The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-16 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
COUNTY COURTS.
Lord BROUGHAM rose to move for certain returns
containing the same information with respect to the
superior courts of law which had already been furnished
to the other house of Parliainent with respect to the
county courts. The noble lord said that he would take
that opportunity of setting right a mistake which had
gone abroad with respect to a statement which he had
made a few nights ago, as to the amount of the sums re-
covered in the county courts as contrasted with the
enormous amount of taxes levied in those courts in the
form of fees. He had stated that a sum of 272,0001. had
been levied during the last year in the form of law taxes,
and that that bore a great proportion to the whole
amount of sums recovered in those courts. Six hun-
dred and odd thousand pounds had been the amount
of the sums recovered by judgment ; but this by no
means represented the whole amount recovered,
for it might perhaps be said that not less than
100,0001. had been paid into court, and that sums
to the amount of 300,0001. had been settled by the
parties ; so that they had to compare this 272,0001.,
which was extorted from the suitors in law.taxes, with
1,000,0001. or 1,200,0001. recovered by this beneficial
system of local judicature, but their lordships would see
that that the law taxes still bore a large proportion to
the sums recovered. Nevertheless, he was bound to
admit that notwithstanding this evil, which it would be
their duty to remedy, the advantage was prodigious
which suitors and the public had gained by this admir-
able system of local judicature, and he could not help
hoping that the system would be improired in England,
and would be extended to Scotland. The difficulties
which stood in the way of extending the system to Scot- '
land were all but insuperable ; but he thought that they
might do so much as this, namely, to extend to Scotland
a local judicature to the amount of 501., parol proceedings
and not written proceedings, and no appeal to the sheriff
from the local court, nor from the local court to a non-resi-
dent judge, but an appeal, as in England, on matters of
law alone, to the Supreme Court. If so much were given
to Scotland; he thought that the most prodigious advan-
tage would be gained by that country, and the agitation
now existing against the whole of the system at present
established would be put an end to. He was rejoiced
to learn that the Government had resolved to issue a
commission to inquire into the whole of that great sub-
ject, the assimilation of the mercantile law in the differ-
ent parts of the United Kingdom. The most important
branch of the subject, and that which had most occu-
pied the attention of the English mercantile interests,
both in the provinces and in the city of London, was the
assimilation in a certain degree, and in some manner, of
the law of bankruptcy and insolvency. He would not
say that this could be done by applying the English
system entirely to Scotland, nor by substituting the
Scotch system in place of our own, but in all probability
they might arrive at a third system better than either,
and compounded of the best ports of both ; and he had
that the result of the inquiries about to be instituted
would tend substantially to effect that object. He was
about to present a bill to their lordships, which he
considered as going in a right direction, and which, if
the English system were to be applied to Scotland—
namely, that of administering bankruptcy in a court
and by judges, of giving the inestimable blessing of
official assignees to that country, and the equally solid
advantage in a legal, commercial, and moral view of
three classes of certificates—would be found to work out
those objects satisfactorily. He would not pledge him-
self to the whole of the details of the bill, nor would he
undertake to say that he might not upon inquiry
be of opinion that it would be inexpedient to apply to
Scotland the bankruptcy system which was established
in this country. But if the principles of our English
system could be safely and beneficially applied to Scot-
land, then he felt that the great mercantile body, whose
wishes and views he on that occasion represented, would
have done good service by urging upon their lordships'
attention the details and principles of the bill which he
had now the honour of laying on their lordships' table.
His lordship concluded by moving the first reading of
the bill, which was entitled, "An Act to Improve the
Administration of Bankruptcy and Insolvency in Scot- I
land "

The bill was read a first time, and the returns moved
for by the noble and learned lord were agreed to.
Lord WHARNCLIFFE gave notice that he should
ask the Postmaster-General on an early day, whether
her Majesty's Government proposed to take any mea-
sures for the more certain transmission of mails to Aus-

tralia, and particularly for enforcing the contract for
that purpose with the Australian Royal Mail Steam Na-
vigation Company.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-(YESTERDAY.)

CONSOLIDATED FUND BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
BOROUGH OF CANTERBURY.

