The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-13 00:00:00

• that passage had not been discovered at all, but wbat evidence, and yet it was the only borough in the kingdom
cli cevetiea hue Penny heat Loser iie h . „Hee wet to he punished, s!thongh it had been instrumental
s, eset et •
in doing much public
iervice.
fThe next plea which he ventured
marked upon the charts and maps. As to whether
there was any intention on the part of the 'Admiralty
to offer was, that n•encoentessienswere extractedt_ fromieri-
minals, under
_h . promise tf
indemnity'
and upon neuerevea mg
to accept Captain Penny's offer of setvice ;or the new the whole truth, it was not air mat to turn round and
expedition, it had been decided by the late board, for *se the confessions thus obtained as the grounds on which
reasons which had been considered sufficient by them. to convict. Now, the manner in which the Commissioners
not to employ Captain Penny ; and the Admiralty had had been received in St. Albans, and the frank and candid
resolved: not to reverse The decision. come to by their manner in which they were urnished with information,
predecessors in office. With regard to further cornea- contrasted very favourably with the reception which other
pondence on• the subject not before Parliament, he "9 commissions, having a similar object in view, had received
in another borough. The confessions which were made to
.net aware that there were any such official peperi•
the commiesionersdwere made with a distinct and firm reli-
Mr. ANSTEY said,. the papers to. which tie referred
did not perhaps come strictly under the titlo of corre- awnoUel du Pboenath4ofanitiontaoifthboatnh
difhoitr of Parliamenntantdurint
spondence, but consisted, he believed, of memorials and round and use those confessions Parliamentt twfeerre nut7Bh
p i Lent.
petitions to the Admiralty, praying that Captain Penny Be bad not in his hand a copy ofas tahrieren'Oxl now- before the
might be re• employed. . HoOse for the disfranchisement of St. Albans, but, if his me-
Mr. STAFFORD replied, that it would be very de- mory served him right, it distinctly stated thatl all persons
sireble for the Hon. member to specify what papers he who being cited should truly answer questions put to them
really wished to be produced. , by the Commissioners should be indemnified from all' the
Sr IL H. INGLIS feared that the late -Adtitiralty, pains, penalties, and disabilities which they might have
and rte almost fe tree' the present board, had 'foegotten incurred
nt an,by the
their illegal practices. This he apprehended was
he! d spirit of the Ac but he could not. co of
once upon a time there existed such a man as Mr
deivee•rhewi3 a man, after making at,fu, and tehalle cohlesseleoneeof
Jam.:s Cook,. fur they. really seemed to fancy that her
elejee ode Royal Navy had ei. right to monopolize all the his
tinceitns
of, riiass to be indemnified
di•coveries .which ;might be made by private skill and privedti 'of the privilege of . the franchise.--('Hear, hear. )
enterprise --(Hear, hear.) Eighty or ninety years ag.act! if at the same time he he
_vents to b_ e iszlie;
This -struck him as being unjust and at variance with the
that was not the doctrine of the there Board of Admiralty, lettee of :the Act. • As he• had been • held up so much
and the eoniequenchwite that they found such individuals to public animadversion as the. author of a system of
as "lilr." Cook—as some of the officers of the Royal corniptibb, he would assume for argtimentsake, that there
Navy now-a-days would have presumed to call him—the was some foundation for • the charges' made against him,
master of a whaler, who rendered the name of England 'and upon that assumption, and upon the principle of " put
dignified by the discoveries he had made. He did say that a thief to catch a thiet," he would, with 'the, permission of
the treatment which Captain Peany had received from the House, state the present! mode of electing a Member of
different individuals had not beau such as would tend to Parliament, with the viewof showing the inefficiency of the
encourage in any, except in officers of her Majesty's Present
thehlea%l'anrecbteaCtked
woaffseenncee ofef
three,
eeTe
ostensibleT The present
till,
navy, that seal for national discovery which was so ma- jestl.' of which
nifested in the middle of the last century.—(Hear, hear. was to put an end to bribery and corruption at
)
Now, in his opinion, none of those Bills would
But this was not only a question of national discovery, answer the object in view. The difficulty of getting evidence
nor a question of science; it was a question of humanity. on which to convict for thee offence of bribery was so great,
—(Hear, hear.) He believed that Captain Penny, who- that evenin thaborough of St. Albans, where it was supposed
ther he made the special discovery of the north-western to be so rife, the rewards which were ffered at the election of
