Star.
London, England, 1831-05-31 00:00:00

COUNTY ELECTIONS.

'die success which the Reformers have met with in almost
all the contested elections, amidst the universal acclama-
tions of the people, and the unbought suffrages of voters of
ch.sscs and descriptions, is a proof as clear as any demon-
sti mien can make it. that the Ministerial Bill is perfectly
et,asistent with the genuine principles of the Constitution,
-nil is regarded as a measure tending essentially to uphold
protect the property and privileges of all orders.
Referm has laid hold of the understandings as well as
I.i the passions of the bulk of the people. We deny that
this feeling springs from the ebullition of the moment,
1.1141 is as uncertain and baseless as the many thousands
of popular caprices which have risen and fallen. We
deny this. and we appeal to all England as a proof
that our assertion is true. Never in any period of our his-
tray was evinced a more firm and decided movement than the
neriole have made on the present occasion, never have they
displayed a more lively and affectionate interest, or a more
steady determination ; never have the popular virtues more
steadily and decidedly shone forth and so visibly displayed
theinsf•lves in the real and genuine co!ours of patriotism,—
unpolluted, as we will venture to say,—altogether unpol-
Inted by any of those excesses and that intemperance, which
too often stain the proceedings of mobs. The yeomanry in
the country have more especially signalised themselves on
this occasion. This class of our countrymen, at all times
difficult to arouse, have stepped forward with uncommon
ardor at all the county elections. They have rushed forth
to claim and vindicate as their birth-right the privileges
which the new Bill proposes to confer upon them. They
now perceive that the slavish tenure of their copyholds is
about to be abolished ; and the odious distinction between
the freehold and customary tenant no longer to be pre
served. In case also of their possessing leasehold interests
only, they see the Government measure extending to them
the elective franchise.

Under such circumstances, is it at all to be made matter
of surprise that the counties of England, in all cases, except
where aristocratic influence had worn itself into deep and
impregnable channels, which could not at the moment be cut
off or diverted ; can it, we say, excite any reasonable sur-
prise that the reformers have been almost universally suc-
cessful at the county elections?
As respects the boroughs about to be abolished, no man
can doubt the general sentiment which prevails upon the
bill ; but, then, in these boroughs, as most of them still con-
tinue under the oligarchical grasp, there could be no imme-
diate fruit or experiment of the feelings of the inhtbitants.
They were necessarily listless spectators of what was going
on. They were constitutionally dumb. They looked forward
to the day of their liberation, but could do no more. They
were incapable, whilst the chains were upon their limbs, to
act on this glorious occasion.
As regards the boroughs where the members were about to
be reduced, they were pretty nearly in the condition of the
rotten or nomination boroughs. They were unable, by their
acts (being hitherto in a state of thraldom), to evince more
than their good will in the cause. But as regards the cities
and towns which were free, and where the elective franchise
was about to be enlarged, they seem, one and all, to have
acted and spoken decidedly in favor of the bill. They have
almost universally availed themselves of the opportunity of
expelling the anti-reforming candidate, and of electing the
person, be he who he might, who professed himself friendly
to reform. London, York, Carlisle, Liverpool, Bristol, Bos-
ton, are noble examples of the operation of this principle of
patriotism in large towns and cities.
If such have been the conduct of cities and boroughs, it
might reasonably be expected that the counties would en-
deavour to rival their ardour in the same course. The bill
offered to counties the greatest and most valuable of boons.
It lifted up the heads of those who were before trodden
down by the slavish feudal prejudices which were suffered to
disfigure our landed representation. Copyholders and lease-
holders have been called into a new political existence, and
it is therefore no wonder that our agricultural population
should be uniformly in favour of this bill.
Let our readers look through all the counties of England
and Wales, and, as far as the returns have hitherto come in,
they will find scarcely more than three county members re-
turned for the new Parliament, who voted against the Re-
form Bill. Those large agricultural districts in which a
bold yeomanry, their country's pride," bear the sway on
elections, have invariably shown the spirit and resolution to
emancipate themselves from the borough Oligarchy.
The zeal and ardour which the reformers have displayed
in county elections, and the triumph whicli they have al-
most universally achieved over their opponents, are without
parallel in any period of our history. The freeholders
move forward on this question with one heart and one soul.
The prodigal expence and consuming waste of county elec-
tions have not deterred them in a single instance. Funds
have been found to any extent, and have flowed in a lavish
profusion, wherever it was necessary to counteract the
Boroughmongers, by having recourse to those weapons with
which they are most accustomed to fight : and look only at the
result ! Yorkshire has seated four Reform Members without a
struggle. The Duncombes, the Bethels, the Lascelles, and
the Wortleys, have all been chased away before the breath of
Reform, as the rays of the sun disperse the morning mist.
Lancashire, the great seat of trade, commerce, and manu-
factures—where the shipping interest is next only to that
of London, and the general diffusion of wealth almost upon
a par with what we used to behold in the metropolitan
county ; in this great province of our empire, Mr. Patten,
the former Member, did not dare to stand a contest—al-
though be had bestowed signal benefits upon the county, he
was considered to have cancelled them all by his vote on the
Reform Bill, and was, therefore, compelled to yield his
place to Mr. Heywood, a banker of Manchester—known and
prized only as a Reformer. In this county, we also observe
the defeat of General Gascoyne, at Liverpool, although sup-
ported by the whole strength of the corporation. But to
what can this be ascribed ? To nothing but a firm and con-
scientious conviction, that the Reform Bill, instead of being
measure of a revolutionary and radical tendency, unset-
tling property and shaking institutions, will work a solid
cuistitutional improvement—bracing anew the sinews of
our wealth, adding new strength to our commercial credit,
and binding together the hearts and affections of tl:e people
in one social bond of peace and good fellowship.

