The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-30 00:00:00

are to be found when they are in deep water, it being
their belief that the Board of Fisheries, if it is to be kept
up at all, should le charged to see that theßritish fisher-
, unn has advantages at least equal to those of the fo-
re goer. Tee board hitherto has had a steamer in use
for some tiroo each year, taking their leading officials to
the principal station:4, but that is a matter of small im-
portance compared with the other use to which the
steamers may be turned. Of late years the British fish-
curer has had a preference in the German market, where
nearly two thirds of his whole cure are now consumed.
Tbis preference the Belgians seek now to contest, and
the British curer hold 4; that if the Fishery Board is to be
•i maintained at all it must be reconstituted, its present
organisation beirg considered defective. The amount of
capital invested in the trade is large ; the political as well
as social interests in it are important, for as a nursery
for seamen who may be used at least for our coast de-
fences it may be found very serviceable, but in these days
of free commercial enterprise it will not do to maintain a
system of red-tapism and official superintendence which
was created when bounties were bestowed. The most
intelligent of the curers think that in such an artcle as
herrings, which pass through many hands in the foreign
market before reaching the consumer, there should be
some such security an a public dean of guild to inspect
and warrant the highest possible standard of cure ; but
so far as we can gather from those best able to judge here
this will not be done until the present Board of Fisheries
has been re-organised.

ANALYSIS OF TILE DIVISIoWS OF TILE
PRESENT _ROUSE OF COMMONS.

The following letter from Mr. J. P. Gassiot, ad-
dressed to Mr. Roebuck, Chairman of the Adminis-
trative Reform Association, has been forwarded to
us for publication :
TO J. A. ROEBUCK, ESQ., M.P.
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM ASSOCIATION,
September, 26, 1856.

My dear Sir,—When in June last I undertook, at
your request, the arrangement of a statistical department
in the Administrative Reform Association, I decided on
making a complete analysis of the divisions in the House
of Commons during the present Parliament. A report
of how many voted in each division, and whether these
took place before or after midnight, is published in a
Parliamentary return, annually moved for by Mr. Bro-
therton, and the names can be found in the division lists,
printed in treble columns, filling upwards of 1,500
folio pages ; but that information falls very short of
what is required. A comparative and minute analysis,
such as I now present to you, in reference to the city
and metropolitan boroughs (ot'aers similar, of all repre-
sented localities, are being prepared), appears to me ne-
cessary in order that constituencies may thus far obtain
a correct account of the Parliamentary conduct of their
representatives. It is a work of considerable labour to
insure accuracy, for even the division lists have errata.
A general election is not far distant, and it is impor-
tant that not only constituencies, but the public, should
have easy and simple means of forming an opinion on
the political conduct of those who have undertaken to
manage the affairs of this nation, with her 94,000,0001.
of annual, and often wasteful, expenditure.*
An emineßt living statesman. in an able work on the
Constitution, remarks that, "In a free Government like
ours, Ministers will always •use the influence of money
and patronage that is in their hands to procure them-
selves adherents;" and he records his opinion of the
utility of contested elections, in these emphatic
words :—" Mock philosophers, sentimental women,
and effeminate men, are always making lamentations
over political divisions and contested elections ; men of
noble minds know they are the workshops of national
liberty and national prosperity."
This is perfectly true ; but to give its proper value to
the principle of contest, the criterion should be merit ;
and whatever may be the talent, the social position, or
wealth of him who aspires to a renewal of the confidence
of an independent constituency, he should not only be
prepared to meet, but anxious to undergo, the ordeal of
a reference to his votes, and to his non-attendance.
The analysis now submitted is in the form intended to
be adopted as regards all other places represented. With
few exceptions, these constituencies would require little
exertion to put into action the ample means they possess
to compel the representative who has either neglected
his duties, or misused the power they entrusted to him,
to retire into private life, and it rests entirely with them
to re-elect, at very trifling expense, those who have acted
honestly, diligently, and fearlessly.
It is a disgraceful fact, that in contesting for the ho-
nour of representing independent constituencies, such
as Lambeth, the Tower Hamlets, and Marylebone, an
expense of upwards of. 6,0001. has been sometimes in-
curred.

There have been four sessions in the present Parlia.
merit :

In the first there were 257 Divisions.
In the second
In the third
In the fourth
I will not occupy your time by entering into a general
analysis of all the sessions ; I shall confine myself to the
last, and upon that some comments are necessary :-
8 Members did not record their votes in any of the
..... .

