The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 4, 1857.

NOTICES OF MOTION.
MONDAY.

The Earl of ALBEMaRLIt that in consequence of the news
from India he should pcstpone the presentation of the petition
trout the King and Royal Family of Owls, which he had intended
to present on Friday.

THURSDAY.

Mr. Ricaano—that he should, oa the earliest opportunity,
call the attention of the house to the subject of granting a
drawback of duty on paper in the pottery manufacture, as in the
case of the Jacquard loom cards.

THE SLIGO ELECTION.
(From our own Correspondent.)
DUBLIN, Thursday Evening.
THE Four Courts have been all life and bustle this
week with the case of the Mayor of Sligo and his
audacious corruption. It appears that this worthy
made a resolve at the last election that a Liberal
candidate should be returned at all costs and by all
means. He accordingly appointed deputies and
poll clerks whom he could command, whose con-
sciences were ductile, and whose memories were
inaccurate, to carry out his design. Mr. Ball, late
Under-Secretary for the Colonies, retired on the
Sunday night before the nomination, because he dis•
covered that he could only obtain success by the
disreputable artifices which he saw were being pre-
pared. Forthwith appears Mr. J. P. Somers, and in
him the mayor did not find the scruples which
abashed Mr. Ball. A large dinner party was given
that night at his house, at which Mr. Somers was
present, his precious deputies, poll clerks, and town
clerk, and all the leading politicians on that side.
At this dinner, as the mayor simply observed in cross
examination during the trial, "we all agreed to have
Mr. Somers as our candidate "! The mayor corn•
menced his strange course by proposing as an
assessor a man, personally hostile to Mr. Wynne, and
notoriously friendly to Mr. Somers. This was
naturally opposed by Mr. Wynne's agent, who said
that except Mr. Preston, the individual aforesaid,
any gentlemen at the Irish Bar would be acceptable
to him, and he included Mr. Harkyn, a private friend
of the mayor, and a gentleman of undoubted in-
tegrity. The mayor, however, was pertinacious in
insisting upon nominating Mr. Preston, and when he
found this would not do, he refused to have an
assessor at all.

The way in which the thing was to be done was
very original and unique. The poll-clerks brought
their books with all the electors' names written out in
full, the law prescribing that nothing but the condi •
dates' names should be written, and these were
omitted altogether; so that some time after the poll
opened it was found that votes were entered in the
two columns, but there was no name at the head of
them to show for whom they were recorded. The
intention obviously was, if this had not been noticed,
to leave the putting in of the candidates' names to
the mayor and his confederates, and they, of course,
would have known how to arrange the matter to their
satisfaction and Mr. Somers. You will say this is
increeible, but it is all strictly true, and has been
proved, with a great deal more I am about to tell
you, in a court of justice. The poll had not been
open very long before it was discovered that votes
tendered for Mr. NVyrne were being deliberately
entered for his opponent. The mayor was appealed
to. He satisfied himself with telling the poll clerk
"to behave better "! This was about eleven o'clock
a.m. The next mode of defeating Mr. Wynne
rescrted to was the rejection of votes offered for him
on the ground that they were the votes of " paid
agents." It was in vain the persons so disfranchised
remonstrated and expostulated. The mayor said he
would hear the question argued later in the day, and
the votes were ignored. It was one of the electors
so treated, a Mr. Sedley, who brought the action
against the mayor for wilfully, maliciously, and cor•
ruptly depriving him of his franchise.
Well, to proceed with this marvellous history, Mr.
Wynne's agents found that the poll•clerks were at
their forgery again, and reported it to the mayor.
Upon this the :nob set up a shout that freedom of
election was being violated. After a pause a man
rushes in, by name Simpson, and asks if his vote
he had tendered for Mr. Somers had been recorded
correctly. Immediately a search is made, and it is
said the name had beet omitted. Of course then
the err .r was rectified. But will your readers
believe that it came out at the trial upon inspection
of the poll books that this was all sham and hypo-
crisy, for it so happened that the ordinsry stroke in-
dicating the vote was found on one side of a very
black stroke, made when Simpson appeared ? so that
it was proved that the mayor removed the forging
poll-clerk and took to himself the credit and virtue of
so doing upon a case made to suit his purpose. And
even this was not done until half-past three p.m.,
when the voting was virtually over !

