To the week's election-addresses by Government candidates this day adds
those of Mr. Herries and Mr. Christopher. They are as guarded and vague as those which have preceded them this week.
Mr. Cobden's address to the West Riding is published this morning. It is a document of a single feature—the F'ree-trade question and its in- cidents.
" In an assembly professing fairly to represent the country, I find myself associated with a hundred Members, the aggregate of whose constituencies do not equal in number, and still less in intelligence and wealth, the constituency which I have the honour to represent; and yet every one of them counts for as much as your Member in a division-hat. Under such a system, majorities depend, in ordinary and tranquil seasons, more upon the skill of Parliamentary tacticians, the interests of powerful indi- viduals, and the corrupting influences of wealth and patronage, than upon the force of public opinion. Such a representative system, instead of assist- ing the judgment of a Minister anxious to ascertain and meet the wants and wishes of his countrymen, is calculated to embarrass and mislead him; and if a patriot statesman, disregarding a Parliamentary majority, resolve on some great occasion to consult the welfare of the people, in opposition to the behests of the interested and powerful few, he is either thwarted in hie ef- forts, or punished if successful by banishment from official life, while the people, who are raising. monuments to his fame, are powerless to prevent his opponents from occupying the seat of power from which they have expelled him. Such a state of things is neither satisfactory nor secure. Our repre- sentation is not what it professes to be ; it will not bear investigation; it does not work well. If it did, there would be no necessity for a dissolu- tion to decide the fate of a Protectionist Administration. The true test of the worthiness of a people to enjoy free institutions is their capacity, by timely and wise amendments, to adapt them to the changing and advancing circumstances of the age. I trust that the people of England will for their next task undertake that reform in our electoral system which is called for by the state of public affairs, and which is necessaryto bring into harmony the theory and practice of our free constitution.'
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