The Sun.
London, England, 1819-12-30 00:00:00

GRAM POUND.

Sut-1 must not occupy your columns with a
distinct answer to each of my antagonists. While
ltplying to them collectively, I wish to confine
myself to the single question of Grainpound, and
pass over the personafties with which they have
invested it. But it not easy to succumb beneath
the imputations so liberally dealt out upon me.—
One Opponent charges me with calling every per-
son who differs from my opinions, " knave or
fool, Republican or Jacobin ;" another in plain
terms calls me " vindictive," and applies my
vindictiveness " to the single provocation
of holding contrary sentiments to my own.—At
the same time I am accused of dealing, myself, in
revolutionary phrases.

Sir, I little regard the date of my language,
whether it be ancient or modern. My object is
the repression of that revolutionary danger, which
every artifice is now at work to pour in upon our
Constitution; and I am perhaps too earliest about
the weight of my weapon, to waste time upon its
polish. Words may be picked out of my writings
which are of revolutionary origin ; but who shall
find therein a revolutionary sentiment ? Again and
again, I will call such expressions as " change in
" society, advancement in knowledge, increase of
property," when coupled with "feelings ex-
cited by exclusion," a revolutionary jargon ; not
because they express a diversity ft om my own opi-
nion, but because they are precisely that phraseo-
logy which the French Revolutionists began, and
which our Corresponding Societies echoed.
But I con►menced not any personal warfare.--
I have not even replied to it. ViNou.x cal! •t 1 me
a p►erogati-ve man and a high Tory. Di(' 1 retr,c
up.in him the nprllaliolis of Liberty .'.lan an i
10 Whig ?—Heneetorth, 1 ',ill no longer no• ice

th(st imptitations :--but, once for all, reiler
tire !it c laration of my principles. lam a Consti-
twit:rimiest. I recognise no temporal suptent.,:y
in any one of the three Estates, but in the con-
joined power of them all. Perhaps Vlsbex vrill
insist, that this is " Hi h 'Fury'' doctrine.--
Whether or not I palliate corruption, let my
plainly expressed desire of seein4 every corrupt
Voter disftatlchised, be the answer to my ,tc-
(fusers.

And now for GRAMPOUND. It is not fair that
sny 'tie of the term " liiirga4e" siiorild still be
taken in its limited senF..e, iwit,d of thrt
general acceptation, which, for brevity's salit:,
I hail ventured to it in. Thus ex-
tendedly used, all kinds of electoral right in a
_Borough are Burgage ; and thus I use it in the
1./nine:tier case before us. GRAM-FOUND; I Wag
Well aware, possesses two classes of voters; toe
Corpuratori„ and °he Inhabitants paying scot and
lot. And, thoo4h the latt:tr class is referable to
that species of f lectoral right, called " pop,ll:ir,"
I most consider property anti not rpulation
to be the main object .tt the electoral right, its
tcst, and its qualification.

Stoat! as the rest of property now is as to free-
holders, continued upon the eyelet), awl dispro-
portionate scale.of the Sixth 1111NRY'S Stdttlte. it
forms the qualification at County Electors. The
reduced value of money has almost, I confess,
rendered it a test of population ; utiles* we refer
it to the intention of our Ancestors,- whose wisdom
€n„trd the qualification of tarty shillings, dS we
should at this day enact a qualification of twenty
pounds. The present discussion, however, is
with Boroughs •
With ali imaginable respect for my antagonist,
PemnesToN, I must take leave to say, that the
estabistied definition of "scot and lot" is, pay.
urto the parochial taxes. And in the liberal
sense which I had stipulated for my use of the
word " burgage-hOlding," 1 Cannot find the in.
consistency of statitig 4‘ scot and lot," to be one
of its tests in Grampound; as the corporate capa-
city is another. PEMBERTON is needlessly tri-
;MOW. in his exposure of a contradiction which
be has invented for me.