_
passage' or not, had penetrated further than any other 1850, of 1,0001. and 6001. for proof to insure conviction, were
man; and therefore, when it seemed to be thought not claimed—no person amid the constituency having been
almost a merit in the present and the late Boards, of Ad- found to sell his evidence, although it was alleged that votes
were sold in the borough for 5/. each. During the fifteen
miralty that they had given Captain Penny no reward,
months which he (Mr. Bell) had been in purgatory, in con-
they would, in his opinion, have done their duty as well, sequence of his election, he had inquired into the law and
and have met the justice of the case far better, if they practice of elections, and his conclusion was that the ex-
'had encouraged Captain Penny to continue those disco- trerne stringency of the law rendered it inoperative. The
veries which he had commenced, and which he bad law was so strict that if an elector travelled 40 miles to vote
prosecuted more satisfactorily than, or at least as for a candidate he durst ' not offer him a glass of beer, nor
satisfactorily as any other persons employed could any persdn on his behalf offer a voter that refresh.
in the expedition.—(Hear, hear.) He would Yen- ment which, under the circumstances, he would be entitled
ture further, to express a hope that her Majesty's to as a matter of course. The penalties upon all persons
present Board of . Admiralty would not lose a day in concerned in what was termed bribery were so absurdly
stringent that an agent might be fined in a sum of 150,0001.,
preparing the expedition upon which their predecessors or committed to prison for 400 or 500 years, if he could live
in office bad resolved.—(Bear.) It might not be neces- so long: . All experience with respect to' criminal punish-
vary that that expedition should sail on the 10th or the manta proved that the extreme stringency of the law led to
15th or April ; but he_ would say, that every day that its most glaring evasion. When sheep stealing was a hang-
it was delayed after the curliest time at which it could ing • ffence, how very few criminals were executed in pro-.
be got ready would be a day lost, not to the cause of dis- portion te sheep stolen. Why, it was well known that the
covery, ,but te the gift/lute:oleo onsuffering humauity ; and judges had a consultation where the offence became aggra-
he was sure the Eleute would readily support the board vated in any county, and it was agreed among them that a
in urging forward that expedition.—(Cheers.) few sheep stealers should be hanged, by way of an extmple
Mr. STAFFORD Laid that strenuous exertions were to the rest. The consequence of this mode of administering
being made to bring the new expedition into a state of
ten
the law was, that some fine morning a lot of fellows were ex-
ecuted who never expected to be hanged at all.—(Hear,
and laughter) The election of a Member of Parliament was
readiness. •- - -
practice— o f t h
of
tgae
an
genes agenten t
to therehav
altogether. managed by In ' Mr. PARKER regretted that the talc First Lord of
the Admiralty (Sir F. Baring) was not in his place that were several species. It :rasa%
a committee-room, of the existence of which the candidate
evening to take part in this, discos:. ion, end in his ab-
sense he (Mr. Parker) did not know that he could give had no knowledge whatever. In this room the agent met
at,y satisfactory enelattatitni on the subject now under the electors. The manner of bribing was effected 'some-
debate. This, however, he could assure the House, that what after this fashion :—The elector called upon the agent
his Right Hon. Friend had exercised his best discretion to make inquiries. " How you do, Mr. Smith 2" says
in the decision come to relative to the Arctic Expedi- the agent—holding up three of his fingers to denote thereby
the number of sovereigns he was prepared to pay. "Oh, I
etthatt?f,?el at alld well to-day," rlies he elector. " How is
!ions,. in order to attain that object which this House
" I'm sorryresPotna
hear
setahre agent (holding' up his five fingers)
and the country at ' large had so much in vies,
if possible, of Sir John
namely the recovery,
,you're unwell." " I'm better now, thank
Franklin and his fellow-explorers, or, at any rate, you," says the elector, and he walks to the window to' look
the ascertaining whet had been their fate. The into the street. The agent then sports five sovereigns on the
late First Lord had taken infinite pains in the matter, he table, and turns round to look out of the other window. In
had left nothing uudope, for he felt that he would be the mean time the five sovereigns and the elector disappear
secure of the support of the House and the approbation simultaneously, and both agent and elector positively swear
