The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is satisfactory to observe that the Bill presented
to the Chamber of Pi ocuradores by M. Mendizabal,
for the regulation of the elective franchise, includes
little of the old leaven of the Constitution. Under
the former system, the Deputy was chosen by a col-
lege of electors, who were themselves chosen by the
people at large, upon the principle of universal suf-
frage. This double operation, it is understood, the
minority.of the Commission appointed to prepare the
Bill recommended to be still continued, contending
that the great mass of the people, including the tax-
payers, are so ignorant of the political interests which
they have acquired under the Royal Statute, that they
would be liable to be imposed upon by partizan:; of
the Pretender. Another argument in favour of the
former plan is this, that "candidature," as they express
if, is as yet scarcely known in Spain. The class of
men ambitions to take a conspicuous part in public
affairs, without being paid for their services, is
extremely limited in that country. The candidates,
therefore, fur scats in the Lower Chamber, are, com-
paratively with the number of the population, very
few ; there is no canvassing, no preparation for an
election by public meetings, in which the claims of
• aspirants to the functions of a Representative are exa-
mined and appreciated. They have no hustings; in
fact, they feel nothing of that excitement which pre.
wails amongst us, whenever a vacancy is to be filled up
in the Commons, and especially when the whole
House is to be renewed. But to those oho have ex-
perience in the working of the Representative system,
it is obvious that the mode of election adopted in the
Constitution of. 1812 is the one best -adapted
to perpetuate the apathy and ignorance of the
people, with" respect to the duties which they
would have to perform in . returning Members to
their Lower House. The question, who shall be
one amongst a number of electors ? is infinitely
less calculated to awaken public attention, than, the
question, who are to be the Deputies of a particular
province ? It may be true that, even under the sys-
tem of direct election, those who have a right to the
franchise, not yet knowing all its value, will be slow to
exercise it. But time will cure this evil. Let but the
seeds of the representative form of government be care-
fully sown, and they will in due season yield their
natural harvest. People must be educated to liberty,
as to other improvements in civilization. With a
free Press, an inviolable liberty of speech in Cortes,
publication of debates, and questions of the highest
importance occasionally appealing to the intelli-
gence of the country, the Spanish electors cannot
long remain so indifferent to the sacred na-
ture of their functions as they may at present, and
yerhaps for a few years to come, appear to be.
The Bill allows a Deputy for every 5,000 souls.
Taking the population of Spain at about twelve
millions, this proportion will therefore give two hun-
dred and forty representatives—a number quite suf-
ficient, we apprehend, in a country so situated, for the
purposes of deliberation. The popular basis of the
system is the same as that which was settled by the
28th article of the " Constitution ;" but the 31st ar-
ticle of that fundamental law only allowed a Deputy
for every 70,000 souls, provision being made in the
two subsequent articles for a departure from this
rule under particular circumstances. Consequently
the Bill proposed by the Prime Minister of
Spain adds nearly a third to the number of De-
puties fixed by that Constitution, the re-establish-
ment of which some enthusiastic parties have
been lately demanding with so much ill-directed •
zeal. Upon the two essential points, therefore,
of direct election, and of adequate representation,
the new measure possesses decided advantages
over the Constitution, and if it be adopted by the
Cortes, a result of which we entertain little doubt, it
will be a real advance in the path of freedom. The
lists of electors under the proposed law are to be made
out in this way :—The kingdom is to be divided into
provinces and electoral districts, upon the basis before
stated ; one hundred of the inhabitants of a district
who pay the highest amount of taxes respectively, are
to be first named in the list ; to these will be added
another hundred of the inhabitants who pay respectively
taxes of the same amount as the individual lowest
rated in the first list. Assuming the country to be
divided into two hundred and forty districts, this plan
yields nearly fifty thousand electors in the whole. To
these are to be added all those persons who prac-
tise as advocates, assessors, physicians, and who de-
rive their livelihood from other avocations which offer
a sufficient guarantee for the intelligence, and in
some degree the independence of the parties ; these
classes will perhaps produce about a hundred thousand
electors more. So that Spain, for a population of
twelve millions, will have at leas: one hundred and fifty
thousand electors ; whereas France, for thirty millions,
has little more than the same number. The Doc-
trinaires, we suspect, will not much like this living
reproach to their system so near their frontiers. We
could have wished, that from the list of electors in
Spain all pensioners had been excluded ; but we see
no valid objection to the admission of retired officers
of the army, navy, or militia, or even of officers actually
serving in the National Guard, to the franchise.
The lists are to be published every year ; objections
to names are to be presented to the provincial
deputations—a popular municipal body—and an ap-
peal lies from their decision to the Council of State.
Thus the Bill adopts our Registration system, though
it adopts a more economical mode for the revision of
the lists, which the greater simplicity of the qualifica-
tion renders practicable. The election is to be by
ballot. The qualification for a Deputy is, as it ought
to be, almost trifling—an income of 601. a year, or a
capital in the funds, or in landed estate, or em-
ployed in trade, of 2,400/. or living independently by
the exercise of a profession, by literature, or sci-
ence, provided he thus earn 1001. a year, or by re-
ceiving from the State a salary of 140/. a-year, or a
pension to the same amount. To the two latter qua-
lifications the Optimists will take an objection ; but it
must be remembered, that the electors will have it in
their power to set this part of the system right. Ap-
pointment of a Deputy to office, as with us, is to send
him back to his constituents. Upon the whole, al-
lowing for the peculiar circumstances in which Spain
is placed, we are of opinion that a better scheme for
the regulation of the elective franchise in that country
could hardly be devised, than that of which we have
just given an analysis. The foundation is well con-
structed, and the superstructure may hereafter be mo-
dified in some points, and extended in others, as cir-
cumstances shall require.—Morning Chronicle.
It was a fine though a brief passage in the public
life of Lord Castlereagh, when he stood forth, alone,
at Vienna against the spirit
of and encroachin,„, a ••t
pin
of Russia, and declared that her
gate Poland ought to be and must be resisted. But
Lord Castlereagh was forced to stive way, because, al-
though the spirit of his declabration was good, the
time was unpropitious. To break with Russia at
that moment would have been to separate her from the
European league against France, and to reanimate the
rebuked, but not extinguished, power of the latter na-
tion to another strugg4e with that Conservative alli-
ance, of which one of the members, next after Eno.-
land the most formidable, would then have sunk into
mere neutrality, or pursued her own schemes of ag-
grandizement, no longer molested, in the East. The
terms afterwards stipulated with Russia, under which
she got possession •of Poland, were dictated on the
part of the Allied Governments by the same spirit
which had suggested the opposition of Lord Castle-
reagh to that measure—namely, a rooted distrust and
jealousy of her machinations, and a repugnance to see
the equilibrium of Europe once more overturned by
the success of them. The Allied Governments had
just paid dearly, and profusely had their people bled,
to put down and demolish the dominion of the French
Stratocracy, not more ambitious or unprincipled, nor
we believe, by any means so dextrous as Russia has
proved herself throughout an entire unbroken century.
It was, therefore? a lawful and reasonable apprehension
that Russia might, by seizing upon Poland, lay the
groundwork of another supremacy not less grievous or
I)sl:ssissfatihthan that from which France had just, with so
k\sssric---Onollkfficulty, and after so precatious and terrible a
47,1-?,-;'-t-diket,s4seen displaced. It was conditional that the
tvriL:,::-'(t-., Emperor should wear the Crown of Poland,
IN
74cs;Vit---Asst 4;4, ist Oland should remain an undivided and in-
zu.a3.4,Ja,,o .
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