The curious machinery employed at Edinburgh for the manufacture
of Whig Members of Parliament, is exposed in a letter of great spirit and point, addressed by Mr. William Tait to the Edinburgh Observer, headed " The Aggregate Election Committee in the Liberal Interest." Mr, '['sit's expose may be perused with edification beyond the range of the Scottish capital, or of Scotland- ., 78. Drinees Street, 30th December 1839. " Sir—The Committee which, under the above long name, has for the last seven years kindly saved the Liberal electors of the city the trouble of looking out for, and 'putting in nomination '—that is, in reality, electing a person to represent them in Parliament—has Ibund itself in such bad odour, that it has resolved on self-extinction as SODA as it shall have provided itself with a fitting successor. The old and unsavoury ' Aggregate ' (allow me to call it so, for short) is to be replaced by a fresh and newly-constructed ...tyros:yaks The history of the old Aggregate is involved in mystery. It is even strongly sus- pected of sell-election. In its working it had, or was pretty geocrally believed to have, a curious power of contraction and dilatation,—there beim, called to its meetings persons who bad no right to be there, and others wrio did be- long to it reeeivim no invitation to attend. Be this as it may, nothing emi Iii exceed the admirable working of the Aggregate, except the holly (alm elected) to to one of whose functions it succeeded—viz. the Ohl Closo 'oryoration of the city. There is no denying. that, of the perfection of the old 33,' the Ayfired«ac, notwithstanding its gift of contrati 11111,1 tlilit at ion, in some de- gree fell short ; but the difference was small, consisting more in Ivoruis than in reality. Thus, the old 33 ' nominated ' the Alember for Edinhurgh ; the Aggregate only 'puts in nomination."Phe 33 saved the citizens all trouble ; the Aggregate relieves them of all trouble, of selection, and imp.ess only the slight duty of reetwahor their votes for the person selected and pot in nomi- nation ' by the Aggregate itself. The person p IL, .11 110111111:10011 ii mi mm! to Edinburgh in the name of time Ag,gregate Election Commit tee in the Eilhural Interest, which virtually represented the whole of the thirty-t..vo cram d Election Committees, which again virtually represented the Liberal electors of each ward. The individual so invited was assured of his election, and all other esti.- didates were effectually warned off the field The flow: of elect, mm ww: nvc say, but it was no better than a solenm farce. The Aggregat, haul done time trick.
" Far am I from underrating the only essmtlat differ,l,e,, between time y-three and the Aggr■gate—vie. that the former took its cite from the Dundas lmumiiily, and the latter from Sir James Gibson Craig; and equally far am I from being so unreasonable as to contend that a Whig constituen0 should be represented by any hut W 31emhers of Parliament. What I do contend for is, that the Whig, or call it Liberal, constituency of Edinburgh, should, in public meeting assembled, select and pot in lumilinition :t fitting re- presentative; and that there either should. lsu no A '!gregate Election Com- mittee at all, or that its functions should be expre,,dy 'liunited to at to the registrations tool to canvassing. Even for these purposes, the use of it standing committee is very questionable, If any man thinks he sees clearly the good purposes to which the Aggregate can be put, he would oblige many electors by stating them. The bad uses which can be made of the Aggregate are clear enough. The Ward Committees are Whiggish, and pretty (mushier- ably subservient to the Whig clique. Thr Aeurivo tc, which consist s of all the Ward Committees, has not been distinguisheil for independence. But the Ay- gregate's Working Committee—viz. the Conveners of the Ward Committees— may. be supposed the very concentration and quintessence of WIliggery ; (not of 'Mugger), as the expression of moderation, or irresolution, or thc juste or feebleness, in matters political—far from it—but of Whig:fery ag significa- tive of being the instrument of a party each member of this committee of qffire-hcanrs being passive in relation to the great chief of the Edinburgh Whig clique, and active in relation to the privates of the Aggregate and of his own Ward or Local Committee.
" The purpose of all this, Mr. Editor, is to call attention to the constitution of the new Aggregate. In obedience to the desire of the old Aggregate, the Wards are now in time course of meeting. Of two Wards which held meetings to-day, one mustered eight strong, excliasive of time Convener • the other, as I MS told, six. The Conveners took the clothes with all due solemnity ; and, in proper form, the eight in the one case, and six in the other, proceeded to elect Committees of twenty-one to represeat the respective WOILIS. ThiS is even on improvement on the out system of' self-election ; for the twenty-one com- mitteemen have not elected themselves—they were elected by six or eight of themselves. Eight men elected themselves, and other thirteen. I was at the meeting of the eight; and moved an adjourment, in time loupe of a more nu- merous meeting ; one elector seconded me, and another voted with us ; the others voted for proceeding with the election of a Committee ; so, in this ease also, only five or six electors may be said to have chosen the twenty-one. " Will it be denied that, if the Liberal electors do not feel sullicient interest in the creation of a new Ag.gregate, or of a new Ward Committee, to taSs 1;w trouble of attending a meeting, there should be AO Standing Committee at all ? " My name hod been on time former Ward Committee. it less omitted in the list proposed by the Convener, Sir John Dalyell. Pos,ibly independence was not deemed the quality essential in an Election Committeeman. I was urged by the meeting to allow myself to be put on the Committee ; but de• dined to he one of the twenty-one elected by the eight. " Since the eight, or rather the five, woutr/ elect a Connnittee of twenty-sone, I proposed that the said twenty-one should be directed by us eight, their con- stituents, to support any resolution that might be proposed at a meeting of the Aggreg,ate; declaring that the functions of the Aggregate and its tributary Committee:: were tube limited to canvassing, and not to include nomination or selection of candidates. But one of the eight (Mr. John Robertson, spirit- dealer) opposed my motion on the singular ground, that a Standing Committee knows better what sort of candidate is wanted by the electors than the electors themselves! The Tory doctrine, that a few of the people know better what is good for the people than the people do themselves, Is familiar enough ; so is the Whig doctrine, to the same effect, only cuss she Tory few is too few, and the Whigfew the right number. But tat a few of the electors can know better what the electors wish to have than do the electors themselves in pub- lic meeting assembled, outstrips both Whiggism anti Toryism in boldness of conception. Another of the eight lent the weight of his authority to this new, doctrine. Another of the eight (Mr. Bridges, W. S.) maintained, that we, the said eight electors, had no right to tie up the hands of our twenty-one Com- mitteemen. This also seems to me rather strange. Surely it' we eight could make Committeemen, we could limit or explain their functions. But this was only Mr. Robertson's doctrine in another form.
" Such is a specimen, Mr. Editor, of time materials of which the new Aggre- gate is ut the course of being formed. Am I not right in saying that the con- struction and the workings of this new Aggregate should be narrowly watched ? I confess, though I may be called Tory-Radical for my pains, that I prefer the out close system to time new crooked system. The close system might easily be made to do for Whigs what it formerly did for Tories. And, it' the result be the same as that produt•ed by the Aggregate, there is a saving: of some trouble,. and of a good deal of humbug-. Public virtue would also gam. The corruption of the old system was confined to a smaller and better defined body than the Aggregate. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, W. TAIT."
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