of the people at large iii any expenditure. To find fault before a Select Committee of the House that the one did not
in the absence of his Right Hoe. Friend with the course give, and the other did not take, a bribe.—(Hear, hear, and
which he had taken did not seem to him to be quite fair. laugihten) Now this was the mode in which the affairs of
oywas
euverysotanninnaganwaereed.the agents, and
The choice of officers for such an expedition involved a
aanncf
clerkseti employed,
carriededh ton by the agents, spies, messengers,
so;iis eel, not. to
so dexterously delicate discretion, and he doubted whether this House
compromise the candidate, that, whatever
was a fit place to discuss the merits of officers. He did
not know whether his Right Hon. Friend, had he been may be, it was impossible for him to detect anything
present, would have thought proper to enter into the illegal. He would, however, do those agents the justicelg
reasons which had induced the board to, decline ,to send to say, that although, like lawyers, they cared not
out Captain Penny, and he (Mr. Parker). holding, as he on whose behalf 'their services were retained, they
had done, but a subordinate position in the department, discharged their duty to their principals with the utmost
could not be expected, to go into those reasons. fidelity. A great deal had been said about the corruption of
spentaccount
cacto ua nghtaoi
the
hi
grit:, u
is tehl
terye mosttt
complicity bta hreerfea coefcdetnahni
edd r
ihveal unblushingnceaadndtoidpetition,abt bribery,
eloped ea rneynd,!
Captain SCOBELL caller the attention nf the Ad- St. Albans, but let it be remembered that there were
numbers of Honourable Gentlemen in that House who had
had - been
miralcy to the propriety of scattering the ships em-
ployed in the next expedition more than done
in the first. Some six or eight vessels appeared to have
been almost within hail of each other, So that they yet these Honourable Gentlemen were
'on("fatlw.
covered very little surface. Boat expeditions had, it was a Bill to disfranchise the borough of St.
prAetihaarns.
According
edifnor
true, been made over the ice, but the result has been to the present system of electing a Member of Parliamentg
very far from satisfactory. As to Captain Penny, he had the candidate was obliged to be kept in ignorance of the man-
read with great minuteness everything that bad come ner in which he was elected, and as far as the electors were
before Parliament on the question, and he did think that concerned, in the generality of instances they knew nothing
the exertions—ho might say successful exertions of Cap- whatever about politics. They looked upon an election as a
fain Penny had been nacre prominent or as prominent as his ristmas festivity. If an elector was asked what he was,
those of any one employed throughout the whole expo-
astheusueal reply was, " I votes with the Blues- or the Reds,"
dition. It was much to-- that gentleman's credit that he did hisr
lase might be. be. .If he were asked about the corn-laws,
not go to seek promotion, but bad joined the expedition, and ePify hewn were 'ai (s)khe,dl dwohne'tthkenrowhenoltihking about that ;"
running the same risks as those who went out also from his reply would be, "In course I dose:- al cheap loaf,ther
very noble motives, but who hoped thereby to advance pay fourpence than sixpence. "—(Loud laughter.) He main-
themselves. The Hon. and Gallant Member concluded by tamed that bribery was a disease.—(Hear, hear.) It was
asking for the production of a return which he bad moved extremely like small-pox.--(Laughter.) It was contagious
tor in the beginning of the session, and which would be and communicable from one person to anothene-the person
useful to the House when the naval estimates came on who suffered much by its attack was marked as long as he
lived, and the contagion only operated where there was a
for discussion. . ,
susceptibility towards it. Inorder
Admiral BERKELEY was prepared to assume his to put an end to bribery,
theprimary object
share of the respousibtlity of not having appointed Cap- with Pa
repugnance
e efoutghheteftth be to imbue the public mind
fain Penny to the Arctic Expedition. That conclusion
person convicted of bribery shouldn lose
toast linrogidew thati. thel
had not been come to without due deliberation; it had might be said that it was a Utopiansiedena to expect that all
not been come to without, in the first place, the consul- classes in the community could be purged of this immoral
ta, ion of every officer who bad visited those regions, and tendency, but he assured the House that, even in the
be was of ()Pinion that jt Captain &tine had been sent much-abused St. Albans, there were two hundred electors,
out with the present expedition.. it . would not have been in very humble positions of life, against whom no charge
for the interest of the object in view. . . had ever been made of receiving a bribe.—(Hear, hear.)
