Excerpt from The Dying Boroughs: Episodes From the Parliamentary History of the Towns to Be Extinguished by the Redistribution Bill

The new allocation of Parliamentary representation will not leave any of the i etoughs in the county 0 Cornwalljuntouched, but w ill sweep away from the roll of constituencies all but one. This one - the (em. Posits borough of t'saryn and l'aimoutlr-preser es its individuality through the actzon of the first Reform Bill, whi: h joined together the tac places for voting purl oses, and so brings the number of inhabitants in the constituency above the m nirunat qualification for posse-s ng one mice at St. Stephen's. Two no sit for the dual borough. But te distribution dooms one honourable member to find his occupation gone. Though thus the t'ornislr men will have henceforth to cont-nt themselves with shiral representation, excepting in th s sol t try surviving borough, there was a time, far ba'k =n the good old days, when cl- etions were event-1 whi. H stirred up all the country s dc for many a month, when Cornwall played apart in the making up of'l'arlia. Meats far exceeding in importance that of many a much more densely-pepulatezl distnc'. After Grand Councils, sitting irregularly here and there up and down the land at moments of emergency had given 511100 to the leginnings of our present system of fixed l'arliamcnts, there was hardly a town in the tin-mine county but blossomed into a borough, and quickly the representation ran up until two members each were summoned for no less tuan twenty-seven httle places within the con fines oi the Cornish boundary. This anomal which advancing justice has gradually alleviat now stands within sight of final e (tint-tion. N earl all these petty boroughs owed their birth as 'em to the circumstance that, in the Plantagenet period, Crown property and power gave the King paramount influence in this corner of his dominion, and, as Wilkes en cc remarked, the sovereign by inviting every ('ornish village to send representatives to the House of Commons, procured a Parliament picked with his own creatures, ready at all times to give effect to his behests. So it was that the first Edward initiated in ('ornwall such a system of representation as has had no parallel elsewhere in the kingdom. Not a ew of these bogus boroughs, such as b'ottreaux Castle, (jrotthole, Killiamptona Millbreok, l'adstow, and l'eituan, gradually died of inanition: tor the burgesses themselves ceased to exercise the franchise from sheer indifference to things of state, or appreciating the burlesque in which they were engaged, surrendered their privilege voluntarily and without regret. Even as near toour time as the passing of the first Reform Bill, however, we find bodtlzin, bossingey, Callington, ameli'ord, Fowey, Grampound, Helston, Laun ceston, Liskeard, the two Looes, East and \vest, Lestwitldei, Newport, I'enryn, St. Germans, St. Ives, St. Mawes, St. Michael, raltash, Tregony. And Truro returning members to tarliament. W hen qualification began to be considered on the basis of the relative importance of constituencies, of course the bulk of these boroughs soon had their death kuell tolled; and to-day we find but seven of them still in a Parliamentary sense alive. The doom of six of these has now ieen sounded, as we have already shown. 'lhe Cornish boroughs stand ing on the brink of the grave are Bodmin, Helsttm, launceston, liskeard, St. Ives, and Truro; and it is with these we have chiefly now to deal.

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