TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE DEFEAT IN WESTMINSTER.
Lew week, when we did not believe it possible that the West- rainster constituency could prefer Sir FRANCIS BURDETT to Mr. LEADER—when we had the firmest conviction that the election of the Reform candidate was certain—we stated the great issues de. pending on the result of the contest. In the punishment of BURDETT, we expected and welcomed a much-needed warning to pseudo Representatives of the People ; we saw the two anta- gonist systems of government struggling for mastery; and we deemed that a defeat of the Whigs and Radicals united in West- minster, would, more than any other single event, embolden the Tories once more to seize office. Well—the Whigs and Radicals are beaten, and Sir FRANCIS BURDETT is once more Mem- ber for Westminster: it is a great calamity, and we will not shrink from looking it in the face.
Encouragement to neglect of duty—a sanction to most shame- less apostaey and treachery—a reward, instead of a warning, to the profligate Member of Parliament—bas been given by the Westminster electors. Our advances towards better govern- ment—God knows, timid and slow enough—have been discoun- tenanced, so far as this election goes. It remains to be seen what use the Tories will make of their victory ; but they are embold- ened by it—they consider it a great party triumph, and a move- naent towards the portals of power. In whatever aspect we look upon this election, it is impossible to make any thing out of it but a Tory victory. The battle was fought by Tories on Tory principles. Neither BURDETT nor his supporters professed any other. Nobody regarded the prattle of the absurd old man that be was "unchanged." His speeches were those of an Ultra Tory. He did not say that he bated, but he sneered at, the "very name of Reform." "To those who still cried 'reform, reform,' he would say, have you not had reform ?" "He did not believe that any reform of the Church, even in Ire- land, would effect the slightest possible good." "The abuses of the Church did no harm. "He had always been a Tory." He was against "all the new propositions that had been recently broached." He was most anxious to disavow, as a calumny, the imputation that he had once been in favour of a Reform of the Lords. He eulogized PEEL and attacked MELBOURNE. He placed the contest on this issue—were the electors of Westminster in favour of further changes in the constitution ?—declaring himself opposed to all change. Nothing, in short, could possibly be more explicit than the declaration of High Tory principles by Sir FRANCIS BURDETT. He went further than WELLINGTON, PEEL, or STANLEY ever went; for all these have admitted the necessity of some reform of the Church in Ireland. BURDETT belongs to the same class as Sir ROBERT INGLIS, Sir RICHARD VI/VYAN, and Lord RODEN. All his active supporters were Tories : Colonel PERCEVAL, Lord CASTLEREAGH, GEORGE DAWSON, WALTER, DISRAELI, and fifty other Tories, worked for him night and day : be had not one zealous or declared ally among Whigs or Radicals. Yet, professing these principles, and supported by these men, he has been elected by a large majority over an earnest Reformer whom the Whigs joined with the Radicals to support. What makes the Tory triumph more complete, and more galling, is the fact that BURDETT is unable, were he willing, to discharge the duties of a Member of Parliament. He is worn-out, shattered in mind and body—a mere wreck of a man. Lord CAMELFORD did net offer such an insult to his rotten borough voters, when he threatened to make them elect his black servant, as the Tories have cast upon the constituency of the first city in the empire, by forcing them to take back Bueeserr, and keep hint as a stop- gap for Sir GEORGE MURRAY, who already looks upon 'Westminster as his own. The actual position of Westminster is that of a borough ridden over by rough-shod Tories. Never was there a more complete triumph on one side, or a more thorough discomfi- ture on the other.
The causes to which this deep disgrace has been attributed, are more various than satisfactory. Doubtless there was extensive intimidation of voters by Tory lords and ladies, and probably a good deal of bribery and treating. In fact, though the opposite doctrine has been generally received as sound, it would appear that this species of undue influence can be practised with greater effect and security in such a place as Westminster, than in Liver- pool, Leeds, Birmingham, or even smaller towns. Though separate for certain purposes, Westminster is only a part of this immense metropolis amid its suburbs. Men have little ssnipathy with each other in London, and rely not upon mutual support. Their wrongs are not those of a community, which can be stimulated to resent them. Then, at this season of the year the aristocracy of Eng- land is congregated in Westminster. During the late election one shopkeeper had sixty Tory applications to vote for BURDETT. The protected veto is wanted more in Westminster than in any other town in England; as, under the circumstances we have enume- rated, intimidation is safe and effectual in most cases where it can be used. This is one of the assie,ned causes of Mr. LEADER'S de- feat : another is—itself a crime—gross and palpable mismanage- ment on the part of those who undertook the arrangements. It is doubted whether at this moment the first step of necessary know- ledge—what is the number of registered electors in Westminster? —has been mastered by the beseinforined member of the Liberal Committee. We know that the last week closed before a single movement towards systematic cm ganization had becti attempted; and we have heard that canvassers were proceeding upon the registry of 1834, instead of 1836. On the other hand, the Tories went to work with Sir GEORGE MURRAY'S well-organized Corn. mittee, and paid agents who knew how to canvass every street and almost every voter. The Whigs, it appears from a statement in another page, were not by any means as zealous as the Tories, taking them as a body. They nominally supported Mr. LEADER, and numbers of them voted for him. But the ToPunctilious;rieslabouredtfhoer BURDETT in every possible way, fair and unfair, as if their salva-
tion depended on his success. The Whigs are Tories stick at nothing.
After all these drawbacks, it were vain to conceal that the greatest of all remains uncounted—the apathy of the electors: nearly half the constituency are unpolled. It is one of the miser- able results of the long misrepresentation or non-representation of Westminster, that multitudes have forgotten, almost, that the elective franchise confers rights and imposes duties upon them. BURDETT and EVANS had alike conspired to sink Westminster to "the condition of a decayed borough." To men who had got accustomed to think it a particular favour, a rare act of conde. scension, when either of them did any thing in the shape of duty, BURDETT'S gradual backsliding did not appear so enormous : and we are informed that many—ignorant, doting fools—voted for him without compunction because they had voted for him often before; not a few from the "true English " admiration of mere animal intrepidity—" pluck "—and the Baronet's strong self-will ; many more because they had become apathetic and careless, and did not think it worth while to offend a customer for the sake of returning a Liberal Member to the House of Commons. Enter. taming much contempt for such abusers of the elective franchise, we find palliatibn for their conduct in the whole tendency of public affairs since the Reform Act was carried : for has it not been to lower the tone of public feeling, to disgust the people with the representative system, and to render them indifferent to the as- cendancy of this or that party, since the majority, whoever is Mi- nister, unite to deny that which they most desire and need ? The very night before the day of battle, a majority of the House of Commons, led on by a RUSSELL, decreed that the elector who had not cash in his pocket on a certain day in the year, was unworthy to exercise his franchise. The same majority preserves the Corn-laws; and refuses the Ballot, — conferring a privilege which it may be ruinous to its possessor to exercise, and spurning his solicitations for protection. How is it possible to create enthusiasm among the people under such circumstances ? And how are we to beat the Tories—how have we ever succeeded against their activity, wealth, and unscrupulous vigour, but by rousing the masses ?
In the midst of much that is deplorable, we have some consola- tory glimpses of future benefit to arise from this disaster. But we shall not name them at present ; or indulge in any satisfaction save this—that the Reformers of Westminster are no longer dis- graced even by a nominal connexion with BURDETT; that more than three thousand of the Mite of the Westminster Liberals have rejected him with merited scorn and loathing ; and that, such as he is, the Tories, thank God, have got hint now and for ever.
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