WHAT THE LORD ADVOCATE SAID.
IT would amuse an idle collector of curiosities to string together the thousand and one inventions that the Anti-Reformers have en- deavoured to palm on the public during the last six Weeks. How sturdily was it maintained that Ministers meant to change the qualification, if not in England, certainly in Scotland! The Lord Advocate had declared it ; General BAIRD had repeated it ; Sir JOHN DALRYMPLE denied it ; Sir GEORGE CLERK ifed it. It must be true, so much was said about it. What says FRANCIS JEFFREY himself to his own declaration ?
" In the first place, I never said, or insinuated, that 1 believed nothing was fixed or determined as to the rate of qualification to be inttoducedin the new Bill ; and that it might as well be 1001., or 501., or 251., as any lower sum. What I said, in reference to these sums, was exactly the reverse of this supposed intimation. "In the second place, and what is far more material, I said nothing at all upon the subject of the qualification, as on the authority of the Go- vernment, or in the character of a person acquainted with their designs. 'On the contrary, I took pains to explain that I had no other grounds of knowledge or belief than were open tu every one who heard me—that, if I had be Intrusted with the counsels of the Cabinet, I certainly should not feel myseif at liberty to reveal them, but that I was in no danger of betraying what had never been confided to me."
This is What the Lord Advocate states, in a letter to the Cale- donian Mercury, dated 14th May. His Lordship adds- " What I said on the subject of the qualification was nearly as follows. I mentioned that I had received many complaints as to the rate of quali- fication in the former Bill, especially as to house property in counties, and many suggestions as to its being raised or varied in different situa- tions; all which I had reported, as in duty bound, to the Government. I then said that these, and every other respectful suggestion, should of course be fully considered by the Ministers ; and while I had not the slightest reason to believe or suspect that there would be any change in the qualifications formerly announced, I felt confident that it would be con- sidered as one of the principles of the Bill to keep to what would be looked upon in this country as a very low qualification ; by which I meant something far below 1001. or 501., or the half of 50/. " These, I think, were nearly the words I used; and I am perfectly satisfied that such was the meaning I intended to convey. I stated nothing whatever as to my knowledge (or conjecture even) of the inten- tions of the Ministry ; and meant merely to intimate, that while I had not the slightest ground to suppose that they would make any change in the qualifications specified in the former Bill, it War my own confident be ifand persuasion, as an individual, that they would consider the lowness of lw qualification as a fundamental principle of the measure."
Lord ALTHORP, who does know what the Lord Advocate can officially but guess at, has also declared that no change will be made. Will the Antis give it up ?
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