He would come now to the method of curing this 'l' , and
evil
The subject then droppeds .• . . .
F. MACKENZIE moved that the House, at its
were laws which now existed, and which
Mr.
so severe that they were never enforced. Remove the
rising, should adjourn till Mendey.—Agreed to. penalty, as they had done in the St.
case of
Albans, against
Tae dropped orders of the day and notices of motion all lawyers, agents, and • •
were then re-appointed. surdity of their committees up stairs, where gentlemen, all of
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. whom were probably equally._
guilty, sat upon each others'
Oa the motion for reading the order' of the day re- cases, and get intheir place a Commission composed of such
e d he believed
lating to the Parliamentary. E 'presentation Bill, meee'an_ . they could not get better—as sat upon
Mr. flume Mr. Thimas Duncombe, and Sir Joshua the St. Albans case. He respected those Learned Gentle-
men as a ) child respected
Welinsley presented petitions in favour of Parlieneentary the father that corrected him—
Reform. , (Laughter —and he could assure the House that a mouse
was not more helpless before three bull terriers than a wit-
Lord JOHN RUSSELL then stated that as he could
ness was in the hand
not hope to pass the Bill eta a private Member he pro- missed him, the second was
these three gentlemen. If the 'one
sure to snap him up, and the
to abandon it, but he should not preclude himself
posed third to swallow him.—(Renewed
laughter.) If every one
from making a. motion on this subject in the course of suspected of bribery 'had the prospectof being sent before
the eessron. 'He should, therefore, move that the order such a tribunal as that, the man who attempted either to
of the day relutiiig •to this Bill, and the Corrupt Prac- bribe or to receive bribes would only be fit to spend the rest
titles at Elections Bill be reed, for the purpose of being of his days in Hanwell.—(Hear, and laughter.) And it
poe- potted for three meow__ (Hear, hear.) . should further be borne in mind that the Commissioners
ught to be remun
Mr. HUME expressed his regret at the announce- o t .
ed . erated by the State, to prevent them being
ment, but ho hoped .the Noble . Lord . would give rtehetuenam mitthe interest of either party. While he attended
'an early notice of his intended motion. He V'l6 5 tenious mmannertee on. his own case he was struck with the
expe-
surein-
if the motion was founded upon free and
r6tence he had ledthlenrewhich_ businessi was done, and the
liberal principles it would meet with the sanction of the
such a mode to d' hm to see the fallacy of adopting
mover bribery.. As long as a witness talked
ettuntry.—(Hear, hear.), irrelevantly he was allowed to Bill was g o on as he pleased; but as
Mr. W. WILLIAMS 'alto! regretted that the soon as he appeared to be going to touch 'that
to the upon anything
to be abandoned, tint was rejoiced to hear that e would have been decisive he was stopped. If he had been a
N:rine L4d had not altogether, given up the cause, of member of the Committee, knowing nothing of the case but
reform.—(Hear, hear.) , what transpired there, he would have voted for .
