The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-07 00:00:00

!'-'titning___ltlV.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1849.

We alluded yesterday to the extraordinary dispro-
portion that exists between the extent and population
of the different constituencies which return Members
to the Imperial Parliament—a disproportion so strik-
ing that it must be at once obvious to every unpre-
judiced person that some measure calculated to pro-
duce a greater equalization of the electoral districts is
one of the reforms now most urgently required. It
will be found that in England there is one borough
Member for every 1,045 electors. But many of
these boroughs contain numerous inhabitants and
voters, which would entitle them to a far greater
number of representatives than are at present per-
mitted. Thus we find the city of London with no
less than 19,064 registered electors, and containing a
greater amount of wealth and intelligence than
perhaps any portion of the civilized world, returning
only four Members, and thus having 3,721 electors
for each Member over and above the average number
represented by each borough Member in this country.
The metropolitan districts also exhibit an equally
arge proportion of registered electors to the repre-
sentatives they are enabled to return to
Parliament, there being no less than 83,062
voters electing sixteen Members, or nearly 5,191
electors for each Member ; while the borough of
Bridgnortb, Honiton, Harwich, Thetford, Stafford,
Richmond (Yorkshire), Totnes, and Lymington, the
aggregate electoral body of which amounts to but
3,766, also return among them 16 Members, the
average being one Member for every 235 voters. It
therefore follows that a single voter in any of these
latter boroughs possesses a much greater amount
of political power, and is equivalent in the electoral
scale to twenty-two of the merchants or traders
of this great metropolis. Hear this, ye citi-
zens of London, and ask whether your
chosen Member, the head of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, can fairly refuse to amend a system that gives
equal influence in the national legislation to the 252
electors of Harwich and Thetford to that which is
accorded to 19,064 of yourselves !
But these facts, strange as they may appear, by no
means exhibit this anomaly in the strongest light or
the most striking aspect. On a close examination
it will be found that of the 658 Members,
an absolute majority, or 330 Members, are re-
turned by a population of 3,127,000 persons, of
whom 180,000 only are entitled to the elective fran-
chise ; while the minority of 328 are returned by a
population of 23,873,000 persons, of whom nearly
900,000 are registered electors. If, therefore, popu-
lation be taken as the test, the majority are chosen by
less than one-eighth of the entire community ; or if
the number of voters be the point of comparison, by
little more than one-sixth of the entire num-
ber ; and as the Honourable Member for
Montrose justly remarked, " that majority re-
presents all the smaller boroughs, and those
under the influence of landlords—the minority, the
greater proportion of the counties and large cities." If
property be taken as the basis, the disparity will not
'be less remarkable, for we find that the annual value
of the rateab'e property represented by the
"majority" is but 6,200,0001., while the value repre-
sented by the minority is 78,800,0001., or, in other
words, one-fourteenth of the whole rateable pro-
perty of the country can control and outvote
the remaining thirteen-fourteenths. Is there not
as great a necessity for a comprehensive
and extensive measure of reform to effeit an equit-
able alteration of such a system as there was for the
disfranchisement of Gatton or Old Sarum, or the be-

* "The Question of the Irish Colleges shortly Stated;
with some Observations on the Validity of the It scripts
relative to these Institutions. By Hunter Gordon, Esq.,
of Lincoln's Inn." liidgvisy, Piccadilly :__1849.