A question of matrimonial right, as to the- occupation of
a box, had nearly been agitated a few evenings ago, at the opera
House. The principal party was a gentleman, whose alliance with a
fair scion of the Peerage, but almost immediate separation, has, from
that period to the present moment, occasioned so much discussion in the
fashionable world. The gentkinan and two of his friends were seated
in the box, when some ladies of rank. entire strangers, presented them-
selves with the tickets of admission which had been given them by the
wite. It was an unpleasant situation ; bat rather than create any di..
turbarce, the husband immediately withdrew, with the full determine-

iron, however, to prevent the recurrence of such an event in future.
The General Assembly of Scotland was occupied the whple
of Tuesday, and up to six o'clock on Wednesday morning, with the
consideration of the case of the Rev. Mr Campbell, of Row. The As+
sembly first confirmed the sentence df the Presbytery of Dumbarton,
which, in point of fact, convicted him of teaching heretical doctrines :
. and afterwards, by a very flume:owe vote, deposed him from his office.
This case, from Its novelty qt Se annals of the Scotch Church, has
excited immense interest in )Edinburgh. That of Mr. 11161 wan his also
been decided. The Assembly have in this case also vindicated the
ptuity of the Church doctrines, by affirming the sentence of ,the Pres-
bytery of !trine, and Synod of Glasgow andlyr,,fuldinol“r, IPlsean,
liar presentee to the parish of Dreghom, guilty of teaching heresy.

PANORAMA OF THE BRITISH

EMPIRE.

The STAR has for several months exhibited such a picture of the
Domestic Rven of the Empire, u never before was attempted. It
gratifies unspettiably the natives of districts who reside in Loud= and
distant counties, and is a LITTER FROM Hosts to every provincial in
foreign countries, or in the colonies. It raises also into general im-
portance the exertions of local talents in every public cause. Then as
111;s is a duty performed alone by the STAR, those local patriots would
ill deserve their name, if the STAR and its interests were not nciprocally
promoted by them in every district. We know it has been so in many
places, and the STAR in principles, and in all the best qualities of a
paper, has justified preference ; but we reasonably :expect the same at-
tentions EVERY WHERE, as the means of at once recompensing our di-
ligence, and adding to the utility of our valuable and exclusive informa-
tion. We call also on the Provincial Proprietors of Papers, whose
local labours we thus illustrate, and invite with earnestness their
powerful attentions in promoting those interests of the Paper which
they best understand. We notoriously excel all London Papers in
priority of Foreign News, and our display of the transactions of the
country is equally exclusive and pte-eminent.