The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-07 00:00:00

mean by It; I was always laying that I trews no man e.sild get la
without money; we were Laughing and jokine toge,hyr.
Do you mean money pAid by the eandidetes? —Yes, the iv what we
w. re timi& ng an,l talking shoot; I mid " I will give anybody 101..,w
and three or tour of them sdal they would seise me.
Ito you mess to say that it is a Mar sr 0: nWoritry that this election
money is prevalent in St. Albans? - Ititt is what I have always been in-
formed.

On former occasion. as well as thief —Tr; I hare known • great
many elections; 1 bare been living there nearly rilztecn years name
July.
Ihd you erer know an eke lon at St. Albans, where there wu not •
tulk of elettuin money I—Nu, I n vet kncw one that I remember.
The candid de who came without it, I euppow, would m.t havebeen
very well reeeired ! Carden wee received very well: I did not
he ar any gnat talk about hie money , I do not knew that h" epenta
Or ging.
We. election money ever called B. Ildnetal tin this lad election,
vreen the wadi...laic!' name happened to be Bell! —No, I never Ileum!
It before.

The nest witness examined was Mr. Baily, respecting
whom he would remark, that he was a pecan of great re-
spectability, and upon whose evidence the committee had
every reason to place great reliance. Ho was asked :
D.d you bear any cony nation then -They were ',peaking about
the election, about the Ue;l.me•al. the otcsirsction was made,
••11‘ete is some of the g inc."
What did you understand by Ded-metal I—The money they had
received from Mr. Bell's t.arty.
Rewired f•r what I —Yoe their entry.

.....
Do you mean ,o say it is a common aubject of notoriety that votes
are bought in St. Alban*? -oertion:r it
Are you aorminteu with St. Al 4 ins -Yen.
How I.mg hive you b en sointai..ti*l with St. Allmitsl-1 have lived
there singe I was about tour years .1.1.
II Awe you Mimeo Other elections! -Ver.
liar it been alma matter of notoriety at other eleeti.,na, betides
this! -It has also.

Is there arty CVI2IIIOII amount that Is antorloue u the prioe or •
vote t lire pounds was StAttai that night in the bar where :his man
!toward war, and it was general y unfit tstoori hr en cc one in
the room that he had receiced .11. ; I can glee pu another instmoc.
It lea nutoridtm thing that money I. given f etc. In :it. ApmnaT
It bk. If the evmmitteo will allow me 1 will state what one of the
partses stated to me.
Is W. the standard !—Fir • pounds was generally undcr,tood to be
the standar I for a vote then.
. . .

la It ever leen? -When thcre nn money of the nth. r 4,ie, it will
go (lowa as low as 21. or 31., nnivornetiv.en to VP,
. .

a it is a oicomori and no:arious too that at this and former el-ctions
bilbery has reuil.l In the town! Certainly it is; there is not a
voter that can deity it.

