tic capital. Here she had fought the good fight of faith,' with eminent success; here she had planted the standard of truth, which for half a century, had waved in these sunny realms, 'lifted upon the high mountains.' Might not the little leaven of those days have leavened the whole lump of society? Might not the inoculation of truth in the Bearnoise of the sixteenth century, have caused their descendants of the nineteenth to take the common cure of our nature more kindly? The interest excited by these ideas, induced me to extend my knowledge of the local history of this ex-kingdom, and for this purpose I obtained an introduction to the Rev. Dr. Don Juan de Herrando, the principal librarian of the extensive collection belonging to the town, preserved in the ancient monastery of the Cordeliers. . . . If biography is history speaking by examples,' history illustrates biography by manifesting the principles which guided those examples; and it is the knowledge of the motives of human action which it is most desirable to attain. For this purpose I have drawn up a few 'notices' of the religious history of Bearn, in reference to the struggle between the Romanists and Protestants. The conduct of the Romish church, in its invariable persecution of those who differ from it, has been recorded by numerous examples in history. The more numerous those examples, the more certain will be the deduction of the principles which guided that conduct.'

Art. VI. 1. A Bill for the Registration of Parliamentary Electors. By LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 1840.

2. Debates on Lord Stanley's Irish Registration Bill. 1840.

3. Blackwood's Magazine. Art. Fictitious Voters, March, 1837.

THE subject of this article is one of the very highest political

importance. Under a homely garb and technical disguise, interests the most momentous lie concealed. The question of REGISTRATION has never been sufficiently appreciated by the great mass of the people; and to this fact the present enfeebled state of the Reform party in the legislature is in no small measure to be attributed. Presenting no dazzling allurements to the imagination, and affording no opportunity for rhetorical display, registration is a matter of fact; a matter of detail it is true, but still of practical value. It demands the exercise of patient industry, of precautionary forethought, and of steady, systematic perseverance. There are many who are ready to come forward in aid of enlightened freedom when any thing bold is to be said or done; but how few are there to throw the force of their exertions to the point where exertions can be of the greatest utility. Yet the cause of progressive amelioration and religious liberty

depend upon the strength of the Reform phalanx in the House of Commons, and that strength can only be acquired and preserved by attention to registration!

Let us contrast for a moment the relative strength of the antipopular party and the Reformers in the first reformed parliament, with the strength of the same parties now; and then ask ourselves to what is the extraordinary change to be ascribed?

The number of Liberals and Tories returned by the counties, cities, boroughs, and Universities of the United Kingdom, to the parliament of 1833, were:

Thus matters stood in 1833.*

In 1840 we find 321 Tories, and but 336 Reformers in the House of Commons ! Now after making due allowance for the excitement occasioned by the new acquisition of the franchise, to what can this extraordinary and painful reverse be owing, unless to the fact that registration has been neglected by the Reformers, and has been attended to with the most untiring assiduity by the Tories?

It is often asserted, that this result has been produced by 're'action' but this plainly is an error, for re-action is no more in the nature of the thing than an opposite aberration of the pendulum—which will vibrate alternately to the right and to the left

The following is a statement of the number of registered electors in 1832:

so long as it continues in motion. There may be, and there has been a falling off in the zeal of the people in attention to the matter of registration; but this is not sufficient to account for the altered position of parties on which we are commenting. The truth is, that the fact before us is the result of a well arranged plan of retrogression carried on by a process slow but sure. The Tories found that that which could not be carried by open assault, might by degrees be undermined. They resolved to concentrate their whole force upon the registration courts. They well knew what timely, patient, and unremitting efforts in that quarter, would ultimately effect. They saw that there lay the only road to return to power; and they nailed their flag to the mast with the motto, "The battle is to be 'fought in the registration courts.'

Blackwood's Magazine so far back as May, 1835, boldly predicted that perseverance would in the end be rewarded by triumph; and then developed the plan of operations, which shows that the Tories never relied upon a 'reaction' in favor of Tory principles, but staked every thing on skill in the registration courts, to outmanœuvre the Reform party.

A considerable proportion of the present voters,' says Blackwood, not at all mincing the matter, are utterly inaccessible to reason or argument, totally incapable of forming a rational opinion on any political subject, and therefore the ready and certain prey of the demagogues, whom such a state of things necessarily and continually keeps in activity. These men can never be convinced; from their occupation and habits they are necessarily democratical, and will ever continue so. They must be outvoted or the constitution is lost.'

vol. xxxviii. p. 813.