198 Divisions. _
•
86 Members were absent 180 times and upwards.
211 f f 150 „ not exceeding 180
244 ,I 100 „ If 150
75 f t 50 „ ~ 100
18 50

10 PP
PIP
))
1 Speaker.

6i4 In the largest division 508 members
voted, in the least 58 ;
230 members who represent county constituencies,
and 329 representing boroughs, were absent 100 and up-
wards of the 198 divisions daring the last session, and
this shows how necessary it is that constituencies should
en'erce the attendance of their representatives ; for even
a single vote may determine the most important ques-
tion.

The deficiencyjustexhibited in attendanca may, in some
instances, be accounted for by the absence of those who be.
long to the military profession at the seat of war ; in
other much regretted cases, domestic afflictions or con-
tinued ill-health were the causes ; and there are some
members still taking a valuable share in the discussion of
important questions, whose long, faithful, and most use-
ful discharge of their duties as representatives of the peo-
ple has amply entitled them to exemption from continued
attendance ; but such cases should form the exception,
not the rule, and the explanation of them must be made
to the constituencies.

In addition to these legitimate exceptions, there are
two classe's from whom a business-like attention to Par-
liamentary duty seems to be hopeless, for, constituted as
Parliament at present is, there are no means of constrain-
ing them to attend.

The first comprises those who, from having very large
landed properties, or from being the relatives of influen-
tial peers enjoying great territorial possessions, are, as a
matter of course, in the existing state of the franchise, re-
turned for counties or boroughs where the family pro-
perty had influence are extensive, and this occurred in
the same families generation after generation.
The second class is composed of such nominees of peers
and wealthy commoners as are not members of their fa-
milies, or connected by property with the locality repre
rented. These are returned solely for the purposes of
their patrons. Instances have been known of wealthy
commoners returning men to Parliament, who were
bound to vote so as to enable their patron to press the
Minister for a peerage ; and it is equally notorious that
promotion in that high rank has been the direct result of a
nobleman's interfering successfully, in three orfour places,
at a general election. The nominees are restricted to act
as the reflection of the opinions of the patrons, and, re-
gardless of the interests of the nation, so to vote as to
secure the Treasury bench for one or the other section of
the great oligarchy which has so long ruled the destinies
of this country, filling our diplomatic, military, naval,
and civil services with their relatives and dependents—
a course to which the disasters and mistakes that took
place during the late war can no wbe traced.

I now advert to a class on which the power of public
opinion may be brought to bear with good effect, and,
through it, many evils arising from the conduct of those
previously alluded te, may be rendered much less injurious
to the public interests. This class is composed of such as
are returned to the House of Commons under popular,
not aristocratic auspices, men who represent independent
constituencies, some of them enfranchised by the Reform
Bill ; and the urgency with which, as the records of Par-
liament now in our offices prove, they, in 1831, petitioned
for the high privilege of voting at elections, led us to ex-
peat that they would have sent to the house efficient and
patriotic men. Several of the members returned by these
constituencies have attained to wealth and high position
in their own class, by persevering industry ; they are
in many respects precisely of that description to
which, in your Juno address to the association, you
a'luded whn n commenting on the remarkable difference
existing between the modes of conducting private and
public business in this country ; for we find among,t
the representatives of such constituencies, bankers, mer-
chants, and tradesmen, who, having in previous life
evinced all the qualifications you described, yet,
as the
analysis we are completing will show, neglect their se-
natorial duty, absent themselves from important divi-
sinus, and, when present, seem more anxious to prevent
a dissolution of Parliament than to support the prin-
ciples on which they were elected.
Many of those to whom we may have occasion to
refer have no pretensions to, and are therefore unfettered
by, the aristocratic ties that trammel the great families
of the kingdom. They have been elected by Popular
constituencies, and must be taught that they depend on
them for their temporary elevation. It is humiliating
to see such men undervalue the intrinsic respectability
of the position of a representative of the people, fancy.
ing themselves honoured, and allowing themselves to be
cajoled, by the insidious attentions they receive from
Ministers when they enter this new phase of their
existence, and spring from the counting-house to the
Senate. There a spirit of manly iudependence, cherished
through all their previous lives, is too often sacrificed fir
ftct
the smileso
hispers of eaeh high offici it
whose aeisdietunatit'i(i .in w obliges him to affect cordi-
nin
ar
y, end
we
ality and intimacy with men, the weakness of whom he
ridicules elsewhere, and whose faces he would affect to
forget the moment that the prestige of M.P. had ceased
to confer its attractions.

Some merubtrs appear to regard the House of Com-
mons as a kind of aristocratic club, where a pleasant
hour tar.,•-y h`. Pa;'-el, and throu4h which may be entered
the portals of noble mansions that would be otherwise for
ever clod against the aspirant a:,tl his family. A elv,rt
time after inhaling the atmosphere of St. St-phen's, the
consciences ,of such men becAne satisfied that they have
fully discharged all duty to thoir constituents, and re-