The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-20 00:00:00

SPAIN.

(From the Madrid Gazette, Oct 12.)
"ROYAL DECREE.

" In virtue of the prerogative I hold, in conformity with
the 12th article of the Estatuto Real, and being desirous
of recompensing by a new honour the services done to the
state by Don Pedro Gonzales Vallejo, formerly Bishop of
Majorca, as well as his constant adhesion to the legitimate
cause, I have thought proper, in the name of my august
daughter the Queen Donna Isabal 11., to elect him to ex-
ercise the dignity of President of the Estamento of Illus-
trious Proceres during the approaching'session of the Ge-
neral Cortes.

" You will hold this understood, and communicate the
same to all whom it may concern for its execution.
"(Under the Royal Sign Manual.)
" The Pardo, Oct. 10.
" To Don Juan Alvarez y Mendizabal, Provisionary Presi-
dent of the Council of Ministers."

(From the Revista Espanola of October 12. )
THE ELECTORAL LAW.

The preparation of a good electoral law is a proceeding
of great importance and urgency, and it is indispensable
that any, law on the subject to deserve the epithet of
" good," should be accommodated to the circumstances of
the age and of the country in which it is intended to be car-
ried into effect.

As, in our humble judgment, theory and practice, far
from being opposed to each other, are always in accordance,
it will be right to establish some one principle, with a view
to its after application.
The advantage of the representative system is, that
through its means the governed exercise an influence over
the governing, and that, too, in a way most advantageous to
both parties.
As the Government exists for the benefit of the whole go-
verned body, it is manifest that they ought to exercise an
influence over it, in order that it may act for the common
good, and not for private benefit.
The people have an interest in the general welfare, and
will only work mischief by disregarding their veritable inte,
rest. But it is the fact that they do disregard it, an& for
two weighty reasons—their ignorance in some cases, and in
others their dependence, on account of which they sacrifice
their solid and permanent interest for an advantage to a
certain degree deceitful, yet immediate. Let Us make our-
selves understood.

That an individual might from ignorance act to his own
disadvantage, when intent on nothing but his own profit, it
does not require any very great wisdom to demonstrate.
It is on this and no other account that, throughout the
whole civilized world, minors are deprived even of civil
rights, and of the power of disposing of their persons and
their property.
That, from dependence, men sacrifice a distant and a
greater advantage for a less, but more immediate one, is
proved by an example applicable to the present question.
It is notorious that bribery prevails at the elections of
the British people. Every voter is there interested, as a
member of the social or political body, in choosing worthy
and wise representatives, so that there may result from the
elections a good Chamber of Deputies, determined to eco-
nomize the expenditure, and to reform abuses. Yet the
voter, neglecting an advantage so certain, and often pal-
pable, looks to the immediate benefit which he will receive
by accepting money, or by gratifying the powerful indivi-
dual from whom he holds his land as a tenant, whom he
serves as a tradesman, or from whom he obtains employ-
ment in any way whatever. Guided by this consideration
be gives his vote in favour of an ignorant or a bad man,
whom he entrusts with power to his own detriment, and to
that of his country.

If, then, ignorance and dependence prevent the electoral
duties from being discharged in a way calculated to insure
public advantage, it follows that those only ought to be
electors for the general good, and for the good also of them-
selves, who are the least ignorant or dependent in the nation.
In accordance with this theory the practice of almost all
nations governed by representative systems is adjusted.
By the late Reform Bill passed in the British Parliament,
the right of election in boroughs is exercised by the inha-
bitants of 101. houses, and in counties by the owners of
certain property of a very small value. Thus in England
there is at the present day 800,000 electors, that is, voters,
for there the election is direct.

In France the number of persons clothed with the power
of electing the Representatives of the people is much
smaller. The French voters do not amount to :200,000.
Such large electoral assemblies are nowhere else to be
seen except in the various republics of the United States of
North America, though it is not in all the States which form
that confederation that universal suffrage prevails. The
reason of this is, as we have stated in a former number,
that in that country men, if not more enlightened than in
civilized Europe, are more independent.
In Spain, by the constitution of 1812, every man of full
age, not being a domestic servant nor regular ecclesiastic,
and who was free from any legal disability, had the right of
voting. This law was frank in the concession of the elec-
tive faculty, but well considered, it did not much deserve
that character, and consequently it was calculated to lead
to some little danger. The numerous body of voters created
in the first instance by it, elected only a few commissioners,
under which name another class of electors was evolved.
The commissioners immediately chose parochial electors.
These were allowed a month's time for choosing district
eleetors, whose election for the most part took place out of
the district town, that is to say, entirely independent of
popular influence, and under another and very different mo-
tive. The nomination of the district electors having been
made, another months' delay was allowed before the elec-
tion of the deputies. These were chosen by electors very
small in number at the capital of each province, where the
election took place under the presidency of the superior
political chief. At the time of the election there did not
remain an atom of popular influence. Under such a system
the right of voting might well be given to all, since the
suffrage of each individual amounted to little more than no-
thing. It is plain that in quiet times, and ivlth a strong
and firmly seated Government, the above-Mentioned method
would place nearly all the electors li.,aer the control of the
Ministers and their dependents.
It is not such a law as
that we wish to see applied
at the present day to
C:I pain. We firmly believe that since
1812 to the pr°Lent time we Spaniards have advanced, and
not a httl.-e, in political knowledge, as well theoretical as
Pr!ctical. A new law of election, ought, in our opinion,
to be more in accordance with sound doctrines.

But, if Spain is not in such a backward state as to re-
quire a mode of election so little popular in essence, how-
ever popular it might be in appearance, as that which re-
sulted from the constitution of 1812, the country is still
further removed from a condition such as that of the Anglo-
Americans, among whom the right of directly electing
their representatives can be intrusted to all of a certain age
and conduct.

Were the suffrage given to all men in this country two
serious inconveniences would result ; one, the consequence
of the state of civil war and dissension in which we now
are ; the other, independent of these circumstances, and
merely the result of the ignorance and of the poverty so
widely spread over our wretched but lovely soil.
The first inconvenience would be, if all persons had votes,
that there would be found among the representatives of the
people many partisans of the Pretender. The second would
be, that all having the right of voting, and few exercising
that right, and of these few the majority being bribed, se-
duced, or ignorant of what they were doing, we should be
almost certain of having bad representatives.
We have been surprised to observe a periodical of this
city expressing the opinion that all men, heads of families,
should without exception vote, and drawing no distinction
as to whether there should or should not be second electors
to extend or restrict the electoral rights. How ? Do the
editors of the Eco imagine that an equal degree of respon-
sibility is requisite for the faculty of nominating deputies as
for that of nominating electors ?
We entertain a very different opinion ; it appears to us
that if there are to ,be three grades of election, the right of
the first voters may be extended ; if two, not so much ; if
one, still less.

The Eco falls into manifest contradiction. Supposing
there should be two grades of election, there is required in
the electors some further qualification than in the first
voters. Why so? We repeat, for this reason—shall an
elector for Deputies, having in his favour a precious nomi-
nation—which is a mark of merit and confidence—require
certain qualifications, and shall none be necessary for him
who has to elect a Deputy without having himself been
elected by any one ?
Not we repeat again and again, if we are to have a direct
election—and for that object it is indispensable to restrict
the right of election to a reasonable number of persons—
and to demand certain qualifications for exercising it. Thus
it is in free and enlightened nations. Thus it should be here,
and we should even be parsimonious in attaining the object;
for everything is relative, and eight thousand English elec-
tors will find their equivalent in a less number of Spaniards.
Another circumstance must be taken into consideration.
In demanding guarantees from the electors, is it not neces-