The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-09 00:00:00

Uirnii

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1847.

Several months ago we expressed our solicitude that
the time hitherto occupied in polling at the Irish
elections should be abbreviated. We are rejoiced
that the Right Hon. the Secretary for Ireland inti-
mated on:Monday evening the probable introduction of
a Bill for limiting the duration of the borough
elections to a single day, as is practised by the vari-
ous constituencies of England. That such an enact-
ment would be an extraordinary boon to the sister
island cannot be questioned, as it is notorious that,
under the existing system of prolonging the election
of the candidates to five days, an opportunity is
afforded for the most demoralising proceedings, both
on the part of those possessed of the elective franchise,
and of those who are, from their position, disqua-
lified from a direct participation in the selection
of a representative. Nor is that disgraceful opportu-
nity lost upon any occasion where corruption is not
prevented by a scarcity of money. Throughout the
better part of a week almost every city and borough
in the four provinces in Ireland is, during the period
of electioneering excitement, the scene of riotous
extravagance and of villanous corruption. Not by
any means that we would imply a belief in any more
excessive predilection on the part of our Irish than on
the part of our English fellow-countrymen to finger
a golden bribe, but that by the needless extension of
the polling time from one day to fire days a
greater temptation is afforded for corruption
and debauchery. Supposing, as is not unfrequently
the case, that the five polling days are interrupted by
the recurrence of the Sunday, it is deplorable to
reflect upon the desecration of that religious festival
which naturally results from the prolongation of the
local excitement.

Nothing whatever can justify the distinction which
has hitherto existed between the time allowed for the
reception of votes at the polling-booths of England
and of Ireland. If in the populous ridings of York-
shire, and in the dense constituencies of the metro-
polis and the manufacturing districts, one day is
found to be sufficient, surely a similar period would
afford ample opportunity to the most numerous of
the Irish constituencies. In England the poll clo,es
at four o'clock, notwithstanding the restriction to a
single day, while in Ireland it continues open until five
during the spring and summer, and until six during the
autumn and winter seasons. Either this remarkable
difference has been hitherto permitted from a notion
that the Milesian race is afflicted with a difficulty in
coming to a decision, ;or from an anxiety that SAM
WELLER'S experiment as to the refrigerating influ-
ence of pump-water shall be practised upon the inde-
pendent voters across St. George's Channel. Under
any other supposition the difference would be pre-
posterous. _

Among the evil consequences known to have re-
sulted from the extended period of polling in the
sister Wand, is the fact of a considerable, proportion
of the unprincipled members of several constituencies
having combined, for the purpose of eliciting enor-
mous bribes, by threatening, at the eleventh hour, to
turn the tables upon the more successful candidate.
Sheltered under the appearance of a merely con-
vivial club, these systematic promoters of cor•
ruption have deputed a confidential agent to
negotiate the " understanding" with the party
threatened, and bargains have been thereby
effected in some instances for no very trifling consi-
deration. Such are the grievances which are inevi-
table from this unnecessary protraction of the hours
of polling.

Until the alteration hinted at on Monday by Mr.
LAIIOtiCHERE be introduced to the consideration of
Parliament we shall continue to anticipate not merely
a restriction of the period hitherto engrossed in the
city and borough elections, but in the county elec-
tions likewise. We are doubly desirous to witness
such a modification in the existing system ; we are
desirous at once for the better facilitation of business
and for the prevention of many demoralising prac-
tices.

A singular circumstance occurred on Monday. The
price of corn in the market rose from six shillings to
eight shillings per quarter ; and the public are ap-
prised by some of the morning journals of to-day,
that simultaneously with the above rise a further
reduction in the price of bread was sanctioned by
the bakers generally throughout the metropolis.
From the latter fact we augur favourably that the
enhanced price of grain will speedily be reduced.
The slightest whisper or the most naked ru-
mour suffices to act upon the sensitive
nerves of the corn-holders. Their wits, too, are as
keen for combination to create a delusive panic, where
gain, immediate and prospective, attends the opera-
tion, as they are ready to resign the speculative
movement when their minds are tickled with the ap-
prehension that they may be playing a losing game.
The moment the fine weather set in the price of
corn, and of course that of bread, began to yield con-
siderably. Two presumptions rationally accounted
for this relaxation in price. The one, that large sup-
plies of foreign corn were known to be on their way
to our shores ; the other, that the appearance of the
crops promised abundantly for the ensuing harvest.
There was, moreover, a third, encouragingly adverted
to not long since by the Marquis of Larispowsiu in
Parliament, and which, we believe, those who were
best in the secret knew well enough was not an
exaggerated inference, and which further reason was,
that the home stock was considerably beyond the
quantity which it was generally supposed we had in
hand. Now it is quite manifest that if we are to be
subjected to the scarcity which it was, and is still,
contended by some will be our fate till the sickle shall
have laid low the corn which is now ripening, we
never should have witnessed the abatement in prices
that took place concurrently with the commencement
of the warm weather. Prices would have been kept
up notwithstanding, and particularly when it is re-
membered that, much about the same time, Lord
ASHBURTON, the Earl of HARDWICKE, and others
in the House of Peers expressed their
fears that during the summer there would be a
serious deficiency in the staple commodity of food.
Still, as we have observed, the prices fell, and fell
rapidly. Touching the rise in price of yesterday, we
may remark—first, that the corn holders have
still, and will continue to have till sufficient time shall
have elapsed fully to develop the blessings of free
trade in grain of all kinds, great power in drilling
the market so as to delude and alarm the public on
the one hand, and to serve their own objects on
the other. Next, we would mention that there are
but two tangible reasons for accounting for the recent
improved price ; first, the intelligence that reached
us only yesterday morning, in an authentic shape,
from Ireland, of the potato plant in that country
being again affected by the symptoms which preceded
the fatal blight of last year ; and, next, the variation
from excessive heat to comparative chilliness which
prevailed in the atmosphere for the last few days. In
our remarks of yesterday we pointed out the mode in
which we could provide against the danger that would
attend a second general failure in the potato-crop, that
b tbeienregfoforer,ewtbt there is n
aarnedwewen real causereforearmeora We l
alarm as
econceivteo,
the continued dearness in the prices of bread, and of
provisions generally' and that, provided we be blessed
with a fine summer, e be savede the
eenl
y felt
repetition
of the national distress which hast
of late by the humbler classes of been so keenly
the community.

A short time since we alluded to the vast impor t-
i ance of the subject brought forward by Dir. EwAuT,
" That a more direct system of taxation on
property(as Car as possible) be substituted for the in
should
I direct system (by Customs and Excise duties) now in
luse"—and we asserted that the present system was
not only unjust in principle, but impolitic in practice