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

. holders and pursons of property In the County of La-
nark at' sisty-stx, while the number of superiority
voter* was found to be ninety-five. Hence, if those
wan possessed land ht that County wished to elect s
particular person, they were sure to be foiled -by the
supericalty interett, though possessed of scarcely any
property. The.number of Commissioners of Supply
in the. Gams Ccianay was ILL, These men . did all
the Cuisines as in the County, but not being freeholders,
had itb tote. in the-County:of Mid-fenhian, agorne-
wliat different State. of thitigi had taken place: the
voters from superiority,,wae one hundred; those from
landed property, fifty-four; and the Oonami,sioners
amounted to *Only *boot fifty; who, of course, were
• without Votes. Hence the Representatives who are
chosen in Scotland wete elected by men having no
Property, generally speaking, of a freehold character
at least. Hence the same check over the Represen-
tation for England in the supposed purity of the
County Members, could not be said to exist in the
case of Scotch Representatives. An Honourable
Friend of hil.(Mr. Hume) was, though the Member
fqr Aberdeen, little likely ever to obtain the support
or sanction of the actual electors of the Borough of
Aber;iren. Was this a state of things to be borne,
that only-one man.of property in 62$ Counties, and
not more than one in 7,000 of the inhabitants in Bo-
roughs, had, on an average, the privilege of freemen,
and were permitted ,to vote? Ile proceeded to scat
a few facts with respect to the late election for La-
nark. About two years before the close of last Par-
Hameln, the County was surprised by an advertise-
ment from an Hon. Admiral (Cochrane), offering
himself as a candidate for Lanarkshire. That gen-
tleman had at this time no qualification to become
a Member, because he had no propel ty in the county.
The nest of his proCeedings was to search out a num-
ber of votes on superiority, to secure a majority. The
contest then took the character of a Government con-
test, and all its officers were assailed for their votes.
To meet these formidable antagonists (the Honour-
able Admiral and the Government), he (Lord A.111,-
mitton) went to work in buying up as much supe-
riority as he could, which he immediately parcelled
out into as many votes as the property would cover,
and eau a farthing more—namely, £4OO Scots each.
The .next thing he did was to find out persons who
should hold these superiorities ; but here was the dif-
ficulty, to ascertain whether such holders or buyers
wOuld or would not. vote for him. Here, however,
he was aided by the extraordinary ability and saga-
city of his Scotch Law Agents, who so managed
the matter, that not one of the buyers of his supe-
riorities failed to vote fur him, though these supe-
riorities were publicly sold and advertised.—
Here his Lordship read the questions which were
put to such paper voters, the great object of which
was to ascertain whether the voter had • a right to
vote ; from whom he bought the superiorities; and
particularly to guard against the 'voter's having re-
ceived a consideration for his own vote from the
Wanton—The oath went to %tate, tnat the land or
estate was his own ; and that it wad his fee, and his
only. A scruple had arisen in his own mind; and,'
to solve it, he appealed to his lawyer, .who gave it
as his opinion, that these was no impropriety in that
oath, because it meant that he was only possessed of
a superiority property.--(A laugh)—however the
oath might be worded. The exeicise' of this right
Was as objectionable as the mode of conferring the
right to vote. The light depended on their being in
possession a year and a day. Now, in this instance
at Lanark, he complained that, through the agency
of the Sheriff, one class a voters interested against
him (Lord Hamilton) were made in time, whilst his
voters were made, to the number of twenty, just too
late to qualify them to vote. The election, too, was
prolonged by every -chicanery and delay, in order to
give time for his opponent's voters to grow ripe, of a
year and a day old. In fact, he knew an instance,
where a document being necessary to be produced,
the lawyers engaged to manage the election under-
topic to talk whilst a . messenger was dispatched to
fetch it, at a distance of sixty miles off, and they ac-
tually succeeded—(A laugh).—Amongst other things;
he could assure the Mouse that sometimes, when
hard pressed, they brought in aged persons from a
rest distance in ; litter. Another evil arisingasut
of this contested election was, that he had to stand
twenty-five law-suits .on twenty-five votes given at
thin election. Appeals often arose on these actions,
and if brought betoie the old fifteen Judges of Scot-
land, every person knew how their political bias
would determine it. The latter danger, however,
was removed by a hue law. He hoped to be able
to shew to-morrow night, in the case of the suit
brought by him relative to the Beacon Newspaper,
that that political bias was exercised against him by
the Learned Lord himself opposite. A charge Was
brought against hiM in the affair of the. Lanark elec-
tion of corrupt practices, which, however, was soon
abandoned, in consequence of finding the twenty-five
law-suits were not likely to succeed. lie thought he
had proved that an election in Scotland was altoge-
ther a job, and, what was worse, a Scotch job—
(A laugh).-11is object was, he hoped, accomplished,
in explaining that an evil did exist. He should
now sketch out a mode of redressing that evil. He
should not propoie to invade any one's right. lie
should propose to connect landed or personal pro-.
petty with, superiority. Land or other property combs,
to be required to the amount of one hundred pounds:
Scots, or eight pounds a year sterling. This amount-
ma..i remain to. be adjusted by-the House. If the
House should agree to leave all existing votes un-
touched, he should not feel the least objection. Ho
apologised for going so much. into detail, but it was,
necessary. to do so, in order to shew that the Scotch
counties, so far from correcting the evil, of misrepre-,
sentation ,in Scotland, as counties did in.Etigland,.
actually 7aggcavated: the evil. Thus, the Honourable:
Members froin Scotland; aroupd hirn might be taken
to represent anything hut the population of the, place.
The Ilcinontable Member for Edinburgh. had about-
thirty petrops in:Edinburgh who confided-to hins their,
interests in the Representation, whilst 5(4000 Pecuomi
of property were, opposed:. to him. In thrs,:ssase
manner, the populaoon of the town and county. of
hercteen were the friends. and. well-wishers of: hisi
klouourable: Friend tbeMember.forAbotdeen,
his could nnt.be comidered;aven to. be the Repressor .
ta-.tve.o( tlik...'welf-elorixd 34inta q.3lawn:Cepuns Safi
Abeiattun: Mt, VOC4V.C.lwa‘loskioit.,
Member for .Edinburgh could then be considered.
worthy the *name of the Representative of that