The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-26 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, DE'C'ENIBER 26, 1848.

Again and again are we compelled to recognise the
insufficiency of the Bill of 1830—that Bill which was
expected by the mere sanguine class of politicians to
effect a complete reform in the construction of Par-
liament. Again and again do we perceive that pocket
boroughs are still very far indeed from being obsolete.
The detestable trade of boroughmongering still
thrives ; and, in divers nooks and corners of the
country, landlords still traffic unmolested in the votes
of their snug and most subservient constituents. It
is from a profound sense of the demoralizing in-
fluence of this system—this system which CHARLES
FOX once hoped to destroy, and which CHARLES
GREY subsequently attempted to mitigate—that we are
disposed to reiterate our demands for the Ballot even
more pertinaciously than our entreaties for the dis-
tribution of the possessors of the suffrage in electoral
districts. Without some safeguard against the un-
constitutional effects of intimidation, without some
adequate guarantee for the free exercise of the fran-
chise, the proportioning of the constituents to the
representatives, would be only an idle re-arrange-
ment of the component parts of an edifice the very
foundations of which are rottenness and corruption.
First enable the multitude to elect the man whose
views coincide with those of the majority, without
any respect being paid to the predilections of the
aristocracy, and then, if you will, allow those electors
the prerogative of sending one or more Members to
the House of Commons, according to their own nu-
merical magnitude.

While matters remain in their present anomalous
and disgraceful situation, while landlords are per-
mitted to force their puppets upon the acceptance of
their family boroughs, while Peers are permitted to
meddle directly and indirectly in the choice of the
people to their representatives —so long will the
triune structure of our constitution be imperilled.
The Crown, the Lords, and the Commons are
in the popular allegory presumed to constitute
the tripod upon which are burning the flames of our
national liberties. To afford security, however, to
the pedestal of these liberties the three powers of the
State should stand erect in their independent energy.
The one should not lean towards the other. The
symmetry of their relative positions should be duly
regarded as identical with the strength and solidity
of the whole. The Lords have their Chamber in they
Parliament—let them rest satisfied with the enormous
prerogative thereby afforded them for participating ir,
the labours of legislation. And the only means
by which the population may compel them to
be contented, and may prevent them from tampering
henceforth in the popular elections of Members to
the House of Commons, is—the Ballot.
We undertake to say that had the Ballot been re-
sorted to the other morning at King's Lynn, hardly
two score of the tickets would have been inscribed
with the name of Mr. STANLEY. And yet Mr.
STANLEY has been returned for King's Lynn tri-
umphantly. On the occasion when the candidates
stood before the electors upon the hustings of King's
Lynn the returning officer proclaimed that
the majority of hands had been held up in
favour of a Chartist, not of a Protectionist.
When, however, a poll was demanded in behalf of
the eldest son of Lord STANLEY, that gentleman very
speedily distanced his competitor—insomuch that the
latter was soon, according to the turf phrase, nowhere.
Now, although there were doubtless a numerous
body of non-electors among the crowd who declared
in favour of the ultra-Radical before the borough
hustings, it would he an absurdity to believe other-
•that the subsequent open-voting at the
brought into play a formidable store of
Ifluence. That man would be bold
should assert that any candidate,
;able his pretensions to the confidence
Lents, backed by his Grace the Duke of
could have a dubious chance of election.