The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-19 00:00:00

THE ST. ALBANS DISFRANCHISE-
MENT BILL.

The House of Commons on Monday night presented
cne of those scenes of injured innocence with which it
periodically wipes off the stain of continual corruption.
The smut is always accumulating on the coalheaver's
face, but about once a week he finds sufficient leisure
and soap to restore his complexion to a sort of conven-
tional cleanliness. In the case of the House of Commons
this ceremonial purification is repeated two or three times
in a session, and, as might be expected, with the greatest
seal on the occasions of the most crying scandeL St.
Albans is not unfitly compared by its unfortunate re-
presentative to the scapegoat on which the House of
Commons grafts the sins of every one of its Members,
on the supposition that, by exterminating that one
borough, the House will be left perfectly pure. That is
the Levitical notion.. In these days, perhaps, we should
borrow our images from some of those gigantic systems
of sewerage which lately divided the attention of the
sanitary world. St. Albans is the great sump or monster
cesspool into via oh this rockios at) uuslunt, ions of
St. Stephen's are carried away, though, •as it
appears, we only exchange one difficulty for
another; for how is St. Albans itself to be dis-
posed of ? The process of self-purgation attempted
on Monday is very ingenious, and nothing could exceed
the reality with which the 'various personages threw
themselves into their parts; but, after all, the annihilatiod
of a nuisance is all but impossible. There are a thou-
sand excellent plans by which furnaces are warranted
to consume their own smoke, and we have no doubt they
have all been tried at Buckingham Palace; but when we
stood before the new front of that edifice 'last Saturday
afternoon there rose from behind the figure of Britannia
a dense column of smoke that would have done honour
to fitly brewery in the metropolis. We should not be
surprised if the new patent corruption-consuming ap-
paratus, now on trial in -the House of Commons, should
attain bat a partial success. A sagacious contemporary
made it a point the other day in favour of the new Par-
liamentary Representation Bill, that whereas the first
,Reform Bill might be compared to Hercules in his cradle
strangling the serpent sent to devour him, the present
measure represents the adult hero with nothing further
work all done, himself a gentleman
toof destroy,
leisure
and his
independence, in easy circumstenceie
much like a modern man upon town. • . That, .of
course, is the delusion which plausible men: are always
palming on fools. Strangle your serpent, do your
Schedule•A once for all, or, if there must •be a comme-
morative sacrifice, slay a St. Albana once in ten years,
and you may then any to your soul, " Soul, take thine ,
ease; eat, drink, and be merry." But on this point owe
learned contemporary, and, we will add, the concoctora
of tae new Reform Bill, and the sacrificers of St. Al-
bans, are all wrong. When. Hercules grew up, instead
of a simple serpent, he had a fifty-headed Hydra to
besides other monsters; and that is exactly the sort of
work which the Hercules of oar days, the British House
of Commons, has to accomplish, and will have to the
end of the world. •
Yet it must be confessed that the various actors 'in
the farce of Monday night did their parts welL Sir
George Grey was full of admiration at the very co re-
plete way in which "the Act of last session" bad
worked in detecting and exposing the corrup-
tiou of St. Albano. Read his speech, gentae
reader. Except the single expression, .` almost un-
precedented," there is literally not a syllable in
it that would lead one to suspect bribery had ever
bean heard of in this country before. • Had he been
describing the unparalleled atrocities of Burke and Hails
he could not have been more indignant and mere simpity
• bent on the work of discovery and retribution. Eie
wiped his mouth, and sat down tie champion of poli-
tical purity. But where there is virtue there will ever
be calumny also, and the Minister 'found himself auda-
ciously accused from the very record on which his
sseech had been framed. Mr. Whiteside asked " whe-
ther the attention of the Right Hon. Baronet had been
directed to that part of the St. Albans evidence which
stated that Government places had been the reward of
persons who had committed corruption ou behalf of
Reforni candidates?" Sir George Grey was at no loss
for a reply. "He was ignorant of any such rewat ds
having been given by the. Government to which he 'ne-
longed for any such corrupt practices." The impu ca-
tions which the Home Secretary had to meet were raet
but general; and. perhaps it is easier to ignore, in
set phrase, the corruption of an empire, of a Leg is-
keture, or a Government, than the bribery of an
individual; but there were those present who lead
to meet the most direct personal charge of malprac-
tices, and they did their part as well assir George Gl ey
had done his. Foremost of these is Mr. Jacob Bien.
Tis much-injured man, brought fairly to bay, has at
last made a capital fight. He confesses the sins of St.
Albans. On that pointehadeed, he says that, like , the
House of Commons, he has :derived' great, light from the
published evidence. He belga, the Hon. Members not to
condemn him by the perfect insight they now have into
the' wrongs of St. Albans, bat to put themselves-into his
Situation while he was still it z.tw'eandidate, .as • movt of
them, indeed, poor creatures, ,have bean, in their d ay.
What did he do He. acceeted.trie unanimous,
tion of .the borough.
Ile prepared an. address withthe
usual ingredients from the new Whig plaarmacopatia.
Ile showed it to. those high amthoritteillr. Coppock
and the • Seoretary. ,of the Treasury. Did -not
that show at least- a dispeoition to . be right, and
where could he • find better advisers ?. 1-le :met
hint committee, be canvassed • the elec tors,
ho submitted to' a searching' examination • as
to his political tenets, and rejoiced to.find himself ap-
proved by his cautious and discriminating critics. He
thought it right to confide in those who placed con&
d ie, the bills begWanilPlitoaCiolmwriro•
d,eace in him. What is more generous than an inter-
ins
'mange of confidence? He found the Liberal 'cue use
stakedw in his own person, and determined to go on. He
:IS victorious. over,
ricions before, and aenhdadthheatdhihnigs 'stti
now the reality dawned upon him
that he had been v.'stage of the MA iir. victimized at every •
He repented, bat .too late. But, after ali,.he asks is his
own ease much worse than the average? "He has had
the excitement of an
I the further
indulgence of
election, the luxury of a petit Um,
-a commission, and the t al
,urn of his has
not
exceeded 4 3001." Why, if
this is corruption, it is. very chea corruption.- &Alb arts,
old as it is, does MA' knossesep to
warrant that it is far below thsee w ,chfathrge';
sixty-s, "'ill
boroughs which Lord John kusselir
.11, 511 en
ter
Such is Jacob Bell's defence, panotrowsees perpett la
helve: ha rd. ly,
done justice to its, simplicity.. His colleague's story er, 99
the same. Some days after the election the bills bi rga n
to come in, and he found thire had been bribery. • Air.
Bagshaw represents Harwich, and *44 whatever tit e