21 NOVEMBER 1835, Page 9

CUPAR BURGH ELECTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Cupar Fife, 9th November 1833. SIR—As drowning men catch at straws, so do the Tories, in their dearth of hope, point to the late election of Councillors in Cupar as a proof of the tide of opinion having turned in their favour. Their vauntings, and the affair front which they take their rise, can, however, only mislead those at a distance, who are ignorant of the peculiarities which mark the situation of this burgh, and which I will now briefly notice. The Liberal electors in the burgh exceed the Tories by nearly a half; and—as ANDREW JOIINSTONE is well able to certify— the former count in their numbers about three-fourths of Radicals as resolute and unbending as any that broad Scotland can furnish. Let a vacancy again occur in the Burghs, and the Cupar Liberal voters will all be found true to their principles, and tendering their suffrages to Colonel TORRENS, or some other individual equally qualified to represent their opinions,—in despite of the threats and promises of the County Tory Aristocracy ; whose sinister influence is both great and ever-operative. To resist this influence, and to endure the con,equent sacrifices when the struggle is for a Representative in Parliament, is what the Liberals here will not shrink from. But it is not to be wondered at if the same persons should in numbers keep back, as they lately did, from the annual!! recurring Burgh elections, with the view of sheltering themselves and their families front that oppression which open voting exposes them to,—the more especially when it is kept in view, that the Cupar Tories had, under the old close system, so dilapidated and pillaged the once ample patrimony, of the burgh, as to leave no property remaining except the Town-hall and a bit of common, and no patronage except the appointment of the Town officers. When there is so little for the Council to administer, is it surprising that many of the Liberal voters engaged in business should have refused to vote, in order to avoid the mischiefs which will ever ensue until the Bator throw its protecting shield over electoral bodies, and save their consciences and private concerns from the assaults of as selfish, unfeeling, and shameless an Aristocracy as the genius of misgovernment ever let louse to scourge and provoke a people. AN OBSERVER.