The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-29 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY. DECEMBER 29, 1845.

The greatest hustle and activity, it is said, prevail
n our docks and naval yards ; measures for having at
command a large fleet whenever it may be wanted
are adopted in every quarter ; ships are repaired, en-
gines for steam-vessels are ordered to be made within
a limited period, and every symptom in these respects
leads to the belief that the present Administration
are resolved to " assert British rights, and prepared
to maintain them." All the inanimate materiel of
large and powerful fleets, in fact, is in the most for-
ward state of preparation, but how vain and decep-
tive the best built ships are, without they are pro-
perly manned, and plans are formed for supplying
deficiencies, the events of the last war, and, indeed, of
every war with France, for more than a hundred
years, have sufficiently convinced our enterprising and
gallant neighbours. A victory to them brought little
or no advantage, because lives were sacrificed
which could not be replaced, and any disaster which
might have befallen England was speedily repaired
almost entirely from the vast resources furnished by
her mercantile navy. Latterly, however, a power
differing in every respect from France has sprung up,
ready to compete at sea with any European state;
her merchant-vessels, and the number of her seamen,
exceed those of every kingdom or empire in the world,
except those of Great Britain, and they have, besides,
all the qualities and superior advantages which long
distinguished the brave defenders of these islands.
It is utterly incotnpeehensible, therefore, how the
British Admiralty can overlook these circumstances,
and spend large sums voted by Parliament for the
naval service, without taking into account the most
important and, indeed, vital consideration in this great
national question. At the present moment, though
so few ships are in commission, the greatest difficulty
in procuring able-bodied seamen exists, the Retribu-
tion steamer, and several other vessels required for
service cannot make up their complements, and
should a war suddenly break out, no remedy for this
alarming evil can be found but one, which the nation
generally, and more especially the mercantile class,
would resist with the most determined energy to the last,
Under the present system it is well known men can-
not be had in sufficient numbers; one-half, nay one-
fourth that might be required, could not be obtained
by legal and constitutional means. The system of
impressment has now been dormant for more than
thirty years, but without that or a radical change,
both in the mode of paying our sailors and in their
treatment on board, we could not raise a body of
sailors fit to contend with the American navy.
In 1816, notwithstanding the fame attached to the
name of PELLEW, and the prepossessions of the sailors
in favour of Lord EXMOUTH, the fleet destined for
the attack on Algiers was long detained at Spithead
for want of men, and it was with the utmost difficulty
that numbers, considerably below the usual comple-
ment, were at last collected for working the ships.
Are affairs in a better position now ? The Americans,
as, at the end of the last war, are making every exer-
tion to obtain our best sailors, by means of large pre-
miums, large wages, and good treatment. The mer-
cantile navy is fully employed, trade never was in a
more thriving condition; the demand for seamen,
consequently, is good, and the pay better than in the
royal navy. *ln the one service the engagement is
made for a voyage, or a very limited period ;
in the other the seaman is little better than
a slave ; his period of service has no limit but that
of his life or his ability to serve, or the wants and
caprices of the Admiralty; he is subject to the most
degrading of all punishments. Neither he nor the
soldier is tried, like the rest of his countrymen, by
his peers, but by a body with despotic power, de-
sirous to repress, by the utmost severity, every
act, nay, every word and look, that they
consider offensive; he is ill-paid, and the only
prospect of consolation he has is some trifle
per day when his strength is worn out, or per-
haps a retreat in Greenwich Hospital, when he has
lost a leg or an arm in the defence of his country.
These are the men that saved England from many
attempted invasions, and from the most recent and
dangerous of all, that formed with so much care,
and but for them with certainty of success, by
BONAPARTE at Boulogne. Never did such reproach
attach to a nation. England treats her best friends
worse than enemies; she admits that her wooden

walls are her only protection, that without her

sailors she could not exist as a nation, while the gal-
lant men who mount these walls are subjected to

hardships and cruelties, compared with which the

sufferings of the African race in the colonies, for whose

freedom she paid twenty millions, were absolutely no-
thing. Another session of Parliament cannot pass
over without some remedy, some radical change
in the whole system of manning our navy. We
felt its effects during the last war with
the United States ; the best of our sailors,
who conquered at Trafalgar, indignant at
such treatment, and bribed by higher pay, fought
against their country, and lamented their success.
Are the same disgraces and calamities to be repeated,
because the Government will not spend half a million
re in raying our seamen, nor take the trouble of
framingmo an Act of Parliament which may rescue
them from indignities and sufferings which gallant
men will not patiently endure .

