But calling the total number about three thousand two hundred and fiftythree, is rather a flattering view of the political state of Scotland. Two deductions must be made :-1. There are a great many cases in which the freehold belongs to a proprietor, but is entitled to be used during life by another. The names of both these persons are on the rolls, but only one of them can vote. 2. Many persons have votes in a plurality of places. If these double reckonings be discounted, it is very doubtful if the total number of persons would be above two thonsand five hundred. Some think that they would not exceed two thousand.

A franchise so little attenuated by diffusion, is worth having. The tenth or two hundredth part of a member of parliament is a dear article in the political market. The holder of it is an important man to government. Some people therefore buy votes as an investment. There is never a contest at which such purchasers do not appear; and they are generally the last to declare how they are to go. It is observed, moreover, that those who take such charge of the representation, seldom have their families long on their hands. These qualifications, even after being stripped of every thing except the mere right of voting, are probably never worth less than 2007. or 300l.-the average price is probably about 500.; they frequently sell for double this sum; and, on one recent occasion, six of them, exposed to public sale in one day, brought above 60002. What is so valuable cannot be easily parted with; and, therefore, d devices have been fallen upon for giving out qualifications for occasional use, without permanently losing them. The most common of these schemes is, for a person whose estate affords many votes to dispose

+ Each of these three pairs only returns a member alternately.

29. Stirling 30. Wigton

70

So

of them to his friends only during their lives; which, by certain legal forms, he can easily do, without at all impairing his estate. These donees, or purchasers, ap pear technically as the absolute life-owners; but they are generally under feelings nearly as strong as written obligations, to support the person who has trusted them. And then, lest these qualifications should be lost to the family, it is lawful to entail them along with the family estate. that a great landed proprietor may first be surrounded by his own satellites while his attraction lasts; after which, the lesser stars return and are lost in their parent luminary; who again sends them periodically forth to perform the same evolutions. Although the present number of voters be only about three thousand two hundred and fifty tliree, yet, if all the latent voters were to be brought into action, they could be very greatly increased. But still the increase would take place on the same principle of each landed proprietor merely multiplying his friends, without holding out any prospect of relief to the public.

II. In the towns, the system is different, but not better. There are sixty-six places, which, in consequence of their municipal constitution, and their holding of the crown, are termed royal burgls. Of these, Edinburgh is the only one which returns a member for itself. All the rest are divided into clusters either of four or five; and these four or five return one member among them. Many of these places are so insignificant, that their share in the representation is the only thing which reminds the public that they exist, and (somehow or other) constitutes their only wealth. And, on the other hand, there are many very large places, such as Leith and Greenock, with about twenty-five thousand or thirty thousand inhabitants each, and Paisley with fifty thousand, which do not contribute to return any fragment of a member; because, although

great towns, they are not royal burghs. The mode of electing in these burghs is this: the town council of each elects a delegate, and these four or five delegates from each cluster meet, and choose the member. Each delegate is appointed on the faith that he will vote agreeably to the wishes of those who trust him; but he is not legally bound to do so; and these delegates sometimes find it convenient to take their own way. When a fit of this kind comes upon them, the member is elected by these four or five individuals; when they are faithful, he is chosen by a majority of those persons' consti

tuents.

Now, in the appointment of these constituents, the people have no voice whatever. Nothing can be more close than the most liberally constituted Scotch towncouncil; of which the universal, the hideous, the ludicrous, and the peculiar feature is, that each set of magistrates elects its own successors; to the utter exclusion of the rest of the public, and to the eternal perpetuation of their own feelings. Nothing can be fairer than to take Edinburgh as an example of the whole because it is amongst the best, and has an entire member for itself. Now, in Edinburgh, the town-council consists of only thirty-three individuals, which is considerably above the usual number. The sum total of the property of these persons within the town was rated, when it was last examined, at about 28001. a-year. These thirty-three individuals, or rather a majority of them, have the absolute power of electing the member who is to represent a population far exceeding one hundred thousand, and possessing property rated at above 400,000l. a-year; or, in other words, the right of voting is engrossed by less than the three-thousandth part of the population, and by about the one hundred and fiftieth part of the real property. This population contains above one thousand two hundred merchant burgesses; above two thousand persons connected with the profession of the law; at least one hundred and fifty, including professors in the university, engaged in the higher branches of education; a clergy of about sixty or seventy persons; and at least a hundred of the medical and other learned professions ;-not one of whom has a single word to say in the election either of the member, or of the town-council.

It is town-councils so constituted that elect all the delegates.