unseating
be Liberal party himself, because,
Mr. S. DUNCOMBE celled., upon t
him, he though there was no legal evidence against
to proceed with this Bill in defiance of the Noble Lord,
Tae
h could smell what was bottled up.—(Laughter.)
or insist upon his abandoning it at onus. He wanted to ii 0
beent gtitright to make these remarks, because he had
know whether it ovas intended. to elet Parliamentary
the most blackened froione end of the country to the other as
reform stop where it was? And until be • obtained some
was determinedcorrupt to do what
Member of the House; and, therefore, he
consent to thishe could, whether in the House
answer to this question, he . could not . or not, to stop briberyand •
corruption. Bat the Bill now
inotiolO.--(hear, hear.) It appeared to him, now' before the House would not effect that
• obect it would
ever, that there was little chance of any reform operate as the old punishment against sheep. stealing used to
this year; but the NOble. Lord having pledged himself to operate; the enormity of the crime would be lost in disgust
take the matter up, he ought to state diseinctly.wharethe at the punishment, and other boroughs equally corrupt would
intended to do in • future' now.—(rear, hear.) He be allowed to escape. Besides, he could not see the propriety
hoped for nothing from her.-MojestY's Qenernment, and of first promising an indemnity for speaking the truth, and
he might be prepared on Monday, •after• hearing then, when the truth was spoken, turning round and dis-
their - statement, to ' Rim - them the compliment franchising the borough. It was true the fine was remitted,
of the session—(A' laughy—but 'delays upon retorm in but then capital punishment was inflicted,. which was much
the past had proved dangerounee(Hear, hear.) He, waosrsseedtuhananantLitr.—(Laughter.) He had, perhaps, tres-
me of the House longer than he ought to
therefore,' called upon the Noble Lord to lose no time, in
passed
done.') It
introducing a !hill oil The subject, ito !
'` 'that the House might •
be
death with him and the borough of St. Albans. St. Albans
Cully discuss it before the if,(l3.eral election; which was Was in the mud, and he was in the mud, and unless he could
told was not far O. ! ,
1, drag. St. Albans out of the mud, he must stop. there himself.
RICELEY the He would move,therefore,
After a few words from Mr. G. g . ,
con-
coction for theagreed to.
postponemeut was . . and he would leave those Honourable Gentlemen who
SUITORS IN CHANCERY RELIEF BILL. , tinued to persecute the borough to name any day for its ad- •
that the order of the day relating to I journ The motion ment theleased.
On the motion was not seconded. .
this Bill be read, - • •
Mr. HUME could not refrain from
Sir W. P. WOOD hoped that the Bill would be taken
.. . thanking her Majesty's
Ministers for having taken charge of this Bill. He took it
up by the present Gevernment, as an earnest, notwithstanding all that had passed that
Mr. WALPOLE said no man was more competent
the meant to reform all crying abuses, and after ' the long
to
reform
e, manage a Bill fur . Chancery •than the Lord Y
speech of the Honourable Member, who allowed that he
hanee
an llor, and he was glad to tell the House that the in the House illegally, and that if he had sat
hs
•sat upon the Cora-
NOble di L •
earned Lord was ready and willing to take mittee he would have disfranchised himself, he hoped her
the subject 'this Bill
up:—(Hean hear.) With regard to Majesty's Government would not allow this to be an isolated
and another relatin '
to the court o. Bankruptcy. he case, but that they would go to the root of the evil by put-
would look into them and adopted ling an end
to these small boroughs, where, according to the
by the Gowernment. (ll "e
if
they conld be Mg an _ .
witnesses theycould
testimony of the most competent have,
The order of the d— forear' hear')
* all but universal.
y the second rea 'ng was then , bribery was
postponed for a week.. . - dI
- I Sir DE LACY EVANS also tendered his acknowledg-
The Parliamentary Re ree
p , eiltation (Ireland) Bill, and !meats to the
the Parliainentary-Re rmuch be regretted if this
.._ p. esentatton (Scotland) Bill were I Bill. It would indeed have been to
withdrawn.
