The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-06 00:00:00

from which Lame many of the ramifications of the
corrupting agency by which purity of election has
been assailed or sapped and undermined.
We rejoice at this ; even though the thief heavy
blew has fallen upon the patty, gent.rally friendly to
reform, and national policy, and tree institutions, and
liberal sentiment and opinion. There is no synsting
the truth : the whig or liberal party has been fighting
its opponents with their own hereditary weapons. The
reform act of 1831 left enough of the old vicious
system of elections in existence to keep the anti-
reform party still dangerously strong. The re-
formers as soon as they became aware of this, adopted
the specious (but as will now be found dangerous)
policy of turning this remnant of what was bad to
their own account. They Toothed their consciences
by the sophism that they. descended to unworthy
practices only to wrest the instruments of evil from
the hands of these who would use them for evil.
They acted on the Jesuitical maxim that the end
justifies the means ; and organised a system of cor-
rupt influence by which they profited for a time,
only to suffer lees and disgrace by it in the end.
kor the revelations extorted from Mr. Corrocx
cannot fail to injure materially what is called the
liberal party. The commissioners may fail to make
out an equally clear case of organised corruption
against the conservatives. And even though they
do succeed in making out a case equally clear, that
party has always maintained that a wide popular
suffrage can only be made compatible with the
existence of an efficient executive by means of cor-
ruption. The revelations of Mr. Corroex will be
used by it to delude the public into a belief that
there is no material difference between any of our
political parties. The tones have no character for
purity to lose. and cannot be weakened by any ex-
posure. Hut there is not a liberal candidate in the
kingdom who will not suffer at the next election from
the doubts and jealousies awakened by the St.
Albans disclosures, and the suspicion diffused
throughout the whole electoral body, that all pro-
fessors of political purity are only playing a part to
'observe hidden and selfish ends.
And vet we rtjoice at these disclosures. For wc
feel, ana have long felt, that the weak and wicked
tampering of reformers with corruption has deeply
injured the cause. It has placed them at the mercy
of allies who seek only to make them a stepping
stone to poser or profit. We speak not of all men
who have entered on an official career—we speak
not of official men only—there are as inveterate
jobbers among those who mouth independence to
divert attentiuu from their mercenary intrigues in
what are esteemed merely private and mercantile
speculations, as are to be found in office. So long
as the reform cause is seemingly held in the
ascendancy by the aid of associated bribers
at elections, so long will real reformers
be made the mere tools of those who pro-
fess reform principles only to get into positions
where they can serve their own ends and battle all
real reform. The St. Albans exposures will shame
reformers into a renunciation of such hollow, insidi-

out, and dangerous allies. Henceforth they must
seek to obtain their objects by legitimate means.
We have no wish to exaggerate the disclosures
made by Mr. COPPCX:K ; we have no end to serve by
so doing. They are substantially as follows :—ln
153.1 he became secretary to a self•constituted "Re-
: form Association "in London. In that capacity he
has become intimately acquainted with the political
relations of " every borough, and every city, and
every county in the kingdom." Ho can "hardly
tell how," but he has always " in some way, as con-
nected with the liberal party, been one of the first
to know when a vacancy anywhere occurred." The
" Reform Association," Mr. tOreOCK tell " died

.„.-. . .
four or five years ago," but he has carried on the
business on his own account. 'flicre is no " orga-
nised system" now of finding candidates for
boroughs, but he supplies the want. Ilc acts only
for " the liberal party. Ile hunts out seats for in-
dividuals wishing to get into parliament; ho hunts
out candidates for constitnenciew who have lost their

members. Money is passed from one party to
another through his hands. He gets appointments
for those who serve him. " I have placed people in
my own office. I have got them into other persons
offices, and into railway employment, and so on.
• • • I certainly have been the means of recom-
mending people to situations under government."
This is enough for the purpose of putting down
corruption, not of inflicting vengeance on its agents
or the victims of its seductions. It is clear that
there is wide spread systematic corruption by a
party calling itself liberal. Various election commit-
tees have proved that the conservative party had its
CROUCHER, and has his successor or successors in
orrice. The duty of reformers, the interest of the
people, is to break up both conspiracies against free
and pure election. Upon the means for etheting this
some light is thrown by Mr. CoreocK's evidence
before the St. Albans Commission.

" After Sir OEORGE WARD left St. Albans," said
Mr. Correct, "he went to Sheffield. His election
for St. Albans cost 2,400/. His election for Sheffield
cost 1801. To such an extent was it carried in
Sheffield, that the gentlemen who dined at the hotel
with him paid each his own bill." This shows the
tt that still prevails in the new large constituen-
Nor is Sheffield an isolated instance of this
proud and guarded purity. Were it necessary we
could name, on our own knowledge, other large
towns, where as honourable a part has been played.
Yet even these constituencies are watched by tho
electioneering agencies, and unconsciously made at
times to play their game. Thus, for example :—ln
Scotland, under the old system, there was an or-
ganised whig and an organised tory party in Edin-
burgh. Their agents were the leading lawyers on
both sides. These agents acted in the various con-
stituencies by means of the lawyers with whom they
had business connexions. In any of the large manu-
facturing towns of Scotland the tories have no
chance, and the whigs—were the electors left to their
free choice—very little. But the Edinburgh Whigs
have been known to give the cue to their
local agents, who, as of the liberal party, con-
trive to get themselves on the registration and
election committees. These gentlemen, when
any constituency is in search of a candidate, take
care, if an independent man is sought for, so to
arrange matters that application is made only to
such independent liberals as are pre-engaged or un-
willing to go into parliament. Time is thus wasted,
and at the last moment one of that class of aspirants
to parliamentary honours is suggested who profess-
ing (or perhaps entertaining) sentiments in advance
of men in office, can always be counted upon by
ministers as a sure vote in eases of emergency. The
local patronage is placed by government uncondi-
tionally at the disposal of these semi-purists, and thus
an official party is in the course of formation in each
of these boroughs, already large enough in most cases
to hold the balance between the contending local
parties. Analogous means are employed to bring
into harness the large constituencies of England and
Ireland.
Now for the means of destroying the systematic
corruption which exists in boroughs like ht. Albans,
and is growing up in the new and numerous consti-
tuencies. We ask for no more credit to the means
suggested by Mr. Correct; than knowledge derived
from other sources, and from reason may justify. He
has told us that in the large and new constituency
of Sheffield, a chivalrous purity still exists in matters
of election. It is well known that this is the case in
other similar constituencies. One way then of puri-
fying elections, for a time at least, is to bring into
existence an additional number of numerous consti-
tuencies, a large proportion of whose electors
shall be men who have not hitherto exercised
the franchise, and are yet unhackneyed in
the ways of venality. But how to keep these
new constituencies pure? "The ballot," says Mr.
('orrocs. "is the only check you can ever have
against bribery. You may have inquiries like this,l
plenty of them ; but you will never weeny result unless
you meet the evil by the ballot." This is a declaration
on Mr. CUPPOCK.t. part that the ballot—i. e. secret
rainy—would baffle the efforts of agents like himself.
It cannot be denied that the experience of Mr. CUP-
POCK entitles him to be listened to, if we could but rely
on his sincerity. And that he is sincere in expressing
this opinion we have good grounds to believe; since
he but corroborates what has been said by an im-
mense majority of our most experienced eleetioneerers
and soundest reasoners.
Here, then, we have pointed out three indispensa-
ble requisites in any reform bill that can be reason-
ably expected to cheek electoral corruption. In the
first place it must substitute large constituencies for
small; in the second place it must throw into these
large constituencies a great number of new men;
and in the third place every elector must be com-