PRACTICE OF PLUCKING MEMBERS OF
PARLIAM ENT. THE bad habit of requiring from Members of Parliament sub- scriptions to local charities and amusements, prevails throughout the country—in most of the new as well as the old constituencies. The amount of this tax is in some places so heavy as of itself to deter men of moderate property, highly qualified and personally popular, from accepting the post of' Representative. The justice of the claim once admitted, nobody can tell how much he will Leave to pay. Not merely are annual subscriptions regularly de- manded for charities, races, and the theatre, but to every project set on foot by any portion of his constituents, the Member is ex- pected to contribute handsomely. How grievously this tax is felt, the agent of any Member could prove by a reference to his pri- ease correspondence with his client; which is sure to contain bitter protests against the extortion practised upon him, warn- ings not to offer a shilling more than is necessary, and advice to consult with the other Member (if there are two) as to how little it will do to give. Last week we copied from a Kent paper, a com- plaint that Mr. RICE, the Member for Dover, would not sub- scribe to the races held near that town; and this week the Leis Intelligeneer has been sent to us, with an article headed Molesworth's Liberality," the object of which is to throw odium .ar, Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH on account of his refusal to subserite to a local charity. Sir Wismaet did not content him- self with a simple negative to the application, but, in a very manly letter, stated his reasons for not complying with it. Tide letter he .wished to have had published in the.Whig and Radical ittws- pa pers of Leeds ; but the person to whom it was scut neglected to publish it entire,—though, it appears, lie did allow the Tory Ihtelligeueer to obtain a knowledge of its contents, which enabled that juu mans' to concoct an ankle to answer his purpose of depre- :skating Sir WILLIAM. Hosing received a copy of this, and also of a second letter on the some subject, we gladly lay them before our readers, as a statement of the reasons—quite unanswerable— why. on the theory of the Reform Act, no Member should be called upon to subscribe to the local charities of the toy. n he represents, simply because lie represents it, and of the injurious effects of the pre diets in deterring useful men of small property from entering Yeti is ment.
" l'enearrow, 21st September 1537.
" Sir—I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of September 16th, in which you request me as one of the Representatives of Leeds to sub.
.eribe towards some object of local utility. In declining to comply with your
request, I would take the li!c of stating to you the motive for my refusal. It A founded upon the view which I take of the relation which ought to exist be. .tween the representative and Lis constituents, and •af the obligations which thence :sr " P:icr to the change effected in ,sae pdoeiples of our c oistitution by the Re- form bill, the representative was eye •idered in the light of the 'ration of the sorough or county which he represented, in virtue generally of his wealth and !nod influence. In order to preserve that loyal influence, he was expected to reside amongst his constituents, and to expend large stuns of money in the form a sub- amptions, and in other modes of indirect bribery. The relation between the representative and his constituents was almost a private one; and its objects were the private advantages of the party concerned. Except in a few cases, none but the wealthy and the powerful or their dependents had the slightest chance of obtaining a seat in Parliament ; the People were not represented, and those who styled themselves the People's Representatives were the instrun■en'ts of a narrow oligarchy.
" The feelings connected with the ancient system of representation still comb
nue to exist; and as they are, to my opinion, excessively pernicious, they oughton every occasion tope combated by those who think that the relatir n between the representative and the electoral body is not a private but a public one in which both parties are placed under great moral obligations. Tire electors are morally bound to select as their representatives persons of whose political opi. mom and character they fully approve; and the choice of the electors oti,eit therefore to depend upon the moral and intellectual qualities of the candidates and not upon their pecuniary possessions ; for to the hands of the persons thus selected, a great public trust is confided. The representatives, on the other hand, are equally bound to discharge -that trust to the best of their abilities. The accurate performance of their public duties, and the public services which they render as Members of Parliament, ought to be their only titles to the favour and approbation of their constituents, and The only mode in which they should display their gratitude for the honour of being elected by inlependerit citizens.