In addition to the rejection of Mr. Wynne's voters
as paid agents, electors were sent back becanee
they were alleged to be drunk, it being obvious they
were quite sober, and thee it. turned out these
drunken men, who were too intoxicated to vote for
Mr. Wynne, had all voted fur Mr. Somers !
The Act of Parliament, you will know, enjoins
upon the deputies the asking two questions to the
elector—lst, "Are you the person described " ; 2nd,
" Have you voted before? " The identity of the name
is not required ; but the mayor's deputies, as soon
as they knew a man came up to support Mr. Wynne,
tried to find some word mis-spelt, or name mis-
pronounced, and summarily rejected the vote!
At 4.30 p.m., half an hour before the poll closed,
the mayor said to Mr. Wynne's agent he should
hear no arguments as to the rejection of voters on
various grounds ; he believed he had no right to
interfere with the acts of his deputies (having, as
he stated with a virtuous air, done this very
thing in the Simpson case!), and that he was pre-
pared to abide by those acts.
On the following morning the poll-books are
brought into court, and the seals broken. Instead
of the reckoning going on in open court, as the law
enjoins, the mayor and his deputies, &c., retire to
a private room, where in adding up 294 votes they
spent more than two hours! Mr. Mostyn, agent for
Mr. Wynne, happened to get into the secret chamber
where they were at work; a rush was made to keep
him out, not knowing who he was. As soon as this
awkward discovery was made, he was apologised to
and invited to come in.

I need not say that with this complicated ma-
chinery at work the mayor triumphed at the time,
the numbers being, according to his account, for
Mr. Somers, 150; Mr. Wynne, 144. To whom the
majority of right and truth belongs will be under-
stood when it is known that besides four paid agents
rejected, and six or seven votes fraudulently trans-
ferred from Mr. Wynne to Mr. Somers, there were
three or tour actual forgeries of votes for Mr. Somers
of men who never came to the booths at all! This
was the object of having the names all written out,
instead of their being entered as each elector pre-
sented himself; the forgery of an entire name,
address, qualification, &c., would take time, might be
observed, and would be in a handwriting which
could be identified, and connected with the fraud !

The jury, as you will have anticipated, found a
verdict for the plaintiff on all the issues, awarding
him 1001. damages for his deprivation of the fran-
chise. The mayor now stands in a truly enviable
position as a man of honour and honesty ! His
name is M‘Gowan, and it will give Sligo an immor-
tal infamy in the annals of electioneering corruption.
But how stands Mr. J. P. Somers, ALP. for Sligo—
Lord Palmerston's bosom friend, as he boasted, who
c could not only ask, but command favours Those
who want to know what a Palmerstonian does when
he is hard-pressed should read the account of his
breaking into a man's house to compel him to vote,
using him violently when he refused, and forming
part of a mob who tired into the window opened by
the aforesaid J. P. Somers ! Those who desire to
estimate the veracity of a Palmerstonian should read
a letter written to the Times some weeks since,
declaring the allegations of its leader upon the Sligo
election tD be utterly false and malicious (each of
your contemplrary's charges being fully verified),
and signed J. P. Somers !
I understand it was John Sadleir who introduced
the practices at which the Mayor of Siigo has become
such an adept.
Mr. Whiteside and Mr. M'Donagh conducted the
plaintiff's case, the defendant being represented by
Mr. Fitzgibbon and Mr. 0' Hagan.
I understand evidence is being manufactured in
the Dublin cases at a large cost of money.

There will be a great field-day for the Bar at
Wexford in the important ease of " Boyse and itaSs-
borough." All the most eminent members of the
Irish Bar are engaged.

THE NUMBER OF DIVORCES (d vinculo nicarimonii)
granted by Act of Parliament since the Reformation
1.317. The first granted was in 1540, the next in
1551, and none from that time to 1670. Another
passed in 1890, and from 1098 to 1750 there appears
to have been one passed at intervals averaging about
three years. Since 1752 but eight sessions have
passed without a divorce being granted, the last
being that of 1818. The year in which the largest
number took place was 1799 ',lO divorces) ; 1796
(9) ; 1839, 1840, and 1842 (8 each) ; 1772, 1849,
1850 (7 each) ; 1778, (6) ; and 1778, 1703, 1797,
18,35, 1841, 1843, and 1855 (5 each). Only one
divorce was granted in 1852, and two each in 1817,
1851, and 1856. The number of Scotch " Decreets"
of divorce during the last ten years was 174, of which
99 were at the instance of the husband, and 75 at
suit of the wife. A parlirmentary paper published
tins week (on the motion of Sir Erskine Perry)
gives these particulars.

