The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-18 00:00:00

ELECTORAL REFORM.

The bill promised by Sir FrrzaoY KELLY for regu•
lating the practice at the elections of members to
er.ve. in Parliament, to prevent bribery, corruption,
intimidation, and undue influence at such elections,
and to diminish their expense, was introduced by the
lion. gentleman on Thursday. He then argued that
experience had shown the increase of the constituent
body to be no safeguard against corruption, and that
the ballot would probably prove as little efficacious.
The means to which he looked for suppressing this
great evil were to be considered as regarded the
candidates, the agents, and the electors. First, he
proposed to appoint a public officer at every election
—a person of character, knowledge, and probity—to
whom all moneys intended for expenditure on ac-
count of election must be handed over by the can-
didate, by whom all claims for election expenses
must be paid, with the view of preventing any money
being appropriated through indirect channels for
illegal or corrupt purposes, and who should have the
whole management and control of the expenses of
the election. The candidate would be required to
swear that he had made no payments on account of
his election to any other person. He proposed that
this election officer should be a barrister, appointed
by the judges, as the revising barristers were. If
the source were stopped at once and for ever on the
part of the candidate, bribery would soon die out of
itself, and a few agents would be found to give their
time and services at elections. The candidate was
to declare to the election officer the names of th'
agents employed by him, and no others were to be
admissible. These agents also must take an oath
before the election officer, in conformity with that
taken by the candidate, with regard to all funds
placed in their hands, whether proceeding from
clubs, subscriptions, or other sources. Expenditure
for processions, music, and the like, was to be pro-
hibited. The bill further contained a series of pro-
visions for enabling the electors to give their votes by
means of voting papers, accompanied by safeguards
against fabrication, mutilation, and fraud. This
would get rid of all the tumult, agitation, and vio-
lence, often attended with danger to human life,
heretofore prevailing ; so that the voter might, if
necessary, give his vote at home. It would further
save the vast sums now expended for the conveyance
of voters, which at county elections often amounted
to 4,0001. or 5,0001., and opened an unlimited door to
corruption. The evil of intimidation and undue in-
fluence would in like manner be mitigated, if
not altogether remedied, by the machinery he
proposed. The giving of the vote should consist
in the act of signing the voting paper, and the
declaration therein contained, which was then to
be delivered to some competent person for trans-
mission to the returning officer. For this purpose
the magistrates of the county or town would sit at
fixed places, for three or four days after the nomina-
tion, to receive and transmit the voting papers. By
this plan, even in the most numerous consutuencies,
the greater part of the votes would be given at an
early period of the election, without pressure or
inconvenience. He had proposed the measure with-
out reference to party considerations, and with the
view of giving freedom and security to that part of
our constitution on which the liberties of the people
and the well-being of the empire depended.
Col. SIBTFIORP expressed an invariable dislike to
every proposition which aggravated the meanness
already too prominent in the transaction of business
at elections. The measure would besides prove
utterly futile when it came to be worked.
The Arroluiri. GENERAL, as the exponent of Minis-

149

terial intentions, announced that they would not
oppose the introduction of the bill, whose object
they deemed worthy of deliberate consideration.
Mr. HUME found some fault with the working
details of the measure. He hoped that the time
would come when elections would not cost the can-
didates a farthing, and when expense would no
longer place a barrier in the way of any class of
representatives. _ _

After a few words from Mr. Baszimar, leave was
given to bring in the bill.
TESTAMENTARY REFORM.
The state of the law regarding wills and testa-
ments was brought before the Peers by the Loan
CHANCELLOR on Thursday, who, at the same time,
laid on the table a bill for amending the code in this
respect. He commenced by making a voluminous
exposh of the evils which, in his opinion, were in-
herent in the existing system of jurisdiction in the
ecclesiastical courts :

" In the first place, there was no reason, except old
custom, ratified by statute in the reign of King Edward 1.,
that the ecclesiastical courts should have jurisdiction
over wills more than over any other kind of deeds ; hut,
even supposing this objection in theory to have been over-
come, the practical inconver.ience of the present system,
under which no less than RNIS different tribunals had juris-
diction over wills, rendered an alteration in the law abso-
lutely necessary. Again, in the present state of the law, when
the cognisance of devises of real estate belonged to the
temporal tribunals, and that of bequests of personalty
appertained exclusively• to the ecclesiastical courts, a
conflict of law might occur, and one half of a will might
be declared valid in one court and invalid in another.
Many attempts had been made to remedy this state of
things, and reports had been made by various commissions
on the subject. The latest, which had just delivered its
report, recommended the abolition of the existing Prero-
gative Court, and the transfer of its jurisdiction to a new
court of probate, which should be a temporal, sod not an
ecclesiastical tribunal. With the recommendation for
abolishing the Prerogative Court of Csuiteibury he en-
tirely agreed, but not with that for erecting a new court,
as he thought the public interest would be best served by
vesting the whole contentious jurisdiction of wills in the
Court of Chancery. With the right of the proctors to
deal with the common-form business, as it was called,
which constituted ninety-nine hnndreths of the business of
the Prerogative Court, he did not at present propose to
interfere ; but the contentious business arising out of cases
in which a will was disputed, and which did not, it ap-
peared, amount to more than sixty days' work in the year,
he proposed to transfer to Chancery, and to throw open to
its practitioners, for the simple reason that it seemed un-
necessary to erect a new court to do so little work."
His plan, then, was to transfer the whole machinery
of the Prerogative Court to Chancery, and to give
the proctors the exclusive transaction of non-con-
tentious business for a limited time. He also pro-
posed to allow probate of wills in the country up to
1,5001., and to extend probates to real estate as well
as to personalty. The noble lord then la►d the bill
on the table.

Lords BROUGHAM and CAMPBELL expressed their
approval of the bill. Lord Sr. LEONARD'S also gave a
qualified adhesion, but disapproved of the proposel
for extending probate to real property.
Leave was g►ven, and the bill read a first time.

SUCCESSION TO REAL PROPERTY.

Leave to bring in a bill to amend the laws of suc-
cession to real property in cases of intestacy was
moved on Tuesday by Mr. L. KING. The hon. mem-
ber detailed many instances of anomaly and possibi-
lities of injustice existing under the present system,
and indicated, as the principle which he wished to
embody in his measure, a graduated distribution of
property not bequeathed by will among all the chil-
dren of the deceased possessor. This principle he
enforced by many arguments and illustrations tend-
ing to show the inexpediency of the law of primo-
geniture, whose origin he traced to the darkest ages
of feudalily, and whose consequences, he declared,
resulted in perpetuating an injurious and wasteful
monopoly of land.
The motion was supported by Mr. HADFIELD and
Mr. BRIGHT.
Lord J. RUSSELL having reserved his opinion of
the measure until it reached a more advanced stage,
leave was given to bring in the bill.
THE EASTERN QUESTION.
After several postponements, on account of Minis-
terial convenience, or to allow time for considering
the voluminous report so lately presented on the sub-
ject, the Marquis of CLANRICARDE, on Tuesday night,
fulfilled his intention of reviewing minutely the con-
duct of the Government in relation to the long-pend-
ing controversy between Russia and Turkey, and
invited the Peers to discuss the question in all its
bearings. The noble lord introduced the topic in
the shape of a formal motion for an address to the
Crown asking for more papers. He then commenced
a searching analysis of those already before the
house, declaring at the outset that his cause of quar-
rel with the Government was, not that they had de-
layed engaging in war, but that they had adopted
measures which necessarily resulted in hostilities,
and now, when hostilities were impending, showed a
want of the vigour and determination indispensable