It is important to observe, that this system, both with respect to the counties and the burghs, is the only one that exists. The chief ground on which the defects in the English representation have

been defended, is, that the closeness of one place is compensated by the openness of another there being still popularity enough upon the whole. Neither Burke, nor Blackstone, nor any one who has excused these defects, ever carry their apology beyond this. But in Scotland there is no popularity at all in any one place. It is all close burgh or close county.

It is therefore unnecessary to explain that the people of Scotland scarcely feel any interest in the election of what are called their representatives. They are not taken into calculation by the parties engaged; and, having no right to interfere, the expression even of their opinion is generally considered obtrusive and dangerous. While every other part of the empire is teeming with life, they are dead. The candidates and their friends take the only concern in the proceedings; and the ceremony of an election, and the substance of a dinner, are gone through with due animation by them. But the people are left entirely out of view; and, conscious of degradation, withdraw from a scene where they can only exhibit themselves in humiliating contrast with others certainly not better educated, and not necessarily wealthier than themselves. The hustings, which could not be put down without putting down England, are things that Scotland never saw. The county freeholders always meet under cover; sometimes in a church, but generally in a room; and the four or five town electors burrow in holes still more obscure. The whole fifteen members of all the sixty-six burghs are always chosen on the same day; yet, in so far as the public is concerned, no day passes more entirely like another. If it were not from seeing the circumstance mentioned casually in the newspapers next day, the very fact that a member had been elected would often not be known to those living in the same street. The burgh delegates merely take the oaths, vote, and depart. The county freeholders are much more operose They sometimes wear out both the day and the night before their incubation be over. But, instead of discussing public measures, or men, they are engaged in wrangling about feudal niceties, and trying to pick or vote holes in deeds. The scene resembles a meeting of attorneys, endeavouring to overreach each other in a set of conveyances.

These are the facts.-Their consequences are inseparable from the system, and are marked by the deepest lines.

A Scotch elector finds himself the possessor of a privilege, which he owes solely to his being a landholder or a member of

a town council. This narrows him to a sympathy with one or other of these particular classes. He sees himself cut off from the rest of the people to exercise a high and invidious privilege. Conscious of the jealousy which this inspires in the body of the people, he considers them as opponents, and regards even their approbation, not as an object of ambition, but an encroachment on his right. In the exercise of his privilege he may act with perfect purity; but great is his merit if he does so; for he has no publicity to check him. He has paid, or could get, a large price for his freehold or its use ;and it is not unnatural that the master of an article for which there is a keen ́demand, should look out for the highest purchaser. In Scotland what is of less weight than the resolutions of a towncouncil, or of a meeting of freeholders? What would be of more weight, if these bodies were constituted as they ought to be? They are so constructed that even at general elections, they are sensible of the operation of only two interests that of government, and that of some individual of great local influence, Among voters, who are so few, and each with his feelers "out, the power of government is acknowledged in all places, at all times, and, when not counteracted by the local family, 'is absolute. It is a conclusive fact against "the Scottish system that no man can, by almost any possibility, enter the walls of 'parliament for a Scotch place, except on one or other of these two interests. We do not believe that any one member was ever returned by any body of Scotch electors, solely in consequence of his public character or services. On the contrary, whenever the most meritorions public servant, ceases to be backed by government, or by the commanding influence of the local family, that instant he is on the waine as a Scotch member. Hence it is that Scotchmen rejected by the electors of Scotland, are often received with acclamation by the electors of Engiand, and that the most distinguished public men of Scotland, instead of appearing in their natural position as representatives of their native country, are obliged to give the honour of choosing them to strangers. He who thinks of being a representative in parliament for Scotland, knows that there are only two pivots on which he can enter it, Instead of preparing himself, therefore, by powers, or connexions, or principles, worthy of ambition, his views are limited to those means by which-in the local ministerial leading-string-he may gain the unsatisfactory favour of a handful of voters. Thus, the greater part of the talent of the

