The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-13 00:00:00

old Norwich, or Gloucester, or Pontefract, where
the unlucky " old freemen " are the scape-goats
the ten pound householders being supposed to be
quite above sacrificing political principle to money ;
but the " bran new " boroughs, with the polish
of the Reform Bill not yet worn off—such as Wake-
field and Huddersfield—are proved to be steeped
to the lips in bribery. Not even the Minos and
Rhadamanthus-like presence of two brothers-in-
law of the great Birmingham Reformer availed to
deter agents from giving, and Reform-Bill-made
electors from receiving money for votes. All the
while, however, the counties have been, with
hardly an exception, free even from suspicion.
We speak of our own side of St. George's Channel ;
and we believe that hardly an elector of the fifty-
two counties, and their divisions, is suspected to
have stained his hand with a bribe. One hundred
and eighty-nine members represent the landed
nobles and gentry of Great Britain ; and who
ever dreamed that half-a-dozen of this virtuous
phalanx owed their seats to the ignoble vice of
bribery—unless, indeed, the carrying of electors
to the poll, and saving them from thirst and star-
vation on the road, can be construed as bribery.
Pure and spotless, however, as their virtue must
be reputed, who believes in it ? The truth is, that
vices may be equal, or one worse than the
other, yet the worst shall be the most respectable.
" Plate sin with gold ;" let it be the sin
of the Court, of the great, of the wealthy,
and it loses half its odiousness, at least to the vul-
gar rich and the vulgar poor. Bribery, because a
crime of the wealthy, is detested but half as much
as it would be, if bribers as well as bribed were
poor men. But the viler crime of " intimidation"
is hardly loathed at all. It is the remnant of a
noble feudal tyranny. Serfdom is indeed abolished.
Compulsory service is no longer tolerated. But
political serfdom is not only excused but defended.
The tenant is considered, politically, as much the
landlord's own as the soil ; indeed in some instances
not only politically, but religiously, we have heard
only this very year of old and excellent tenants being
turned out of their farms because the worthy men
preferred JOHN WESLEY'S hymn book to the prayer
book ; Wesleyans being generally, also, only too
good Tories by half.
If we mistake not, the nearly two hundred
county members sit in the House of Commons in
virtue of a meaner and more cruel vice than the
one which has unseated so many Liberal members ;
and which would, from all that oozes out before the
committees, have unseated the Tory members in the
same towns, had they been the winners and the
defenders of seats. Bribery is at least a sacrifice on
the part of the seducer. The briber tampers with the
poor elector's principles, it is true ; but oftentimes
he is a man in too low a position of life to have
either character or principles to lose. He does not,
however, enslave him to himself ; he finds him, in
the majority of cases, the slave of money, and dis-
posed to sacrifice anything to his god, and he
enables him to sacrifice a vote. He confers a
pleasure on the voter, though it be a depraving and
unworthy one. The county candidate does just
the reverse. He saves himself and afflicts the voter.
He appeals to his fears. The unfortunate tenant
dares not think. Whether he lives beneath a
Whig or a Tory landlord it is all the same. Lucky
for him if his landlord's opinions really accord
with his own, though even then he does not enjoy
the pleasure of knowing that his vote is his own.
But, if his political views be different he must vote
white black ; he must perpetrate electoral forgery
or submit to a penalty as bad as that incurred by
many a forger.
It is not easy to conceive the amount of conscious
degradation endured by many educated men at the
present day under the uniform system of voting by
estates, not by individual tenants. Instances fre-
quently occur, as in the Southern states of
America, in which estates, voters and all, are
sold to a new master of opposite politics to
the old one. Wives and families are not, indeed,
separated from their parents, but they and their
parents would soon be sent a begging, or to the
workhouse, to the slave states themselves, for all
that the new landlord cares, if they ventured to
thwart the purpose for which they were purchased.
We have had these views openly asserted and
defended only a year or two ago in Northampton-
shire, and, whether defended or not, no one doubts
that they are acted on universally.
It may be said that we hear but few complaints.
We heard very few, during the latter part of their
imprisonment from POEM() and his companions.
Men cease to complain when complaint is useless, or,
when it would but make their condition worse. A
tenant openly uneasy because his political rights
were filched, or taken as a part of the rent, though
not specified in the lease by his landlord, would
soon receive notice to quit. He would be regarded
as a slave would in Carolina who did not conceal
his wish for liberty. We have become accustomed
to the sight, but when we open our eyes and look
at it afresh, we can hardly conceive a more dreary
one, politically, than that of the great majority of
the counties of England. A part of the tenants,
we may admit, concur in opinion with their land-
lords, but even they are conscious that they
have only the advantage of a mental con-
formation which makes the fetters sit easy.
The fetters are on them as well as on
others. But all the rest live, converse politically,
and vote, with the iron galling their souls. They
may forget it more or less ; they may endeavour to
make the best of it ; but whenever an election
comes, escape from the consciousness of degradation
they cannot.
It is on the counties of England that the ballot
would confer its noblest blessings. In boroughs it
would save many a poor man from temptation, but
in counties it would emancipate a whole and a large
class. It would give tenants-at-will a will of their
own. It would make the farmer a Free-man.

One of the encouraging signs of the progress of
the age may be found in the fact that many great
business establishments have begun to turn their
attention to something beyond trade and barter.
The employers have, in many instances, anticipated
the natural desire of their men by affording them
the means of mental improvement and cultivation.
In no case has this been more evident than in the
various railway companies' establishments. The
schools and libraries which have been instituted.
under the auspices of the secretaries and heads of
the companies have reflected honour on them for
putting the means of mental cultivation and re-
creation within the reach of all those in their ser
vice. The beneficial effect of this kindly encourage-
ment of literary tastes has just been forcibly shown
at the Great Northern Railway establishment,
where the employees have now started a little
weekly journal for circulatiox among themselves.
It is conducted, contributed to, and supported en-
tirely by members of the Great Northern staff,
and it affords a very favourable impression of the
degree of:intelligence and education they possess.
Political and general news are very sensibly
eschewed, since their publication would involve
much unnecessary trouble, with no advantageous
results, but all matters connected with the railway
world in general, and the Great Northern in parti-
cular, are treated of. Tales, and poems, and papers
on gardening are among its contents, and, though
only two numbers arc as yet published, they pro-
mise fairly for its success and character. It is in-
teresting from the fact of its being the ffist publi-
cation of the sort—the first paper started exclu-
sively for the employees of railway companies.
We heartily wish all success to its enterprising
conductors, and hope it will not be the last of its
kind, since it proves the intelligence and respecta-
bility of this large body of men, and the kindly
feeling existing between employers and employed.
It is a fair sign that the " march of mind" is ad-
vancing at a rate suitable to the days of railways
and steam engines.