under the influence of drunkenness nor of personal captation. Nevertheless, an election-that of Brighton, for instance-cannot cost less than £1,000, unless, indeed, it is not contested. The legitimate expenses are necessarily large. There are agents to be paid for going from house to house three weeks beforehand, collecting suffrages, and lawyers for taking care that all due formalities are observed. There are houses to be hired for the meeting of committees, and carriages, as many as a hundred at a time, for the use of each elector from morning to night. All the accounts are submitted to the House of Commons, and rigorously inspected by a special committee; and the lately elected member can be deprived of his seat if it is proved that either he or his agents had, with his knowledge, resorted to illicit means of obtaining suffrages. These measures certainly prevent open bribery, but cannot impede the secret corruption, against which public opinion utters a continual and unavailing protest. On a recent occasion a candidate was accused, we believe unjustly, of having resorted to illegal means for turning the show of hands to his advantage, and this accusation lost him above 100 votes. In a town of 60,000 inhabitants, 4,000 of whom are electors, an election costs about £1,000; that of the county of Sussex, £3,000. The natural result is, that none but men of wealth can become candidates; and this is decidedly a guarantee for the preservation of social order, whatever may be its disadvantages in other respects.

The account of the election at Brighton, at the end of March, 1857, may give a tolerably fair idea of what takes place on similar occasions elsewhere. There is a considerable amount of disorder, restrained, however, within certain limits. But matters do not always go on so quietly; and the elections occasionally give rise to

scenes of the most disgraceful violence as at Kidderminster, where the candidate, the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, was attacked and dangerously wounded by stones hurled at him by a furious mob of 5,000 or 6,000 carpet-weavers, who declared their resolution to kill him outright. Several of his friends, and even some policemen, were likewise severely wounded, and the candidate himself only escaped certain death by taking refuge in a house, the doors of which the assailants endeavoured to force. The most singular part of the business is that Mr. Lowe was a Liberal, and antagonistic to Conservative or Tory; so that the crowd espoused the cause, and we have seen with what violence, of the candidate opposed to its political emancipation.

England is the country of contradictions; but, at the same time, these contradictions do not compromise either social order or the stability of Government. All the journals of the country, both Conservative and Liberal, united in denouncing this savage outrage, and large sums were subscribed to pay the expenses of law proceedings against the leaders of the outbreak.

It sits

The duration of Parliament is seven years. from the month of February to the month of August. The members of the House of Commons have thus nearly six months' vacation, of which, however, it must be allowed, a considerable portion is devoted by many to the affairs of the country. Once elected, they can claim certain personal privileges, similar to those enjoyed by the French deputies. During the session they cannot be

either sued or arrested for debt, &c. &c.

At the present moment it is seriously proposed by some of the leading men of the country to extend the right of suffrage to a very considerable degree. The Conservative party seem as anxious about the matter as

the Liberal; and it is but a short time ago that Mr. Disraeli proposed a measure which would have added more than 300,000 members to the electoral body. This measure, however, did not receive the sanction of Parliament; and indeed the House of Commons, as a body, does not appear desirous to effect any immediate changes. Indeed, the proportion of the working classes who have already votes is by no means insignificant; and I have heard it computed by competent authority as high as 26 per cent. in the borough constituencies, and even more in certain of the manufacturing towns. Is more desirable at the present moment? But whether the existing franchise be altered or no, it seems pretty certain that a new element will be gradually introduced into the House of Commons. The effect of the Reform Bill of 1832 was to transfer a portion of that power which had previously been in the almost exclusive possession of the landowners to the middle classes, but the representatives themselves continued for the most part to belong to the landed gentry, and to that part of the community engaged in liberal professions. But for many years past, the financial, mercantile, and industrial classes have been taking every day a more and more important step among the representatives of the nation; and this must inevitably increase with the increase of commerce, manufactories, and public wealth. The son of the rich banker or merchant who' has received a university education, and who in days of yore would have deemed the counting-house or office beneath him, and who had insisted on entering the Bar, the Church, or the Army, now follows his father's calling, which he elevates and graces by his cultivated intellect and extended range of knowledge.

Will the country be the gainer? That time alone can decide.

397

THE

TERRITORIAL, JUDICIAL, AND POLITICAL

DIVISIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

ENGLAND is divided into forty counties, each of which has a lord lieutenant and high sheriff. Both are nominated by the Sovereign, and chosen from the principal landed proprietors of the county. The first must belong to the aristocracy. He is assisted in his duties by vicelieutenants of his own selection. As a rule, the lordlieutenant retains his appointment during life. Neither he nor the high sheriff receive any salary. On the contrary, it is only the wealthy who can accept these functions, as they entail very heavy expenses, in consequence of the amount of ceremony and the number of receptions demanded from both. The duties of the lord-lieutenant are very limited in their nature; indeed, in times of peace they are almost nominal. He commands the militia, and points out to Government the magistrates and judges he desires selected for his county, who are

chosen according to his recommendation.

almost always The functions

of the high sheriff last one year only, and a heavy fine is imposed on any one refusing to fill them.

But during that year he takes precedence over the lord-lieutenant himself. It is his special duty to enforce the maintenance of peace and order, and, in case of any disturbance, to take such measures as may be necessary to quell it. He prepares the list of the grand juries, presides over the

elections, and takes his place on the bench beside the judges in the criminal courts. Every year at the period of the assizes, the sheriff, with an escort of twenty-five or fifty men-at-arms, magnificently arrayed at his own expense, rides forth to meet the judges and conduct them to the apartments prepared for them.

ments.

The English have also a county administration, which in some respects answers to that of the French departThus it is a board of magistrates or justices of the peace which is charged with the duty of levying and controlling the taxes raised for the support of prisons and lunatic asylums. These magistrates unite administrative with judicial functions. They sit on the bench-sometimes separately, sometimes two or three together—either in the petty sessions held every week or fortnight in the smaller towns, or in the general quarter sessions, held in the principal cities of the county. Petty thefts, frauds, vagrancy, drunkenness, and mendicity-all minor offences, in short-are brought before them. Generally speaking, they deal with them summarily. No jury is empannelled on these occasions; the justices themselves interrogate the accused and the witnesses, pronounce the sentence if they consider the case proved, and dismiss it if of a contrary opinion. When graver offences are in question, they refer the matter to the quarter sessions. The magistrates are chosen among the landed proprietors and country gentlemen. Their functions are gratuitous and for life, but in certain cases they can be dismissed from their post. There are at present no less than from 4,000 to 5,000 of these county magistrates in England. Among this large number are certainly many unfit for the duties entrusted to them; but, on the whole, they fulfil them well and conscientiously. Besides, in a certain degree, they may be called to account by any one on whom they have pro