Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Now, when it is borne in mind, that beyond all question at least
nine-tenths of the landed property of Ireland is possessed by the
Conservative party, and that that party was able to secure to itself
little more than a fourth of the representation, it must be admitted
that numbers told, and that the mass was represented in a ratio beyond
what the constitution contemplates. So far, then, as relates to the
laws regulating the elective franchise, if they are to be judged of by
the results which they produced, the Liberal party have nothing to
complain of, and the Roman Catholics still less; of the Radical
majority, they numbered thirty-five, or nearly one-half; and if
eligible men could be had of their body, or if their leaders wished
it, undoubtedly persons of their profession might have been returned
in every instance in which liberal Protestants were seated. They had
the power to effect this: if they abstained from using it, influenced
either by good taste or motives of prudence, they still have no reason
to complain of the law--it placed the power in their hands; their own
discretion alone restrained its exercise.
The agitators proclaim that their number in Parliament has diminished,
and that they have lost cities and counties, because the constituency
has decreased under the "emaciating influence of the registration
law." It is true the Irish constituency has diminished, and that the
Destructives have lost many places; but the diminution in the
constituency has not been caused by the state of the law--and this
they know full well--but by the disinclination of the respectable
portion of the people to make themselves any longer their tools! Under
the law when first called into operation, the Radicals had an
overwhelming majority. The same men who registered and voted in 1832
and in 1837, are generally still in existence--the same tenures under
which they registered still continue--the same assistant barristers
before whom they registered (or ones more favourable to their
interests) still preside; it is clear, therefore, that if the people
were inclined to claim the franchise, they have only to take the
necessary steps to secure it--but they won't. They were persecuted
between the priests and their landlords--they see the hollowness of
the agitators, who used them for their own purposes, and then left
them to ruin; and, as the surest way to avoid trouble, they don't
register at all; the landlords not having any influence over their
votes, and not wishing to quarrel with them, don't induce them to do
so--and they have hitherto resisted the efforts of the country agents
of the Corn Exchange. What man of sense would put himself upon the
register, when he well knows that any deviation from the path pointed
out to him by the priest, would not only entail curses and
persecutions on himself, but insult and outrage on the innocent
members of his family? Who would establish his right to vote, when he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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