The Express.
London, England, 1852-03-06 00:00:00

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

mom the Leap Nowa.)
Ir is coming. Me—abers of parliament begin to see
that postponement is impossible, and that thegeneral
election is at hand. However strong their disposi-
tion to avert the event and avoid the issue, they can
no longer refuse to recognise that a dissolution is
imminent. New candidates out of parliament are
issuing addresses; local agents aro beginning to be
active; dissatisfied constituencies are looking out
fur new men ; members are beginning to
be respectful to the free and independent,
and to answer applications for small places
by return of post ; the old whits who warms
his haunches half the day at the clubs, has put on
his top coat and has gone done to visit his consti-
tuents; the young protectionist, who spends the
greater part of his afternoon at Tattersall's and the
best part of his night in the card room at the Tra-
vellers, has written to his steward to look after the
borough and to tell the housekeeper at the hall to
dust the rooms and air them. The newspapers de-
vote a column daily to Election Intelligence," and
we hear in ono quarter how the works in
Deadport harbour, commenced in 817 at the
expense of the Earl of 'Wm.:, are, after being
long suspended, to be immediately proceeded with;
front another, how upon the Marquis of WASHAND•
STAND coining of age all the poor people of the
county were entertained at his expense, together
with the surrounding nobility and gentry; from a
third, how that liberal landowner, Mr. Nl:alienist;
has just munificently remitted ten per cent. of all
his tenants' rents (it not being mentioned that they
were previously twenty per cent. too high) ; front a
fourth, how a large propottion of a constituency in
a small borough has suffered disfranchisement in
consequence of the neglect of some one who had to do
with the lists of voters, and who, being in the adverse
interest, neglected, or, as he alp. " accidentally
omitted" to comply with the provisions of the act of
parliament. Such are the scenes now enacting
among many of those constituencies which adorn our
representative system, and bless the House of Coin-
MUIIS with speechless statesmen.
The elections are likely to be corrupt beyond all
precedent. Any agent in London will tell you that;
and give the best possible reasons why they must
be so. In the first place, a corrupt party are
in power, and that party will know that
they have nothing to expect if they rely upon
opinion, and that their only chance is reliance on
!the pocket. The struggle on which that party are
about to enter is a struggle for existence. To ob-
tain a majority in parliament is nut success 14
their objects, for succeed they cannot: but it
is to them a political existence, whilst with-
out a majority they are at once annihilated.
The private resources of a wealthy proprietary will be
at their command, and they will have, in addition, a
pull at the Exchequer, which is held by hands not
over scrupulous, and from which "secret sp nice
money," two or three years in advance, may be sup-
plied without exposure. In the second place, rind we
regret to say it, these corruptors will too often havo
the opportunity of dealing with corrupt electorate*,
with bodies tit men who have become confirmed in
electioneering vices, and who make a traffic of their
votes as principle, and without any fearof consequences.
For this the oligarchy of the country are responsible,
who have themselves made principles contemptible
by their mode of treating them, who have disgusted
the people with party squabbles, and fed them to
conclude that one man was no better than another,
except as his purse might be the len er. In every
small town there will be found a body of corrupt men
waiting to be bribed; and at the next election we
are very much mistaken if there is not found fur
each such borough sumo one man quite prepared to
bribe them.

Now, it is a proper question for the country to
consider what ought to be done to meet this evil.
There is in every borough in the empire a body of
right thinking and honourable men who feel keenly
the degradation and the injury to which the existing
electioneering system exposes not merely themselves,
but the town in which they live and all the people
with whom they arc associated. We will venture to
say that in the moat abandoned boroughs there are a
knot of honest electors who are anxious to free
themselves from thu reproach. Converse with such
men, and it will be found that coupled with
their lamentations they invariably use one argu-
ment. " What can I do?" is the cry. " I know
that this is going on—l protest against it—l tell the
candidates —I remonstrate with the agents—but I
only get laughed at, and I am obliged, at las', either
to sacrifice my own right as an elector, by refusing
to vote for the man who professes my princi-
ples, or else to give my suffrage to one who is
guilty of corruption." Now, we want to show tho
voters who make use of such reasoning that it is
quite possible for them to advance the cause of
public virtue and morality at the same time that
they maintain, and even improve upon, their own
position. Take the ease of such boroughs as Wey-
mouth, Evesham, Pontefract, or Stafford. It is
notorious that in these places gangs of unprincipled
fellows meet together to sell their votes to the high-
est bidder. They get good prices, for the elections
in these towns are always carried by small majori-
ties—in Weymouth, by one or two; in Pontefract
by ten or twelve. Now, we should like to know why
pure voters should not club together, just as
impure voters do,—making it their principle,
and letting it be known to the candidates,
that they are organised fur the purpose of promoting
electioneering morality, and that they are pledged
to support no candidate who employs corruption as
his agent. Ilalfa-dozen men so organised at Wey-
mouth, twenty men so associated at Pontefract, could
turn the scale, and decide au election. Their sup-
I port would be as much sought as the support of the
corrupt, for it would be equally important, and would
equally influence the result. This consideration would
be no small addition to their importance, and would
operate on the minds of many who, without perhaps
the same strong views, would not be disinclined to
join them. In a short period we cannot doubt that
" Purity of Election Associations" would prove most
effective engines in electioneering warfare, and
would have a most valuable influence on the repre-
sentation of the country.
At a borough in the west of England, very noto-
rious for its corruption, a plan of this sort was some
years ago proposed with very remarkable success. It
is stated that no less than fifty of the most
influential persons in the town—twenty-five of each
of the two parties—associated themselves, under the
presidency of the mayor, for the purpose of putting
a stop to corrupt practices which the atoned to be
the ruin of the borough. This was in 1811. At the
ensuing election (1847) changes occurred which led to
a complete break up of the old associations and party
conuexions of the place—two members prof ssing
the same principles were elected, instead of one on
one side and one on the other, and the association
had consequently no opportunity of exerting any
influence that it might have had. But the very fact
that such a body of men were organised in one of
the most corrupt constituencies of England demon-
strates the possibility of doing the same thing in
other places.
In all towns where corruption is unchecked, it
would, surely, be quite right that a candidate should
offer himself for the purpose of bringing the state of
such a borough under the notice of the legislature.
The very presence of such a candidate would liavo
a salutary effect upon election morals. It would
check both the briber and the bribed. The
expense of prosecuting a petition in such a case
need not be a matter of alarm. In the St. Albans
case, parliament has already established the principle
of taking upon itself the duty of prosecuting the
I inquiry where a
„tiriisa fireie case can be made out;
' and by local investigation on the spot, thus promoted
rongd ec
nu
rt rnu
'pe t wn
s°,
and, by exposing, end them.
agents so
fbuctkleilioindependent
It is in the firm conviction that measures of this
shalnot lbygeiltitactresthteedboagetto
sort would do much not only to check electioneering
profligacy but to promote the great object of parlia-
imentury reform, that we offer these suggestions to
those who are just now receiving the advances of
'polite and accommodating candidates.

A DAHRALTY, MARCH S.—APPOrNTMENTS—Second
Masttr W. Shellabecr. to North Star. Acting Assist.int-
gunmen D. Wilson, to l'ayphemui. Assistant Engineers:
J. Dell, to Sampson; and I. March, to Torch.

MiDLIND UNION AND ASHBY DE LA ZOLTH
R‘lLWAY.—Yesterday, the Master in Chancery Tinney
proceeded with the settlement of the list of the managing
committee, who signed the registration consent to net, and
attended meetings at which contracts were entered into.