The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-24 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

The following is the Address of the Leeds Parlia-
mentary Reform Association to the Committee and
Members of the Ulster Constitutional Association :
FELLOW REFORMERS,—The cause in which you have
engaged for the establishment of the People's rights
upon the sound principles of public liberty, deserves the
warmest sympathy and support of every friend of con-
stitutional freedom. The interest which we feel in the
success of your labours, induces us to take advantage of
the invitation to union and co-operation held out to the
friends of liberty in all parts of the empire, in the reso-
lutions passed at your late public meeting ; and we ac-
cordingly address you shortly upon the means which we
consider most likely to produce a united and successful
agitation for the establishment of the public rights upon
a firm and lasting basis.
The Ulster Association affords a most gratifying
proof of the willingness of the higher and middle classes
of Ireland to unite in defence and support of the popu-
lar liberties. The circumstances of our times, how-
ever, demand that a political movement of the nature
contemplated, should also afford a sufficient inducement
for the co-operation of the industrious working classes
throughout the three kingdoms. It-is only by such a
Union, we apprehend, that a moral power can be raised
sufficient to overcome the opposition of the abettors of
misrule, and carry forward triumphantly the cause of
rational liberty and progressive civilisation.
Good government requires as its primary essential,
the responsibility of governors to the great body of the
governed. The only legitimate end of government is
the good of the mlny ; and all classes have a common
interest in securing its proper results, and in preserving
its integrity and soundness. To the people, therefore,
Government ought to be directly responsible through
means of a well devised system of Parliamentary Re-
presentation, as the best mode of securing for all classes,
ust, honest, and wholesome legislation.

The theory of the British Constitution is, that poli-
tical freedom is based on political representation ; and
that no man shall be taxed for the support of the
State who has not consented, by himself or his repre-
sentatives, to the imposition of the public taxes. But
how stand the facts? That in England the franchise

is held on an average by one out of every Ifq of the
gross population ; in Scotland, by one out of every 30 ;
and in Ireland, by only I out of every 77!—That in
. .

England 1 in 5 of the male adult population is repre-
sented ; in Scotland only I in 7 ; and in Ireland only 1
in 19 !--'That, in short, of those fully qualified to
vote accordinc, to the spirit of the constitution above
referred to, about' six-sevenths are wholly unrepresented.
But this is not all. There is yet the farther injus-
tice of gross partiality even in the representation of
that limited portion of the people already enfran-
chised. Thus the 284 electors of Richmond (York-
shire 4 have an equal number of Members with the
5,894 elctors of the borough of Leeds ; the gross po-
pulation represented being in the one case 3,900, and
in the other 123,393 ;* while the 227 electors of
Knaresborough have precisely the same voice in the
British Parliament, with the 29,000 electors of the
'West Riding of Yorkshire !
The following table shows that 25 boroughs, con-
taining a population of little more than 100,000 inhabi-
tants, return to Parliament fifty Members ; while
Leeds, with a considerably larger population, only re-
turns two Members
Members. Towns.

Electors. Population.
1840. 1831.
2 Andover 257 4,748
2 Banbury 371 5,906
2 Bodmin 332 3,375
2 Bridport .......
2 Buckingham 341 3,610
2 Chi ppingham 240 4,333
2 Cirencester 586 4,520
2 Cockermouth 297 4,536
2 Dorchester
2 Evesham
2 Guildford
2 Harwich ....
2 Honiton
2 Huntingdon
2 Knaresborough ... 227 1,266
2 Lymington 296 3,361
2 Mahon 603 4,173
.) Marlborough
2 Nlarlow 387 2,863
2 Pontefract 795 9.349
2 Richmond 284 3,900
2 Sandwich 9ll 3,084
2 Tavistock 3OO 5,602
2 Thetford 155 3,462
2 Wallingford 360 2,545

9,795 105,324
Leeds

A similar disproportion between the population and
representation of different parts of the country, is ob-
servable in Scotland, though not to the same extent ;
the evil having been in a great measure obviated by the
system there adopted, of forming the smaller boroughs
into " Districts" for the return of Members to Parlia-
ment. Yet Glasgow, with its population of about
800,000, has only the same number of Members as the
obscure English villages of Wallingford, Thetford, Rich-
mond, &c., above noted I

