The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-04 00:00:00

THE KING AND HIS MINISTERS.

What must Lord Palmerston have felt on Monday
week, when he dined at Windsor, and when he heard the
observations of his monarch and master upon the present
relative connexion between England and France ? We
certainly should not presume—indeed, we abstained last
week—to notice anything which transpires at his Ma-
jesty's table, were it intended to remain "private or con-
fidential ;" but as what passed on that Monday was
known to a Itrge and indiscriminately-arranged party,
there . can be no indelicacy in repeating what the king
said, at least in substance. The king—God bless him—
is an English king, a constitutional king, and a king
who, if allowed to have his own way, would be, what his
father was before him, (in spite of what Mr. Coke, the
personal friend of the Duke of Sussex, has said,) a bless-
ing to his country. The king, at Windsor, on Monday
week, in proposing the health of the army, took occasion
to express his worst suspicions of the line of policy adopted
by the "citizen king" of the French, (as his majesty
called him.) The king said that he was one of those who
believed that France, the natural and undoubted enemy
of England, never adopted a measure which had not for
its object the degradation and injury of his country.
"Sharpen your swords, gentlemen," said his majesty,
"for upon you and my good people must I rely for de-
fence against the machinations of our enemies; and by
your aid and theirs I hope always to see the English flag
flying in its proper place, above, and not alongside the
tri-colour of France." These words. Lord Palmerston
was doomed to sit and hear. His lordship's reply to his
neighbour at dinner, who made a remark to him upon
their tendency, we do not choose to give our readers,
because, although it contained all the flippancy, and
some of the wit, for which the noble Irish viscount is
remarkable, it also contained so much of insult to his
majesty, that we decline showing up the secretary out of
respect for the sovereign.—John Bull.

ALARMING DECREASE IN THE CONSTITUENCY.

(FROM THE EXAMINER.)

After the mishaps which attended the registration pro-
cess of last year, and the actual reduction, instead of the
promised increase, which ensued to the whole constitu-
ency of the country, it was shallowly expected or trea-
cherously pretended in some quarters that such effects
were owing to the newness of the machinery, and would
cease when the public should have become better ac-
quainted with its proper operation. The accounts at
present coming in from all parts of the country show the
fallacy or the treachery of this representation, and threaten
a falling off so considerable in the number of electors
registered, as must necessitate a speedy and total change
of the system. The leading mischief appears to be the
trust improperly reposed in parish officers and overseers,
whose business it is to originate a material and vital part
of the process by a publication, first of notices, and after-
wards of certain lists within particular periods, in order
to give opportunity for objection to improper persons.
There seems to have been, in a vast number of parishes, ;
an entire failure in this respect, as regards the county
registrations ; the novelty of the proceeding, which last
year kept these worthies awake to the duties enjoined
them, having passed away, and their successors having
allowed the periods assigned by the act to slip by in com-
plete inaction. Out of ninety parishes within the city of
London, it appears that the lists of less than half have as
yet come to hand. It must be remembered, that not only
new claimants are prevented from registration by the
mistake, but the old voters before registered are lost.
What, then, are the remedies provided by the Reform
Act for so signal a failure on the part of that precious
mainspring of registration machinery—the overseer
of the poor ? Absolutely none ; neither remedy for, the
elector nor punishment to the defaulter, for it would be
impossible to convict such an' imbecile and ignoramus,
under the 70th section, of "wilful contravention" of the
act by the unanimous judgment at least of twelve other
imbeciles and ignoramuses, his peers; fortunately the
common law gives the opportunity of indicting him for
neglect of his duty, but, in the meantime, the electors
are disfranchised for this turn, to the extent of a whole
perish, at one blow.

It is true that the revising barristers for Middlesex,
Messrs. Sandys and Coventry, have determined, under
these circumstances, to admit and register all persons
who shall appear before them at a certain day now named,
and prove their qualification; but we question altogether
the power of these gentlemen to do this ; and glad as we
should be to see all such claimants restored to their
rights, we fear if the thing were done to any great extent,
the 'return for the county, should a contested election
take place before another registration, might become ex-
tremely uncertain to any candidate, such votes being ul.
timately questionable before a select committee. Do not
Messrs. Sandys and Coventry perceive that their deci-
sion goes to render unnecessary in future the above-
mentioned functions of the parish officers, and to super-
sede that machinery which has been provided for the
proper investigation of the right to vote, and the certain
period allotted by the Act for persons interested to exa-
mine the claims of those aspiring to the franchise, and
object to them if claiming improperly, or if disqualified
since the last registration ? We fear this decision can-
not be right, though we wish to give it every credit for
its bias in/az:or= suffragii.
In the borough registration for the Tower Hamlets,
which is now completed, the amount of decrease in the
constituency is ascertained. In one parish, St. Leonard,
Bromley, the number of electors is reduced from 316 to
94, a decrease of 222 ' • the decrease for the whole bo-
rough is upwards of 500, out of something more than.
10,000 : to which number, after the slips which occurred
last year in consequence of the rate-paying clauses, it
would not have been unreasonable to expect an addition
of 1,000 voters. The falling off; however, in the ho.
rough registers, which, we doubt not, will be universal,
will probably be ascribable in a less degree to the errors
or negligence of the parish officers, than to some of the
miserable, circumscribing, franchise-nibbling provisions
of the Reform Act itself. Among other causes of this
progressive diminution of the constituency, there are,
first, the intolerate rate-paying sections • secondly, the
dying offof the voters in respect of old rights preserved ;
thirdly, the disfranchisement of voters by a change of
residence; fourthly, the indisposition of persons newly
become qualified to register themselves so soon after the
election of a seven years Parliament; and, fifthly, the
blunders. The period of occupation insisted upon previ-
ously to the 31st of July in each year,.—namely, twelve
months, is absurdly and unnecessarily long, and for all
purposes, except that of circumscribing the franchise,
might as well have been three months as twelve. Under
this provision, the period within which a man coming to
reside can acquire the franchise, varies from twenty-three
to fifteen months; and assuming the changes of residence
in £lO houses each year to be one in ten, the proportion
of persons disfranchised from this cause alone may be
easily shewn to be little short of one-fourth of the whole
constituency.

After this statement, will it be credited that it was
once contemplated by the reforming ministry to make
this period of residence three years instead of one; yet
we possess that fact on good authority; the project was
abandoned out of preference for the rate-paying sections,
which it was thought would work the same mischief with
a less palpable appearance of design. What we desig-
nate as mischief, however, might seem to the Whigs ad-
vantage.

The crew of the Caledonia whaler, arrived at Kirkaldv
from Davis's Straits fishery, report having fallen in with
the Alfred whaler of Huli, which had touched at a small
island at the head of Lancaster Sound, where some of
the men found on the shore two or three portable soup
cannisters,' and a quantity of tobacco pipes, on which
was stamped the word " Deptford." It was conjectured
(but with what degree of probability we cannot venture
to decide,) that these articles had belonged to the unfor-
tunate expedition of Captain Ross. At the place where
they were found, there was not the slightest appearance
which indicated that there had been any erections for
shelter; but it is added, although we hope incorrectly,
that the remains of a human hand were also picked up.
—Dundee Advertiser.