Election of Irish Members. 21 



benefit from their inapposite distinction of free- 

 holders, or consideration for their votes, that it 

 operates a contrary way, and puts them to ex- 

 pense ami loss of time, without the privilege of 

 having any choice : ruin would inevitably over- 

 take him, who should dare to presume to have 

 any opinion but that dictated to him by his 

 landlord ; and the candidate who should solicit, 

 or accept without solicitation, the vote of a 

 tenant against the will of his landlord, must 

 answer the irregularity with his life, and incur 

 the general odium of his own class in society. 

 Popular opinion has little or no influence in the 

 election of the one hundred Irish members. 

 Election contests with us procure, for a time, 

 some consideration for the lower ranks what 

 dignifies the English character, debases the Irish. 

 The magnitude of the evil is greater than can 

 be conceived by those who have not had an op- 

 portunity of witnessing its effects. In the most 

 venal places in England, besides the bribe, some 

 condescension is expected ; here the poor voter 

 is only degraded by an additional link to the 

 chain of his dependency. The representation of 

 the town rests mostly in each body corporate, 

 which seldom exceeds twelve members. The 

 selecting for representation by the extent of 

 the population was a farce, in which the peo- 

 ple had no assigned part to act. The demo- 



