The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-11 00:00:00

incomplete. They had, it is true, by the dis- '
franchisement of the boroughs contained in sche-
dule A, got rid of the family or apron-string
representation ; but in the towns which they did
not disfranchise there were many things left
unchanged by the Bill which tended to the frus-
tration of its most valuable objects. The fact
is that the open boroughs which still remained
had generally wrought more evil, by their whole-
sale corruption, than those of schedule A had
ever achieved by their closeness. In the boroughs
like Old Sarum there was no occasion to offer
bribes ; each liveried domestic or trusty depen-
dant furnished with a qualification to vote, was
well aware of the purpose for which he had been
nominated, and took it as a matter of course
that he was to tender his suffrage under the
direction of his principal. Now it is plain that
the man who incurred such a condition must have
been wholly ignorant of his political ditties,
or lie would never have accepted a franchise
which could not be freely enjoyed. All we
contend for is, that no profligate or mercenary
practices of a nature to spread the contagion of
venality were inseparable from such a system, as
they always have been from that in which the
corporations of populous boroughs have be-
stowed the elective franchise upon numerous
and indigent voters, incapable of any political
preference or bias, and sensible to no argument
in favour of any candidate but that which ad-
dresses itself to their pockets. The burgesses
and freemen, in corporate towns and cities, have
proved themselves the most unblushingly corrupt
of mankind, and have frequently sent into Par-
liament the very worst representatives that ever
sat there. Into these constituencies some better
particles were no doubt infused by the Reform
Bill, but unhappily the ancient leaven remained
untouched,—the freemen, manufactured like
the old .Jew-pedlar's knives, "to sell," were
left by the Bill in enjoyment of their " mock
vested rights," and have exercised them, as
usual, with a vengeance. The facts which have
come before various Committees of Parliament,
illustrative of the general merits of this Cor-
poration constituency, must satisfy the House
of Commons, for the country has long
since been decided, that no cause but
that of the most revolting corruption can be
severed by the continuance of such electors in
possession of the trust which they have abused
so shamefully. The worst voters in the empire
were these freemen of corporation birth and pa-
rentage. Until they shall have been extirpated,
there will be in every town, whether great or in-
significant, an organised mass of active corrup-
tion sufficient to impede the beneficial working
of a dozen bills of reform ; and, in spite of the
new leasehold interests, to substitute an anti-
reform power, more dangerous, because less de-
finite and susceptible of calculation, than that of
the close borough oligarchy extinguished in sche-
dule A. The report of the " Liverpool Bo-
rough Election Committee" furnishes a frightful
exposure of the wholesale bribery which has pre-
vailed among the " freemen" of that wealthy
and bustling town, at elections of every sort,
whether of mayors or members of Parliament.
We learn that, at the contested election for
Mayor in 1827, the bribes grew from (is. to 201.,
and at the contest for member of Parliament in

1830 that they rose from 2/. and finished with
80/. ; that at one election in 1830 " 2,661 in-
dividual freemen were systematically bribed ;"
that of these same persons so polluted 1,880
remain at this hour on the books, ‘. entitled to
vote ;" and that the only persons so entitled to
vote at the annual elections of Chief Magistrate
are the old freemen, the very culprits to whom
the above gigantic bribery has been brought
home ; that the bribery and corruption of Liver-
pool were in 1827 publicly presented by the
Grand Jury as a nuisance ; that the writ for a
new election for Liverpool has been repeatedly
refused by the House of Commons ; that the
prevalence of gross bribery has been repeatedly
reported as against the borough of Liverpool by
Committees of the House of Commons ; and that
a Bill for the total disfranchisement of the free-
men has been more than once before the House.
The public cannot, therefore, be surprised at the
temperate and sober recommendation with which
the present report concludes—that " a Bill be
introduced to restrict the franchise and to alter

the system of elections in that borough, as well
for Members to sit in Parliament as for the
municipal officers." It is added that freemen
"in the better class of life have shown as much
readiness to take bribes as the most destitute of
their brother freemen !" Why, ay ; where it
comes to bribery in such respectable sums as
801., no doubt that your " respectable persons"
will not be silly enough to refuse them. But in
truth, as we set out with observing, it would be
no worse to restore to activity the whole batch of
condemned pigsties of the Old Sarum and Gatton
kind, than to leave the great towns and cities of
the realm a prey to vices so intolerable.—Times.
One strong argument against a tax upon
commodities is this—that when laid on, it is
generally doubled upon the consumer ; but when
taken off, as far as the State is concerned, the
consumer frequently is not at all benefited by
the repeal. Such is stated to be the case with
those articles of indispensable, and therefore
universal, use, soap and candles, for which the
public is paying nearly, if not quite as much as
before Lord Althorp, in an evil hour, hit upon
their reduction as a feature in his budget. We
say in an evil hour, for however good his Lord-
ship's intentions may have been, and no doubt
were, yet even had the intended boon reached
the public, which it has not, we feel quite con-
fident that if, instead of frittering away the re-
venue by mere nominal relief, a repeal of the
house and window tax had been resorted to, a
far greater benefit, both in idea and in reality,
would have been conferred upon every class of
the community. The choice, however, having
been made, and the repeal of these taxes having
taken place, it is most desirable that every pos-
sible effort should be made to give the public,
and especially the lower classes, the benefit of
it. The soap manufacturers have, it is true,
at length announced that they intend to vouch-
safe to reduce the price of that article 2/.
a ton ; but what proportion does that bear to
the tax taken off, or to what extent will it
reach the buyers of soap in small quantities ?
Candles, we are assured, were to be bought
of some dealers quite as cheap before the duty
was taken off as since ; so true is it, we fear,
in both these instances, that the revenue has
been deteriorated to the extent of the duties re-
pealed, without the public, especially the lower
classes, for whose benefit the repeal was in-
tended, 1)6114 materially, if at all, benefited by
it. The article of coals,eepatiii
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it is, forms a solitary x
nate result of intended relief from taxation. In
btlenesnnebceerlsesfiarteydoft loiftehetherupllubelxietehave,
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taken off; and this arises, we are told, from in-
creased competition and some schism among the