“Toute institution immobile est vicieuse, parce qu'elle finit par constituer un provilége en contradiction avec l'état réel de la société”[1] “Si au lieu d'attribuer nominément et à jamais des droits électoraux à tel ou tel bourg, les lois Anglaises les avaient cofiés à toute ville dont la population s'élèverait à telle limite (ou dont le revenu serait de tel taux), la représentation, au lieu de se corrompre, aurait suivi les déplacements et les progrès de la véritable capacité politique. Nous pourrious multiplier les exemples, et prouver de mille manières, qu'il n'est bon, ni d'avoir un seul signe légal de la capa-
- ↑ Guizot, Gouv. Rep., vol. ii., p. 214.
Leicestershire—Hinckley, Loughborongh, Melton-Mowbray. Lincolnshire—Gainsborough, Horncastle, Louth, Spalding. Middlesex—Brentford, Chelsea, Kensington. Monmouthshire—Chepstow, Tredegar. Northamptomhire—Daventry, Kettering, Wellingborough. Northumberland—Alnwick, Hexham. Notts—Mansfield, Worksop. Salop—Oswestry, Wellington. Somerset—Yeovil. Staffordshire—Burton-on-Trent, Leek, Wednesbury. Suffolk— Beccles, Lowestoft, Woodbridge. Surrey—Croydon, Kingston, Richmond. Sussex—Worthing. Warwickshire—Leamington, Nuneaton, Rugby. Wilts—Bradford, Trowbridge, Warminster. Worcestershire—Bromsgrove, Stourbridge. Yorkshire—Barnsley, Bingley, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Goole, Keightley, Otley, Rotherham, Selby, Skipton, Sowerby-bridge. There is, however, no reason for excluding towns containing less than 4000 inhabitants.
In a note in the Star newspaper, relating to South Durham, the writer observes, that “by far the largest town community in that county not separately represented in Parliament, is the seaport town of Hartlepool. A portion of this town is an ancient municipal borough, with a population of between 9,000 and 10,000 persons. Another portion of the seaport, commonly called ‘West Hartlepool,’ is under the local government led a Town Improvement Commission, incorporated by a private Act, obtained in the year 1854. The present population of the entire community is estimated at between 24,000 and 25,000,—that of Darlington, at between 12,000 and 18,000. In the year 1851, when the census of the municipal borough of Stockton was taken, the borough boundaries inclosed only a group of buildings in the centre of the town. By an Act passed in the following year (1852), the boundaries were made coextensive with the town, and the result has been to inclose a town's population superior to Darlington, by at least 1000 persons.” These facts illustrate the impracticability of founding a durable representative constitution upon any present geographical divisions. It is only preparing the occasion for a new struggle.
