the gaol they could not have been