Star.
London, England, 1831-04-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

CaraorucLE—The long continuance of boeoughmongerlng in this
country has been unfortunately attended with the effect of making Eng-
lishmen think far too lightly both of bribery slid perjury at elections.
To instance the case of outvoters. We lament to say that few men in
the humbler walks of life are proof against the temptation of being con-
veyed to their native place, to visit their relations, at the expense
of a candidate. The vote they should give is too often the last cond.
titration with them. It cannot be too much luculeated, that voting con.
nary to conviction, merely to have the gratification of a journey to the
country to visit friends at a pleasant season of the year, is a dreadful vio-
lation of a sacred trust. The reformer who for such considerations votes
tor an anti-reformer is worse than a thief; and if he reflect a moment
on the thing, he will see that a greater crime cannot be committed than
to be necessary to the sending a man to the legislature, who, he believes,
will tetray the interests of his country. We take it for granted, that
there is hardly an Englishman so ignorant, as not to have made up his
mind whether Reform would or not be beneficial to the country. If
he be an Anti-Reformer, be may, of course, vote for an Anti.
Reformer ; but no execration is sufficiently strong for the knave
who, professing the principles of Reform, sells himself for
the sake of beastly sensuality to an Anti-Reformer. The
punishment of the pillory has been abolished, because in certain eases,
against which public opinion is strongly directed, the punishment in.
flitted is greater than the law intended. But the mean-spirited wretch
who allows himself to be conveyed by an And-Reformer to vote against
his conscience, ought to be more an object of general execration than
the victims of popular indignation on the pillory. Thank GOD 1 an end
is about to be put by the Reform Bill to this degrading traffic in the
consciences of non-resident voters, which has not, certainly, been hi-
therto viewed in a proper light.
TrasEs.—We have already warned our countrymen, that the battle
for reform is not yet half gained, and that without the most strenuous,
and generous, and, moreover, the best-concerted efforts, on behalf of
the much-injured nation, there appears very serious ground for appre-
hending, that even in he new Parliament, the bill m' be muti-
lated or altogether thrown out. The boroughmonger Tories, it is
acknowledged, are few in comparison with those who feel that the
Kingly Government, and the safety of England, are bound up
with the destruction of the whole system of rotten boroughs. The
anti-reformers might, indeed, be almost enumerated, after half an hour's
perusal of the Red Book, or a cursory reference to any pocket edition of
the Peerage. They are not the people, nor politically connected with
the people, of England, although they have exercised over us a sway
nehhor less unlimited, nor more lawful, than that of the 2,000
or 3.000 Turkish robbers at Algiers, who ruled by the scourge
for so many ages the fortunes of Northern Africa. Nevertheless, what
these usurpers of the dearest rights of Englishmen want in actual
numbers, they have made up to themselves by a mass of secondary
advantages, derived, in a great measure, from their position as borough-
mongers, which they hold in defiance of the country. They have the
Power of sending member to the House of Commons, pledged to
Enact whatever laws their borough-patrons may please to dictate, no
matter how hateful to the people of England, who, by a fiction, are
hound to obey them. The benefits of s reformed Parliament may,
indeed, be expressed in few words ; but no imagination can embrace
their amount, nor ingenuity calulate their value. By It five hundred
thousand Englishmen—having intelligence, having property, and by
virtue of both a stake in the welfare of the country—will be added to
the efficient force of the state. By it every man who has a good house
over his head, or a breadth of land capable of supporting his house.
told in decency, will have the privilege of choosing those whom he may
preer as his own trustees for the protection of his person and property.
By it, every member of Parliament will be made responsible to the
public, and not to an individual master or patron, for his votes. By the
rev plan of reform in Parliament, a man known to be a knave, or
not known to be any thing better than a fool—a very ignorant
It idle, or silly, or disreputable, or insignificant penon.—will
find the door of the House of Commons locked against
Lim, although he may be the son, or brother, or tool, or
:uodeater of a Lord ; so that every candidate '
must bring forward
come claim or ocher to distinction, on the score of personal merits.
