The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-02 00:00:00

G

Ww, ehfietties any,patdiughts ‘44a4 kith Mil
such selfish intentions, you must all perceive that dirt
cuinitances have conspired, in our national progress, to
place nearly the whole representative power of the
country in your hands, And now, when the question
of universal right, property, or class exclusiveness, is
being brought home to the mind of every individual
among you, there can be no longer any just doubt re-
garding the moral duty you owe to your unenfranchised
brethren.
The old. aristocratic doctrine of holding your political
power " in trust for the millions," was exploded by the
Act for your own infeanchisement, and is, happily, fast
dying away with the despotisms which created it.
All questions of exclusion on the grounds of safety,
policy, or expediency, must, also,all yield to the greater
question—political justice, unless a class despotism is to
be set up, condemned by all morality, and not to be de-
fended by religion.
Be assured, fellow-countrymen, that the fears and ap-
prehensions you entertain of universal suffrage are
wifounded. As masters and employers I would appeal
to your individual experience for a verdict in faiour of
my working brethren,. as an intelligent, peaceful, and
well-disposed class ; far worthier to be entrusted with
representative power than the ministers, legislators, and
warriors, who, for yelirs, have ruled and governed our
Oestinies, and whose moment() of fitness is the present
depressed pauperised condition of England, with her
war debt of 800,000,0001
And to those among you who are not employers I
would ray, trace our working population to -the field,
the factory, and workshop, at their plodding toil, and
ingenious occupations; then follow them to their humble
and cften cheerless homes, and estimate the cares, the
thrift, the patient and enduring spirit that' characterise
the great bulk of our industrious people, and you will
find among them a virtuous stamina for free institutions
not to be surpassed by any country in the world.
That ignorance, intemperance, and violence, are still
too prevalent" admit; but I believe that these wretched
fruits of neglect and misrule are more likely to be re-
deemed by quickening the aspirations of freedom within
them, than by branding them as the despised and ne-
glected pariahs of society.
ii:Thiuk you that the working classes' of England are
less prepared for the exercise of the franchise than the
same class in Switzerland and Norway? whose long
enjoyed national prosperity and happiness afford the best
testimony of their fitness. _

Do you beleve that the same Saxon race, transplanted
in the new world, ha►e acquired greater knowledge and
rarer virtues to qualify them for the exercise of the suf-
frage than those of their brethren at home?
Do you imagine the population of Geimany, Austria,
Prussia, and Italy, just freed from the reins of despotism,
imbued with a military and warlike spirit, and unaccus-
tomed to freedom of speech and action, are better quell-
tor the suffrage than our own people?
Shall France afford you the most striking examples of
the heroic forbearance, popular honesty, and true con-
servatism of her impulsive population, rallying, support.
iug, and maintaining all that can be made to advance
public order, individual security, and national freedom,
and yet you continue to regard with suspicion the peace-
ful, thoughtful, patient, long-suffering, hard-working
people of England?
Let me entreat you then, fellow-countrymen, to aban-
don your suspicions, and cast aside those notions of
political exclusiveness which so long have made you the
indirect instruments of national misrule and oppression.
It you reflect but for a moment you will find even your
own representation is delusive, contributing as it does
to the power and influence of the aristocracy rather
than to your own. It is so contrived that the majority
of the HouSe of Commons is returned by one fifth of the
electors of great Britain. The representative rights of
15 of your largest and wealthiest cities, comprising
149,953 electors, are neutralised by the votes of 16
aristocratic little boroughs, having unitedly only 5,802
electors.

suffTrhaeguidiesaaenmteorretairneesdpebcytamblaenayndof
cyoonuseith......tsatTle.
suusffehraogeld
than universal, has been ably shown, b the Editor of
the Noncomformist, to be fallaciow, as ould exclude
the very class who, from theiNintelligente and fitness,
it is desirable to embrace. He says—" The population
for the whole of great Britain is stated by the census to
be 18,844,434, and for Ireland 8,175,238 ate 'you have
a gross population of 27,009,627. The number of verlers
which this pop ulation wod give, would be near as fol-
lows. On the plan of univulersal suffrage under 71,0 y 00,000'`
on that of houpoholeihuffrage above 5,000,000." The
difference between the two numbers is doubtlessly made
up of mechanics, clerks, and professional men who at
present live in lodgings„br single men who live at home
with their friends, and who might be induced to contract
early marriages, if housekeeping were made the premium
for citizenship.
It is also to be apprehetided that household suffrage in
some districts might lead to an extension of the cot and
hoyel .system, and might be made subservient to the
selfish interest of the landlord class.

; lam aware that some among you, peroeiving the great
injustice of. confining the right to householders, have
proposed the expedient of extending it to lodgers also.
This seems to me to be an expedient to meet prejudice
as foolish as it is unjust, for though it might embrace an
equal number in the franchise, it would unjustly give the
right to the tenement and not to the man. It is a low ap-
peal to the mere money qualifications of the individual,
instead of his intellectual and moral fitness as a human
qing. It would also carry with it the thousand legal
uibbles of house, tenement, land, rating and taxing,
which have rendered the Reform Bill a nullity, and
which have wasted a countless amount of time and money
in the vain attempt to unravel their legal and technical
mysteries.
You thaVlalso be assured that the adoption of house-
. hold_hud4, would-not
_,Jettie • thin great question a
representative right. The excluded class would keep up
and prolong the agitation, and be more and more clam-
orous as the injustice towards them would be the. more
apparent.
It is, therefore, my friends, the interest •of all classes
that this question should' be settled promptly and effect-
ually; for no gagging law, however severe; no punish-
ment, however great, will silence, or ought to silence,
the public voice, so long as the monstrous doctrine is
maintained, in practice, that one class of society, and
that the most industrious and best deserving, have
nothing to do with the laws but to humbly and silently
obey them.

