A LETTER. Ellow the example , and by degrees MY LORD, ALTHOUGH I have neither the honour of your Lordship's acquaintance, nor your permission for such a liberty, I am, nevertheless, induced, by the respect due to one who has ever pursued such a high and manly line of conduct, and displayed such great talents, to address the following remarks to your Lordship. The Lord Advocate for Scotland gave repeated assurance, that the new Bill to be laid upon the table of the present House of Commons should be in every respect the same as that presented previous to the dissolution. Yet, as I was aware that the former Bill had been prepared in great haste, in order to quench the thirst of the public, and that much time and consideration had been given by the framers of it to remedy its various defects, I was induced, notwithstanding such assurance, A 2 Sect. 2. interests?-what, then, is the effect? The inhabitants of those Towns possessing 107. houses probably exceed the number of individuals connected with agriculture possessed of votes. Thus the power of electing a Member, who ought to be sent to the House of Parliament by the voice of the landed property, is placed in the hands of burgesses and artisans, and the interests of the County give way to those of the Towns, and the home produce is sacrificed to free trade and foreign growth. A similar effect will be produced in the Counties of Berwick and Roxburgh, by giving similar privileges to the inhabitants of Dunse and Greenlaw, Kelso and Hawick. Sect. 3. SECTION III. In conformity with the above-mentioned three assigned reasons, this Section proceeds to disqualify certain Counties of Scotland from their representation in Parliament. Of these, the two first that meet the eye, are Selkirk and Peebles. Why they should have been singled out by the legislators for such Disfranchisement has not been stated, and since there are not, perhaps, two Counties in Scotland, which within the last thirty years have received more improvements in the state he effect? The possessing 101. number of in lture possessed lecting a Mem the House of ded property, and artisans, give way to produce is growth. ced in the by giving of Dunse 7 of their agriculture, or in the increased facilities Sect. 3. Selkirkshire being, of all the southern Coun- To the subject of wool the resident nobility have dedicated much attention; and some few years ago, when it was proposed to admit the Colonial wools at a very low duty, the interests of the Scottish sheep farmers, who were deeply affected by the measure, were placed almost solely in the hands of the Member for this County. And what gives it a better claim to be represented, is the circumstance that in all agricultural matters the interests of most of the southern Counties of Scotland are identified, and therefore the representative of one can represent and uphold the wishes and interests of the rest; now Selkirkshire, being a pastoral district, and almost wholly dependent for its rental upon the growth of wool, is comparatively isolated and individual, and therefore requires some one in the House of Commons to represent and defend its proper interests, since the Members for the other Counties are not so familiar with, and therefore not so able to support them. These interests certainly affecting, as they do, the welfare of so large and wealthy a body Sect. 3. as the store farmers in the south of Scotland, and being brought in opposition, as they are, and have been, to the powerful influence of the Colonial representatives, are undoubtedly as well entitled to a voice in the Legislature of the nation as the inhabitants of a Borough, who have in many cases no individual interests, and have at any rate scarcely a third part of the number of inhabitants. But observe the picture afforded by the view of the joint population of the two Counties of Selkirk and Peebles: that joint population amounts to above 16,000 souls, who are to be entitled to return only one Member, while the two County towns, being the only royal Burghs within their limits, and part of a district of four Boroughs, are considered to have enjoyed too extensive privileges, and therefore have a fifth added to the list, and will henceforth only return two-fifths of a Member. The whole interests therefore of that district, comprised in the two Counties, are represented by one and two-fifths of a Member, while the scarcely more populous County of Rutland has four voices to represent its interests in Parliament. But if such be the case with regard to Selkirkshire and Peebles, what shall we say to the more flagrant specimens of partiality in Dumbarton and Bute, the former containing a population of 27,000; and three considerable manufacturing towns, Renton, Bonhill, and Dumbarton, the last important, as being the Sect. 3. seat of the greatest manufacture of glass in Scotland. To represent such a County, certainly one Member was not too many; nevertheless, it has been the pleasure of the framers of this Bill to reduce it by one-half, and to unite it, not with a County so insignificant in itself as to be unworthy of a separate representation, but to one which, from its individual wealth and population of nearly 14,000, is certainly better entitled to a voice in the Legislature than many of those Boroughs upon which a double qualifiIcation has been bestowed. How long does the Ministry expect that the Scotch will rest contented under this system of free and equal representation? Have they of late shown themselves so temperate and dispassionate, as to warrant the belief that they will long remain tranquil under a system which thus belies its professions, when once the impetus is given and the movement is begun? How long will it be ere the more numerous become jealous of the fewer-ere the stronger demand the fancied advantage possessed by the weaker? What will be the lapse of time ere universal suffrage arrive-aye, ere property be reduced to the same low level of free, equal, and general possession? In the foregoing pages I have repeated some |