Hie must ask the house to turn back to
1811, and to the proceedings which took place
before a committee which then sat. Then, no now, there
had been a contested election at St. Albano, and Lord '
' Listuwel was the successful candidate. Mr. Edwards, who
had figured so much in this Cast', had also considerable
notoriety in 1811. In that case, too, general twittery was
alleged ; but when the committee were on the point
of obtaining conclusive evidence the parties, who
wcnre ontprcompromise,compromise,ly.,
anda luA Jurtte
withdrawn. ,vicLamic,he tlb
jecoat
compromise,uf the committee was thus frustrated, hut they made a
special report to the house, and asked leave to lay on the
n thei petitil i. w
table the evidence which they hail taken. P news then
ran high; and though there was a good deal of di:eussion
no further inquiry took place. With regard to the ques-
tion whether there ought in this case to be an inquiry, ho
thought the house ought is he bound by tho recommen-
dation of the committee, though übjectiuns ought be urged
agaiust the species of inquiry which he proposed. In
the Sudbury case, the cammiaioners reported the
existence of bribery ; and upon that, a bill of disfranchise-
ment passed both lionses. That precedent, being perfectly
ontistitetory in its results, ought now to bo followed. As
n earliest bribery, there could be but one opinion as to the
necessity of checking it ; and the interference of the house
in this CAW might have that effect, at all events in St. Al-
Isms, where bribery had existed fur a number of years.
The hon. member concluded by moving for leave to bring
in a bill for appointing commissioners to inquire into the
existence of bribery in the borough of St. Alcune.
The motion having been seconded,
Mr. COBDEN rose to move the amendment of which
he had given notice, to 04141 to the motion the words' and
of bribery, treating, and corruption, in the Falkirk district
t burgh..." Ile said he relies...eta...a a Italy of electors of
Falkirk, whose petition he had present, 0, praying that in
any inquiry into other pewee, the district of the Falkirk
burghs might he included. That petition stated that, en
the day of polling, ql spirit shops were opened in the in-
terest of the sitting member (Mr. B aird) ; the consequence
wee frightful scenes of debauchery and intoxication; and a
riot was threatened, which rendjred it necessary to call in
the aid of the military. The petition, signed by four elec-
tors, had been withdrawn without their knowledge. If
this had been done on account of the possible expense,
that was an additional reason fur entertaining the qua-
the Provost of Falkirk, expressing the general disap-
pointment now. lie (Mr. Cobden) had received a letter from
and surprise of the electors on the withdrawal
of the petition, and stating that be had never witnessed
Up to 1811, the character of these burghs, like that of most
such scenes of dissipation na took place at the last election.
other Scotch burghs, had been unimpeachable in point of
political morality. In lfifl, when the brother of the sitting
member was the candidate, those malpractices had
begun ; but they had been generally confined
to the borough of Airdrie, which was mainly
dependant on the very ext miive iron-works, the property
of the sitting member and his brother. In HOG Mr. Baird
resigned his oat, and Lord Lincoln became a candidate.
Ile was opposed by Mr. Wilson; and at that election tho
malpractices, which had been confined to Airdrie alone, ex-
tends(' to other of the burghs. In 1817, at the general elec-
tion, Lunt Lincoln stood again, and was opposed by Mr.
Boyd ; and then those scenes of dissipation and general core
ruption, which hail marked Airdrie at the previous elece
tions, became almost as had iu Falkirk and Hamilton.
Then cane the late contest betwecu Mr. Loch and Mr.
Baird. A competent legal gentleman bad been down to
the burghs, one who was totally unemuected with them,
who had never been in Scotland before, mad he had taken
down, from the lips of individuals there, statements corro-
borating those of the petition. Robert Binnic, in a deposie
thin signed by himself, in the preoence of the provost of the
burgh, stated that be was a grocer and spirit-
dealer at Graham's Town ; that he had always
voted for the liberals, and intruded to doe, at the last elec-
tion ; that on the Friday before the nomination Mr. Rus-
sell, one of Mr. Baird's law agent*, called upon him and
asked him for hi. rot • ; he declined to promise, whereupon
Mr. Russell hinted that he might change hit mind. The
same night a party of Mr. Baird's friends called at his house
and went up stairs. Whilst they were there several work-
ing peo
partsle, nonolectors, came into the bar. Mr. 31aelaren,
one of the pae of Mr. Baird's trends, came down stairs of
his own accord, and seeing the people there desired witness
to give them what they wanted. He gave them drink.
