you. Our friendship is now of forty years' standing; you know me to be a truly religious man; but I shudder to see religion treated like a cockade, or a pint of beer, and made the instrument of a party. I love the King, but I love the people as well as the King; and if I am sorry to see his old age molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions of Catholics baffled in their just expectations. Sydney Smith, Peter Plymley's Letters, II (Works of the Rev. By FRANCIS 109. Scotland in the Unreformed Parlia JEFFREY (1773-1850), a Scotch man, mem ber of the group of Whigs which founders and Edinburgh Ministry that ment (1831) The system of Scotland is not a representation of the Crown, nor of the Peers, nor of the great landed proprietors; but, excluding all these, it is only the representation of a most insignificant oligarchy, not very high in rank or station, and of which the majority is not even connected with the great landed interests. The whole constituency of editor of the thirty counties, the whole number of the voters, according to the list of freeholders, does not exceed 3,000, from which are to be deducted between 500 and 600 who have votes and freeholds in two or three counties, making the whole number of voters not exceeding 2,400 or 2,500 — a constituency for the whole of Scotland below the average of the smallest counties in England. The constituency of the boroughs is quite as bad. It consists of the majority of the Town Councils, who elect each other, and the numerical amount of the whole is only 1,440 for the sixty-six boroughs of Scotland. The whole constituency, then, of Scotland, both for the counties and boroughs, is less than 5,000, and probably does not exceed 4,500. The qualification for the right of carried through the Reform Bill of 1832. This extract is from a speech made during the debates on that measure. a voting is derived from what are called Superiorities species of right without any real property, which are disposed of in the market, and give a man no more power over the land than that they reserve to him some nominal right, such as a pepper-corn rent. All the 2,500 freeholders, who make up the whole constituency of the counties, and are possessed of the right of voting, are not actual landed proprietors. I do not know the actual number of freeholders who are at the same time landed proprietors, but I believe that those who merely own superiorities are more than half of the whole; so that, therefore, the half of these 2,500 freeholders are not actually the possessors of property in Scotland. A return of the freeholders of In the county of Argyle, in 1821, there were 47,000 inhabitants, while the number of freeholders was 115; but eighty-four of these were not proprietors, leaving therefore, only thirty-one actual landholders to return the county Members of 97,000 inhabitants. The next place I would refer to is not of much importance — it is the county of Bute, which has a population of only 14,000, and of which the number of freeholders is twenty-one; but, according to the Return, it appears that no fewer than twenty of these retain no property whatever in Bute, and that the whole 14,000 inhabitants Scotland. are represented by one single voter living in the county. My right hon. friend opposite knows something more of the county of Bute than I do, and perhaps he knows other instances similar to that which I will mention to the House. At an election at Bute, not beyond the memory of man, only one person attended the Meeting, except the Sheriff and the Returning Officer. He, of course, took the Chair, constituted the Meeting, called over the roll of freeholders, answered to his own name, took the vote as to the Preses, and elected himself. He then moved and seconded his own nomination, put the question to the vote, and was unanimously returned. Similar events, have, I believe, taken place since. . . I have already stated what the proportion of the constituency in the boroughs is, and for the sixty-six boroughs, the whole number of electors is only 1,440, and they consist of the members of the Town Council, who mutually and reciprocally elect each other. They are renewed indeed every year, but they choose one another. In Glasgow, a city containing 200,000 people, distinguished for their wealth and intelligence, the whole constituency consists of only thirtythree individuals; and should a contest arise, seventeen persons would decide for the whole city. . . . Hansard, Parliamentary Debates (London, 1832), Third Series, VII, 528-530. CHAPTER XVII — IN HANOVERIAN TIMES I 10. The Cloth-market at Leeds (1725) BY DANIEL FRO ROM Aberforth we turned West, and went to Leeds, which is a large, wealthy, and populous Town, standing on the North Side of the River Aire, with great Suburbs on the South Side, and both joined by a stately, strong, Stone Bridge, so large, and so wide, that formerly the Cloth-market was kept upon it; and therefore the Refreshment given the Clothiers by the Inn-keepers (being a Pot of Ale, a Noggin of Pottage, and a Trencher of boil'd or roast Beef, for Twopence) is called the Brigg-shot to this Day. By novelist. Defoe be longed to the period when first recog the press was nized as a force in politics. Through a weekly paper which he established, the Review, he influence. Usually he exerted much acted with but he called himself independent. He tive part in the religious discussions took an ac The Increase of the Manufactures, and of the Trade, soon made the Market too great to be confined to the Brigg; so that it is now kept in the High-street, beginning from the Bridge, and running up North almost to the Market-house, the Whigs, where the ordinary Market for Provisions begins; which also is the greatest of its kind in all the North of England. You may judge of the Plenty of it, when 500 Load of Apples have been numbered by the Mayor's Officers in a Day. But the Cloth-market is chiefly to be admired, as a Prodigy of its Kind, and perhaps not to be equalled in the World. The Market for Serges at Exeter is indeed a wonderful Thing, and the Money returned very great; but it is there only once a Week, whereas here it is every Tuesday and Saturday. Early in the Morning, Tressels are placed in two Rows in the Street, sometimes two Rows on a Side, cross which Boards are laid, which make a kind of temporary Counter on either Side, from one End of the Street to the other. that followed the Revolu tion, and he was impris pilloried on the ground of libel against the church. Of oned and his numer- the best prising Ad ventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, which appeared in 1719, but he wrote much on financial questions, and his Tour through Great Britain, 1724-1725, is The Clothiers come early in the Morning with their Cloth ; and, as few bring more than one Piece, the Market-days being so frequent, they go into the Inns and Public-houses with it, and there set it down. At about Six o'Clock in the Summer, and about Seven in the Winter, the Clothiers being all come by that Time, the Market Bell at the Old Chapel by the Bridge rings; upon which it would surprise a Stranger, to see in how few Minutes, without Hurry, Noise, or the least Disorder, the whole Market is filled, and all the Boards upon the Tressels covered with Cloth, as close to one another as the Pieces can lie longways, each Proprietor standing behind his own Piece, who form a Mercantile Regiment, as it were, drawn up in a that we have. double Line, in as great Order as a Military one. the best general account of the country at that time This extract shows the conditions of trade and, incidentally of manufacture, before the industrial As soon as the Bell has ceased ringing, the Factors and Buyers of all Sorts enter the Market, and walk up and down between the Rows, as their Occasions direct. Some of them have their foreign Letters of Orders, with Patterns sealed on them, in their Hands; the Colours of which they match, by revolution of holding them to the Cloths they think they agree to. When they have pitched upon their Cloth, they lean over to the Clothier, and, by a Whisper, in the fewest Words imaginable, the Price is stated; one asks, the other bids; and they agree or disagree in a Moment. the end of the century. The Reason of this prudent Silence is owing to the Clothiers standing so near to one another; for it is not reasonable, that one Trader should know another's Traffick. If a Merchant has bidden a Clothier a Price, and he will not take it, he may go after him to his House, and tell him he has considered of it, and is willing to let him have it; but they are not to make any new Agreement for it, so as to remove the Market from the Street to the Merchant's House. The Buyers generally walk up and down twice on each Side of the Rows, and in little more than an Hour all the Business is done. In less than half an Hour you will per |