The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3.

THE interest of the scrio-comic drains of St. Albans
Las been kept up, as the critics have it, unabated to
the close. The tmusmodic terrors of the few bribers
who had enough of shame left to deny to the last the
receipt of the unrighteous money, when they found
that they had thereby excluded themselves from
claiming the " eel tificates" which are to cover as
many sins as charity, transcended anything ever dm-
played by Ker.t.Ev. They crowded round the Com-
missioners to declare they too were rascals, with as
much of eager pertinacity as ever honest Doglcerry
clamoured to have himself " written down an ass."
In vain : the Commissioners sternly exclaimed,
" Woe who too late rcpents," and left these procras-
tinating political Jaae Shores to wear their volun-
tarily-assumed white sheets without one shadow of
hope that they arc to earn commutation of punish-
ment by their penance. Their fidgetty tremours and
woe-begone looks were amusing enough, but paled
before the broader fun of a " consider-yourself-horse-
whipped" nettle, enacted in lace of the Commis-
'rimier* by Messrs. Hun' inns and Gnesti sm.
A couple of new characters were brought upon the
stage on Monday. The earlier sittings of the com-
missioners had exhibited bribed voters audaciously
proclaiming their own disgrace, and bribed voters
smirking and blushing and trying to hide their
shame; electioneering agents revealing the myste-
ries of their craft, with a lurking hope that their
character for " 'eutt ness" would rise as their character
for scrupulous morality fell ; and (not the least amus-
ing) a " purity eandidete "—that is, a gentleman
who professes to have speculated on the chance of
getting a few unbought voters, and having himself
returned on petit ion --or. in other words, getting a seat
is the legislature, not bee rumen body of electors had
deemed him competent to represent them, but simply
becloud: he had frequented the haunts of bribers and
otht r disreputable lwrions, without taking any part
is their nefarious transactions. Hut Monday " suw
another sight "—candidates obliged to own the soft
impeachment of having, at least, connived at bribery,
if they did rut actively, and in person, promote it.
The lion. F. CRAVEN, upon his own showing,
might he taken for DICKLNS's Lord F. Vericopht had
sot the historicn of that very feeble sprig of nobility
informed us that his carter was cut short in a duel.
The lion. F. Citsvev did not recollect who induced
him to come forward for St. Albans ; did not recol-
lect how he lawny connected with the borough ;
was as oblivious, in fact, as Msiocem, of " non mi
rieordo" memory. Then the lion. F. CHAVEN knew
nothing of what was done on his behalf at the elec-
tion : " he was mill- told by his agents that they
were giving bribes;" like Lady Macbeth, he was
" innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." Lastly,
the 111. m. F. Cu %WEN had everything done fur him
by his friends; or, at most, only exerted himself suf-
ficiently to do something to please them. " lie only
went to the HI to gratify the wishes of some gen-
tlemen who had shown him civility." But with all
his Judy apathy and inertness, the lion. F.
eltAVltt4 knew that he was doing wind was not right :
" he had a shrewd suspicion that bribery was going
on. And that it was probelile the same sort of thing
was going on on his own side." lie willingly
doted his eyes to the rascality practised on his be-
halt': countenanced its practitioners by coming for-
ward to join them publicly in indifferent actions;
and was willing, if not anxious, to reap the profit of
their mbidenwanours.

Mr. IiP.PTON and the lion. F. CILMIN are us
moth alike as the twa gulls in BEN JON•iiiN'S
" Every Man in his Humour—Master Vephen and
Master Moth•a—are like each other. Mr. ltia-rot4
did nothing for or of himself: " the matter was
managed altogether by his family and friends;"
" Mr. Ikaia: never told him of what was doing in his
name, nor did his f ;" " he knew nothing
about it until many months after tho election was
over;" in fact he only t;nind it out accidentally," by
looking at an old banker's book." Mr. It►:rtuv,
►owever. no more than the lion. F. CRAVEN, could
not be without his "shrewd suspicions;" for before
the election he paid Mr. BLAGG 4501., and ten dues
after it was over he paid him 1,01,0/. When told
before the election that this 1,0001, would be wanted,
" he said he would have nothing to do with that sys-

tem 'again."
And here we pause to request the electors of Eng-
land to admire the representatives of the Itxrrox
and CRAVEN class, for whom they are indebted to the
systi m of which tit. Albans and Sudbury have
formed a part. .fliere are dealers in rotten boroughs
who know what they are about, who deliberately,
and with strength of purpose, set about buying
constituencies in order to sell them at a pro-
fit; or, even if they arc outbid, of making
sand other way for their expenditure.
We have seen one ex-member for Weymouth occu-
pying the anomalous office of dry-nurse to the King
of the Mosquito.; and a defeated candidate for
Ipswich appointed Governor of the Falkland Islands.
But your Ity.reusis and Cittet:ss are of a different
complexion ; they are not tit for appointments, and
do nut aspire to them: they are contented to be
pushed into parliament as thee would be contented
to be pushed into a fashionable club, "because it is
the vol rf Ming." They lack energy to conceive the
aml.itious thought or work their own way, but allow
themselves to be pushed on or led by others'.
like dumb sheep going to the slaughter. 'They
are nwre puppets, with unscrupulous intriguers pul-
ling the wires which make them appear to act. 'a'u
be represented by political jobbers in person may be
more dangerous ; but to be represented by such
automaton sprigs of the aristocracy—titled or
moneyed—is more discreditable. It makes the
House of I'ommons a thing to be laughed at.
And this reflection leads us to another and more

important consideration. The St. Albans inquiry
has closed. The Commissioners have adjourned pro
forma to a distant day; that is, they will only meet
again to go through the form of agreeing to their
report. Thu ry has left the box, and the public is
all agog fur the verdict. " Guilty," there can be no
doubt:—but what the punishment?
Or rather, who is to punish? What man among
the assembled judges in the House of Commons es
so immaculate as to be entitled to throw the first
stone at the offending borough? If all the members I
of the house who have deliberately and intentionally ;
trafficked iu votes, or who have accepted the fruits
of corruption, knowing them to be such,—though they !
refu-ed to witness the malpractices by which they
were reared and ripened.—are to go out one atter
another until only the pure are left, how many will
remain to pronounce judgment and execute it. Par-
liament—the House of Commons—must be judges in
the matter ; the wholesale merchants who have pro-
fited by corruption must sentence the petty agents of
their own guilt ; the justices. " with beard of cut
Iw%, re,' must condemn the detected sharers of their

itours of illicit joy. Can public morality or common
decency be promoted by the enactment of so scanda-
lous a farce.
In this lamentable exposure there is no warrant
for punishment of the past ; there is only ground
for prevention in the future. Nothing else has been
done at St. Albans than has been done, to a greater
or leas extent. in nine out of every ten constituencies
in the kingdom. No crime has been committed by
its corrapted voters and electioneering panderers than
has been done or connived at by members of the
senate. What is looked for at the hands of the
House of Commons is not an exercise of the judicial
function of puni4hment, but an act of voluntary con-
trition and penance—such an alteration of the elec-
toral system as will put it oat of the power of mem-
bers to find their way back to tilt house by corrupt
practices, even if they have a mind. We must have
full electoral reform, and with it, above all things,
we must have the Ballot.

mrLAR !LPORTATION.—Two hundred live hues
wet divatehed a few drys since from a domain in the
nmehborirtiood of !Woodbridge, to Pori.. whether for the
prirpoe of breeding, or being busted, we aro not informed.
—lpswich Esprit's.