The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

Lord Blandford's motion tbr Parliamentary
reform came recommended by arguments of
rather a novel character. It seems that so long
as the Catholics were an enslaved people, and
Government divided upon the expediency of
keeping them in that condition,—yea further,
even ‘vhilc the House of Commons were voting

annually for that very principle of emancipation
which has since been carried into a law by the
concurrence of the House of Lords cud of his
Majesty, —whilst such things '.:ere transacting
before the eyes of the noble Marquis, it never
once occurred to him that decayed boroughs
were pernicious articles, and ought to be con-
fiscated for the public good. But now the King
has agreed with the borough representatives, and
that the nobility of England have voted with
them-,—now that the " odious principle." of free-
dom has been asserted in favour of commerce
and of the Catholics,---the noble Marquis face-
tiously finds out what all the world knew long
ago, that the boroughs are rotten, and their Mem-
bers are corrupt, and we shall one and all go to
a place which must be Tameless, if the House
be not refbrmed by their disfranchisement. A
neat compliment this to the King and Peerage,
to be sure ! There is much to be said for the
other project hinted at in the discussions of
Tuesday evening, in favour of granting the popu-
lous towns of lingknd the privilege of repre-
sentation. The actual defect of the House of
Commons is the want of some adequate coun-
terpoise to the squirearchy—to the domination
of pheasants and foxes.--Tidies.

We have always looked upon the questions as
to the transference of the Elective Franchise
from places like East Retford or Penryn to the
adjoining hundreds, or even to populous towns,
as of very secondary importance. The evil of
our present Parliamentary Representation is that
it is not what it pretends to be, whether we take
population or property as our criterion ; and if
the property of the country is not adequately
protected, it can never be of much consequence
whether one or two great towns, more or less,
have Represt,ntatives. If the change be not of a
nature to change the character of the Repre-
sentation, nothing is done. 1 here is no ditfi,
cult:, iti any place, however remote, whether re-
pres‘rnted or not represented, in finding a channel
through which its wishes may be conveyed to
to Parliament. Besides, the principle of the
proceeding in the case of East Retford, Penryn,
is decidedly bad. We presume no one will
be found bold enough to maintain that seats in
Parliament, wherever the franchise is not exten-
sively diffused, are not regularly bought and sold.
Indeed, in England, every thing, from • a
Church living to a license to poison the
people, is marketable, and considered as pro-
perty. Now, of thew.° classes ofeorrupt boroughs,
that to which East Retford belongs is decidedly
better than the class in which the price is
paid to one or two individuals. Men with mo-
ney in their pocke!s go into the market fairly,
pay the electors their twenty or thirty pounds
a-piece, and enter Parliament unfettered and in-
dependent. To those who think that property
should be represented, these openly-corrupt places
are much less objectionable than the privately
corrupt ;.for the largest purse will carry the day,
and neh men are much less likely to lend them-
selvea to profligate measures than those noble
mendicants who look to their influence over
;)(rioughs as a means of existing at the expence
of the community. Mr. Ricardo, for instance,
purchased his seat; and could vote independently;
but the Borough Patrons in general sell a seat
on the condition that when the Representative
cannot vote in accordance with his views, he
shall resign. The only effect of disfranchising
the openly corrupt places is to raise the value of
those boroughs against which corruption never
can be proved. The Marquis of Blandford's
propositions on Tuesday night were more fair :
' " That there exists a crass or description-of
boroughs, commonly called dose or decayed, in
which the returns- of Members to Parliament are
notoriously cipable of being effected by the payment
'of money in the way of purchase, and frequently
are so effected ; and also another class of boroughs,
ire which the elective franchise is vested in so few
electors, that the returns are capable of being
effected by the payment of money, in the way of
bribes, to individual electors, and frequently are so
effected.
• " That the existence of such boroughs, and the
'continuance of such practices, are disgraceful to the
character of this }louse, destructive of the confi-
deuce of the people, and prejudicial to the best in-
terests of the country."
-
This, of course, is a mere &lawn fulmen.
Even if the House of Commons were to pass a
Bill to destroy all the corrupt bbroughs of both
classes, the House of Lords would never sane-
ition it. A Reform of an extensive nature-will
never be willingly agreed to by the depositaries
.of influence; for who would consent to the an-
nihilation of his own consequence ? But the
• Aristocracy can have no great objection to the
• disfranchisement of a few corrupt places, by
which their own consequence would be increas-
ed. The independence of Parliament, however,
such as it is, rests principally on open corrup-
.tion ; for it is to the proportion of Members in
the House of Commons returned by their own
guineas, that Ministers are indebted for theirability .
.to make head against the cabals of the
private Borough-holders. It is not, therefore,
for the public to lend its sanction to any pid-
• tiling plans of disfranchisement, by which, per-
Imps, more harm than good might ensue.—
' Morning Ch, onide.

The most peremptory and pressing orders
hare been lately sent to the different Public
Boards in Ireland, calling for statements of the
lowest scale in point of numbers to which it is
supposed practicable to reduce their respective
establishments, consistent with an effective -per-
formance of the requisite duties. The system of
consolidation by which the Irish offices, instead
of being distinct and independent Boards, arc
made branches of the English, subject to the
same regulations, and working upon one uni.
form system, which has been already tried in
some cases with the best possible results, is to
be forthwith extended to all. In addition to
this reform, which is in itself of great import-
ance, as tending to eradicate the . vile system of
, corrupt local patronage, it is proposed to dimi-
nish the amount of salaries, and retiring compen-
sations, by one-fourth. This reduction is not in-
tended to apply to the present possessors of offices li
actually discharging the duties of them, but their
successors will come in on the reduced salary ;
and, we understand, from what we believe to be
competent authority, that retiring compensations
and super annuations are to be in all cases calcu-
lated on the reformed scale. The proposed
changes have, as might be expected, produced