Mr. K. SEYMER said he was not going to propose, as
he had done in the case of Great Yarmouth, to disfran-
chise any part of the electors, but he coincided in opinion
with the other members who tried the Canterbury election
petition, that further inquiry was necessary. He might
take it for granted that there existed generally a wish on
the part of the house to put an end to bribery and corrup-
tion. (Hear, hear.)
An HON. MEMBER—It is all humbug. (Laughter.)
Mr. K. SEYMER—An honourable gentleman said it
was all humbug, but he must admit, at all events, that the
election committees appointed by the house had done their
duty. (Hear, hear.) -Whatever might be thought of it,
the great body of the middle classes, who stood aloof from
those proceedings, who were neither in a position to take
nor to offer bribes, viewed the system with increased dis-
gust. (Hear, hear.) It was advisable that the House of
Commons should take the lead, instead of lagging behind
public opinion, because he did not know of any question
on which it was more dangerous to be behindhand than on
this question of election bribery. (Hear, hear.) It might
do very well for the gentlemen who were employed to attend
to those matters to have a list of boroughs for which gen-
tlemen could be returned, but he trusted that the great
body of the house would have no sympathy for those gen-
tlemen. (Hear.) After the publicity that had been given
to these matters by the press, it was impossible to think
that the claim for amendment would be rejected, and he
trusted that in his efforts to enforce it he would have the
support of honourable gentlemen opposite. (Hear, hear.)
They had their own views with regard to the preven-
tion of bribery and corruption, but he thought it
would be admitted that, Parliament having in its wisdom
passed a measure to prevent bribery, that measure
ought .to have a fair trial. (Hear.) The gentleman on his
own side of the house were specially bound to support his
proposition, and it was necessary that such powers as they
possessed should be put in force on every fitting occasion
for the prevention of this system. (Hear.) There were
thousands of persons not admitted to the elective fran-
chise who were proudly conscious that if they were ad-
mitted to it they would not abuse it as it had been abused
by certain electors of Canterbury ; and if they showed any
tenderness towards those who systematically abused the
franchise, such a storm of indignation might be raised as
would sweep away the whole of the representative system,
and endanger the constitutions of the country. (Hear.)
With these observations he should now state to the house
what had taken place at the last Canterbury election.
(Hear.) There were in the city of Canterbury two par-
ties, designated by the names of " the blues" and "the
reds." He might pay them the great compliment of saying
that they had no political opinions. (Laughter.) They were
neither Whig nor Tory, Protectionist nor Free-trader ; and
even the cry of " a big loaf" would produce little effect
amongst certain classes of the electors unless it was accom-
panied by a colourman's ticket. (Laughter.) At the last
election " the blue" party had abstained from the practice
on which the committee reported, and they met with the
most decided defeat. (Laughter.) Therefore all they had
to do with was " the red" party. (Hear.) Their head-
quarters were established at the office of Mr. Ward, and
an elector went to the committee at Ward's and asked to
be put down as a messenger, and if the legal authority who
managed these matters thought there was no objection to
the voter, he was put down as a messenger accordingly.
(Hear, hear.) But the electors who knew nothing
of the law made their being put down as messenger the
condition for giving their votes, as would be found by
the evidence of William Pickering in the report. It
would be found that Mr. Taylor, the gentleman who put
down the names, took the same view. When a man asked
to have his name put down as a messenger, he asked if he
promised his vote ; he said he would go to the committee
to see if all was right, and when he went to the committee
he put down the name. (Hear, hear.) The person would
also receive colourmen's tickets—that is, he asked to be
allowed to recommend two persons, each of whom received
ten shillings after the election. If an elector voted for one
candidate ho got one colourman's ticket, and if he voted
for two candidates he got two colourmen's tickets, the
value of which varied at different times, but at the last
election it amounted to ten shillings each. It would be
found that persons who had promised their votes to "the
blues," on finding that they were not to get colourmen's
tickets, went to the red party. One man went to " the
blues," and on being refused a colourman's ticket said he
never had been so insulted. (Laughter.) He said
that on going to the chairman of the committee
he was treated in a way that he had never been treated in
his life, because the chairman turned his back on him and
and refused to give him a colourman's ticket. (Hear.)
Those tickets were considered a valuable security ; they
were circulated in the borough of Canterbury, and dis-
counted in the market at Bs. a-piece. One man said he
could have bought a dozen of them in the streets of Canter-
bury, as would be found on reference to the evidence of
James Wilson, p. 37; (Hear.) The holder of the ticket
icilkwetayforls., and the same process
officer,
and gave it back to
went to Taylor on the day of nomination, who punched the
holder
wasitdh heonaneobtyarrta
was repeated on the day of polling. He mentioned that to
show how very complete the system was. Had these
tickett
e as
tickets been given on the day of election to voters who had
come some distance to poll, he should not have thought
very much of the matter, for he did think in counties,
where the electors had to travel considerable distances to a
polling place, or in boroughs, where voters, temporarily
non-resident, had to undertake a journey for such a pur-
pose, some moderate system of allowing refreshments was
not objectionable—(hear, hear)—provided it was so ma-
naged as not to become a sort of corruption to publicans.
The colour tickets having been purchased or obtained in
the manner he had mentioned, they were finally taken to
Mr. Smith, and the holders of them received 108. each.
To prove how entirely colourable the employment was,
he might state that a boy, six years old, received one of
them, and afterwards exchanged it for money. It might
be asked what benefit the, jectors got from all this ? The
house would find how, in some remarkable way or other,
the actual hard cash
obtained on the colour tickets came
some instances to the electors. The election, in fact,
inssome instances to the electors. The election in fact,
seeme
seemed to be a period for the recovery of small. debts. An
elector who 'could not get in any other way money which
was owing
to him, obtained a colourman's ticket for
debtor, on the understanding that some of the money
got. for it, lxas to go in discharge of the debt dike to the
voter. Other of the voters again put down fictitious names

