TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE MARYLEBONE ELECTION.
THE result of the Marylebone election is an indication of the state Of public feeling in the Metropolis, which deserves attention from men of all parties. The Ministerialists and Conservatives, more especially, may derive a useful lesson from it. It may let them into the secret of their actual standing in public opinion. Judging from the palpable miscalculation which they have lately made, some new light upon this point must be very necessary to them.
The Ministerialists, no doubt, anticipated the support of the same confiding majority at this election which Sir WILLIAM HORNE and Mr. PORTMAN received at the last. They recollected that the then Radical Sir S. Wu ALLEY was defeated by a majority of upwards of eleven hundred votes ; and that the Conservatives apparently acknowledged their party to be prostrated, by abstaining from even a show of opposition to the triumphant Reformers. The December election, too, was carried without any ostensible interfe- rence on the part of the Government ; although Sir W. HORNE owed his success to the fact of his being considered the protégé of the Ministry. But during the late struggle, there was no shyness whatever in supporting Mr. MURRAY on the part of the Treasury. That there was any directly illegal interference with the freedom of voting, we are not prepared to say. But Mr. MURRAY had little personally to recommend him, except an unblemished private character, and good intentions. Now, it is not enough that a man means well to his country and constituents. Experience in busi- ness, some proficiency in the science of legislation, and perfect in- dependence, ought to be among the qualifications possessed by any one who aspires to represent the populous, wealthy, and intelligent electors of Marylebone. With regard to the two first-mentioned requisites, there is no evidence on record that Mr. MURRAY pos- sesses them ; and with regard to the last most important one, how stands the case? what claim had he to be considered in- dependent?
He was the declared Government candidate ; he was strenu- ously recommended, and unsparingly puffed by the Government press; for him Sir W. HORNE, the Attorney-General, spouted at electioneering meetings, with official zeal; he marched to the hust- ings at the head of a phalanx of the Whig Aristocracy,—Lords CAVENDISH, MILTON, RUSSELL, EBRINGTON, and MORPETH, Messrs. BROUGHAM, PONSONBY, PELHAM, and others,—all thick- and-thin Ministerialists, some of them even brothers and sons of Cabinet Ministers. We cannot recollect an instance of a more undisguised demonstration of Treasury influence and inclination, even under the most overbearing and corrupt of our Tory Ad- ministrations : and if any very important public interest or prin- ciple bad been the stake played for at the last election, we should have been tempted to characterize it in terms of reprobation, which, owing to the comparative unimportance of the struggle at the pre- sent time, it does not appear to call for.
What was the result of all this mighty display ? what was ef- fected, after all, by this Treasury straining ? Why, Mr. MURRAY was beaten hollow in the course of three hours. At twelve o'clock on Monday, he was more than three hundred votes behind Mr. HOPE the Tory, and nearly as much behind Sir S. WHALLEY the Radical,—who had been requested, forsooth, to retire, lest his small body of supporters should create a diversion from the popu- lar party in favour of Mr. HOPE! It soon became evident, how- ever, that the Popular party went with Sir S. WHALLEY,—We pre- sume for want of some one more suitable—Sir H. PARNELL, for example—to support. It was Mr. MURRAY, then, who created the diversion, and who placed the return of a Liberal in jeopardy. In short, the electors of Marylebone, having the choice of three can- didates, none of them being unexceptionable, chose the most Libe- ral politician of the three. On this account, they preferred a man without fortune, undistinguished by talent, but who had boasted of being descended from WHALLEY the Regicide, to a gentleman of high birth and connexions, an accomplished and cherished mem- ber of the British .Aristocracy. Mr. MURPHY, of course, we put out of the question—nobody could have dreamed of his election.
It appears, then, that the circumstance of being a Ministerialist is no longer a passport in the Metropolis to a seat in the House of Commons. In this respect, things are wonderfully altered since December last. It would have been difficult to point out the claims of Sir Winnism HORNE to the representation of Mary- lebone at the last election, excepting that of being Attorney-Ge- .neral. That connexion with the Ministry, however, enabled him to poll 2,500 votes more than Mr. MURRAY mustered, with the .same influence more strenuously exerted in his behalf. There .can, we think, be only one conclusion drawn from this result,— namely, that the general conduct of Ministers, since the opening of the session, has been displeasing to the middle classes ; for it should be recollected, that the constituency of Marylebone is mainly composed of persons of respectability and some property— not of such venal paupers as return the members for Liverpool,
Norwich, and Hertford. There are, besides, Many persons, who, though disappointed, and obliged to withdraw their implicit confi- dence from Earl GREY'S Ministry, still were averse to making any direct opposition to their candidate, and declined voting at all. This is proved by the fact, that though the Conservatives used
extreme exertions at this election, while they had kept aloof from -the previous one, and though the Government influence was pushed as far as it would go, the number of votes actually polled was nearly two thousand less than at the last contest. The re- turning-officer did not complain of the apathy of the voters without cause. These last, however, had good reasons for their in- difference. The great majority of the electors of Marylebone are as ardent friends to the cause of Reform as ever they were; but they no longer believe that to return a Ministerialist is the surest way to advance it.
One word to Mr. Hops and his friends. They have met with the return which their efforts to unhinge the political honesty of the Marylebone electors justly merited. They relied for success, no doubt, upon the growing unpopularity of the Government, as evidenced by Mr. LYALL'S return for the City, and other indica- tions. But were the present Cabinet ten times more unpopular than they suppose it to be, still we are happy in being able to as- sure these gentlemen, that their chance of recovering their lost ascendancy is as distantas ever. They will do wisely, therefore, in future, to spare their gold and their threats, as altogether unavail- ing. They have abused the natural influence of property and sta- tion to the full extent, but to no better purpose than to display their essential insignificance. All good men despise the worn-out artifices of a desperate faction, and regard their system of intimi- dation and corruption with thorough disgust. If they cannot, therefore, convert the power arising from wealth and connexion to some honourable purpose, at least it is the part of worldly wisdom to employ it in the commission of some profitable wrong. Their late base attempt to bribe the Metropolitan electors, indicates as great a deficiency of worldly tact as of honest purpose.
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