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the roll of electors, in which assuredly the interest of the constituency is much greater than that of any individual representative can possibly be. The expenses incident to the Registration Courts may be diminished and curtailed in various ways. Professional men ought, as far as possible, to lend their gratuitous assistance. Electors of all classes should attend as witnesses, without accepting of any remuneration; and in the preparation and lodging of claims and objections, material aid may be derived from the formation of local committees. But though all these measures are adopted, the business of the registrations cannot be properly conducted without incurring considerable expense. And when it is considered that the neglect of a single year may be productive of irretrievable consequences, it must be evident that the object is of far too high importance, to be suffered to depend on the will of any individual, however sincere and zealous in the cause. Besides, it is surely a more dignified attitude for a respectable constituency to assume, to refuse to be indebted for the annual purging of their roll to the man whom for the time they have chosen as their representative. By incurring to their present member such repeated obligations, they in fact renounce the power of future choice -and increase, not so much the strength of the party, as the influence of the individual. Without supposing it possible, in the case of any Conservative member, that that influence may one day be exerted in support of different principles, it is sufficient to recollect that it must die with its possessor. The only mode by which an ascendency can be obtained for right principles, which shall be independent of the caprices of a single mind, and the chances of an individual life, is by the control of the registrations being assumed by the constituency themselves. And in no other way can this be properly effected, than by the institution of an annual registration fund, to which every elector shall be invited to contribute according to his means and inclination. For our own part we should be glad, for the sake of the electors rather than the representatives, that a similar principle were adopted for defraying the election expenses of every Conservative candidate. In English counties the practice is almost universal; and no

false delicacy prevents the scions of the noblest houses from acknowledging the contributions of the lealhearted yeomen, in support of principles, in the maintenance of which all classes are alike interested. Nothing would contribute more materially to the propagation of sound political feeling in Scotland, than the adoption of a system which gives each individual elector as it were a personal interest in the issue of every contest. We are persuaded that the idea requires only to be familiarized to the minds of the Conservative party, in order to meet with almost universal adoption. And the liberal contributions which are continually flowing in from the members of that party, in support of every scheme of enlightened philanthropy and Christian benevolence, forbid us to doubt that an appeal to their principles in behalf of the cause of the Church and the Constitution would not be made in vain. Of the sacrifices which every citizen of a civilized state makes in return for the advantages of a free government and equal laws, none is more reasonable than would be a small annual contribution to a local Conservative fund. It would be in fact a tax proportioned to the station and property of the individual, and appropriated to the support of the institutions by which his best interests are preserved—a small expenditure of yearly income, to secure the enjoyment of the remainder-a trifling payment of interest, to prevent the loss of capital.

But it is not by money alone that the Conservative cause must be supported in the counties and burghs of Scotland. There is need of that which the party generally are much less lavish in bestowing-namely, labour. The representation of this country will never be permanently placed in right hands, till every elector feels the magnitude of the dangers by which we are threatened, and his own personal interest in the efforts made to avert them. It must be to each individual an object of daily and hourly, solicitude, to gain converts to the good cause, and to strengthen the resolution of those already embarked in it. And in the pursuit of this object, none must forget the vast alteration which the Reform Act has effected in the con⚫ stituencies, and consequently in the means by which alone any party can acquire political strength. The in

vention of gunpowder did not introduce a greater change into the system of European warfare, than the infusion of Democracy into the electoral bodies has made in the weapons by which alone the battle of the constitution can henceforth be fought.

The Conservative party have hitherto been too little ambitious of popular favour. Naturally disgusted with the sycophantic arts and clap-trap devices, with which the leaders of the Movement purchase the support of the most depraved and ignorant of the populace, public men on the other side have frequently confounded the deliberate expression of the nation's sentiments with the senseless clamour of the rabble. No error can be more mischievous, or, since the extension of the elective franchise, more fatal. Whether it was expedient to vest in the large body of the middle classes that degree of political power which they now possess, it is too late to enquire. The Reform Bill is law; and none but a madman can ever dream of its repeal. To allow to the rural tenantry and ten-pound householders the exercise of the elective franchise, and then to refuse attention to their wishes, and receive with indifference every expression of their approbation or censure, would be to grant the substance of authority, and grudge the possession of its shadow. But the influence which cannot be taken from them, may be controlled and regulated either for good or evil. And to deprive the revolutionary party of all hold over the allegiance and sympathies of the great mass of the community, all that is necessary is to instruct the reason of the nation as to the true objects of Conservative policy, and enlist their affections in a cause with the support of which their best interests are identified.

