The Sun.
London, England, 1826-06-15 00:00:00

[_nn; monNING ciill6NteLE:]

Amidst the corruption Juid profligacy which every Getsr.il
Petlion discloses, there are acts of so very flagrant a descrip7
!ion as to become the object of general anirmulVttsion. Such an
art is the sat cription of the Corporation of Northampton of
1000/. of its funds rnindure Sir Robert (Jingling to route for-
ward as a Candidate With, this act Sir Iliibert :and. the Cor-
poration have been distinctly charged, but it has been deemed
advisable, to allow tint Ch3r4e to restrain onanswered.—Wc
never heard of a more daring violation of the duties of
a trust, then this profligate aet of the Corporation, and
regret that the Petition to Parliament denouncing
it, arrived too late for presentation on the dav of the
prorogation. If a Corporation can subscribe a thousari'd pounds
from the Corporation fonds towards the cipences of a Coulidate,
it may subscribe the whole property for election or other pur-
pose.; nay, it may fairly divide it at,onc m e among its MRIIII/011.
What would be thought of the Corporation of the (ity of LOodon
—one of the most corrupt Oldie bodies in the kingdom4--were it,
at an election for the office of Chamberlain or Common Sereieant,
to vote a sum from its funds to assist one of the Candidates in his
vulvae,? The thing is namst rout I It is gratifying to perceive that
the prople,of Northampton mark, by their votes, their indiguation
at the etmduct of both the Corporation and their Candidate. Sir
R. Gunning is very !Ow on the poll, and th.e victory of the
other candidates seem placed beyond doubt.---So witch fur Cor-
poration profligacy

When an Englishman ix tint present et a Slave Vendee in the
United States, he is a good deal shocked at the spectade of Negroes
eating 40kWards end forwarde, cegerly showing themselves (Ate
the greatest selCatthiga; end displaying the utmost eatisfaction et
every fresh bidding. .T 0 see men so low in the seele of Ituinaoity,
that they do not appear even to he sensible that Slavery. is a de.
gradation, end take a delight it, going through the preliminarici
to a transfer, whiel, denotoe that they art! fIiSpORMI at ; it, JP 1111.
miliuting manner of cattle at a fair, naturally tills the native of
Lorope with gloomy ideas. 131 t so much are the sieves 01
wage, that we cease to be dieted by many 'Lingo at home
&Intuit equally degrading in their 'Kay with what shocks ill so
much *broad, merely because we are not acen,tomed to them.
Let us take a General Election for insteoce. flow in.my Log.
nehmen are there who take even a pride in the meet degrading
cirm„semere with which a General Election is attended, as
indiustive of the absence a the
tenet and diripation which prevail: in every. contested place.
A free people would, of tonne, dulls* the Representatives
who, in point of talente, activity, :Led honesty, , waned
to them the hest fitted for a place in the national Council,
and, eo far from stapecting that 'these hepreeentativet should
put themselves to any titpente, . would inns si4p a IV.
nstmeration for their performaru:c of a portly public duty. nut
• to which bie Represents
an tnglishmen is proud of the ever" I
Live is put, and considers the efferveNeence producers ry gut anti
beer, as indicative of the genuine spirit of liberty. He is coo-
sidered the toot public epirited individull Ilia towm. tvinit• eau
eontrive to induct a new catulithite'to start, nut with the view of
being returned, but of patting the cluullAtes who will he returned
to a heavy expence. tic who pays this henry expense is nettes*
eerily the master, not the servant of the people—he hag bought
them with his money, anti can we WO4der that he should sell them?
If there wire no other Proof of the eerritude of the people of Eng-
land, a reflecting men who rooked on a General Election would
be 'Misled with this. The etree;reacenee is the drunken gaiety of
the *love, who has received his tivink,roonoi from a new purchaser.

But so completely have our minds been corrupted by the degrad-
ing...practices to which eur mestere have accustomed us, that net
merely the ordinary run of writers look on these practices with
complacency, but sensible travellers, who declare themselves par-
firma of freedom, speak in taints of reprobation of the feature in
the relations betWetei the People and their Representatives in
other counteies, which peculiarly denotes, that the representation
is really free. Thus, foe instance, in a volume of Trarela just
published, entitled, " Lion hunting," the author,- in•describing
the Legislature of the Netherton* observes— . . •
• " The Lower ilottse consists only of oneinunired and ten Mein-
hers, of whom half-are elected by-the Northern; and the other by
the Southern States. The extent and population of each Stete
regulate the number of Members which each is entitled to nomi-
nate. One (handing feature in the character of this Asseinbly,
Arises front the circumstance of each of its Members receiving
5,400 francs of salsty from the Government."
This is the language which ninety-nine Englishmen out -of
every hundred would hold. It would be degrading to .pay. their
Representative, but it is not degrading to make that Representa-
tive pay for his situation 20,000/. ! Is it degrading to pay a
Judge, or any other officer who devotes himself to tIM public ?
What would be thought of a Judge paying for his situation instead
of receiving par? Would not the inference. be, that the Judge
who paid for hit situation would contrive to indemnify himself in
some way or other, either in meal or malt? And does not the
Representative who buys his situation indemnify himself, either
by giviug his vote for the promotion of his own particular inte-
reet, or by neglecting the people? is.it not notorious that Mem-
. hers of Parliament, With one or two exceptions, consider their
attendance as entirely optional With themselves? That they do
not,eonsidee themselves in the light of servants having a definite
fluty to discharge, and accountable to their constituents
for the manner in which they discharge it ? Would
Deputies, veld by the people fur their attendance, dare
to give as mush or as little of their time to the
public 'busiitess as they thought fit? Oh no. Rut these slavish
notions come of the situation in which the people are plated:._
Whet remains of independence in the . country is tainted by the
wide lipreading servility which surrounds it.
It is easy to blame the people for these things, hut they will be
foetid to flow necessarily from the political state of the country.
The people feel that they have not -a sufficient influence in. Elec-
tions to determine the nature of the Representation, but they feel
deo that they ale instruments to a certain extent in the process
by Which the Representation is effected. They cannot prevent
the public from being the prey of the interested, mud, therefore,
like the peasant,. whit, on seeing his stores of food fast (neap«
peering under the heavy attacks of a foragitig party, joined their
mess that he might not lose all. Where they have an opportunity
they seem to think it not unreasonehlt that they should avail
themselves of the only cLance of getting Intek a little of their own.