The Express.
London, England, 1860-11-09 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, NOV. 9.

lts►oas the Electors of Southwark have made
up their minds as to which of the candidates claim-
ing their suffrages is most worthy their confi-
dence and support, we, who have no concern in the
personal competition, and no separate interest which
can be served or disserved by its issue, claim a hear-
ing on behalf of the public at large, whose welfare
or injury may be affected by their decision. The
community in general has a direct interest in the
choice of an upright, experienced, and able repre-
sentative for a great constituency hits Southwark ;
but as the duty of making that choice is reposed by
the constitution in the 101. householders resident
in that borough, any interference with them in the
exercise of their exclusive rights in that behalf
would be alike unseemly and unwise. We need
hardly say that we disclaim anything of the kind.
lint the public in general have another interest in
this matter, regarding which no such delicacy or
abstinence ought to be observed. The utage and
custom of elections is a thing moulded by example
and formed by precedent. No one election,
especially no election for any great and influential
county or borough, eau be considered as standing
alone. It may constitute an example pregnant
with admonition to other constituencies, or an
example full of infectious evil. Of late we have
had too many of the latter sort. We have had
signal and manifold instances of scandalous cor-
niption, both in large and small constituencies.

Corruption, se every right-minded man omit feel,
is not limited to the were buying of voters like
sheep at a fair ; it is equally hideous and grow
when it assumes a more sinuous character, and
embraces a wider section within its folds. Let
nobody pretend that an election is pure or
honest, no matter how much money is lavishly
spent, provided no " Man in the moon " has
been employed to chaffer with individual electors
for their votes. We shall not mince matters. We
say plainly that whoever spends two or three
thousand pounds to be returned for a borough like
Southwark owes his seat to the use of corrupt
means. There is no legitimate expenditure which
can absorb such sums. We know well the excuses
and pretexts that may be set up to warrant
their exaction ; and we know how gradually a
candidate who begins by vowing that he will not
spend anything beyond what is legally requisite is
drawn on, step by step, till at last his outlay be-
comes a gambling investment, which he persuades
himself it is imprudent, after having gone so far,
to abandon. It would be easy to name one
metropolitan seat which cad its present holder a
guinea a bead for every vote he polled. The un-
thinking may say that that was his own doing : the
constituency did not demand it, and they were not
purchased thereby. But what would they say if
they were told thatthis prodigal member deliberately
owned that he had upon calculation rendered the
contest thus costly in order that he might in
this manner prevent opposition in future, in
other words, that he might buy the seat as a free-
hold for late 1 Is this election, or is it purchase ?
Let the conscience of any impartial and honest
man say. Then look at the matter in another
point of view. We could name a case in which a
man of high character and ability was led to become
a candidate for another metropolitan seat. Re
canvassed for eleven days, and each day
cost him one hundred pounds, for he luckily in-
sisted on paying his way as he went on ; and se
the canvass was likely to last another fortnight, be
wisely made up his mind to be coutent with his
lose and to retire. Now we ask plainly, was this
man robbed or not ; and if not, then we beg to
know what constitutes the offence of obtaining
money under false pretences 1 To tell us that
any man dealing honestly by a constituency ought
to be lured or bullied into this kind of expendi-
ture is mere absurdity. Value for his money ho
gets none ; we say it advisedly, none ; for useless
printing, sham agency, and the hiring of ten times
as many committee rooms as are needed, are not
merely instances of doubtful or bad value, but are
literally and truly instances of no value at all. It
is of course the interest of opulent incapacity, or
prethgate recklessness, to keep up the scale of ex-
penditure ; and we are quite aware that this being
so, it is perfectly idle to tnist to the voluntary
forbearance or frugality of candidates purposely
relying on length of purse. Somehow or other inch
men must steal, crimp, or job a large number of suf-
frages, or it won't do. In London votes are not bought,
like herrings at a fishmonger's, at so much a•piece;
but they are bought like herrings at Billingsgate,
at so much a hundred, or so much a score. The
implied condition of nine out of every ten local
agents employed, of nine out of every ten com-
mittee-moms taken, notoriously is that the money
thus spout will recur* a certain amount of in•
fluent*, or, in plain English, a certain number of
votes. There is no use in people being angry
with us for saying this ; uit not true I Is it not
miserably, literally, infamously true f And what
is the remedy, and with whom dues it lief Plainly
not with the candidates, who are for the most pert
kept in a perpetual whirl and mist of delusive
fear, hope, and doubting' between ; but with
the constituents themselves, and more espe-
cially with the leading and influential men,
who, if they had but the pluck and the principle,
le.glit easily trample ender their feet the whole
eefarious system. These men must know and feel
tins. by that syntem, which is neither more nor less
setting: up the representation to auction, they
are practically divtutted of all power or weight in