The Sun.
London, England, 1819-06-01 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL. JOURNALS.

[Neu:eastle Courant.]
OPPOSITION SINCERITY AND cONSISTENCY.

Want of room compelled us last week to omit
the following • explanation of the nature of the
question, which is now - before Parliament, 're-
specting the Royal Burghs of Scotland, and on
which Ministers were outvoted, on the 6th inst.
The Magistrates and Town Councils of these Cor-
porations are self•elected, and are the Electors of
f.lembers of. Parliament. They have the entire
disposal of the'public property of the Burghs, and
it seems that the private property of the Burgesses
is liable to make good their deficiencies. An-
ciently the Burgesses elected these Town Councils,
and the restoration of this power_ was generally
desired by them. For sonic time no danger seems
to have been apprehended by Government from
this source ; and the Borough of Montrose hap.'
pening to be disfranchised by an illegal Electiou
of its men governing junto, the Crown, on the
recommendation of the Lord Advocate, actually
granted a new Charter, with the express provi-
sion, that the Elections should be annually made
by the Burgesses at.large. The same privilege
had, under similar circumstances, some years be-
fore, been obtained for Stirling by the late Lord
Melville. Aberdeen fallingu into the same predi-
cament, in addition to a total deran,gentent of its
pecuniary a frAirs, the Lord Advocate, alarmed ap-
parently at the universality of the petitions on the
subject, which poured into Parliament from one
end of the kingdom to the other, became the de-
cided enemy of this species of reform, and gave,
by Royal warrant, the fallen Council of Aberdeen
the power of re-electing themselves. The Learned
Lord also brought a Bill into Parlianient to., ap-
pointing Anditms of the Baugh Accounts, whicli •
the Burgesses almost universally deprecate!, as
only intended to gloss over and fix more firmly'
upon them the grievances of which o,ey corn-
plain. Lord A. Hamilton has undeTtaken their
cause, anti has succeeded so far to procure the
appointment of a Committee tVf Enquiry, not-
withstanding the opposition of the Lord Advo-
cate and others, who affected to consider the
measure as not aimed at INlal.versation, but
as a covert attempt al Parliamentary Reform. The
decision of the house does honour to its judg-
ment ; and e.Oth the Bilis now in progress re-
specting Peitryn and Barnstaple, strews that it can
purge itself from the corruptions that may creep
into the body politic, without the aid of the Ra-
dical Reformers, or rather Radical Destroyers.
It is to be remarked, that the Barnstaple Re-
form was supported by Ministers, and opposed by
the Opposition; and Mr. Williams's attempt to pu-
rify Elections by preventing bribery, and putting
an end to the artifice of creating temporary,Elec-
tors,. by means of sham sales of burgage tenures,
was not supported by the latter.

[N. B. The Opposition have, by their conduct,
on the occasions referred to by the Editor of the
Newcastle Courant, justly subjected themselves to
that obloquy and disgrace they so pre-emineutly
merit, for nut supporting Mr. W. WILLIAMS'S
Bill. The fact is, that it would have cleansed and
purified the Boroughs belonging to the old Aris-
tocracy, which are mostly represented by the Op-
position.]