The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-26 00:00:00

provides that the Clerks of the Peace of the se
veral counties should, at a stated period, issue their
warrants to the High-Constables, who are then to for-
xard plain and specific instructions fcr making out the
lists of voters, with copies of the necessary parts of the
register for the time being (previously obtained from
'he Clerks of the Peace) to the overseers of the parishes
within their districts. This provision, so clearly called
i'or—the inefficiency of the overseers alone without as-
..istance being by all acknowledged—will doubtless
save much expense and trouble. Through the same
officers the Clerk of the Peace and the High Consta-
ile's notice of the holding of the various Courts of re-
vision is to be forwarded to the respective parishes; and,
9erhaps, we may add to the above improvements the
Jiscretionary power given to the revising barrister of
awarding costs in all cases of either frivolous and vexa-
:ious objections or claims being made before him. We
also find a declaratory enactment as to the mode of as-
certaining the distance of a voter's residence _from the
polling-place, which is to be by the nearest mode of
access by any public road or footway, and not as the
crow flies, as some of the learned revisers held to be
the most convenient and reasonable method to adopt,
though contrary to the principle generally laid down by
the Court of king's Bench in similar cases. But, of
!another point, in itself more important—viz., the right
of trustees, not having any beneficial interest, to vote
in respect of their trust property, no notice is taken.
Though, perhaps, the majority of decisions, in accord-
ance with the intention -of the framers, as well as the
spirit of the Act, has been against the claim of such
persons ; yet surely, when it is borne in mind in how
many instances such claims were allowed, some enact-
ment will be considered desirable. We shall not pre-
tend to drag our readers through the tedious discussion
of the mere verbal defects and technical blunders con-
tained in this Bill, looking upon it solely in a legal
point of view, and for which we arc aware the intro-
ducers of the Bill are scarcely considered liable ;—but
for the principles of it we do not consider them liable ;
and we therefore do regret to find that a Bill introdu-
ced by such persons should still contain a provision
that the payment of rates and taxes should be a con-
dition precedent to a voter having his name placed upon
the register. To showthat this has not occurred through
inadvertence, we . find a clause declaring that the
payment of the rates for 12 months immediately
preceding shall be sufficient. Upon the glaring ab-
surdities of such provisions as the following, we are
sure we need make no comment. Such as the calling
upon objectors to prove prima facie cases of objec-
tion, and to declare upon their notice the ground of
their objections, beyond which the Barrister is to have
no jurisdiction to examine or adjudicate ; so that, to
say nothing of requiring an objector to prove a nega-
tive, should an ignorant objector, such as an overseer,
to whom so much is left, and in fact required in this
way, make an objection, not tenable perhaps from his
mode of stating it, ye,, notwithstanding it may appear,
in,the course of the investigation, that the voter has

foi other reasons no sufficient interest in the premises
for which he may claim, the Barrister will have no
power to expunge such name from the lists. And by
another provision, still more absurd, to the effect
that the qualification of a voter which has been once
objected to, and the objection to which has
been disallowed, shall not be again brought un-
der the cognizance of the Barrister, unless the vote
shall have been disputed before a Committee of the
House of Commons and the decision of the Barrister
thereon overruled, the name of such a person, though
not qualified, must remain, at any rate, upon the re-
gistry, till a scrutiny (no frequent event) may happen to
be called before the House of Commons. The ready
mode of manufacturing false votes by wholesale, sug-
gested by such an enactment, we need not point out.
The only consolation we feel is that some of the de-
fects alluded to are so gross, that it is perfectly impos-
sible that they can pass through the Houses of Parlia-
ment without being detected. We have only professed
to give here some of the most striking deficiencies of
the Bill in question ; and, considering the principle of
registration established by the Reform Act, and the
consequent shortening of elections, as a very great be-
nefit, we cannot but sincerely, and in the most friendly
spirit, recommend the withdrawal of the present Bill,
and the introduction of one after the Easter recess,
more extended and liberal in principle, and more per-
fect, or rather less inaccurate in its details. From the
observations made by different members last night, it
is evident that the Bill will encounter much resistance
in the Committee. Indeed, our expectation is, that
the difficulty of adapting it by any process to public
advantage will cause it to be rejected altogether in
that stage.—Morning Herald.
Lord Brougham, on presenting a petition in the
Lords on Monday night, took a very just and com-
prehensive view of the public—the national—advan-
tage, of newspapers, and the consequent itnpolicy of
newspaper stamps. The petition was for the abolition
of this heavy and impolitic impost ; and it was signed.
by Professor Southgate, Dr. Birkbeck, Mr. Grote,
and many other well-informed, public-spirited,
and influential individuals ; and Lord Brougham took
occasion to observe, that among other illustrious cha-
racters who had borne their testimony to the public
value of newspapers, the great moralist, Paley, stood
conspicuous. Lord Brougham might have added,
that the public spirit, and the concert of sentiment
and action which make this country at present
so perfect an exemplification of the bundle of rods,
has been effected by the newspaper press. We
are far from undervaluing science or literature, in
their more voluminous and slow-going forms ; but
it would be not merely false modesty, but absolute
injustice to blink the fact, that the newspaper
press is the caul both of freedom and of intelli-
gence ; and if these be more established and prized,
and productive of better effects now, than they
were in former times, the press is the grand engine. It
is the tocsin in attack, the sword in combat, and the
trumpet in victory. In fact, if we trace to its origin
any thing which is liberal in spirit, useful to the public
in practice, or cheering to our hopes, in the whole po-
litical system of the country, we shall say that the real
origin of it is the press. The public are more indebted
to the press than to those men who fight the battles
of the people in the Senate ; for but for the publicity
which the press gives them, they might as well address
the winds and the waves, as their political opponents in
the Houses of Parliament. The press stands over the
whole as the recording Angel ; and he who but for it
would be speaking to those who are as deaf as the
adder, speaks to all the people of England, and they
re-echo the words of the advocate of their cause, and
make his voice to be heard. Hence we get all our
good measures by means of the press ; and, we may
add, that the press is the real source of our patriotic
men—it gives them a reward which, from its very
nature, is dearer to good men than any - other,
and one which nothing but the press could be-
stow—it gives them, during life, that fame upon the
mere hope of which alone patriotic men must depend
where there ia.no public press, and it gives this fame
from the whole people, and therefore without any taint
of party. Look at all the liberal men who now advo-
cate the people's cause in both Houses of Parliament;
look especially at the majority of the Commons, and
say what they would, what they could have done, but
for the newspaper press ; look at the lingering and
fading remains of those who are still hostile to the
people in their hearts, and say what they would not
have a' 011 e had it not been for this ready and powerful
instrument of liberty and liberality ? In order to as-
certain which of the means of enlightenment has been
the real cause of any improvement, either in the
spirit of the r.people, or in the public institutions
of the country, we have only to find the one which
has kept pace in the improvement ; and where
can we look with so much satisfaction as to the
Press? We had science and literature, in their formal
shape, in times of the thickest political darkness; and
although both have been more 'diffused among the
people than formerly, there has not been of late years any