ELECTORAL REGISTRATION.
AN elaborate article in the last number of the Law Magazine is others indisputably pernicious.
the injustice and delay attending the revision of the voters' lists is - attributable not to the Barristers, or to the Act itself; but TORY MAGISTRATES.
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
still greater ingenuity in drawing distinctions : but an agreement such as
*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. cient, and others as insufhcient; while at present there prevails the most " SIR—In a letter which appeared in your paper of the 25th January, Mr. Isnlimited licence of decision on the subject." Hume stated that a speaker at a public dinner in Staines had, in his presence, With re pest to the payment of rates and taxes, it is also laid complained of the influence of Tory Magistrates in election matters; and had down that, " should these conditions of the franchise be eventually stated, as an instance of the fact, that a Magistrate had promised a licence to an retained," the Barristers must agree among themselves what elector to influence him to vote for Mr. Wood.
shall be considered a " sufficient" payment. John, has denied the charge, and characterized it as' false and scandalous,' I 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 the Tory candidate, and that Magistrate was Sir John Gibbon. The assures us, that no law can be passed which will guarantee the substance of my speech was reported on the following day in the Windsor fulfilment of the intentions of the Legislature in this matter. He Express; and it was so often matter of discussion afterwards in the neigh- therefore suggests that the proper functions of Parliament shall bourhood, that I could not believe it possible to have been unknown to Sir be delegate I to a miscellaneous assembly of Barristers, appointed John Gibbon. I had on a previous occasion, at a public meeting at Bedfont, annually by the Judges. These gentlemen are to do that to which where Mr. Hume and Sir John Gibbon were both present, accused Sir John of using undue influence in procuring votes for the Tory candidate, which conduct the Legislature is incompetent : they are to give something like was notorious to every person in the Bedfont district. uniformity to the operation of an Act of Parliament. But where " When I bad seen Sir John Gibbon, Chairman of the Magistrates in that is the security for agreement among these gentlemen, learned or part of the county, acting at the polling-booth at Bedfont as the avowed agent unlearned (as it may happen) in the law ? of Mr. Wood, and when I recollected the promise Sir John had previously Let us put it .seriously to rational men of all parties, whether made of a licence to secure a vote for him, I took the opportunity of stating the Parliament should not interfere in such a way as to render un- fact at the dinner, to prove to the company assembled that Magistrates pros- tituted their functions for electioneering purposes, and that ballot was necessary necessary this concurrence of Barristers? Is it not of itself to protect honest and independent electors. quite enotieh to demonstrate the folly of an enactment, that it is " I yesterday informed Sir John Gibbon, that I was the person on whose impossible 10 et ake it intelligible by words; and that an arbitrary, authority Mr. Hume made the charge ; and I have also given Sir John Gibbon and it may be varying construction, must be put upon its phraseo- the name of the person to whom the promise was made ; and this charge I am prepared
logy in order to render it " workable." and prevent its being the
occasion and the sanction of gross injustice? " The to substantiate.
That the Rate-paying clauses of the Reform Act have operated was not present at the time, nor did I say that the licence had been granted. so as to reduce the constituency of England far below its ex- " Stillwell, Monday, 1st February." peeled numbers, is an excellent reason for their repeal ; but when In addition to this, Mr. C. F. BARKLEY, " HENRY CARVENTER." the Liberal candidate we find it admitted, even by Tory writers, that legislative inge- for York at the last election, states, in a letter to the Chronicle, nuity is unequal to the task of rendering those clauses at once that he was Chairman at the dinner .at Staines; that be heard Just and uniform in their action and intelligible in their meaning,— Mr. CARPENTER make this charge against Sir JOHN GIBBON, when we see it recommended, as the only means of obviating the in intelligible terms ; that several Tories were present, and heard difficulty in which administrators of the law are involved, that it ; and that the report was subsequently rife in the neighbour- there should be a species of annual Parliament of lawyers to hood. Mr. BARKLEY adds, that he has only come forward be- determine how t tese clauses shall be interpreted,—we cannot ima- cause lie has been appealed to; as lie thinks (and so will all gine the existents of any honest hesitation on the subject—any honest men think) that is is " a very serious matter."
doubt of its being the absolute duty of our Representatives and the The case, as it stands, looks very black as regards Sir JOHN
Government at once to amend the Charter of 1S32 by striking out GIBBON; and although Sir JOHN may deny the charge himself, the Rate-paying enactments. as his son has denied it for him, still, under all,the circumstances, . The Registration Bill of last session is mentioned rather tco we may be justified in believing his accuser. But we are not, as TOPICS OF THE' DAY. favourably by the author of the paper in the Law Magazine. We
trust that a much more satisfactory measure will be passed this session. From what we know of the provisions of that bill, we should say that some of them were of very doubtful expediency,
devoted to the subject of the Registration under the Reform Act. Before concluding, we must beg those Members of the House The writer displays considerable esprit du corps, and strives to of Commons who mean to take part in any measures for irnprov- make out a good case for the Revising Barristers ; though he is ing the Reform Act, to refer to the letters of Mr. W. DURRANT obliged to confess that he has occasionally seen " able and acute COOPER, at pages 1105 and 1125 of the last volume of this journal : men, with all the advantage of experience and tactics, arguing they contain valuable suggestions on almost every point connected with sly submissiveness before some youthful judge, who was with the working of the Act. The subject is one of the utmost endeavouring to conceal his embarrassment by sternly fixing his importance ; and the Reforming constituencies will not easily eye on the pages of a Rogers.' Still, lie maintains, that most of forgive neglect of it.
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