The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-31 00:00:00

" THE CASTE."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,-The electors of England have done their duty
by their country with the most noble patriotism ; the
.lectionts are neirly, if not entirely concluded, and the
question of Reform may be considered as virtually carried.
40 far as the representatives of the people are concerned.
We have no apprehension, therefore, for the safety of the
great measure, because it has already received the sanction
of the majority of Englishmen. It ❑ow remains to be
seen, whether the hereditary Counsellors of the Crown are
willing to support their Patriot Sovereign and his admir-
ing and affectionate subjects, in their enlightened views of
the unavoidable necessity of instantly adapting the intern al
policy of the country to imperative circumstances. Lists
of Reforming Candidates have been published in the Jour-
nals, and with the greatest advantage to the public wel-
fare. Lists of Anti-Reforming- Aristocrats should be im-
mediately circulated, in order that the people may be in
formed who are those Lords who still continue blind to
the signs of the times, and obstinately persevere in resisting
the progress of national improvement, and upon whose
heads alone must fall the consequences of political bigotry
and interested prejudices. Some of the Nobles of England
have still, it would appear, a lesson to learn, as well as the
continental Sovereigns. The will of the people has been
uttered in a voice of thunder, and the haughty Lords of the
land cannot mistake its meaning. Their own, as well as
their country's fate, depends at this crisis upon their disin-
terested attachment to the free institu•ions of the soil of
their nativity, and on their unflinching union with the
people in the righteous cause of removing every abuse
from the machinery of the State. Self-interest must no
longer continue to he the sole momentum operating upon
all their thoughts and actions. As they are a titled
" caste," let them take the lead of the enlightened classes
of their countrymen, in promoting national improvement;
let there be no arrogant h atred of tke inferior orders,—no
holding aloof from the people, as though they (the Nobles)
were of a superior order of or spiritual beings. The cha-
t start istic of the present age; and, remarkably so among
the great in wisdom, is simplicity and singleness of pur-
pose. We would urge the Nobility to the instant cultiva-
tion of these popular virtues; and to sacrifice all their in-
terested views, their pride, and their "primatial" preju-
dices on the common altar of their country's good, rectal-

lecting that the very essence of Nobility of mind " sola est
et unica virtus." Will such men, as the Dukes of New-
castle and Northumberland, the Marquises o! Aylesbury and
Londonderry, the Lords Farnborough, Arden, Mount Edge-
cunribe, Valletort, and others, with the E al of Brownlow,
(all of Anti-Reforming notoriety) one of whom was heard
in October last, to declare, that he would vote, even alone,
against any measure of Reform proposed by the Duke of
Wellington,—will they now learn a useful lesson from the
feeling which is abroad, at length adopt liberal opinions,
and in this difficult crisis ahandon selfish principles and
prejudices, and stand by their King and his people?—
Will such men as these, he persuaded at length, by the force
of public opinion, to give their voices in support of the
Constitutional measure about to be proposed by Ministers
in Parliament ? We implore them to do so, as they value the
safety of their own dignities, and the security of our common
institutions. Are " testamentary Marquisates," with large
contingent possessions, to be confirmed by the Sovereign in
favour of those whose whole soul is set against the political
views of their King and his Ministers, and who have nothing
at heart, while cringing and creeping into Court favour, but
the aggrandisement of their own families ? And now for the
scions of " the caste." We should he glad to be disabused,
with respect to reports in circul Aim], that a young
Marquis (a mere student of the University) headed a large
party of Under-graduates in carriages, and with an in-
midatory air interfered for a certain Lord at the recent
election of representatives for a borough. Where was
the discipline of his College? Two young Viscounts
(Under-graduates) are also represented as having led on
a gentlemanly mob during a late county election to an
attack upon the Reform freemen of the county (or citizens),
and to have been severely handled. Where was the dis-
cipline of their College ? The people called out, it is
said, "We will have blood for blood !" If these state-
ments are true, which we sincerely hope they are not, we
must, in all sober seriousness, tell these young, unreflecting
Aristocrats that they may with impunity:confine their deeds
of Mood to their own class ; but that, if they dare to
raise the hand of violence against the people unprovoked,
they will themselves become the first victims of their own
sanguinary rashness. The time is now arrived when our
vung nobility must be brought up in principles consonant
with the liberal and enlightened views of tire age, or " the
titled caste" will disappear ! VERAX.