648

Sortign 6orresponbentr.

FLORENCE, June 27.
WE reviewed in our las► the income of the Grand
Duchy, and the mode of assessing and levying the
taxes. We shall now call attention to the expendi-
ture, its excess over revenue, and to the national
deut. The present Grand Duke, Leopold IL, found
the duchy, on the death cf his father, Ferdinand
HI., in 1824, in a highly prosperous state ; not only
was there no debt, but the treasury contained a sum
of 30,000,000 lire over and above expenditure.
Thirty-three years Lave worked a sad change, and
the balance-sheet now shows a public debt of
100,000,000 lire, anti an excess of expenditure over
receipts of not less than one-third of the total
revenue. (It is true that the bilancio for 1857 now
before us states that the inco:nings and outgoings
balance each other, hit thin is most untrue, as the
works at the port of Leghorn and the draining of the
marshes of Bientins are not included, the expenses
there being enormous, and without the slightest pro-
bability of ever proving remunerative.) The dis-
turbed state of Europe in 1848, and the flight of the
Grand Duke from his dominions, produced, no doubt,
disastrous effects on the well-being and financial
prosperity of the duchy. For the moment trade was
paralysed, confidence destroyed, the State machinery
stood still, or was worked by inexperienced hands,
the tide of strangers with open hands and well-
stocked purses advanced no more, and all was con-
fusion, embarrassment, and distrust. The following
year, however, saw the Grand Duke recalled volun-
tarily by bis subjects, order re established, trade
reinvigorated, and the flow of travel once again
setting towards the shores of Tuscany. Came
prosperity also in the train? No; for 12,000
Austrian soldiers accompanied the Grand Duke, and
from 1849 until 1853 was the maintenance of this
' force at the charge of Tuscany—an expense so
onerous as mainly to have caused the public debt
above alluded to, to have doubled the imposts, and to
have materially affected the social state and material
welfare of every inhabitant of the duchy. It is not
our purpose to enter upon the question of the
Austrian occupation, or the policy pursued during
the eventful seven years 1840 55. Much is matter
of history—much more is, and probably ever will
remain, enveloped in mystery. Our province is to
draw attention to the present—the actual state of
things existing. We find expenditure in excess of
income, and we find a considerable public debt.
The two great requirements of the Government
are fur the army and public works. The former, as
at present constituted, draws annually between
8,000,000 and 9,000,000 lire; the latter demand
3,04/0,000 more. The pensionati (pensioners), civil
and military, and the impieguti (employe:), require
in the aggregate a very considerable sum, as will be
readily believed when we state that the civil pen-
sioners alone amount to 1,300.
Prior to the year 1851, every Government employk
could, cn proving that the state of his health pre-
cluded his continuing to fulfil the duties of his office,
retire on a lite pension equal to his actual pay, and
his wife, or immediate relative, would on his death
receive for her, or his life, one thud of that amount.
Such liberal regulations swelled the list of pensionati
to such vast proportions, that the charge became too
onerous fur the cuuntiy, and since 1851 it has been
enacted that no impiegati can retire on full pension
until afte, thirty years' service; in cases of retire-
ment before such term be duly completed, the pen-
sion to be regulated according to length of service.
Notwithstanding this wise provision, the impiegati and
pensionati still devour a large portion of the State
resources. Every one in Tuscany, from highest to
lowest. seeks to obtain a position as impiegati.
The national defects are indolence and itnprovi
deuce. Private enterprise is almost unknown.
Medicine and the law afford occupation for but a few—
independent means suffice for a still more limited
number; whilst the mass remain scarcely provided
with the necessaries of life—drones to be !ed from the
honey contained in the national hive. Some few of these
naturally contri bete to increase the store, but they are
but as units; whilst the drain steadily continues, *did
the pressure upon the active and struggling is yearly
more severe.
The maintenance of the army amounts, as we
have already stated, to a sum of between 8,000,000
and 9.000.000 lire. it is believed that an increase
will shortly be made to t:iis sum, large as it IS. The
Grand Duke has declined to pay any longer out of
his privy purse the Palace Guards ( Anziani), or the
Guardia Nobile, a body of very smartly dressed gen-
tlemen, who take part in all state processions and
line the staircases and lobbies of the Palace on
occasions of levees and balls. The former corps
numbers sixty, ranking as non-commissioned officers,

THE PRESS, JULY 4, 1857.

