" simply to the negligence of those who had undertaken
the of Ix was lately mentioned in the Spectator that the Duke of PORT-
Of superintending the registration." LAND was doing all the injury in his power to the Liberal cause Undoubtedly, many individuals were disfranchised through in the Metropolitan County, of which he is Lord-Lieutenant, by
for, although forms were supplied in the Act, Sir CHARLES It is idle almost to silliness to deny that these gentlemen, in WETHERELL, like a true mischief-maker, procured the addition of the exercise of their powers, are influenced by their political pre- the words " or to the like effect,"—in eject authorizing every body directions. Sir PETER LAURIE has, indeed, published a letter in to use what form he chose. These are two only out of " a hundred the newspapers, vouching for the impartiality of himself and his other discretionary points," which it is confessed that the Act brethren on the bench. But there are notorious facts which con- contains. Yet it is not to the defects of a statute which contains tradict Sir PETER ; who himself was remarkable for his zeal as a " a hundred discretionary points" that we are to attribute the canvasser in favour of Mr. Wool) and against Mr. HUME at the
extensive dissatisfaction with its mode of working ! last election,—he carried partisanship and impertinence far enough,
In the two instances we have cited, a remedy might easily be when, though entitled to no vote, he harangued the electors in found: forms for the appointment of agents and for notices of behalf of his Tory friend. Sir PETER LAURIE is not a Solomon objection might be supplied, and their use might be absolutely —quite the contrary ; but even he must know that the electors do enjoined : but it is not so easy to remove the difficulties arising not and cannot separate the Magistrate from the individual from the Rate-paying clauses of the Act, when those clauses are PETER ; and that in point of fact, he brought his Magisterial subject to the "equitable" interpretation of a hundred and fifty or influence into play against Mr. H ume. It was as a Magistrate he was sixty distinet and independent tribunals. The writer in the Law serviceable : his personal weight Mr. HUME might well disregard. Magazine asserts that, " in the borough franchise, it must be left But there is an instance of more direct exercise of Magisterial to the Barristers to determine what, if any, is a sufficient con- influence in the Middlesex election than that of Sir PETER structive rating." Why ? what is the all-imperative necessity LAURIE. Mr. HUME last week charged Sir JOHN GIBBON, on which is to place in the hands of judges, sonic 'Athens "youthful" the authority of a Middlesex freeholder, with having promised a and liable to "embarrassment" from ignorance, the power of licence to an elector, to induce him to vote for Mr. Woon. At a decreeing whether Englishmen shall or shall not have the most meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates, on the 28th of January, -valuable of political privileges? Hear the reasons— Mr. GIBBON, son of Sir JOHN, indignantly declared the accuse- " The most ingenious attempts at precision in defining it (sufficient con- tion to be false and scandalous : but there is nevertheless most struetive rating) on the part (0‘. the Legislature, would evidently be met by
respectable evidence to prove its truth. Mr. CARPENTER of Stan-
*bat we have proposed might materially diminish the number of these questions well, the gentleman to whom Mr. HUME referred, has sent the by narrowing their range, pointing out some common forms of rating as suffi- following letter to the Morning Chronicle, in relation to this affair.
" 1 am the speaker a:luded to and although Mr. Gibbon, the son of Sir Now we request attention to these admissions of a sagacious and now state that I made the charge publicly at that dinner, and am prepared to clever person, with certainly no Radical tendencies. He evidently prove it. In giving the toast ' Vote by Ballot,' I complained strongly of anticipates the abolition, at no very distant period, of the Rate- the influence of the Tory Magistrates ; and I stated that I knew a man who paying clauses of the Reform Act ; but in the mean while he had been promised a licence by a Magistrate in consideration of his voting for
Prep
There is, therefore, no mistake on the part of Mr. Fiume in stating the charge made by me, that a licence had been promised : but Sir John Gibbon yet, prepared to go so far as this : however, we do say that inquiry into the facts is necessary, and that ignominious dis- missal from the Magistracy should follow proof of the charge. And it would be as well if the investigation were not limited to the conduct of Sir JOHN GIBBON : there are others perhaps as blameable as he, though their misconduct has not been publicly exposed. Strict watchfulness over the proceedings of the Middle- sex Magistrates we may surely require from LordJimisr RUSSELL. If he cannot, or will not, give us a fair proportion of Liberal Magistrates, at least lie can place a check upon the partisan pro- pensities of the Tory Justices.
We are glad to have it in our power to mention a discreet re- fusal of Lord JOHN RUSSELL to increase the number of Deputy- Lieutenants in Aberdeenshire at the request of the Duke of GORDON. We were prevented last week by want of room from inserting Lord JOHN'S letter to the Duke; but he very properly stated, that, on reference to a Parliamentary return, he found in almost every part of the country a sufficient number of Deputy- Lieutenants already. It is well known that the granting of this distinction has been one of the means of flattering vain men into Toryism. A Deputy-Lieutenant ranks as a gentleman! he is entitled to be presented at Court, and to strut in a uniform. This is an immense temptation to newly rich simpletons, and " pluck- less " boobies of plebeian birth. if it were merely a gratification of his silly vanity, we should not care if every squire in the country were a Deputy-Lieutenant; but the possession of the rank gives the power of being mischievous occasionally, and it is too frequently conferred as the reward of political dishonesty. With Lord JOHN RUSSELL, therefore, we say, there is already a sufficiency of Deputy-Lieutenants.
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