For these purposes, the most powerful instrument is the press; but it is one of which the friends of the Constitution have not hitherto sufficiently availed themselves. Of the talent by which its power may be wielded in defence of the truth, there is no lack in the Conservative ranks. Neither can it be difficult to insure the extensive circulation of newspapers reflecting the opinions of the vast majority of the educated classes. Moreover, the political party to which we address ourselves, is rich above measure in the various means of support, encourage

ment, and patronage, by which alone
a periodical journal can be called into
existence, and maintained in efficiency.
It should be remembered too, that
every week which is permitted to
pass without the establishment in
any district of a local organ of con-
stitutional principles, is an inducement
held out for the dissemination within
that district of revolutionary senti-
ments. Every subscription paid to a
Radical newspaper is a premium of-
fered for the propagation of error.
Every advertisement inserted in its
columns is a tacit approval of the
noxious principles they contain. If
each county and every considerable
burgh in Scotland possessed the pow-
erful agency of an enlightened and in-
dependent press, which, without de-
scending to local squabbles and vulgar
personalities, might fearlessly expose
the unprincipled conduct of the Whig-
Radical faction and their subordinates
and dependents, an important step
would be gained towards disabusing
the public mind of the prejudices in-
stilled into it by selfish agitators for
the promotion of their own private
ends, and securing the ultimate tri-
umph of those principles of govern-
ment which are essential to the well-
being of the nation.

But

What cannot be done by the public press may often be effected by private expostulation and personal intercourse. There is no elector in whatever sphere, who in his family circle, and among the pursuits and companionships of everyday life, cannot materially serve his country by the propagation of sound and patriotic political opinions. the opportunities of gaining converts to the good cause are principally open to men of high station and cultivated minds. And in the relations subsisting between landed proprietors and their tenantry, nothing, we are persuaded, has prevented the universal adoption of the same sentiments on public matters, except those habits of exclusiveness which have frequently been referred to, as endangering the hold which the aristocracy of this country possess on the affections of the people. Nothing can be more unreasonable than the indulgence by the possessor of extensive estates in habits of sullen reserve or haughty indifference, towards those of the less wealthy proprietors or possessors of the soil, who, if his inferiors in birth, are his equals, it may be, in every quality of the man

and the citizen. In reference to the present state of political parties, nothing can be more unwise. No country can boast of a more intelligent and independent race of men, than the tenantry of Scotland, and the lesser proprietors.

If the extension of the franchise had been confined to these important and influential classes, there would have been few so enamoured of the former system of election, as to quarrel with the change. The great majority of their number are attached by a community of sentiment, and an identity of interest, to the same cause as their landlords and richer neighbours; and on the occasion of a contested election, no class of the constituency render such efficient aid. If there are exceptions to this rule, their existence is, we are persuaded, mainly to be attributed to the cause to which we have alluded. Men conscious of no inferiority in point of taste, talents, or acquirements, to the landed aristocracy of the country, find themselves denied admittance to their society, excluded from participation in their amusements, and occupying, apparently, no place in their regards and sympathies. Can we wonder if such men form harsh and erroneous conclusions as to the social qualities and political designs of the higher classes? or that, mistaking for heartless indifference what is in reality but a compliance with the cold formalities of fashion, they listen to the revolutionary projects of republican levellers, and instead of being the willing followers of their more influential neighbours in the cause of order and good government, become the leaders of the mob, and the prime instigators of the Movement? Let but the landed gentry throughout the kingdom show themselves in their true colours, divested of the cumbrous trappings in which pomp and fashion would involve their social intercourse, and almost every county in Scotland will exhibit the spectacle most hateful in the eyes of party rancour and Whig philanthropy, of a cordial union between the proprietors and possessors of the soil, and a common determination to support those principles by which both classes must prosper or fall together.

