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     A small Hampshire borough, which has not witnessed a contest for its representation for nearly thirty years, is about to be called upon to return a new member to Parliament on account of Sir WILLIAM JOLLIFFE having been created peer by the title of Lord Hylton. The services by which the new peer earned his title were given to the Conservative party in 1858-9, in the position of Treasury Secretary, and by a general support of Derbyite tactics for many years. Sir WILLIAM JOLLIFFE contested the borough 1832, 1834, and 1837, and sat for it during a part of that period. His opponent in the latter contests was the family steward, who had been accustomed to wield the influence of the JOLLIFFE family in the borough, and was able to divert it in his own favour. Since the first election of this reign SIR WILLIAM JOLLIFFE has held the seat without opposition; and, having remained true to the doctrine of protection to agriculture, was chosen a member of both of the former Derbyite Administrations, and to the last of the two was attached as that most important official the Treasury whip. To the party in opposition, Sir WILLIAM JOLLIFFE has latterly ceased to act in this delicate capacity, being succeeded by the member for Dublin county, who has now acquired all the emoluments and authority of the office.
The House of Commons loses in Sir WILLIAM JOLLIFFE one of the few members who possessed a little parliamentary experience of the period before the Reform Act of 1832. He sat for the borough for several years before that change, and his family have long monopolised the borough influence. The electors have decreased in number, and are only a few hundreds, and the borough would have been joined to one or two others had Mr. GLADSTONE’s Reform Bill been carried. But it has now an opportunity of returning a candidate without any encroachment upon its well-preserved, although greatly-abused rights. It ought to be the last occasion upon which a small borough of decaying influence should be allowed to send a representative, and perhaps any attempt to prevent a Conservative nominee from succeeding Lord HYLTON will be quite ineffectual. On the occasion of the last contest, however, the Liberal candidate gained the seat on petition. An aspiring Reformer might even now, perhaps, if not immediately successful, be able to gain a footing which would assist in carrying th group. It is an occasion which ought not to be lost, and any degree of success would be a useful triumph.
The late member for Petersfield was rather a liberal Derbyite, although he voted generally with his party and against Reform. His son, the present member for Wells, has also been lately a very constant voter at divisions. Two votes upon recent occasions have been of some consequence, and the result of the family support is a Derbyite peerage, and the accession probably of a younger and more vigorous supporter of the Ministry, or possibly the attainment of a seat for the defeated Lord Advocate.
     We have, in the history of this borough, an instance of the manner in which benched of the House of Commons are often filled. Since 1837 no attempt has been made to dispute the possession of the seat for Petersfield by its patron the newly-created Lord HYLTON. For five and twenty years the electors of Petersfield have never been called upon to exercise their rights. No one ventured to intrude within the limits of the borough, and Sir WILLIAM JOLLIFFE was, in fact, all we knew of Petersfield, so far as its electoral rights were concerned. There are many other instances of the same kind, and one of them will it is said, be similarly illustrated by the results of the East Suffolk election. The member for the small borough of Eye has for generations been a KERRISON, but the present head of that family intends, it is said, to give up the quiet bu inglorious seat, and seek the honours of the county representation. This close borough will, however, probably remain as stagnant in its devotion to the proprietor of Broome Hall as if that gentleman could do it the honour of personally representing it. The KERRISON family have probably some promising heir or relative to return for the borough, or a Government nominee may be seated with the prospect of a peerage for the proprietor in return. Thus two of the impending elections illustrate the system upon which at present the House of Commons is filled with mere nominees rather than with the representatives of popular constituencies. The borough of Eye has, indeed, even a smaller population than the Hampshire constituency which has been mentioned as an example, as it does not possess, along with the included rural district, 3,000 inhabitants. In Eye there has never been even an attempt at opposition to its patron’s return for at least thirty-five years. We do not require to search for such curious specimens of borough nomination, but they turn up on every hand. And yet we are told that the country is to to be contented to jog on with the Parliamentary system debased and falsified by such shams of free electoral action. …