The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY

ing them into ',tits:lto constituencies. But
so far as magnitude and population are st security
for parity of election, that guarantee /mists in
full forte already in such pities ae Manchester
and Birmingham. The evil of the monster
constituencies it not that they will in-
troduce corruption where formerly there
wits purity, but that they will 'make purity
itself, if it fall short. of absolute asceticitin. 144
istly 11N vice. The legitimate expenses of eleetions
us they are now conducted un towns of the size
of our great manufacturing and metropolitan
boroughs will in future lx• little short of ruitiou4
to men of moderate means, and will seriously
hanger fur years, if not for life, the fortunet of
111(11 usually accounted wealthy. It is this well-
founded apprehension that disturbs the
minds of so many reputable members
of Parliament, perfectly innocent of unlaw-
ful designs. An election, though comluetisl with
absolute honesty, will soon become a pursuit only
for millionaires. A mania for politics will be
ranked with a passion for building or for the turf
umong those infatuations which lead men to their
IUI/1. The corrupt practices which it is the object
of the Bill now before the House of C 'fatuous,
and of the pages of amendments to its clauses which
lore upon the notice paper, to prevent, are scarcely
a more serious evil than those incorrupt practices
of lavish but legitimate expenditure which are ex-
empt from legal penalties and even from
moral disapprobation. The lawful expen-
diture, indeed, feeds the unlawful. When
money is flowiag freely, it is next to im-
possible to prevent a large escape of it into
dirty chiumels. Moreover, expenses which are
' ostensibly legitimate can easily be nuule to shelter
lauctices which ale thoroughly corrupt.
One of the most accessary reforms of the
present day is a revision of the con-
ception and definition of legitimate electioneering
practices. During the third of a century which
has elapsed since the passing of the first Reform
Act, there have been vast improvements. The
candidates no longer strive to drive their votaries,
by banners and music, into a state of frenzied ex-
ultation. The banners are furled, the music is
silent. the most objectionable of all party
processions are under the ban of law. The
present generation really does not know what an
election meant in the days when Lord GREY
and Lord JOECK Russnu. were counted in-
cendiaries and revolutionists, and Mr. PICRCEVAL,
LORD SIDMOUTH, and Lord CASTLEREAOH were
the saviours of society. Elections of the good
old times have as completely vanished as May-
poles; and Morris danoes. Their real character—
is it not written in the book of "Pickwick" ?
Some progress has been made since the election at
Eatanswill was a truthful description of the man-
ner in which the wisdom of Parliament was manu-
factured, like some precious jewels, out of the
foulest corruption. Much more yet remains to
be done. It was observed in a lute debate
by one of the members for Glasgow,
that that constituency as enlarged by the
Scotch Reform Bill could not be success-
fully contested for less than 20,000/. No man not
a millionaire could afford to pay a sum anything
like this. No millionaire who was not also a fool
or a knave would think of doing so. The man
who is ready to pay such a sum as this for the
privilege of a seat in Parliament, goes there
from some other motive than the desire of dis-
charging laborious public duties. He is actuated
either by a besotted personal vanity, or by some
ulterior end, for the attainment of which 20,000!.
is a judicious investment. Mr. MILL'S plan and
practice of devolving the legitimate expenses of
elections upon the constituencies voluntarily Mi-
stiming them, would scarcely meet a case such as
this. The men Are few whose services would be
worth securing at an expense of 20,000!. Nor is
it by any means certain that the best men would
always be those who would raise the enthusiasm
which must be evoked before a resource of
this kind can be called into operation. There
ar” few men who, like Mr. MILL him-
tell, have earned popularity by the very
scull: of popularity, and who have won,
by \Noll:9 addressed to the highest thought
and culture of the few, the admiration and con-
fidence of the many. On Mr. MILL'S principle,
Orator HUNT would have stood a far better chance
of being returned free of cost to Parliament than
FRANCIS HORNER or Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH; and
FEARGI'S O'CoNNoR than Mr. GROTE or Lord
MstsrLsv. The remedy must be looked
for not in a transfer of burthens from
the shoulders of the candidates to those
of the constituencies, but in a diminution of
the burthens. How great these are may be in-
ferred from the fact that in one of our Metro-
polite' boroughs the mere circulation of a candi-
date's address through the post cost him not
less than 1,400!. Add to these the cost of the
conveyance of voters, of the employment of paid
canvassers, of messengers, of the use of
committee-rooms, of advertisements, and
placards, and it is readily conceivable that
an honestly-conducted election in a great
town may cost the candidate many thousands of
pounds. No wonder that a general election is
dreaded. It is looked at as a calamitous visitation,
like a pestilence or fever. Candidates do not so
much fear being sent to their electioneering account
as having their electioneering account sent to
them. The usages which are so costly are, we
believe, purely superstitious. They are maintained
by those who profit by them. Election
agents and publicans are the priests who
stimulate the offerings to the false gods, by
which they themselves live. Trrzei, could
not hate LUTHER more than they hate the
political reformer who dispenses with their
mediation and will not purchase their guarantees
of safety. But it requires only a few signal
acts of courage to break completely with
a ruinous and demoralising system. Mr. Tuolus
BUGIIES is making • gallant stand against it in
Lambeth, refusing to employ paid agents or to
hire committee rooms, or to allow these things to
be done for him. We wish him success, both for
his own sake and for that of a great public in-
terest.

