The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-16 00:00:00

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TRIM Evl:N xn. ANTONIf AIDTLEOPATRA. Antony, Mr. U.
Loraine Enab•Mue. Mr. C. Verner; &Umlaut, M rage; and
Cleopatra, Maw Olyn.

LYCEIY Sr.

THIS TvEnnio. Mr. Prfee sad Mee
Este DUK E'S 11107 O. Mr. Feebler. Mews
Emery, Widdiemnb, Jordan, Price. de. ; Mame Elewurthy, Hes.
rade, Grattan. and ‘Yrlotta Lectereq.

frwn,

Tars Zvi=lC MARRIED 1111FCITTERS. Mr. P. Rol..
son.-- l'ff; M A IJON ; (lik THE STATUS PAIR. Mama Thorne,
James, /Sc. ; Mesdames A. nwanboronik kaynkam. Harland,
Johnstout, Holt, & Newton.—And THE F YEN C 11111113TION.

HOLBORN.

Tyne Emile% MT TUIS NIX!. Mr. Mum; Ibises
root. and Lenox.—And FLYING SCUD. Maim Neville, hel-
l:om Slake, 'Collar', ,te. • Madam* T. Jamie. C. dannders,
Bessie loot.. Addeo, laones. Raymond, a..

BILITAIRITA.

THIS Emma, THE OLD MAID IN THE WHTDINGAITERT.
Mr. floynsl4Ls, An. Misses:. Miles A: eureney.—CßEßßY AND
FAIR STkR. Messrs. Iligersoal, Lethe, & Man ; Dm S. Luba&
MMus Edwin, Bout)+, and Macarthy.—Aild BLUE BLAND.

NIGH VIATICA AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tin DAT —Morainic. 00. 20.1......Att0rn005. Oh. mos.
To-Noasow—Morning. lb. 14m......Altarnoaa, lb. 36. D.

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 16.

THI languid interest with which the public
regards the progress of the Bribery and Corrup-
tion Bill is not very surprising, and certainly does
not indicate indifference to the subject. That
system which makes so large a proportion of our
parliamentary representation a mere sham, which
at once corrupts the voters and degrades the
Legislature, is the object of a very vivid shame
and abhorrence in the minds of the independent
part of the public. Any proposal for really deal-
ing with it, with a view not merely to its detec-
tion but to its prevention and extirpation, would
secure the wannest approval from the great body
of true Liberals out of doors. But no such
searching remedy is being entertained by the
House of Commons, nor is likely to be suggested
by the Select Committee to which the Bill has
been referred. The measure of Government is
practically nothing more than a proposal to apply
generally the method of inquiry by commissions

which we have seen lately exemplified in
the tedious and fruitless investigations
into the corruption of Lancaster, Yarmouth, Rei-
gate, and Totnes. The system of inquiry by par-
liamentary committees is to be superseded, in
whole or in part, by a system of inquiry by bar-
risters appointed to visit the inculpated district.
It is doubtful whether this will even diminish ex-
pense ; it is certain it will not in the smallest
degree tend to abate the evil. The penalties still
remain practically the same : there will be to the
candidate the loss of his seat, with, if he is very
rash and raw, an incapacity to sit again ; there
will be to the constituency the chance of disfran-
chisement, temporary or perpetual. But no can-
didate will over be deterred from snatching at a
chance of election by illegal means, when the
only evil consequence of being found out
is no more than the loss of that which
save by such means he would not have
gained. Nor will any voter ever be
withheld from accepting a bribe by the
mere possibility that if a great many others
take bribes also they may all be disfranchised, and
the golden goose be killed. Nor, again, will even
the local instruments, by whom these things are
managed, be kept back from their old courses by
any apprehension of such consequences. They
want to make their money when it can be made,
and they will see no advantage in abstaining from
auoh operations only for the purpose of maintain-
ing a privilege which is subject to such unprofitable
conditions of existence.