Here is a confession of the consummation desired; as well as an acknowledgment that there was at that time no hope of returning to the old system by means of reaction in favor of Tory principles. The method to be adopted is then developed :

The mode in which this is to be done is obvious; and here it is that the persevering efforts of property can best overcome the prodigious ascendency which the Reform Bill in the outset gave to the reckless and destitute classes of the community. IT IS IN THE REGISTRATION COURTS THAT THE BATTLE OF THE CONSTITUTION (meaning always of the Tories ') is to be FOUGHT AND won. It is by a continued, persevering, and skilful exertion there that education, worth, and property are to regain their ascendency over anarchy, vice, and democracy. The many victories gained by the Conservatives during the last contest, were chiefly owing to the efforts that had previously been made in this department. The forces of anarchy, strong and often irresistible in a moment of general excitement or on the eve of an

election, are unequal in general to a steady, persevering effort for a course of years in keeping up a majority on the roll. It is there that property and information can most easily regain its just and necessary ascendant over mere numbers. Let, therefore, the Conservatives unite in associations in every city, borough, and county in the kingdom, to subscribe for the purpose of purging the election rolls of the multitudes of disqualified Radicals who are now there, and placing on it persons of property and education on whose principles they can rely. By a proper organization in this way it is astonishing what may be done; in most places, excepting the great cities which may be set aside as in general irreclaimable, one member at least of sound principles might be secured. It is thus, and thus only, that the balance of society can be restored in these islands. Let no one grudge TROUBLE or EXPENSE in such an attempt. It is the battle of property, which is there to be fought; it is the cause of religion, truth, and freedom which is there to be won.'

Now here is the plan which the Tories laid down in 1835; and here at once is discovered the secret of that success of which we hear so much. It is seen at a glance that the altered state of parties is owing mainly, if not solely, to the fact that the Tories have acted upon this plan, uniformly and pertinaciously; while the Liberals have been indifferent and remiss on the subject. Can we employ any stronger argument than this to press upon the friends of civil and religious liberty the transcendent moment of registration? Can any thing demonstrate more forcibly, that the husk which is so thoughtlessly thrown aside contains a kernel of most precious fruit? We desire to arouse the people of Great Britain on this subject for we are firmly impressed with the belief that there is no other way to recover lost strength than by attention to the matter of registration. We are anxious to awaken them to an adequate sense of the importance of the register: because we are satisfied, if the Liberals do their duty in this department, that they will be able, not only to curb and control, but to master their opponents. Fas est ab hoste doceri : attend to the registry! and the might of the people will return once more; the hair upon Samson's head will begin to grow: attend to the registry! and you will see the designs of those defeated who are anxious to carry back the nation to the slavery of Egypt, from which it hath made its exodus, and prevent their entrance to the promised possessions,-moral and mental elevation, safe progression, and rational freedom. Attend to the registry and you take a guarantee that equal laws shall be extended to all subjects of this realm, and that they shall be governed on the principles of peace, justice, retrenchment, and reform. Attend to the registry! and the Tories are kept from power!

It will be our duty before we close, to offer some remarks on

the existing machinery employed by the Tory party for effecting registration, accompanied with some suggestions naturally arising from the contemplation of it; but before we turn to this part of the case, we must draw attention to three prominent facts, instructive in themselves, and indicative of the policy and tendencies of the retrogressive or Tory party.

First. It has been their effort, by the organization of a regular system for sustaining objections against Liberal voters, and for the creation of fictitious voters in their own interest, to weaken the Reform party and strengthen their own hands.

Second. Finding their strength increased by their vigilant attention to the details of registration, they propose to take a step further, and obtain the sanction of law to the creation of fresh obstacles in the way of registration in Ireland; great attention being paid to the matter there by the liberal community, and, as a consequence there being a strong and decisive majority against Toryism.

Third. It is avowedly the design of the Tories, after having depreciated and mutilated the Irish system of registration, to sink the English system to the level to which the former may be degraded, on the plea of giving equal laws' and equal institutions to both countries.

RETROGRESSION is the object of the Tory party, and should they succeed in their attempt upon the Irish franchise, as they have already succeeded in their registration experiments, they will without doubt endeavor to narrow the franchise in England and Scotland. Notwithstanding the disguises used to conceal this purpose, and the many denials given to the assertion of Lord John Russell, that the object of the party was by slow degrees to diminish and destroy the franchise, we have sufficient warrant for charging the Tories with this deep laid design. An observation was made in the course of a recent debate, by Sir Edward Sugden, which, although it appears to have escaped without remark, is pregnant with much meaning, and affords a correct index to the inclinations of Her Majesty's opposition. Having expressed his approbation of Lord Stanley's bill, the right hon. member for Studley Park, with all possible suavity, made the following declaration: He would be contented to accept the same registration 'for England that was to be enforced in Ireland, and to see the 'same rigid test applied to the list of voters in this country, that 'was proposed to be put to the Irish lists.'*

6

Now here is an admission from Sir Edward Sugden as to the truth of the fact which the Tories are so industrious in denying. First contract the franchise in Ireland, and then for the sake of

* See Debate on the Irish Registration Bill, June 20.