country is turned away from parliament. Usefulness or glory in the House of Com mons forms no object with the youth of Scotland, and indeed is rarely ever thought of. And that portion of the talent of the country which is admitted into parliament, is trammelled by its supporters. Having no connection with the people, the member does not partake of their character. He goes to parliament without constituents, and is treated according to the insig nificance of his origin. Speaking the sentiments of no portion of the community→ depending for his seat on a nod—and not prepared, by habit or, education, to attain, while he is allowed to sit, that dis tinetion which of itself will do him little good ou his next canvasshe is driven by his very helplessness to earn that protection from government, which can alone save him. If he fail in this, he is gone, If he obtain it, any sacrifice he may have made is immaterial, for he has no electors to fear. If a stranger were to come to Scotland, and to ask what sphere of public life shone with the largest portion of the national talent-who would say it was parliament? In all the other avocations of genius, industry, or knowledge, the coun try is full of competitors, many of them splendidly successful; there is not one other department in public life, at the head of which the natives of Scotland are not to be found ;-and they have increased the general stock of public intellect in a portion far exceeding their numbers. Yet, where is the great member Scotland has ever sent to parliament? Deduct those whose personal influence cannot be separated from their official, and the poverty of our contribution to the harvest of parliamentary patriots is most lament, able. And it is the more humiliating, that many of the brightest names by which parliament has been adorned, have been those of men born, educated, and chiefly interested, in Scotland. It has sometimes been said, that even although there were popular elections in this country, nearly the same individuals would be returned. Even though it were so, these individuals would be different members, The simple circumstance of their depending on a larger portion of the intelligence of their country, would change their natures. A reformed system of election would breathe a better spirit into the representatives; and it is the only thing that will ever enable the country to redeem itself from the hereditary shameof producing every thing that is great, except statesmen.

But the chief thing is the character of the people. It is not merely the mis fortune of the people of Scotland, their

not being permitted to exercise a particular function, but in the circumstance that this interdiction plucks the good qualities connected with the exercise of that function from their breasts. What these qualities are, a Scotchman may well be excused for asking. They are watchfulness, courage, fairness; an interest in public affairs and men;-a love of justice; —and the elevation which is imparted by the consciousness of being trusted, and of having rights, in the administration of the national business. The great blessing of a free government consists in its generating the virtues of freedom, which, in their turn, become the only preservatives of that which creates them. But the people of Scotland are expected to have the manliness of liberty without its practice; and a taste for constitutional rights, which they only know by having them described as what they must not touch. The law has as yet assigned them no place or privilege, which connects them directly with the political part of the state. They form no political element have no legitimate power no established vent for their opinions and are placed in unnatural opposition to the classes with which it would be most useful for them all that they were blended. There is no common general thought to make them one.

THE COWARD.+

I SEEK relief and sympathy at the price of wide-spread infamy; I would awake that pity for my suffering which must be denied to its cause. I am a coward; but there are moral and physical dastards: and how many of the former have been in debted to the accident of robust proportion and the sense of strength it bestows for concealment of this worst species of cowardice? Is he to blame whose delicacy of make and constitution hath rendered him timid and prone to fear? And where fear is the master-passion, the nobler virtues become choked in the self-abasement and dependence it creates. A moral dastard may be personally brave, but a physical coward 'necessarily becomes a moral one also.

I inherited from my mother a sickly constitution and a flame-work of the slightest and most fragile description; and to the pampering and excessive care she bestowed upon my infancy and youth, do I owe at least in part my subsequent

From the Keepsake for 1831.

misery, which yet I pray may not be visited upon her dear and aged head. My father, Sir Charles Glenham had, together with his brother, taken too active a part in the king's affairs, even before he found himself at war with his parliament, to de vote much time to home occupations; and afterwards, active service, in the cause of his royal and unfortunate friend, prevented his bestowing that care on my education which might, in part, have remedied the natural defects of my character; as it was, I was wholly left to my mother's guidance, and consequently, when an infant, I was thrown into convulsions by every storm'; as a child, trembled before erery threat of my maid; and, as a youth, shrank from all my companions, who, were braver and stronger than myself, and scrupled not to buy off punishment with the meanest concessions. My youth did not pass away, but that some flagrant instances of cowardice met with the contempt and chastisement they merited; nor was my sensi tiveness to shame less poignant that it was over-mastered by my fear. These painful lessons, taught me, however, better to disguise the latter, and generated a hate against my adversaries, naturally the more implacable, that fear barred its iron door upon all outward expression of this pas sion.' It required all the softness and sweet feminine forgiveness that formed the ornament and very essence of my mother's character, to counteract this most fearful and natural consequence of cowardice. Even her words, though they dropped like honey upon my irritated feelings, might have proved unavailing, but that she early acquired a powerful assistant, to whose gentle biddling I was more obedient than are the wild waves to their silver-queen,