" It is evident the expenditure which is sometimes required from the repre. sentative in the form of subscriptions cannot be considered as a mode of dis. charging his trust ; nor can it be looked upon as a performance of any public duty, or as any public service which ought to entitle him to the approbation of his constituents: it is therefore, in reality, merely a species of bribe for the pur. pose of conciliating the good-will of the electors, who might only to be influ- enced by considerations of a public nature and of it far higher description. T, the wealthy, the amount of such subscriptions is of slight consequence; and in many of the venal boroughs it forms the only assignable reason for the selection of the Members. On the other hand, it presses as a heavy tax upon the poorer and real representatives of the people. It tends therefore, in many t exclude from Parliament all but the rich, and thus virtually makes the ei • of the elector depend upon the pecuniary qualification of the candidates. 1 tendencies I consider to be of the most mischievous description; and I feel it rev duty to resist them, by attacking, on the first opportunity, a system which 1 think most pernicious. " By the Reform Bill a new class of constituencies was formed, free from tl a prejudices and false notions of the ancient borough system : they have enter. mined, and will I trust long entertain, high and correct notions of the mutu.I obligations which ought to exist between the representative and tire electors. In becoming Member for Leeds, I rejoiced in representing one of aloe I.- voured constituencies. I feel satisfied, that in the reasons which I have eiv, for refusing to comply with your request, I act in strict accordance evitil principles which have raised me to the honourable post of your Representative..
" I have the honour to be your obedient servant, " WM. 3101.1:SIVORTII.
" J. S. Lister, Esq., Leeds." Mr. LISTER, in reply to the above, informed Sir WILLI.V.I MOLESWORTH that the publication of his letter was objected to, as likely to injure the subscription ; and the following is the rejoinder.
" Penearrme, 4th October IS37.
" Sir—In reply to your letter of the :30th of last month, I assure you I should on no account press the publieatiun of my letter in either of the two Libetal papers at Leeds, if it would (as you seem to imagine) tend to prevent charitable contributions ; but it appears to me that no more harm can be done in this respect than has already been eff:cte.1 by your permitting its matter to be inserted in a garbled form in the columns of the Tory paper. Moreover, thy arguments are in no way opposed to charitable contributions generally ; and I should be most sorry if I thought they would discourage benevolent persons from attempting, in a suitable manner and in their proper sphere, to relieve the wants of their fellow beings. I did not discuss the general queAi m of charity, or in what manner or by whom it should he excre:sed ; 1 only pro. tested against a system which rendered it obligatory on Reuresentatives Omit position as Representatives) to contribute pecuniary aid to the local charities, amusements, &c. of their constituents. In that letter I st it 1, at full length, any reasons for objecting to such a system; I need not t1ie....fore trespass upon your patience by recapitulatieg them. I would only ub,erve, that yor■ have fallen into error in supposing that I iu any way considered the subset ipt.on far which I was asked as a party question : I merely wished to make you utelere stand that your only grounds for applying to me were, that I am one of the Members for Leeds, and that you would nut have applied to me had I nut been in that position : my answer was, that as your Representative, I had certain obligations to perform towards yourself and your brother electors, but that I did not, for the reasons assigned, consider that pecuniary contributions are or eught to be, classed amongst those duties. " Your informant, who states that I expressed my .iillitr::ness to subscribe after the election, must have deceived himself. I remember that some applica- tion was made to me, with which I civilly refused to comply ; though, at the saute time, I may have expressed my approval of the scheme in question.
" I have the honour to be your obedient servant, " 31o1.1!.WORTii.
.T. S. Lister, Esq., Lewis."
We are glad that Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH has stepped for: ward, in defiance of obloquy, to place this question on its right footieu. His motives cannot be mistaken ; for he is known to le liberal and benevolent as well as rich. He is known to have vended large sums, not after the fashion of old Mr. Boxes, to keep up all electioneering influence, but with a view to the public ad- vantage in various ways. The insinuation of the Leeds Intelh- aeneer, that lie refused a subscription to the Leeds charity from a desire to save his pocket, would not have been credited, even lid not the reasons for the refusal been so clearly stated as in tl e above correspondence. Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH is arm of tl e last men in England to whom the imputation of pecuniary shah.- hitless can stick.
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