'WORCESTERSHIRE ELECTION_

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sit,—During the elections it was highly proper and
necessary fur every individual who saw in the Reform
Bill a great and salutary measure to defend all its minutest
details ; fur any admissions of imperfection, although far
from affecting its principles, were, with the utmost reck-
lessness of truth, pricer ted—when private men made any
such admissions, the whole Bill was with them unpopular;
when public men did so, the Bill was to be radically
changed ; such were the songs of the poor Post and Co.,
utterly failing to sow dissentions among the people, or
distrust of his Majesty's Ministers. Now, however, the
friends of real Reform may discuss more fully the different
clauses in the Bill, I wish to draw your attention, to two
points. What will be the effect of the following ?
" That no person will be entitled to vote at the election of
a knight of the shire in respect of any house, by reason
of the occupation thereof he or any other pet son will be
entitled to vote for any city or borough." Will nut this
disfranchise a vast number of most respectable voters—of
voters having a deep stake in the country ? If a man lets
a freehold tenement for upwards of 101. per annum in a
borough or city to a male, he will have no vote for the
county ; but if he is so fortunate as to let the property to a
female, or a minor, or if the property should not be worth
101. per aanuni, he will have a vote for the county. Do
I construe the clause rightly ? But besides this absurdity,
it contradicts another part of the Bill—it ought to be ex-
punged altogether, or at any rate the words " or any other
person" omitted.
Another part of the Bill requires to be weighed well—
the division of counties. 1 know not how this may be
viewed, or how it may operate throughout the country in
general ; but this I know, that it is very unpopular here,
and if 'Worcestershire is divided, its independence is gone
for ever. The atttention of the country gentlemen of in-
dependent, but moderate fortune, was very forcibly drawn
to the fact at the dinner given to the Members, Fairy and
Spencer ; and it is trusted that at the approaching Quarter
Sessions it will be subject matter of discussion with the
Magistrates. Let us see how the polling went during the
contest according to the proposed division—
First Division. Lygon
Pershore Hundred . 435
Oswaldston do. - - 334
Doddintree do. - - 160

Spencer.
:153
:17!)
'202

Here is a large majority against Capt. Spencer, although
he was returned by a majority on the gross poll of 430!
How is this to be accounted for—not surely that there is
such discrepancy of opinion in different parts of the same
county, but that the above hundreds, especially the first,
are in abject bondage, and when the county is divided it
will be one of the nomination retut ns deceiving by the
appearance of freedom. Look at the contrast in the voting
in the other hundreds, and say if the one-half of the
county is not needed to balance the other.
Second Division. Spencer, Lygon.
Blakenhurst Hundred . 152 39
Upper Halfshire do. - . 318 160
•
Lower Halfshire do. . _ 461 167

The bare display of figures will supply all lack of argu-
ment for resisting the division of Worcestershire—for pre-
serving the county en'ire, that is to say, for the whole to have
a voice in the election of the four Members, allowing the
votes to be taken at different places. Unless this is done
none of our independent country gentlemen, with fortunes
limited to a few thousands per annum, will ever have any
chance of sitting in St. Stephens' as the representative of
their native county. York, Leicester, Lancaster, Glou-
cester, and other immense counties, may suffer division
without harm, but the smaller counti s cannot. Our
Ministers, luckily, are men anxious to conmlt the feelings
of the public and county meetings upon this subject. Let
the freeholders ponder upon this. UTILITARIAN.
Y.S. The figures at the close of the poll, Foley, 2,044;
Spencer, 1,70 ; Lydon, 1,335 ; give a very inadequate
idea of the completeness of the rout or the boroughmongers
in this county. From an unlimited command of money,
and such a host of paid agents, Colonel Lygon was enabled
tP bring up quickly all his voters, and to give no symptom
of weakness until his last man was polled off; he could
not have added one hundred to his number, while Oleic
were upwards of one thousand five hundred ready to poll
for Foley and Spencer. The Gallant Colonel, it is now
known, was grossly deceived, as to the c mvass retuins, by
his attornies; and' was pushed on against his own judg-
ment by the parsons, and a few other individuals worthy
to be ordained. There has been a mock kind of meeting
to express admiration of the Colonel's services in Parlia-
ment, and to present him with a piece of plate. Sub-
tract the attornies, who are generously disgorging a guinea
of their enormous plunder ; and the parsons, who, with
equal generosity, volunteer another in behalf of tytbes.
What a falling off is there !"