Star.
London, England, 1822-02-21 00:00:00

odoptieg the proposed plan for the reform of the
I3urghs, if the necessity for it existed—and he now
contended that such necessity did exist. The Learned
Lord had asked if chartered rights were to be de-
stroyed ? but they were not now chartered rights, for
those had been altered by the Convention of Burghs,
a:ld repeatedly altered by the Crown. Therefore he
would advise them to alter that which had been abused,
not only by causes already stated, but by the internal
abuses of Magistrates. There was nothing, then, of the
acciont Burghs remaining; the Bttrgesses had no con-
troul whatever over the men who exercised power in
them. There was no purity now in the Scotch Burgh;
there was nothing hut injustice; hypocrisy, and fraud.
The evils were of such a nature, and of such mag-
nitude, that the House was bound to take the subject
into consideration. Ile had no view in proposing this
lan hot that of removing the evils he bad stated, and
•ofestablishingsome dependence and connection between
the governors and the governed; nor was he an ad-
vocate for any weeping removal of persons from their
offices, but only wished to see the mode of election
properly regulated. He assured the House, that in
his statements he had omitted ten times as much as
he had stated. He concluded by moving, 44 that the
'House do resolve into a Committee, to consider the
state of the Royal Burghs of Scotland."
The LORD ADVOCATE of SCOTLAND said
expected that the Noble Lord would have brought
to:ward a specific remedy for the evils he had stated,
or that he would have waited until he saw the Bill,
which he (the Lord Advocate) had given notice of
introducing—a Bill which he was confident would
accomplish all the objects that could be wished, with-
out destroying the chartered rights, or altering the
present constitution of the Scotch Burghs. Such an
attea!pt would reither be more nor less than to bring
al,out that was called a Parliamentary Reform—
(Hear, kear).—lf such an attempt was made, let it
be made openly at once, without an indirect mode,
such as was now proposed. His plan would have for
its object a more regular administration of the finances
of the Burghs. There were great abuses in many
other Burghs in Scotland, which were not Royal
Burghs, which sent no Representatives to that Ilouse;
and why was no inquiry tried to be made into their
constitution? The reason was obvious; the present
Was an attempt to bring about a Reform in Parlia-
ment. When the Honourable Member for Aberdeen
was elected, he had only two to vote for him, and he
was returned by his own casting voice —(Laughter).
Then why did not that Hon. Member propose a
I:2l‘rm in that Burgh ? He denied that there were
instances of corruption as the Noble Lord had
s:.aed. There might sometimes have been an excess
,f expenditure; but the wisdom of such expenditure
druid not be judged of by figures, and many ex-
Fnses sse:e applied to beneficial purposes. The ex-
penses of Aberdeen, for instance, were most usefully
incurred in'making very great and important im-
provements in the harbour of that town. Great ex-
penses were also incurred by the City of Edinburgh,
but (they contributed greatly to the improvement and
convenience of that capital. It would be impossible
for the House to form a judgment from the immense
volume laid before it. because that Report comprised
only the state of four Burghs. Indeed it would have
been useless to go into the examination of any other
towns; and the grievances found to exist wete attri-
buted solely to a want of proper checks over the ex-
penditure of the Burghs, which arose from circum-
stances that had occurred since the Union with Scot-
land ; the old Court of Exchequer not having suffi-
cient power to examine into and controul such ex-
penses. By the Bill then which he should introduce,
he meant to propose that there should be an appeal,
in all cases of this kind to the Court of Exchequer.
There was one Burgh (that of Stirling) where such a
system of improvement existed, as was proposed by
the Noble Lord, and its affairs were not conducted
one jot better than those of the other Burghs. The
remedies which he should propose ought first to be
tried, before any attempt was made to alter the Con-
stitution of the Burghs. That remedy ought to be
tried before any hazardous experiment were at-
tempted ; or before any of the Articles of the Union
v..ere altered. If the House were to agree to the
motion, and follow it up in the way proposed,
i: would be impossible to apply a general remedy,
because every Burgh in Scotland was constituted in
a manner different from another, and no such gene-
ral remedy could apply without violating the char-
tered rights of the whole.
Mr. HUME said, he rose to express his opinion on
the subject, as well as to correct some of the mis-
statements of the Learned Lord. He stated that there
was no corruption ; but had not the House the in-
stance of Inverary ? Doubtless, others existed. The
Hon. Member proceeded to censure the conduct of
the Committee of last year, for not permitting what
in courtesy and practice was always done ; the Noble
Lord was not allowed to draw up the Report. The
Noble Lord was in Scotland for the purpose of exer-
ci-ing his elective franchise, and though the Session
was not expected to terminate in less than six weeks,
the Report could not wait so long. It was, he under-
stood, the joint production of the Noble Lord (Bin-
ning) and the Learned Lord Advocate. He (Mr.
Hume) would venture to say, that there were no other
seven Members of that House who would have treated
the Noble Lord as the Members of the Committee
had done. When in that Committee the question was
put for reading the Report, paragraph by paragraph,
he (Mr. Hume) had made an amendment, to give the
Noble Lord an opportunity of framing the Report.—
He put it to any man in the House to my whether that
was not a lair proposition ? but on the division there
appealed—Ayes, seven—Noes, one. Now it was on
the Report of this Committee that the Learned Lord
'wished the House to rely ; but so far from the House
looking to that Report, let them look to the three
preceding. Reports, and they would fic.d that the alle-
gations of all the Petitions were nearly the same, and
all concurred in praying some modification of the
system of self-election. He thought Isis Noble Friend
was quite right in the course which be was pursuing,
because he might be assured that the Committee had
no intention to act on those Petitions. The Report of
a Committee should be considered by the House as
the opinion of a set of Gentlemen who were all alone
mind. It had been said that this was a motion for
Reform : lie (Mr. Hume) thought that it was a mean
of letting the Burgesses into a share of the Representst-
tion,and he thought they ought to have it—(Hear).—
He wished the Learned Lord would consider and
!rant something; give them but a beginning, awl;