Hence it follows, that the great mass of tided or untitled rubbish,'
which now fills the back benches of the House, and is no other than a
nuisance to the country, will be entirely got rid of; and that none can
have a chance of becoming a representative of the people, who is not
chosen because of some capability of doing the business, and en-
forcing the opinions, and serving the interests, of those who elect
him. There is one circumstance that it is of the utmost impor-
tance to mention. The boroughmongers have circulated, with
astonishing industry, a report that all the potwallopera and others
who have not freehold or copyhold worth 101. a year, or a leasehold in-
terest of ISO'. a year, or who do not rent a house rated at 10L annually,
are to be at once disfranchised. This is a monstrous falsehood. Not a
human being, who now enjoys the right to vote for county, city, or
hcvough, will ever be disturbed in that enjoyment during his natural
late. If the people of England (and we here speak of all classes, high
tr.tl low, rich and poor, rulers and ruled,) by their own imbecility or
qtathy, fall to improve the blessed prospect now placed within their
nada, we repeat that they will be banded down by history as the most
contemptible of nations.
HEIALD.—The example of unanimity and combined effort which
the friends of reform in the city of London have given to the empire
cannot fail to have a beneficial influence on the ensuing elections.—
There the opposition will be only between the friends of the reform bill
and its opponents. No division of interest will weaken the strength of
the reformers when the day of battle arrives. Great credit is due to the
Lad Mayor for the liberal and self-denying spirit which he evinced in de-

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dining to accede to the requisition to beeome a candidate, lest by the com-
petition with four other reform candidates, he might endanger the com-
plete triumph of the cause. This conduct is the more honourable to
him, seeing that, besides the influence in an election struggle which
attaches
to the office of Chief Magistrate, his firm and unflinching
support of the Reform Bill, has crested for bbn a popularity that al-
forded him almost a moral certainty of success. Although three
of the late members supported and will support the Reform Bill,
it is right to make as great a struggle to bring in a fourth
of congenial principles, as if the whole fate of the Ministe-
rial measure depended on the result of this one election for London.
Clear, distinct, and unequivocal pledges should in every instance be de-
mended, to support the particular bill of reform, by which the late Par-
liament was tried and found wanting. Did not the King declare that
he dissolved Parliament for the purpose of giving the people the oppor-
tunity of expressing their opinion, constitutionally and authentically, on
that very bill ? How then can the people convey to the Throne
their express wishes in favour of the measure, unless they elect Re-
presentatives who are specifically pkdged to ssippore it, There are
other questions of great moment, on which certain and distinct pledgee,
admitting of no subterfuge or evasion, should be obtained
from the candidates, before a real reformer votes for any one of them.
There is the foul stain upon our morals and civilisations of slavery in
our colonies, the Fait source of degradation and crime, which cannot
be too soon cleansed away from every portion of the soil of a Christian
empire. There is, besides, the state of the criminal law, which re-
quires the improving hand of a judicious reform, that its sanguinary
spirit may give way to a more intelligent and moral principle of legis-
lation ; and there is likewise the important question of Chancery re-
form, in effecting which Lord Chancellor Brougham will need the
assistance of an honest and enlightened House of Commons.
POST..--It must be felt by every man who is not a traitor in his
heart, that it is his duty to exert himself to the utmost within his own
sphere of association or of Influence, to dispel the dangerous delusion in
which some portion of the people of England are wrapped, upon the
subject of the Ministerial Reform Bill; and there Is no class of
persona who must have a deeper consciousness of this duty than
that of the honest and rational Reformers. It is scarcely to be
expected of the lower orders of the people that they should
unravel for themselves the detailed enactments, and leeriest*
contrivances, by which the real practical objects of this mason
are studiously concealed from their view. And what must naturally be
expected to ensue from the just indignation of this class of society, w
they find, as every man who has read and considered the bill must
know they will eventually find, that they have been made the dupes of
false and fraudulent pretences—that their enthusiasm has been artfully
excited in behalf of a measure which, instead of extending, curtails
their privileges—instead of yielding them additional security or pro.
tection, deprives them of much which they now enjoy—instead of
promoting, invades their dearest interests—instead of stratifying, mocks
and frustrates every political wish they have ex with any degree
of steadiness or uniformity. It is dreadful to reflect upon the temper
and feelings which must be produced among the lower orders of the
people of England should this bill unfortunately come into operation,
and should their disappointment be goaded into anguish and despera-
tion by the bitter reflection that under the influence of a strong delusion,
artfully propagated by their superiors, they had assisted to inflict it
upon themselves. An unprincipled ministry and their equally unprin.
cipled abettors may laugh among themselves, at the apparent success of
their own fraud ; but should this fraud fully and finally succeed, it
will we are persuaded, prove the most costly political and electioneer-
ing manoeuvre ever practised in any country.
DREADFUL CONFLAGRATION.