The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-27 00:00:00

Ott

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LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1849,

Our Protectionist contemporaries have been sing-
ing " their Fong of triumph" in honour of Mr.
EN ELYN'S return somcwhat prematurely. They will
not be I ermitted to derive the advantages which
t tyt ntic p3ted from the "courtesy" of Mr. EDGELL ;

their vaulting ambit of bath o'erl!apt itself ;
through over eagerness they h ,ve, while grasping
at the sh Alow, :n.is•sed the sulstance:; thinking
only of the c :urtesy of Nr. EDGELL, they
have forg dten the more weighty requirements
of the 14vr, and the conscqumce is, that the election
is a void c'e.dion—'hat the battle will have to be
fought over again, and when so fought, the Liberals,
warned by the lessons of the pact, will take care so
to choose their caldidate ai not to Le again forced,
in consequence of his secession, to change their
who'e order of battle, in the face of the enemy, on the
cve of the combat, and there can be no doubt but
t 'at when the real election comes West Surrey will
do its duty, and return a staunch Liberal as suc•
cesor to Mr. DENISON.

The history of the proceedings of yesterday at the
polling booth at Godalming is one which will be
henceforth celetrated in the annals of elections. At
the nomination, which took place on Saturday, Mr.
Enot-r. was, on a showi of hands, declared by the
sheriff to be chosen Knight of the Shire for West
Surrey, whereupon a poll was demanded on the part
of Mr. EVELYN, and the said poll was appointed by
the Sheriff to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday,
the 25th and 26th of September. At the
conclusion of the day's polling on Tuesday, Mr.
EDGELL, being at that time in a small minority, inti-
mated " in the most courteous manner," his intention
not to pursue the con test any further, an intimation
which was coLveyed at once to Mr. EVELYN'S com-
mittee,
and also to the High Sheriff, whereupon the
latter functionary, thinking only of the candidates,
and caring nothing for the constituency, made no ar-
ringernent whatever for taking the poll on the 'Wed-
nesday, in consequence of which the electors of West
Surrey were depraved of an opportunity of register-
g their votes. Among the electors thus disfran-
chised through the ladies of the Sheriff, is Mr.
Jades Low, of Gracechurch-street, who tendered his
vote at ten minutes before nine A At yesterday morn-
ing at the polling-place at Godalming, but found that
there were no officials at the booth to register the
vote so tendered, whereupon Mr. Low served the
following protest upon the Sheriff:—

" I, James Low, o' No. 30, ;Gracechurch-street, in
the city of London, a freeholder of the western division
of the county of Surrey, in the presence of James Fos'er,
of Godalmirg, grocer, proceeded to the polling-booth in
Godalming, appointed to receive the votes of the voters
for that division for the eh cinin of a Member to repre-
sent the western division of Surrey in Parliament, to
tender my vote, on Wednesday, this 26th day of Sep-
temb?r, 1849, at ten minutes before nine o'clock, A.M.,
and found neither returning officer nor poll clurk to re-
ceive my vote. In consequence of which I protest
against the legality of such election, the Sheriff
naming the election to commerce on Tuesday, the
25,h of September, from nine o'clock, A.M., to four
o'clock, P.M.," and on Wednesday, the 26th, at eight
o'clock in the morning, finally closing at four P.M.
"Dated this 26th day of September, 1849.
r "To William FrancisGamul Farmer, Eeq., Sheriff for
the county of Surrey, Nonsuch Park, near Epsom.
• - "JAMES Low.
" WitnesS—J. L. Foster."

There cannot be a doubt but that Mr. Low is right
in his law, and that the election is altogether void.
It is not in the power of any candidate when the poll
is once commenced to, strictly speaking, resign ; he
is in the hands of the electors, and if the electors
choose to elect him, albeit such election may be
against his express • wishes, he cannot re-
fuse to serve, he cannot resign his seat, and
the only method by which he can rid himself of his
responsibilities as a representative of the reople is by
the performance of some act, such as acceptance of
office under the Crown, which shall render him
incapable of serving in Parliament. Under the old
law, when there was but one polling-place for the
whole county, the sheriff had the power of
closing the poll whenever one full hour had
elapsed without a vote being tendered, and the usual
practice was, on an intimation
n being made by one of
the candidates of his intent ion to resign, for all to
abstain p piling for an hour, when the
sheriff could
legally close the po'1:: but under the present
system, when there are a multidude of polting_
laces at great distances from each other,
it would be manifestly
.i f within
impossible to observe
any such rule, because,the hour a
oiling place, that
alpglo vote is tendered at any one
And all the other polling places must be kept open
until an bour ahall have elapsed from the time that