There may be some few individuals among the tenantry, to whom these anticipations do not apply; and whom no degree of cordiality on the part of their landlords could induce to view

them with other feelings then those of distrust and envy. Preferring the first place at a village debating club, to the second at a county meeting, it is of such materials as these that the revolutionary party in every age and nation has been composed. For men of this stamp there is but one remedy-the expiry of their leases. We abhor nothing more than any unjust interference on the part of a landlord with the mode in which his tenants exercise the franchise. The electoral privilege is a trust committed by law to the possessor of the soil, for the right discharge of which he is responsible to his own conscience alone. So long as he continues to occupy the property to which the right of voting is attached, the vote is his; and no man has any right to quarrel with its exercise. But when the subject reverts to its proprietor, he too has a duty to perform. In the exercise of his undoubted right, he is bound to look to the good of his country; and unless the apprehensions with which we contemplate the continued ascendency of the Movement party be unfounded, no considerations of personal advantage can weigh for a moment against the political evil of allowing revolutionary principles to gain strength. Even if influenced solely by selfish considerations, the proprietor of land in this country may well ask himself, whether it is not better to rest satisfied with a smaller rent, if he can thus secure an additional vote for the good cause. But when the possession of property is considered in its true light— as a trust reposed in certain individuals, not for their own benefit, but for their country's good, it must be evident that that man is grossly culpable, who allows the estate of which he is the proprietor to be represented in the register by men of unsound political principles, and the influence which Providence has given him for upholding the institutions of the country to be weilded by those who seek their downfall.

But there is another class of the constituency which is more numerous than either the proprietors or occupants of land; we mean those who possess the franchise in respect of the household qualification. To conciliate this class of electors similar means are requisite to those which we have recommended towards the tenantry. The agency of an honest and inde

pendent press is even more powerful among the proprietors of ten-pound houses, than among the holders of agricultural leases. The visit of the professional canvasser is equally useless in the one class as in the other. It is by personal intercourse with the middle orders, and the constant display of an affectionate interest in all their concerns, that the aristocracy can alone hope to be regarded in their true light, and to remove from their political intentions that false colouring in which they have been involved by the calumnies of selfish demagogues. It should never be forgotten too, that a Conservative ten-pounder is generally speaking a marked man among his fellows. No one who has not witnessed it can be aware of the extent of persecution, which in many districts awaits any elector of this class who has the courage to vote for the Conservative candidate. The unmeaning abuse with which such men are assailed, is the least serious consequence of their conscientious exercise of opinion. Belonging as they generally do to the class of smaller shopkeepers, the loss of custom to which they are exposed by offending their Liberal neighbours, is attended with consequences, the apprehension of which has kept back many a recruit from the ranks of the Conservative party. It is surely then, no less the interest than the duty, of the natural leaders of that party, to take care that such men do not eventually suffer from their adherence to the right cause. In Scotland especially the distribution of wealth and influence is fortunately such, that the friends of the Constitution can do much more to benefit an honest and industrious tradesman, than the revolutionary party can do to injure him. In the present state of public affairs, it is extremely doubtful whether the advantage thus possessed ought not, like every other species of influence, to be exercised with a political view. It is not that Radicals are to be punished by the withdrawal of custom-or Conservatives gained by the prospect of pecuniary benefit. But they by whose support the estates and fortunes of the aristocracy are preserved to them, are surely entitled to share in the benefits which these were intended to confer on the neighbourhood in which their possessors reside. And men attached on principle to the cause of the Church

and the Constitution, are not to be driven by persecution on one side, and the want of due encouragement on the other, to join the ranks of the Revolutionary party. The system of exclusive dealing, as it is called, has been invariably and extensively acted on by the Whigs. The principle is recognised in its fullest extent by the present Government. Every situation of trust or emolument, from the highest places in the Church, or on the Judicial Bench, down to the most paltry commissionership, is bestowed with reference principally, if not solely, to the political principles of the individual on whom it is conferred; and any deviation from this rule is denounced by the Revolutionary press, as a dereliction of principle so gross as to endanger the very existence of the Ministry. It is difficult to conjecture how that conduct can be culpable in an individual, which is not only excusable, but highly commendable, in the administrative Government. Besides, the exclusive spirit which the Whig party generally have long displayed, and by which not only their commercial dealings, but their familiar intercourse and personal friendships have been regulated with a single view to the strengthening of their political connexions, and extending the influence of their own coterie-while it debars our opponents from censuring in others the adoption of a similar principle-invests with a defensive character the undoubted right which every friend of the constitution possesses, of bestowing his patronage where he pleases, and refusing the sanction of his encouragement to men whose principles he condemns.