Lord JouN RussELL's inability to form a free.
trade Government, and the obstacles which have still
to be overcome before the free-trade question can

reach a successful issue, not unnaturally suggest
attention to the present state of the representation.
If the Reform Act had indeed made the House or
Commons the people's House, how long ago should
we have got rid of the corn-laws? If Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, not having a majority in the present House
of Commons, had been able to rely on the result of
another general election, as the true index of the
people's voice, would he have hesitated for one
moment as to accepting the trust tendered by her
MAJESTY, or would he ultimately have yielded to the
difficulties by which he was overcome ?
It is undeniable that the system of nomination,
which the Reform Act was to abolish, still prevails to
a very great extent in the House of Commons.
Some notion of its extent may be gathered from the
following facts, which we have derived from two
Parliamentary papers of the year 1844 (Nos. 11 and
435).

There are as many as 174 constituencies in tha
United Kingdom having less than 1,000 electors
each ; and these 174 constituencies return no less than
241 Members of the House of Commons. These 174
constituencies are made up as follows :-116 English
bornighs ; 12 boroughs in Wales ; 13 Scotch counties,
and 8 Scotch boroughs ; 2 Irish counties, and 23
Irish boroughs.
Of the above 174 constituencies, there are as many
as 82 which have less than 500 electors each—viz.,
60 English boroughs, 3 boroughs in Wales, 2 Scotch
counties (Bute and Sutherland), and 1 Scotch
borough, and 16 Irish boroughs. These 82 consti-
tuencies, of less than 500 electors, return in all 110
Members of Parliament ; 28 English boroughs among
them returning each two Members.
The following boroughs return two Members each,
and have each less than 300 electors :---Andover,
Chippenham, Harwich, Knaresborough, Lyming-
ton, Marlborough, Richmond, Tavistock, Thetford.
Tavistock is a single exception in this list to the
general rule, that corruption and proprietary in-
fluence govern the returns of these miserably small
constituencies. Thetford, the last on the list, is the
smallest in point of numbers, having only 192
electors. It returns Sir JAMES FLOWER, the wisest
of the wise, and Mr. BINGHAM BARING, the heir of
Lord ASHBURTON, and a member of the Government.
Among the constituencies of less than 500, which
return only one Member of Parliament, Calne,
Reigate, and the county of Sutherland have less than
200 electors (the constituency of the county of
Sutherland being actually no more than 167 !) ; and
Arundel, Ashburton, Dartmouth, Flint, Lyme, Mid-
hurst, Northallerton, Wilton, and the Irish boroughs
of Cashel, Ennis, Portarlington, and Tralee, have
less than 300 electors.
We have named 24 constituencies which have less
than 300 electors. Of these twelve are, to all intents
and purposes, proprietary boroughs. Here they are
in a row, with the names of the virtual proprietors
and their politics :
Chippenham...Mr.NEßLD Tory.
Marlborough... Marquis of AYLESBURY Tory.

Richmond..... Earl of ZETLAND • Liberal.

Caine Marquis of LANSDOWNE ...Liberal.
Reigate ..Earl SOMERS ...Tory.
_ _ _

Sutherland ..Duke of SUTHERLAND Liberal.
Arundel' Duke of NORTOLK Protectionist.
Flint Sir R. W. BULRELEY Liberal.

Midhurst Earl of EGMONT Tory.

Wilton Earl of PEMBROKE Tory.

Thetford Lord ASHBURTON Tory.

Portarlington..Earl Of PORTIRLINGTON ...Tory.
Andover, Harwich, Knaresborough, Lymington, and
Lyme are known to be sinks of corruption. So
much for seven out of the 24 constituencies of less
than 300 electors.

Large constituencies, with the ballot, furnish the
only possible effectual security against nomination
and corruption. Ballot by itself could do no good in
such hole. and. corner constituencies as Thetford and
Harwich, Reigate and Lymington. It might even
increase corruption in constituencies so small that
they may be taken in with one haul of a briber's
net. We should much rejoice to see a revival of the
efforts, which have been so long dormant, for further
Parliamentary Reform ; and tha statesman who
should persevere till he triumphed, in endeavouring
to reform the representation by introducing ♦ote by
ballot, and getting rid of all constituencies under
1,000, or even under 500 electors, would render an
immense service to the cause of public morality and
enlightenment, and need fear no imputation of revo-
lutionary designs.