Whilst he was doing so, Mr. Maclaren was continually look-
ing in and nut of the room, and said, " Give them what
they like ; Mr. Baird is rich enough to pay for it." Wit-
ness considered this a salads iit order, and confined to keep
open house till the day of nomination (Tuesday). On tho
preceding Monday night there was a tremendous business
doing. A number of people came and hail supper in
the back room ; John Dick presided. They had bread and
cheese, whiskey, porter, lemonade, and vinegar cordial.
(Laughter.) '1 hey sat eating and drinking all the evening.
They drank a good deal, atilt carried away a good deal.
alaclaren and another were in at the time.Muclaren said,
" Well, Robert, you arc getting nu here famously ; the steam
is getting up; keep them alive. There is not a nicer party
in the town than yours." (Great laughter.) There were
.50 or 60 persons there at the time, though the room would
only seat 25; but they were close packed, some sitting and
seine standing, awl the kitchen also was full. Witness got
them out before twelve o'clock ; eleven WWI his usual
hour of clueing. Many of them were drunk, of course.
The following morning was the nomination. l'euple began
to conic fur drink by six o't lock, and the place was quite
mobbed by half-past six. They came for their " morning,"
a term which hon. members front Scotland would no doubt
understand. (Great laughter.) They had brandy, whisky,
or anything they chose to ask for, the same as the nieht be-
fore. Several got drunk speedily, and he was obliged to
get them away. Some were drunk by eight o'clock or half-
past eight. .Many bad to be carried aw ty. Witness gave
two men a bottle of whisky to assist some of the drunken
ones home, or to see them to a place of safety. (Laughter.)
Several boys, from ten to fourteen years of age, were
tipsy, and swearing in the street. He did not give
them drink, but other people in the town did. Two
fouudry.boys came and diked him to give them drink.
Ile would only read one more extract from the evidence of
a person named Waugh, a grocer and spirit dealer, in
Graham's l'own, a suburb of Falkirk Waugh stated that
on the afternoon of Monday, before the nomination,
M'Laren and M'Cowie ordered hint to provide refresh-
ments, fur which he (SP Laren) would be responsible, for all
who came. lie was to 'give the people plenty to eat and
drink, and not to allow fighting. Two hundred came and
had whisky and brandy and cordials ; in addition he
missed five dozen bottler., which must have been taken
away. They became rather riotous about 10 o'clock, when
he told them he would not giro another mutchkin. He
sent to Mr Potter, but the latter told him to go on and let
them drink. On the Tuesday before the poll, the people
came again and demanded their " mornings." 141' Laren came
again on Wednesday, and witness asked him was he to let
peoplen
t .h. aotn,heeenna any
db
(, more,lwwh fourteenheo
wereg ahel lalon6lasvide (Iry d hrdrunk.
whisky.ke a al
tinaTudhgh ere
Now, he begged gentlemen who laughed to attend tothe
evidence of respectable inhabitants of the borough, who,
much to their honour, had protested against such scenes.
If their example was more frequently followed they would
not have many such political Oomorrahs as Sudbury. Dr.
Harailten, a medical practi'ioner at Falkirk, deposed to
having found two youths lying drunk in the reed on the
night preceding th'e election, in such a situation that they
would have inevitably boon run over had he not removed
them to a piece of safety. On raising them up he asked
one how he came there, and he answered " Oh, there's
open house at Sandy Waugh..." They had another youth
with them not quite so drunk, who assisted them home. He
considered the case ten times worse than that of St. Albans.
There a man was taken into a room and paid 5/. for his
vote ; but here a more demoniacal practice was adopted ;
' for, it being necessary to secure the votes of some publi-
c cans, two hundred individuals were kept in a state of
beastly intoxication to enable those men to cam the price of
their vote. (Hear, hear.) He would not trouble the
, house with any statements about Hamilton, but state
that, with regard to Airdrie, the burgh in which Mr.
Baird lived, and which was mainly indebted for its in-
, creasing population to his immense iron works, it was worms
than anything that could be charged against Falkirk. H
would ask, was it not the duty of capitalists who employed
numbers of the working clames—whether it wail not
their duty to lead them into the paths of virtue and
sebristy P (Hear, hear.) But he was sorry to say that the
wealth and enormous influence of that gentleman's family
had bceu exercised for a very different purpose. Helvetia
mention but one case of bribery, although ten had been
proved, in one of which the Provost was implicated, and in
another the Inspector of Police. (Ileac, hear.) In Airdrie
James Whit/and stated, that having six votes in his family