I had attained my eighteenth year, and my fond mother was suffering daily torture from the fear that I should receive a hasty summons to join my father at Oxford, in order to commence my military education and career immediately under his eye, when the event took place to which I have alluded. Equally new and unexpected, it at once put away from me all bitter thoughts, and filled me with that luxuriance of happiness which throws back its hallowed light over the whole earth to make it heaven. Helen Mortimer, an orphan heiress and distant rela tive of my mother, came to reside under her roof. One year younger than myself, her character had early attained a maturity, which it owed rather to the times and the conflicting scenes she had witnessed, than to an inward and self-born sense of strength. Friend after friend, her father and brother, had all fallen vietimms to their

attachment to their king; and the demand made upon her energies to bear up against her repeated misfortunes, to decide and act for herself, under the most trying circumstances, seemed to give them birth, because it called them into early action. Her stature, not yet arrived at its full height, was nevertheless above the middle size, and the fragility of her person, the cloudless radiance expressed by her sweet and regular features, and that sheen smoothness of beauty that belongs only to the first stage of womanhood, were requisite to repress a something of awe, the firmness of purpose and inflexibility of principle she evinced at first inspired.

I know not how I won this bright and beautiful creation to be my own; I cannot but think the very defects of my character chiefly aided me; my ductile principles and unsettled resolves she knew how to guide and strengthen, and the interest with which I inspired her, from being tinged with compassion, was in itself so tender, that it easily softened into love. After a while I spoke her thoughts, and my conduct was swayed by her sentiments, and she looked upon her work and loved it.

My mother no sooner discovered our - mutual affection, than she overcame every obstacle occasioned by our youth, my father's absence, the impossibility of obtaming the king's sanction, and we were privately married; in the hope, I firmly believe, that this marriage would prevent my joining the army.

For a while we were happy-but short was my happiness. I was peremptorily summoned to join my father. The king's forces had suffered defeat, and it was judged necessary to reinforce the army by every possible accession of numbers. I was called upon to join instantly the gallant throng who fearlessly devoted their lives and fortunes to the losing cause, and seemed to glory in a death that closed their eyes on the triumph of their enemies. I cannot express the mingled sensations, all of reluctance, that assailed me on this summons. Hitherto I had believed my Jove for Helen to be the strongest feeling of my being: but the pang that shot through my frame, and left me covered with a cold and death-like dew, was not occasioned by the thought of her grief, nor of her unprotected condition, but of the danger I was about to encounter. If for a moment I entertained a fond hope that Helen would urge me to remain near her, I was bitterly mistaken.

Go, my beloved," she said, "without delay; and as you honour your king, deal heavily with his enemies. Think not of me, lest thine arm tremble, and thy cou

rage fail. Tarry not an instant, lest my woman's tears cast a dampness on thy soul- When thou art gone, I shall find time enough to weep.-Farewell.”

Thus urged, my departure was necessarily immediate; and by keeping strictly and cautiously the very letter of my father's instructions as to the route, I reached him in safety.

It was on the 29th of Juue, the eve of the success of Cropredy Bridge, that I arrived at Banbury. On the following morning, raw and inexperienced, unacquainted with discipline, and possessed by the demon of fear, I was to earn, as volunteer by my father's side, a commission in his regiment.

"This is my son," I heard my father say to some brother veterans, with a feeling of honest pride; "he cannot prove a

recreant."

Could he at that moment have read that son's soul, I do believe he would have sought and found a glorious death in the morrow's battle. He was reserved for a harder fate. The morning rose; a mautle of cold gray mist spread over the heavens and the earth one duil and uniform colour, My teeth chattered, and my heart beat so loudly, that I could not at first distinguish a word uttered by my father, though his voice was clear and powerful. At length I heard him, and then his words seemed louder than thunder, and I was stupified with the imaginary noise. At length the hour for action came. A large detachment of Sir William Waller's parliamentary army was ordered to cross the bridge at Cropredy, and fall upon our rear as we proceeded towards Daventry : this we learnt afterwards. At the moment. of attack, I looked around to find some possible chance of escape. Alas! Lonly met my father's eye, and felt that searching glance upon me every way I turned, The word was given, and my charger galloped as eager to the fight as though he bore a willing burden. I recollect closing my eyes, and grasping my sword. From that instant, till in my father's arms, I had no consciousness at the time, nor any recollection afterwards, of any thing that occurred. I gathered, however, from others, that I made my onset with headlong impetnosity-was among the first that repulsed the enemy-and had borne myself as well and gallantly, considering my inexperience, as the bravest among them. A mere scratch on my sword-arm was the only wound I had received. It will be thought that this unexpected triumph gave me at once pleasure and confidence; such, it appears to me, ought to have been its natural consequence; but I was overwhelmed with horror. My safety was too