desetibed. It is such deligl.•t to gain a prise that
the ignorantly-happy boy carols little what the
prise is, and the parent, participating in his
ehild'a happiness, cares 215 little how it isobtaned.
Relying, we suppose, upon this generous feeling
of indifference, some schoolmasters have the auda-
city to make a charge for the prizes in the bins, KO
that the parent who is blessed with a clever son is
doomed to pay for the blessing. This contemp-
tible meanness is not confined to contemptible
schoohi, but is committed in some which claim to
be, and in all respects save this appear to be, re-
spectable. This, however, is Is fault perpetrated, we
hope, bycomparatively few schoolmasters or school-
mistresses. There is another fault in connection
with these rewards of merit which hi common to
the profession. We make no objection to the
univemal custom of giving books for prizes :
although, perhaps, in some eases a boa of good
to( is or a first-rate cricket bat might be subeti-
toted with advantage, but we object strongly, and
we think reasonably, to the kind of books that arc
given.

It is but rarely, exoept in our public
I..cliools, that a good and suitable book,
in a good edition, and a good binding,
is given fur a prize. Sometimes the volume
may deserve the title of an English classic,
but then it is either, like the "Night Thoughts,"
or Burtmfa " Analogy," a terribly heavy
book for the young, or it is a wretched
edition of a readable volume bound in some
glaring attire, which is neither Russian, Moroooo,
nor calf. Who is them that does not know these
volumes by sight and by smell ? Who vs there that
does not know what publisher's name is likely to
Spur upon tl ie title-page? The truth is that although
there are some highly respectable booksellers in
London who act as the purveyors of school prizes,
there are others who keep a supply of what it
pleases them to call standard works, which means
in most instances works that no boy will care to
look at, and editions that no gentleman with the
least passion for bibliography would admit into
his library.
Sometimes it happens that modern works
are rehabilitated in a prize binding, but the
literary discrimination is not always more
apparent in these instances than when the
schoolmaster presents a merry-hearted jolly
English boy with " HERVEY'S Meditations," or Dr.
JOHNSON'S " BaSSelaS," or Pouoi's " Course of
" Time." We know, indeed, an instance in which
a youth was presented with that singularly whole-
some and simply-constructed tale " Lady Andley's
" Secret"! the donor doubtless thinking with Pro-
fessor D'Aacv THOMPSON that Miss BRADDON is
one of the first of living writers, and thinking,
too, which perhaps Mr. THOMPSON does not,
that her novels are peculiarly adapted for the
amusement and instruction of the young. Yet it
ia possible that no judgment was exorcised in this
case, since it rarely is exercised in the matter of
prize-giving, and that the boy who won " Lady
Audley's Secret" was just as likely to have re-
ceived Bitterna's " Essay on Truth," or Meaux-
coma on Death, minus Mrs. VEAL'S Ghost.