latter are all gentlemen, and numbers twenty-nine,
their grooms, attendants, dc., making up a total of
about sixty. These two corps have been hitherto at
the charge of the Grand Duke, whose privy purse
amounts to 90,0001. sterling per annum—a liberal
sum, when we consider that those he rules do not
exceed in number two-thirds of the population of
London. The country requiring neither Anziani nor
Guard, it has been determined to incorporate them
with the regular army, but as both present them-
selves in the most expensive form—namely, as
officers and non-commissioned officers—it is little
probable that this transfer of liabilities will be made
without additional charges to the burdens borne by
the people. The Grand Duke simply relieves him.
self of an expensive and useless body of men, and
the authorities must make the best of the bargain.
General Ferrari, the Commander-in.Cluef of the
Tuscan Army, was lately extremely anxious to raise
another battalion of the line. Indeed as recruits
they have been raised ; but Bahiasseroni. the Prime
linister, opposed so warmly the general's project,
pointing out the extreme hardship these incessant
drafts of men inflict upon the country, mid a
population so essentially agricultural, that for the
moment the project is dropped, and the recruits
have been drafted into the several regiments to
replace discharged or invalided men. We must not
look, then, for retrenchment as regards the army
estimat's. Shall we make up deficiencies by less
expenditure on public works? A few hours passed
in the streets and environs of Fiorence would lead us
to anticipate but small relief there. During the last
three years very large Rums have been expended
on the public edifices both by the Government and
by the Communita. In estimating this outlay, the
difficulty we mentioned above meets us, and prevents
us from arriving at a trite and reliable conclusion as
to its effects on the public interests. The Govern
ment have the charge and maintenance of all
Government buildings. The Communita care for
streets, monuments, and the national edifices. Both
Government and Communita have been and are
spending profusely ; and both have made and are
making heavy debts—which debts must and will in
both instances be paid by the people. Heavier
taxes on land and property, and increased tassa di
jamiglia, must be levied ; and it may fairly be
questioned whether the renovated architectural
beauties of the Bargello (the Newgate of Florence)
can be regarded as in any degree a compensation
for decreased comforts, increased miser•, and accu-
mulating crime in town anti country—a social state
which recruits but too plentifully the ranks of those
who fill, even to overflowing, the foul cells of the
palatial prison. J. W.

lortign anb (Colonial .Intelligtntt.

INSURRECTION IN ITALY.

The Paris telegraph announces that an insur-
rection has been attempted and suppressed at
Leghorn and Naples. The conspiracy is said to
have been first discovered at Genoa, where forty
persons were arrested :

l'swis, July 2.
Revolutionary movements took place this morning at
Leghorn and Naples.
In both places the attempts were put down imme-
diately.

Timm, July 2.
The insurrectionary attempt at Leghorn has been put
down.

The steamer Cagliari, which had left Genoa for Tunis,
fell into the hands of the insurgents, who attacked the
Island of Pews, belonging to the Ne.tpolttan Govertnnent,
and set ut liberty the persons imprisoned there.
The insurgents, with the released prisoners, then landed
at Sapri. in the loser province.
Some Neapolitan frigates captured the steamer Cagliari,
and the royal troops punned the insurgent band.
The pol.tical prisoners who escaped from the Island of
Ponza were about three hundred in number. In conjuitc.
lion wil h the insurgents front on board the Cagliari,they
Attacked the Neapolitan gendarmerie in the province of
Salerno, but were dispersed, and many of them taken.
The remainder fled.

The British fleet was expected at Spezzia on the
4th instant.

FRANCE.

The Emperor and EinpriTssWill visit her Majesty
Queen Victoria at Osbornelin the month of August.
The Imperial guests will extend their visit to
Manchester.

General Cavaignac, as also M. Emile 011ivier and
M. Darimon, will be the Opposition candidates in
the third, fourth, and seventh districts of Paris for
the second elections, which will be held on Sunday
and Monday next. The Government nominees are
the same as before MAL Thibaut, Vade, and
Lanquetin.
Al. and Mme. de Morny have arrived in Paris.
The intelligence from Algeria continues to be
favourable. Some hard fighting at Beni•Jeni, on
the tz4th, resuhed in the defeat of the Kabyle tribe,
hough at severe cost,. The new road through
Kabylia is opened.

aruis“ •a, 111/lit:II 11l 2
find enjoying pay and perquisites in proportion. The I Kabylia is of
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