It cannot now be denied that one great object of the authors of the Reform Bill in fixing the amount of the county qualification in Scotland was, that the Conservative feeling, always prevalent among the agricultural clectors, should be counteracted by the democratic passions of the town and village-voters. Their despair at the utter failure of the experiment has been proportioned to the abandoned wickedness of the design. The same legislative provision, which invested with the franchise the possessors of house property of inconsiderable value, has facilitated the acquisition of the electoral privilege by men of respectable station and right principles. The practice of procuring a title to

property, with the sole view of obtaining a vote, was commenced by the adherents of the Whig party, for the purpose of swamping the Conservative interest, in the agricultural and pastoral districts of Scotland. It is a practice fully recognised by law, and its general adoption must be productive of the utter discomfiture of the party in whom it originated. If the ten-pound voters cannot be convinced -they may in almost every county, be outnumbered. We are opposed, under ordinary circumstances, to the introduction to the roll of electors of men unconnected with the county, and influenced by no motive but the violence of political partisanship. The principle of self-defence may compel the proprietors of land to have recourse to the assistance of strangers, to repel the aggressions of the democratic party, and secure for the agricultural interest an adequate share of representation.

But the numerical strength of the revolutionary faction, and their unceasing activity, are of themselves sufficient arguments for placing on the register the name of every man of right principles, who is connected with the district by any tie, whether of birth of residence of personal or family connexion. It is almost inconceivable, in how many instances persons possessed of an undoubted qualification have hitherto neglected to secure enrolment; and when to these are added the numbers, whom a very slight exertion would with the greatest ease invest with property more than sufficient to confer the franchise, it must be evident to the most superficial observer, that in many districts of Scotland the Conservative party has not yet put forth half its strength.

In the calculation of political probabilities, let no one undervalue the effect of individual exertion. The Reform Bill was carried through one of its most important stages by a single vote and that the vote of the Lord Advocate Jeffrey, whose election was not long afterwards declared null by the decision of a committee. The election of Mr Abercromby to the Speaker's chair was effected by a majority of ten. A little more exertion on the part of the Conservatives throughout the empire, on occasion of the general election, would have turned the scale the other way. Had such been the result of that division, Sir Robert Peel

would have been in office at this hour. Can it be doubted, that all that is necessary to secure his speedy return to that post, which he alone, of all the statesmen of the day, is qualified to fill, is the cordial and energetic union of good men of all classes, in the employment of the means with which Providence has intrusted them for the defence of the Constitution, and in the use of the privileges vested in them by law, and involving a heavy responsibility to their own consciences and to posterity? If any hesitation could have existed a few weeks ago as to the manner in which this question should be answered, the late Conservative demonstration at Glasgow has put an end to all doubt upon the subject. At that festival-by far the most splendid ever held in honour of any statesman-there were present hundreds of the most ardent and active supporters of the first Reform Government. The heart-stirring appeal addressed by the great Conservative leader to these men his unanswerable exposition of the obligation under which they lie to vindicate their own measure from the stigma of being inconsistent with the safety of the British constitution, has been read by thousands of similar principles throughout the empire. If we do not say that it has inspired them with the resolution of uniting in defence of the civil and religious establishments of the country, it is only because we believe that they had been long so resolved. The exhortation of Sir Robert Peel did not so much find an echo in the hearts of the thousands who heard him, as it was itself a forcible and eloquent expression of a feeling very generally prevalent, both in England and Scotland. It was this feelingcall it re-action, or by any other name you will-that placed the champion of the church and the monarchy in the seat of academic honour. It was this feeling that originated, and carried into triumphant execution, the most magnificent public testimonial that a country's gratitude ever offered to political wisdom, energy, and worththat with an enthusiasm, unbroken by one murmur of dissent, welcomed the Conservative leader to the first commercial city in the empire-and that won for him, from the hard-earned gains of humble mechanics, a civic compliment, which the paltry jealousy of their municipal rulers had refused.

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