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NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Revising Barristers are again at work in town and country, and the disfranchising powers of the Reform Act are in full ope- ration. The practice of making vexatious objections prevails on both sides : which sins the most, it would be hazardous to affirm. The Tories probably will reap the chief advantage; for it is
allowed that they are better organized, and have ampler means of carrying on the contest in the Registration Courts. Besides, the same circumstances which inspirited them during the elections still exist. They have a majority almost within their reach : if they can secure an ascendancy in fifteen or twenty additional bo- roughs, thereby renderivg a dissolution and a new election a safe speculation, it is manifest that in the ensuing session they would held out inducements to join them, too powerful, we suspect, for several Members to resist. The motive for Tory exertion is there-
fore manifestly strong. On the other hand, seeing the stake at issue, the Liberals, it will be said, have at least equal cause for exertion. But the reasons which produced apathy among the Liberals while the election struggle was in progress, depress them now, and must tend to diminish their attention to the registra- tion. It is needless to recapitulate the (*rounds of the dis- satisfaction which prevails among sincere Reformers: the facts are indisputable, that there is dissatisfaction sufficient to produce "apathy," and to a certain extent "disunion ;" that strenu- ous mid united exertion is necessary to oppose the Tories suc- cessfully; and that the party in office studiously avoids the only course by which that cordial cooperation can be secured. Even now, at the eleventh hour, an assurance from Lord MELBOURNE that the do-nothing, truckling policy should be abandoned, and the Government be conducted on genuine Reform prin- ciples, would change the face of affairs. Were the Premier to say—" This system of registration is a plague and a curse to the land; but make the best of it once more, and I pledge myself to simplify and extend the franchise; the intimidation prac- tised at elections has been horrible, and I promise you the protection of the secret vote,"—even now, were Lord MELBOURNE to put forth some such declarations as these, all the organi- zation, all the industry and money of the Tories, would be corn- Paratively of little effect against the spirit that would be raised in the Reform ranks. But when the Ballot is the object of Minis- terial sneers, and the Suffrage-extension is treated as a project Et only for a musty pigeon-hole in a statesman's cabinet,—while care is taken to avoid even the pledge to effect specific administrative improvements, and we are told by Ministerial organs that no reform can be expected which the Church and Tory party will not sanction,—how can it be expected that men who support a Go- vernment simply for the good it effects or promises, will exert themselves to support the present Administration ? Without ,:, pretending to any exclusive information respecting particular places, but from general observation of the actual circumstances of the Liberal and Tory party respectively, we do not hesitate to express our firm belief, that the Tories will gain materially by the registration now in progress. It ought not to be so, and deeply
. do we regret that such should be the ease: but who is to blame, except those who have damped the Reform energies of the country, and protected and patronized a system which, to a very large proportion of the electors, makes the right to the franchise a nuisance and a plague without a particle of profit? _ Our readers will find few details of the proceedings in the
Barristers Courts in the Spectator this week. The truth is, that If they are beneath attention, except as illustrating the vexatious j operation of the system.