The Paris papers of Thursday have not arrived.
During the whole of last night a violent storm raged,
which probably has prevented any vessel from cross-
ing the Channel.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, Dxc. 26.
Anglo-Belgian — Madrid and Valencia—.
Barba does
Boulogne and Amiens.. 10% Namur and Liege 3l/2
Bordeaux &Medtterran North Jamaica ...
Bordeaux and Toulouse Orleans and Vierzon 17
Do. & Cette (Espeleta) Orleans and Bordeaux 11%
Do. (Mackenzie's) .. Over Yesel
Callao, Lima, and Pa- Paris & Lyons ( Laflitte) 2%
cific Coast
Central of Spain .. — Ditto (Caloa's)....
Ceylon . — Ditto (Sud Est) 2I,E
Demerara
Dendre Valley ...... %IParis and Rouen .
Dutch Rhenisk
Dieppe & Paris Junct — (Ganneron'a)
Dijon and Mulhouse I IDo. (Compe de L'Est)
East Indian ........ 1% Do. (Aymard's) —
Fampeux & Hazebvouk Paris and St. Quentin —
Grt Northern of France Rouen and Havre..„
Censtit uted 15% Royal North of Spain.
Do. Pepin le Halleur — Sambre and Meuse .... 5
Great Paris and Lyons 2% Strasburg and Bale .... 10
Great Western Bengal 1,4 Teurnay,Jurbise, Lan-
Great Western Canada den, and Hasselt
Jamaica S Mid.Junctien Tours and Nantes
Do. North Midland — (Mackenzie's)
Do. Extension
Jersey — Do. (O'Neill's)
Louvain and Jemappe.. 2 Trinidad
Lyons and Avignon.... Verona and Ancona —
LUxembourg

We hear that Mr. Cardwell, at present Secretary
to the Treasury, is to succeed Mr. Hope, as Under-
Secretary to the Colonies.
It is said that Mr. Charles Wood, who seceded
with Lord Grey from Lord Melbourne's Government
in 1839, distinctly refused to join in Lord Grey's re-
cent objection to Lord Palmerston as Foreign Se-
cretary.

DRIIRT-LANE THEATRE.—The new pantomime of
Harlequin Gulliver has made one of the completest
hits ever known, the receipts thus far having nearly
doubled those of any preceding year. The houses
are literally crammed.

It is said that the Midland Railway Company in-
tend keeping London time after the Ist of January.
The rails on the Nottingham and Lincoln Railway
are about being laid at Collingham, and at various other
portions of the line.
REPRESENTATION OF SFLKIRKSHIRE.—Mr.PringIe,
of Tair, having been appointed Keeper of the Register of
Seisins, a vacancy has occurred in the representation of the
above county. Mr. Pringle it will be remembered, re-
signed office as a Lord of the Treasury last session, in con-
sequence of his opposition to the Government grant to May-
nooth. For his conduct on that occasion we have the best
reason for stating he received the most cordial approbation
of his constituents ; and it is not perhaps too much to say,
that one who could act thus honourably under such circum-
stances, felt himself not at ease in a Parliament where ter-
giversation seems to have taken the place of truth. In
consequence of Mr. Pringle's resignation, Mr. Ellott Lock-
hart, of Borthwickbrae, has announced himself a candidate
for the vacant county. The following extract will ruffi-
ciently show the uncertainty in which this gentlemen lives
as to his own opinions :—" I am fully sensible of the ardu-
ow nature of the duties of a Member of the House of Com-
mons. My principles are Conservative; and if you do me
the honour of electing me as your representative, my first
duty will be to preserve the Constitution under which we
have the happiness to live; while I shall study to support
and promote every measure that appears to be conducive to
the mutual benefit of the agricultural and commercial in-
terests of the empire. The ties of birth, of local interest,
and of personal friendships, will, I trust, be deemed a suffi-
cient guarantee of my attachment to the interests and honour
of the county of Selkirk."
THE MEIKLE FERRY.--We understand that a pro-
ject is now in embryo for throwing a bridge over the
Meikle Ferry. Although on first thought the scheme
may appear somewhat utopian, we are assured, on the
very best authority, that it may be accomplished with
ease and cheapness. Should this turn out to be the
case, and we have no reason to doubt it, the northern
counties will be incalculably benefited. We believe that
the subject will be laid before the public in an authorita-
tive form, the spot having been already surveyed by a
gentleman of experience and skill, and well known in the
north of Scotland.—John o' Grsat JournaL
WAKEFIELD CORN MARKET, DEC. 26.—We have
moderate supplies of all grain this week. There is a little
more business passing in wheat, and in some instances an
advance of Is. per quarter is obtained. Fine barley sells
freely at former prices, common sorts in slow request.
Beane of all descriptions fully as dear. Oats and shelling
each maintain the prices of Friday last. Malt in fair re-
quest, without alteration in value.
Her Royal Highness the Princess Sophia, who
continues to labour under deprivation of sight, is passing the
holidays at Kensington. The Princess, who continues to en-
joy good health, visied her Royal sister, the Duchess of
Gloucester, at Gloucester House, on Christmas-day.