The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-27 00:00:00

THE LATE ELECTIONS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sia,—l have lately returned from a tour in the north,
and in my course having visited several families where
the principals have been actively engaged in the business
of the lags elections. I have become more than ever con-
vinced of the impossibility of ascertaining the real sense
of the country on questions submitted to its judgment,
till the voter shall be protected by the great measure of
the Ballot. In repeated instances which have come to
my knowledge men have been literally carried to the
poll in such a state of intoxication that they could not
walk without support, and were scarcely able to utter
the names of the candidates they had been prevailed on
to vote for. An argument I have been constantly met
with in my advocacy of the necessity of secret voting
has been, that if it were in force this class of men
could never be induced to take the trouble of going to
the poll, as no candidate would pay for the mere pro-
mise, when it would be impossible for the voter to prove
its fulfilment, and that thus the constituency would be
much diminished. Surely nothing stronger can be
urged in favour of any system than that it would ex-
clude those who have no opinion to express, from ex-
pressing an opinion on the most vital of all subjects, the
government of the country. In many of thej recent con-
tests in the cities and boroughs, where the elections have
been carried by such trifling majorities, it is this very
class who, without any other reason than that they
have been paid for it, have decided the fate of the candi-
dates, and virtually returned the Members. 'When we
connect with this fact another, no less indisputable,
namely, that numbers of electors abstain altogether from
voting, knowing that they will sustain injury from the
conscientious exercise of their privilege, I think no mind
unbiassed by party prejudices can come to any other
conclusion than that, under the present system, it is im-
possible the honest opinion of the constituency can be
expressed.

Your steady and patriotic support of the popular cause
has induced me to hope you might not judge the above
remarks unworthy a corner in your invaluable paper.

I itm,Sir, your obedient servant,
London, July 26. J. S. P.

MILLERS, BAKERS, AND:LORD
STANLEY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR—I • feel grateful, as every one of our fraternity
must feel, for your able strictures in defending the poor
millers and bakers from the unjust assaults of my Lord
Stanley, who, if he had known the ruinous losses to which
we are unavoidably subject in our trade with the bakers
in the rural districts, in consequence of their supplying
the agricultural labourers with bread and flour to keep
them from starvation, would have paused before he
brought into public odium a respectable class of trades-
men to serve a political triumph. Yes, my Lord Stanley,
the millers are the very people who, without any "pro-
tection," enable the farmer to pay his rent, which he
could not do with all his protection if we did not stand in
the gap between him and the consumer
My Lord should have known true nobility of charac-
ter consists in the support of a manly dignity on all oc-
casions, and if he could not have spoken a word in favour
f the helpless and unprotected, it would have been snore
generous of him to have lost his election than to have
won it at the expence of truth. If these virtues are
lightly esteemed by the .privileged orders who force
themselves forward to be legislators, how can thev expect
the plebeians can have that confidence in them which their
station should command ?
The bare idea of the monopolists taking office with
their large " pinchbelly" majority has already produced
a lucky change in the wheat market. The very demon of
selfishness could not have wished it more effective to his
heart's content.* What we are to expect when these
wiseacres realise power is not for us to divine ; their
darling object, the sliding scale, the climax of their legis-
lative
wisdom, is at the present moment in splendid ope-
ration. Here we are on the very borders of a famine in
wheat, the vital support of life ; and we could well afford
at the present time to pay Ss., 10s., or even 12s. per quar-
ter duty on foreign wheat to keep us on until harvest,
and thus replenish the Exchequer. But " No," say the
monopolists, " you shall have it before the time you do
not want it ;" that is, when the duty is nominal, and the
produce of our own new harvest comes to hand, you
shall have an overwhelming quantity to fill our own
pockets. Then follows a recurrence of a derangement )f
the currency ; the little farmer almost ruined, for he
must sell early ; the agricultural and commercial inte-
rest of the nation shook to its very centre. All this may
serve as sport for the monopolists, but it must eventually
end in death to the country. Their blindness is equal
to Egyptian darkness, whose hearts are hardened, that
they will not let go the freedom of trade from cruel bond-
age, until the plagues of Egypt come upon them.
Yours, &c.
A LARGE SOUTH COUNTRY MILLER.

July 24, 1841.
* The price of wheat has advanced in our markets 10s. to
14s. per quarter since the result of the elections has been
known