Star.
London, England, 1823-06-03 00:00:00

that copyholders and leaseholders *ere excluded
t
from voting at county elections in England? The
law (4. England went on the principle that the Rre
body. of the electors in counties were landholders;
; and it afforded to every proportion, both high and low,
its due and natural influence. The elective franchils
1
in Scotland was not complained of because it here
and there excluded a few landed pionrieters, but-14.--
cause it excluded whole bodies of persons, respects.
ble in-number, respectable in property and talents...
and who would make a respectable part of the con. •
stintent body of any country. It was well icemen:.
that to qualify a person in Scotland
.a mere residence'
was not necessary. It had been contended that SZet".•
land was only a 'distract of England; and that them:.
fore the abuses of the former :lace were justithtile;,-
.on the ground erat there were many places in Eli.
laud where the popular principle. was hr less acts*.
operation clam ir. other places. But be should like to;
know in n hat part that principle was wholly. extinerYt
Was it extinct even in Cornwall, that Holy Laird et:
-the boroughniongels? But he could furnish a more
serious answer to the urgnment. What was the rei:
son that the representatives of one ran of Englaurf •
were supposed to be also the representatives of tie
A hole kiogdom? It was because the same systemor
law was recognised throughout •-England. 'lt Vat.
otherwise in Scotland. In that very Treaty of loon.
uhich bad been so strongly referred to, a diftereaf.
system of law in Scotland had been recognized tope
that which prevailed in England. It seal uvulae
the Constitution of England afforded some security
to Scotland, bet that security was no more than it
wculd possess if -it had no elective franchise; it was
the same security that India possessed ;- and it was*
liecarue the English Coestiturion•wotild not admit
that such a representation as deli which prevailed in-
Scotland was a sufficient security for the good ga.
verument of any country: Scotland required Me'
extension of popular Representation; and, although •
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman who had spoke*
last contended: that the Union Act prevented ! Rik
form in the Scottish Repo esentatioq, he could not .orii` •
I *lcicle with arguments e hich 'allowed that property,
as intim cased heritahle jurisdiction, could be aimed.. '
but which allowed no change in the political privileges. •
The Scotch people. sere said to be averse from the
Change; but that Was not the case tither now or at the
time of the change of the heritable jurisdictions.
The people of England required that their fellow.
subjects, their brothers of an United Kingdom, should
have their rights as citizens ot-the Stare truly assured
to them. The ancient Constitution of Scotland re-
cognised the right of general suffrage, as was evi. •
dent from various Acts os.f. the Scottish Parliament
passed at various times. In-the reign of King limed.
in 1427, an Act passed for the election of two wise
men from each Sheriffdom to represent their knows. •
That Act bad passed into disnetusle, but it had been
renovated and acted upon in,1587. The Claim of .
Rights and the Articles of Grievances were import-
ant, and had been presented to King William and
Queen Mary in 1689, at the momentous time of the
British Revolution, and the privileges of equal oft
(rage had been recognised in the Act passed for the
extension of. Representation in Scotland, and which
added twenty-six Representatives to the greater
Counties, being an addition of one-Still to the whale
Representation; the number of Representatives fortis
Shrievedonwbeing sixty-six, and for the Burghs sirty-
five. The. Peers -having sate in the same Chamber,.
the legislative privilege became therefore the less
important to them, and yet that Act had been passed..
At the Treaty of the Onion, although- the perfidious..
Parliorient-• of Scotland. had negotiated their own.
disgrace, while they degraded their country, yet
they had maintained the principle of that referee...
The changes Which had. taken place in the! state
bf Scotland dUring the last hundred years,. bad''
raised another body of men, moral, intelligent,.
and enlightened, who now require that they.sheuld:
enjoy the same privileges which their English fellow.-
subjects do. The celebrated .Andrew Fletcher bad
(nice recommended that the Scotch should be re-
duced to slavery, in order to better their conditieen-a.:
But now that was not the case; the Scotch'were ear-
enlightened people, and were they to be refused the'
blessings which, as tritons, they deserved? 'haute
of Scotland was not similar to that of Ireland; for if
the extension of suffrage was injurious to Ireland, it.
could not be said that it could be so in Seotland..r..
He, as a Scotchnran, was anxious to seehit COlOll
,
elevated to the rank it deserved in the British COosti•
union ; and' he was ashamed to hear it mitintelaed,.
While the newly-liberated nations of the Continent
were said to deserve in their countries the same pri-
vileges as Englishmen-in England, that Scotchmen;
were not' fit for them. Liberty was the source of
every private and public blessing, and was Sealant,
not fit for it? Were the Scoter not a mural people?
-;—an enlightened people ?---a wise peopte?:—atid
were they not to have the privileges of Britons? lie
did not ask for the grant of that-priailege to the Na'.
groes in the West Indies, but to the moral arid en-
lightened people of Scotland. The stoney; tor th 4
measure would not bind any Member to roister •
Parliamentary Reform ; for the case of Scotland Pa
being popular as the election of Comity Menibels it
could not pledge any Member:of that figure to,ioltil-
for Parliamentary Reform sin- Ragland.; He waehte
therefore, support the motion of his. Noble Sneed.
Lord BINI4ING, protested against thc• 403
that the change of the ScotelCrepte,entatioer
not interfere with the reforlar of the English repreren-
tation. It would be worse in Scotland than tilinf
troduction Of the system of Universal /tee
in England. 'He appealed to ani persoo w
ren:
the state of Scotland, to declare whether St
was not a free country'?. The .NobleLond *OOl4l
quotation from ;t popishe'periodicat •ptsblkiallsil r;
demonstrate Tim.. truth of:his proposition, th*ttbe
sent Parliamentary representation watira
good as any which could be'devised by..theorisb;i:
the state of the llarliament was'not kgOestele tib'''
? Ws.
Scotch reaple, • Why had they...not peon korai,
_."O
what had the people of Scotland 105t.011436T2n.
By what means. could it be:hewn-that elii.ficn'
ell
people were not duly represented in that Hin :
.°'
well as every other clals•bt *itish.subjects? ljagt.
House agree& to .Parliatnenary Reform, be
support the change desired in Scotland, but .otif ,
then. There was eb pant- of .the Unit rid RtllB . ',
where land-was poseestist of siimirch.realliifitieolt
in Scotland. The comity of Lanark proved.tloo. ',I:
practice of the system was useful, and the House 007
not, therefore, to adopt all the theories proposed ‘