I Bill had been lost; but at the same time it would be equally
PASSENGERSACT 'AMEN ' .
. MlEN'''. BILL• hard if St. Albaas were to be, made tbe only black sheep,
Sir J. PAKlNGirON'annotitieed the intention 'while other culprits, not less guilty, escaped; and he -would
Government to take uphhisltill arid ention of the
this, Rill,filed the second ! beg to suggest that a similar
Commission should be issued in
reading for Monday week next. I the case of Harwich.
ST. ALBANS DISFRANCHISEMENT ,BILL. The Bill was then read a second time,
to be committed on
Mn: WALPOLE moved the second - reading of the. Friday next.
• ' ; • The Personal Estates of Intestates Bill went through Com-
Bill.
• Sir G. GREY saichthe Bill was brou ht in b th :mittee.
Sir y e late Go-
It
n consequence of the report of a Royal Commis— Sir R. H. INGLIS presented a petition from the trustees
vettunent, i
' 'red into the system of bribery and -1 of the British Parliamentary
sion, who had inquired
He hoped the Bill would be parse_ grant.
ruption in the borough. .
d 'thus much, he was prepared to I . Me. 11 . .
oared in ; but 'having sal •
f the Ri ht Hon• Gentlemen') ! ask the' mE gave notice that on an early day he would
leave the matter in the hands 0 g ' t----- ' the Hone Secretar whether he intended to carry out
home Department. - resolution et
the Secretary of State for the Committee which sat three years ago, that
House, and was there should. be a
Mr. BELL then rose to address the
~ a change •
la ,the government of the British
f " Hear, hear." The . Museum, but which
ceived with laughter and cries o - tended to. recommendation had never yet been at-
Honourable Gentleman said he rose with the view of. making .
the Bill from passing. The Sir R. H. INGLIS then
an expiring effort to prevent
one in which he had bury, Ross, and towns in • presented petitions from Ban-
question of Parliamentary elections was
and Essex. against
grant;
Yorkshire
waver taken any heterest, and, in fact, he knew nothing _ the Maynooth
villa ever'of such mutters until he found his name associated bus ,letlns, drawing attention to the meritsnt, also from Mr, Ju-
of his life-boats
as the author of a system which had existed long before he in connexion with the burning of the Amazon,
was born; and which, he 'had no 'doubt, would exist long for a Parliamentary inquiry into the and praying
improve-
after he had passed out of this swannery slake.— (Hear, Woes. p value of his
hear.) To defend so detestable a practice as that of which Mr. S OONER presented several petitions f rom Church-
the borough of St. Albans . had been convicted was im- men and Dissenters in North Warwiekshi
Alaynooth grant. ' re against the
possible. No man had 'greater reason to detest that
Mr. HUME resented
system than he had, but he put it to the House whether,
Me nooth; alsoP
a petition from Arbroath again t
under the present circumstances, •it was just and proper Y . . petitions from Suffolk against the mlt s;
Ito carry out the extreme sentence of the law on the unfor- also a petition from an individual praying for the aet f amn
-
I tunate borough of St. Albans. He had . several pleas to chisement of copyholds belonging,to the church; also anpra --
offer, and upon them would rest his argument. The first ' tion from the island of Jersey against the tolls leviedetoin.
of those' pleas was that when a number of persons were in- ships of the ports of Dover and Ramsgate.
dieted for a joint offence, the person who turned Queen's Captain HARRIS presented a petition from Christchurch
evidence, and by-his testimony secured the conviction of his against the eost-horse duty
accomplices, was invariably pardoned. The present Bill was Mr. MUNTZ presented a petition from Birmingham,
only one -out of three which had been framed. with the view against the policy now pursued in South Africa.
•
of punishing electors who had been found guilty of receiving Lord A. HERVEY presented a petition from Brighton,
bribes. The borough of St. Albaus had turned Queen's against the continuance of the grant to blaynooth, and