In short, to all the parties, bribers, go-betweens,
and bribees, there is alike in the present and in
the proposed methods of repression the fatal ele-
ment of uncertainty. The law will only be put
in operation at all if the defeated candidate sees
his own interest in invoking it, and feels his own
hands to be clean enough to warrant his appeal.
If the law is invoked there is the chance that it
may be evaded by some technical defect ; if all
these obstacles are surmounted there still remains
the chance that any particular transaction may
escape its vigilance. Inspired by so many chances
of impunity, and urged by the present certainty of a
golden reward, every consideration to which cor-
rupt minds are open will invite their continuance
in the old practices. Does anyone suppose that
the disfranchisement of the four boroughs which
have been found out will have the smallest in-
fluence in stopping one single bribe from being
offered, or accepted, in any of the other boroughs
which have not been found out, or not disfran-
chised f If any one does he must be curiously
ignorant of human nature, and somewhat wilfully
ignorant of our own electoral experiences.

- Very different will be the treatment which will
be resorted to by the first Parliament which really
desires to fulfil the just wishes of the people in
this matter. It will make the penalties on the
crime something heavier than the mere possibility
of losing the benefit of iniquity. It will not trust
to declarations of innocence to be taken by the per-
sons whose conduct shows them to be devoid alike
of honour and morality. It will seek
for sharp punishments, to be inflicted by the in
terventi.m of persons who will have an interest in
enforcing them. It may cast perhaps a regretful
glance at the pillory as a mode of public retri-
bution for a public offence which would be at
once exemplary and appropriate. But deferring
to the tenderness of modern sentiment, it will at
lewd have no difficulty in assigning a certain term
of imprisonment, combined with the recreation of
oakum picking, as the due reward of any uncon-
scious candidate, white-handed banker, or highly
respectable attorney, who may be proved to have
bribed or connived at bribery. It will authorise
any individual whatsoever to prosecute for the
crime, and take care that the trial is conducted in

a locality where neither the bribers nor bribed
shall sit on the jury. When this is done we shall
soon see how far the pretence is true
that public opinion is not decided enough
to warrant us in treating such matters as a
crime. If juries convict and judges sentence, we
shall have a public opinion strong enough for our
purpose. And we need not consider what can
be done in case they should not, until wo have
given them an opportunity of doing it, or of fail-
ing to do it.
The same determination which would root out
bribery would dispose of other forms of expendi-
ture, leas reprehensible morally, but of the same
tendency practically, because all concurring to
make seats costly, and therefore confined to the
wealthy. Paid canvassing is one of these abomi-
nations. It implies that votes can be turned by
the venal agency of attorneys and their clerks, or
it is a means of securing for a consideration the
illicit influence of some ono of local authority.
It is idle to say that a candidate must have
agents, and must pay them. All the legitimate
business of an agent could be done in a bruited
number of hours, and a really earnest Parliament
could have no difficulty in forbidding and prevent-
ing any further payment to agents than would
suffice to cover that expense. Conveyance of
voters, exhibition of placards, and similar sources
of expense, might be as easily dealt with as the
use of bands and banners was a few years back.
One principle would regulate the action of Parlia-
ment in all these questions, if it were influenced
by any principle which it could avow. It would
fix the limits beyond which expense should not go
in any individual case. It would visit with a
heavy penalty whosoever, directly or indirectly,
gave or accepted more than the fixed amount. And
it would secure these provisions from technical
evasion by making the candidate as guilty
if they were done without his knowledge,
when he had the means of knowledge, as if done
with his knowledge. The evasion of punishment
because the guilt was committed by another, and
the party who profited by it forbore to inquire
how it was done, should no longer disgrace our
attempts at simulated repression. What a man
does by his agents is held in law to be done by
himself, and if ho employs agents who are guilty
of illegality, it is not too hard to impose on him
the punishment, though he did not happen to
direct it personally.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)