Parliamentary reform : a letter to Richard Freedom, esq. on the re-distribution, extension, and purification of the elective franchise / by a revising barrister.

  • Eardley-Wilmot, John Eardley, 1810-1892.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Parliamentary reform : a letter to Richard Freedom, esq. on the re-distribution, extension, and purification of the elective franchise / by a revising barrister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    13/70 (page 13)
    Midhurst . . Population. . 7,021 Reg. Electors. 279 Northallerton . . 4,995 281 Richmond . . . 4,969 243 Thetford . . . 4,075 200 Wilton . . . . 8,607 219 But the population of several of those boroughs exceeds that of many which possess a greater number of electors. Leominster, with a population of 5,214, has 551 electors; Totnes, with a population of 4,419, has 371; Wells, with 4,736, has 325; Evesham, with 4,605, has 349 electors. Caine, which would be disfranchised according to the above principle, has 1,047 inhabited houses, whereas Lyme Regis, which would be spared, has only 708. Andover has 1,079 houses, whereas Reigate, which would escape, has only 792. And as it is generally expected that a liberal exten- sion of the suffrage, even in boroughs, will form part of the Parliamentary Scheme, I submit that disfranchisement based upon the smallness of the number of electors, regis- tered according to the existing qualification, will not be a rational principle.* Nor, again, can I support the views of those who are in favour of wholesale disfranchisement where bribery has been proved to prevail in a borough; the selec- tion of many of these boroughs for inquiry and punishment having been notoriously unfair. The most flagrant examples have been permitted to escape; and the general opinion is, that scarcely a borough exists at the present time which has not been more or less the scene of corrupt practices. Let disfranchisement overtake corruption hereafter, but let us first make another effort to combine purity of Election with Reform. For it is clear that, among many and great advantages emanating from the Act of 1832, there has cer- * Besides this, the influence brought to bear in many boroughs, dis- courages and prevents electors from registering, so that the fact of electors being few in number, is no adequate test of the stationary or declining condition of these boroughs.