But the representation of Ireland, as compared with
England and Scotland, is more unfair even than this.
The representation of Ireland is truly in a wretched
state, and stands need of a searching and Radical
Reform. In thi. first place it has not its fair share of
Members, as is sufficiently proved by the fact, that Eng-
land and Wales, with 14,000,000 of population, have
500 Members ; while Ireland, with 8,500,000, has only
105 Members! The principality of Wales, with its en-
tire population of about 800,000, has fifteen County
Members alone ; while the County of Cork, with its Fe-
pnlation of 715,000, has only two representatives in the
British Legislature ! Shameful and odious disparity!!
The representation already apportioned to Ireland
is also very unequally distributed. Thus the fifteen
boroughs of Carlow. Cashel, Coleraine, Dungannon.
Mallow, New Ross, Portarlington, Tralee, Wexford,
and Youghal, containing a collective population of
about 130,000, have 15 members, while the City of
Dublin, with a population of nearly 300,000, returns
only 2 members !
The following table exhibits the disproportion of re-
presentatives to population more clearly :
Population, Population,
Members: Towns. 1831: Members Towns. 1831.
1 ... Dungannon 3,515 2 ... Dublin ... 265,316
I Portarlington 3,0911
1 ... Lisburn
1 New Ross
1 ... Coleraine 5,752 2
1

C0rk...... 107,041

Belfast... 53,287

6 IVembers to
We nee] not carry this subject farther. The shame-
ful disproportion between representatives and popula•
thin is too obvious as to require comment ; and it can-
net fail to be noted by the most superficial observer that
the House. of Commons, as at present constituted, does
represelt, much more than it did in the days of
rotten boroughs and packed Parliaments, the opinions
and wishes of the great mass of the people. It was
lately stated by Mr. Joseph Hume, the Member for
Ic..iikenny, in the House of Commons, that from a
careful analysis which had been made, it appeared that
347 Members, being a majority of the House of Com
mono, were elected by 180,603 electors ; and that thus
somewhat more than one-fifth of the whole of 036,272
registered electors, or one-fortieth of the whole male
population of 6,1-16,468, of 20 years or upwards ; or
1-141 th of the gross population of the United King-
dom, returned a majority of representatives to the
House of Commons, at the present time! When to
this unequal distribution of the representation are added
the numerous obstacles thrown in the way of the free
exercise of the franchise, hampered and clogged as it is
Fly the times and modes of registration ; the fscilitics
thereby afforded to the enemies of responsible govern-
ment (which they are not slow to seize) of circumscrib-
ing
the operation of the representative principle ; the in-
timidation and corrupt influence which is systematically
practised upen electors in the exercise of the franchise,
and from which they have no adequate protection ;
the conviction must force itself upon the mind of
every reasonable person, that there exists no real, ho-
nest, just, or equitable representation of the people
of the United people of Great Britain and Ireland.
The present system of representation is not teal, be-
cause it excludes the great mass of the adult
popula-
tion from the exercise of the franchise. It .
honest, because it refuses to the vast majorityll oisf tnhoe
rcople the right of voting the taxes which
and of mal-slitg the laii:sst,wbleliccahusteheyit are recituir}e'd pay,
o
observe. It is not represents only
partial inteecats, and nut the wishes cf the mejori• •
of the people. And finally, it is not equitable I;s'
CUM it condemns Ireland to so shamefully
dispropor-
tionate a share in the representation of the country,
When the people contended for the Reform 13d1,the
contended for a real and not a mere nominal thin!
They wanted House of Commons which should 17::
the genuine representative of the peoples wishes. But
from that House,
as now constituted, the great mass of
the people is wholly excluded ; and the necessity for
Reform, therefore, remains as urgent as b_ i
before.
It is obvious,
then, that we stand in need of a
remedy, and the question then comes to b —ln what
is such i
a remedyto coniist, and how is it to be wrought
out?
'rho present extofNlingly limited nature of the fran-
chise, in England, Scotland, and especially in Ireland,
obviously suggests the necessity of some large and
com-
prehensive measure for the extension of the Suffrage ;
Which shall embrace the entire of the three kingdoms,
without respect of district, of race, of class, of sect, of
Party.
In order to include the majority
,maleof the adult
.Pqouliqion of the country
constitution within the pale of the
arid to give to all classes a direct interest
in the mainteeme. of crnn
the right ofvotie .--(- governm cut, we propose that
in the inhabitant be vested
householders
Members of Parliament
simple and of the country. With a
vul 1 IA test of qualification, such as resi-

• This is the population according to the census of
1831. The present population of Leeds is supposed to
amount to upwards of I 50,000.
enu-
That of the towns not exceed 120,000.
I:aerated would probably