But the heaviest charge is—that I have wholly
passed over (in perfect ignorance of course)'the
rights popular of commonalty, of populaey, and
of that exquisite, term, pottvaliers.—Arnang the
several definitions which have been established
of these titles in sever4l places, it is not easy, per-
haps, to/ .separate them one from the other ;
but, unluckily., they are all invested, or onerated,
with a species of properly test, rather inconve-
nient with the mete test of population. Surely
it will nil tie asserted, that the payment of pa-
rochial taxes, which originate from-land or some
erection upon land, is a right of population,
though it may be a right popular. It may be per•
sonar, quoad the payer ; but it it substantial,
9noad the cause of its payment. And the Legis-
lature (26 G. 3. c. 100.) has provided against the
mere popular rights of personal voters, by- re-
from them a six months' residence in the
place for which the Election is held, before they
can vote. _ If then, a vote, qualified by residence
in the Borough, as well as by an electing right
therein, be not something more than a personal

light ; ilk does
.not depend on the place where
such residence is held, and therefore upon an
-edifice on land ;• I am at some loss to know,the
object of the Legislature. or .the effect of the
Statute.

.01 the two classes of electors in GRAM..
POUND, one is corporate.— 1 will suppose ;hat
every member of the corporation. has voted cot.-
tilittly.- Let Leery member be disfranchised :
let Lim be incapable of ever voting in any right

and in any place. Bat the right of the corpora-
tion is inextinguishable—always-excepting the
power of l'arliament.—Let new members he ap-
pointed ; and let the electing right he in them.
The other class of electors in Grampound is scot
and lot. I will suppose that they too have 0.7
voted corruptly. Let them be also disfranchised
and incapacited :—bur let their rights discend on
the next successors to that land or edit i7e ou
land whereom their liability to parochial taxes
issues. Should the extreme case happen, that all
their possessions are chattels only, extinguish
them altogether, and leave the light ot election
in the honest remnant of the old or the hottest
successors into the nett/ corporation. But do not
extinguish the Borough.
I trust, Sir, that I have in some degree cleared
myself from the charges of ignorance and perver-
sion so courteously brought against me ; and
that I have shewn, while the great preponder-
ance of our representat:on is on the side ot Pro-
perty, the remnant which leans toward Popula-
tion to be conditioned either by a possession of
land or residence, or at least by a residence upon
the land,

Anti property having the greatest stake in the
Empire, may, most safely, be entrusted with its
protection.—Against external enemies, we must
arm its.population : should that become its inter-
nal foe, tr the property we must look for wise
and vigorous laws.—Had the mere population a
right of electing Representatives—had Universal
Suffrage gear fled ti.e influence ut the extensive
landholder %Orb that of the hedger and ditcher,
we should snot) nave seen his :_roperty lercl.ed
also.—A mere popular Parliapiunt wmild ne,er
have nasstd those Laws, which have now Larpily
mitzzled sedition and tinf,inged
Tl,..ret'ore 1 ana glad that England still preserves
so MOM) nt i!er ‘• feudal" res! to property, as
bath hitherto maintained het a- ,trl and chivalrous
entincuce.—But I not, therefore, to be ac-
cused rev,' e, ing . r,dal " tyranny ;" as
of your Correspoudet, in his modtrii politeness,
climes to ;arraign me.
Indulge tat', Sir, in a moment's adyerence to
the suggestion of yobt Correspande•it, "
IN-
Q.UIRkR." 13v idedly as 1 would re3ist hery. I
would wt,!, no: less puniAr the !Ift:l,-.c of
occ(isionatity. Knowing no,t.i.ig show I.)•ie'lani,
o= its great Lindltolders, I can only ipivise him
ft) romm,,u!ea !hi% very s,ortioialons transgres-
sion to Mr. LADIBTON. f) will, tn. COUrSe, as a
zcalotis hitn,,,if to detect and
punish !;c• ATentiet.,. Thf= I) .rhat' Representa-
tive is the fittest guardimi of the Durham

TENAX.