THE INIQUITOUS TRIBUNAL FOR CONTROVERTED ELECTIONS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Friday. 25th September. Ste—The Morning Chronicle of the 27th has a long article upon the im- portance of effecting a change in the present law of controverted elections ; and concludes by suggesting that something should be doue to secure this object immediately after the meeting of the new Parliament. From the tone of the article in question, one would suppose that nothing had been hitherto attempted on the subject, and that any improvement in the present iniquitous system of dispensing election justice must be another of the reforming measures for which we can alone look to a Whig Ministry. Can the Chronicle be so strangely ignorant of the proceedings of the last two sessions of Parliament, as not to be aware that (after various unsuccessful attempts in preceding sessions to draw the attention of the Government to the evils of the existing system) Mr. CITA RLES BULLER, in the session before the last, obtained a Select Committee to inquire into the state and working of the present Election Law ; that this Committee, after a reasonable number of meetings and due deliberation, came to this inevi- table result, that nothing could be more atrocious and absurd ; that a Report was made to this effect ; and permission given to Mr. C. Be Lt.Eit to bring in a bill to repeal the Grenville Act and substitute a better; that this bill was laid before the House, in the beginning of the last session, and actually went through the second reading, but (at the suggestion, I believe, of Lord JOHN Hu ssess) all discussion on the matter was to be reserved till the bill went into Com- mittee. But at this stage, the usual Ministerial apathy to all measures con- nected with Parliamentary Reform displayed itself in the usual way. The discussion of this important measure was always made to give way to something professed to be more important ; andjust as often to the frequently-recurring difficulty of the last session, that no House could be made to discuss any clues. tion in. The state of parties rendered the dissolution of Parliament at any moment an event so very probable, that it was reasonable to expect that corn mon prudence and regard for their own interests would have induced the Ministry to urge forward a measure which could hardly have operated otherwise than favourably for them : but neither this long-impending chance of a fresh election, nor the certainty of one which existed for some weeks before the actual dissolution, had the least effect in stimulating them to try any measures for strengthening themselves, except the old ones which bad already so signally failed. So they have again ; and, thanks to their supineness, their last chance of a remedy is lost—they can now only appeal to those same corrupt Election Committees which their own want of energy has been the means of leaving with undiminished power, and more than usual inducements to toe it for party pur- poses. Whether Mr. C. flu r.reit's bill would have answered its professed objects completely, I do not pretend to say. It was, at all events, a great im-
provernent upon the present system ; and, had the question been fairly discussed, no suggestions that could have improved its efficiency were likely to have been resisted by Mr. BuLLER or his party. It isbut justice to the Radicals to admit, that their endeavours to remedy the now uuiveraally acknowledged defects of the Reform Bill have been unceasing, ever since its first passing ; but all these attempts have been constantly thwarted and discouraged by the Whigs.
They are now reaping the fruits of their titnitlity and want of foresight : but it is not honest in their organs to FORGET, so opportunely, that there were others watching when they were asleep ; and that, had the power of the Radi- cals in Parliament been equal to their sagacity arid vigilance, the result of the late elections would probably have been very different ; and the appeals which it might still have been necessary to make to Election Committees would have bud a fair prospect of being honestly an eat an servant,nt impartially decided.
Your oe W. Ii.
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