The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-10 00:00:00

THE ST. ALBANS ELESSION DICTION AND THI
COMMILL.

(nen tae AA* Ni.'.)
The St. Albans commission bill has been approved
by a mijority of 51 to 10. The Holies of COMMOUS
has evinced a decent sense of duty as regards the
fundamental principles of its own constitution.
Whatever disposition individual members may have
to look with leniency on the illicit means whereby
seats in parliament are notoriously obtained, they
shrink from looking one another in the face and
saying deliberately " no" to a proposition having for
its object the judicial exposure and punishment of
the scandalous practices of which public opinion
complains.
ho bill brought in by Mr. EDWARD Ettter., jun.,
as chairman of the committee that recently sat to try
tho merits of the last election for St. Albans, pro-
pees that commissioners shall be appointed specially
to inquire into the nature and extent of the bribery
and treating alleged to prevail at contested elections
fur this notorious borough, and to report to the
haase what remedy in their judgment ought to he
rapplied thereto. Powers are largely given for the
rddling and sifting of the whole truth by this in-
quisition; for inquisition it is of an exceptional and
we will freely own, of a not altogether unexception-
a.4e kind. An ex park investigation on oath by a
te.uparary and summary tribunal is, prim i fame,
a highly objectionable mode of proceeding.
We are far from desiring to see it otherwise
reprded in general. nor do we think it wise or
safe that its odious character should be hidden or
denied. It is undoubtedly an instrument of political
surgery only to be had recourse to in extreme cases,
and for the excision of some gangrene that, without
its use, threatens to prove imminently fatal. We
cleil wish to see such Instruments treated as harm-
lees or ordinary utensils. We consider them, on the
contrary, to be extremely dangerous, and we do not
agree with certain persons who think it savour, of
particular seal for purity to talk lightly of having re-
course to them.

But, on the other hand, if the system which every
one believes to be habitual at places like St. Albans
is suffered to continue without cheek or hindrance,
the authority of parliament and of its acts must gra-
dually be undermined in the estimation of the entire
community. It were certainly more honest and less
intulerable to bo governed by the 648 nice who once
a year should be chosen by lot to sit in St. Stephen's
Cnapel, and there to make laws for the realm, than,
with our eyes open, to suffer the 65$ persons most
recklesdy bent upon setting the law at defiance, and
the most lavishly prone to corrupt and debauch the
plower classes of the community, to usurp that post
of power. Somehow or other the evil must be en-
cuuatered ; and as no ordinary• expedients seem likely
to prove of any avail, parliament is not only justi-
fied but hound to resort to extraordinary and unu-
suil means. •

Mr. STUART and others who look with insuperable
avet sion at the appointment of such a commission, on
account, as they tell us, of its unconstitutional cha-
racter, threaten the Commons openly with the rejee-
tion of the bill by the House of Lords. We do not ,
street to be very good judges of what the upper
house is likely to do. But we arc clear as to the
tmoleney of such a proceeding on the part of their
lordshipa; The propotal to issue a commotion in the
ease of St. Albans as as we have said an attempt to deal
with a wideoipreiol abuse by fastening on a particularly
'kraut instance, with the view, no doubt, should
alequate proof. of mal-practices be thereby obtained,
of disfranchising the incorrigible borough. Mr.
Sri; %fur arguer not without cogency, that if this be
dNW in ono instance it ought to be done in others ;
an I so a precedent will be set fraught with no little
d Inger and injustice. Should the House of Lords,
led by their legal advisers, or by less worthy Mik-
e adopt this view, and veto the remedy sag-
g.-.b 1 by the Commons, they must, of course, be
trod for the consequences. That the Commons
plumb! submit to the interposition of such a
veto, without taking counsel and resolve as
to the permanent means whereby the evils in ques-
tion may_ be put an end to, is not to be dreamed of.
Let Mr. II EMIT BERRI:LET look to it. What his
p-iweeranee in bringing forward the ballot year
after year has never been able to accomplish, aught
be conaiderahly advanced, if not secured, by the de-
monstration that as thiogs now stand the House of
Commons is absolutely powerless to punish the most
systematic and salacious tampering with its consti-
tution fur the moat avowedly private and personal
purposes. Prevention is proverbially better than
cure. As king, however, as the theory is argucable
we will not say believable, for we don't believe in
Its belief), that sharp cautery now and then applied
is sufficient to keep down the canker—many euay-
politicians will continue to shrink from the con-
templation of the preventive specific which the ad-
vocates of the ballot recommend. Rut let it once be

made apparent that the sinners, however shameless,
barn impunity, and that the sin itself is sacred and
safe,—and a stimulus will forthwith be given to the
sprit of reform that neither pedantry nor party will
be able to resist. 'fo endure the present condition of
things electoral in the smaller boroughs is impossible.
Under any amended scheme of taking the votes we
own ourselves sceptical us to the probability
of securing a healthy action of the representative
syst,,ii unless the number of voters be greatly in-
creii 11. But be that as it may, it is palpably lin•
endurable that the House of Commons should be
withheld by the other branch of the legislature from
applying the ouly remedy iu the way of punishment
which as the law at present stands is at its disposal
for the maintenanie of its own honour and tide-
, pundrine.
The disfranchisement of some half-dozen corrupt
lilac,s might do good. by example, and to a certain
extent ameliorate the existing system. But this also,
wo are bound to confess, is fraught with objections
of the gravest kind. It is not proposed to
hold a geheral electoral assize throughout the king-
dom, but only to issue a special commission for the
trial and punishment of a few heinous offenders. A
sort offgror in favour of purity of election will pre-
vail during the sittings of this transitory tribunal,
and as soon as these are over matters will rapidly
reed to their former condition. Besides, the choice
of new places to be endowed with the right of
sending representatives to parliament is rather
an ini Along task, and one not easy for any
minister or senate to perform without suspicion.
Where a general nieseare modelling the whole rept-
Pentium is propeanded, as in 1832, a general rule is
laid down and adhered to with more or less precision.
But iu occasional and exceptional instances it is cer-
tainly more difficult to extort from men of opposite
parties, and classes of opposite interests, the cordial
admission that what has been taken from the old
localities is fairly given to the new.