Let it not be urged, by the thoughtful and benevolent
among you, that the power and prejudice against which
you have to contend are insurmountable in enabling you
to carry the wider measure of reform which I am con-
tending for. There is no power to fear in the advocacy
of truth; and seek not, I implore you, to propitiate pre-
judice at the expense of justice—rather resolve to dispel
it at any self-sacrifice. Better be longer in achieving a
righteous object than to obtain a ready expedient by a
sacrifice of principle.

It is for you, then, the electors of the United King-
dom, to declare, by a generous relying act of justice,
whether the industrious millions of England shall cor-
dially and honestly co-operate with you in peacefully
removing the corruptions, the burthens, and restrictions
which cripple the industrial energies of our noble
country; or whether by your vain fears, prejudice, or
pride, you will delay justice, weaken their sympathies,
divide their energies, and consequently perpetuate the
misery and wretchedness of our people.
Hopeful that you will cheerfully and earnestly adopt
the wiser course, and that we may all peacefully and
cordially co-operate together in working out the po-
litical and social salvation of our country, is the earnest
' wish of your fellow-countryman,
WILLIAM LOVETT.
16, South-row, New-road, May 18, 1848.

REVIEW OF THE CHELSEA OUT-PENSIONERS.—
Yesterday forenoon the out-pensioners of Chelsea Hos-
pital, numbering about 1,500 strong, were reviewed in
Hyde-park, before Lieutenant-General Viscount Har-
dinge, the Secretary at War, General Sir Willoughby
Gordon, and other officers of the staff.

DIORAMA, REGENT'S PARK.—Among the recent
visitors are Lord and Lady Southampton, the Bishop of
Manchester, Lady Gower, the Countess of Harewood
and the Ladies Lascelles, Lord Ward, Sir John Han-
bury, Lady Emily Cocks, Sir Arthur Aston, Samuel
Rogers, Esq., Sir John Hall, Bart., Lady Charlotte
Copley, the Bishop of Norwich and family, the Mar-
chioness of Westmeath, the Bishop of Winchester and
family, the Countess of Arundel and Surrey and the
Ladies Howard, the Dowager Countess of Mansfield, the
Countess of Mansfield and the Ladies Murray, Lady
Grey, the Bishop of Durham, M. Van der Weyer, &c.
VINTET WARD.—ELECTION OF A COMMON
Councieman.—Yesterday in the forenoon an election of
a Common Councilman for the above ward took place at
the School-rooms, Brick-hill-lane, Thames-street, City,
in consequence of the death of Mr. King, the late repre-
sentative of the ward. Mr. Israel Phipps proposed, and
Mr. George Magnay seconded, the proposition that Mr.
George Mason be sent to the council in the room of the
deceased gentleman. Mr. Courtenay proposed Mr. Astle,
but that gentleman gave way in favour of Mr. Mason,
who was returned.
ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF THE PAROCHIAL
OIIIIERS or Se. LUKE, CRELSEA. The anniversary
dinner of the parochial officers of this extensive out-
parish, was held yesterday at the Commercial Hall,
King's-road, Chelsea, the rector, the Rev. C. B. B.
h eaiths honoured,
proposed,the r
to which the
and paro-
ector
Kingsley, in the chair. The usual loyal and patriotic
et till
as s hl
ear Ng-
venerable rector responded. He shortly after vacated
the chair, when the churchwardens, the overseers, the
board of guardians of the poor, and the improvement
iynghabdeenthdeuirly
committee, were successively paid the like compliment.
In acknowledgment of the health of the board, of
guardians, it was stated that while the populous parish
of St. Luke had incurred no censure, either from the
public press or the inhabitants, on the score of deficient
relief, yet two-thirds of the reduced rate imposed was
not yet expended. While on the part of the improve-
ment board, it was urged that Chelsea, once a neglected
spot, was now, on a fine day, aye, even in December, a
pleasant promenade in most of its principal thorough-
tares. The dinner, wines, singing, and general arrange-
ments of mine host Smith, were like " corn, wino, and
oil, which make glad the heart of man."
THY DUCHEaS OF ORLEANS.—EISENACH, MAT 26.
—The Duchess of Orleans, who is still here, continues
steadily to avoid all outward display. She frequently
walks out alone with the Count de Paris, and. wanders
amid these lonely hills. She has not received any royal
visits, excepting those of the members of one Grand
Ducal house.
Poott-Lsw Comatisstox.—Hy a return .printed
yesterday an account is given of the amount of salaries
or other payments received in the years 1841 to 1847 in-
clusive by the poor-law commissioners, secretaries, and
others, and all other charges or contingencies incidental
to the department. In 1840-1 the amount was
42,6221. 6s. 9d.; in 1841-2, 38,9131. 15s. 6d.; in 1842-3,
32,762/. 6s. 5d.; in 1643-4, 30,8181. 16s. 7d.; in 1844-5,
30,691/. 14s. .Bd.; in 1845-6, 32,2934 7a. 3d.; and in
1946-7, 31,5361. Is. Ild.

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