tion.

for colourmen's tickets, and actually sent and got the
money for them, which they put into their own pockets.
Trifling, however, as all these sums were, they were the
conditions on which the men voted. (Hear, hear.) They
forined inducements for violating their promises, and for
voting contrary to their principles, if, indeed, such men
had principles at all ; and so far from thinking the small-
ness of the sums told in favour of the voter, he (Mr. Ker
Seymer) thought it told against him. It showed the small
esteem in which the electors held the elective franchise.
When a poor voter was tempted by what appeared to him
an almost fabulous sum to break his promise, one would be
disposed to have some sympathy with him; but at Canter-
bury the electors held so cheaply the franchise with which
they were entrusted by the constitution that in many in-
stances they were willing to barter it for less than a pound.
He said such a state of things was intolerable ; and men
esteeming the elective franchise so lowly should no longer
be allowed to disgrace their country. (Cheers.) One Allen
Engleman, an old freeman.of Canterbury, and a very re-
markable witness, gave the history of all the elections there
within his memory to the committee, and it appeared from
his statement that for a long series of years a universal
system of corruption had obtained in that city by means
of those small payments to sham colourmen. In all those
corrupt boroughs, when they were submitted to inquiry
before a parliamentary committee, some expression or other
generally fell from the witnesses to indicate the nature of the
corrupt influence which prevailed in them. For example, a
witness would say he expected in giving his vote to be treated
as all the rest were treated, or that he thought he should
have a freeman's right or a freeman's treatment. There
were some other cases of a different nature. For instance,
a man went into a public-house during the election at Can-
terbury with an agent, and after the interview found 4/.
lying on the table.
,The man afterwards made no secret
in saying the 4/. was given for his vote. He was in poor
circumstances, and in fact asked for the 41. In another
case two voters went into an unoccupied bed-room of a
house where they had been instructed to go, and there
they found, one of them 5/. the other 3/. They afterwards
said they supposed those sums were placed there because
they voted in a particular way. He thought he had now
stated enough to show what was the system carried on at
Canterbury at the last election. With regard to the num-
ber of persons bribed by those colour tickets, a list of 350
was handed into the committee ; but of course it could not
be expected that the petitioners would go to anything like
the expense of proving such a large number of cases. He
thought, lowever, it might be fairly inferred that a great
portion of the electors were bribed at the last election for
Canterbury. The house was aware that, in order to have
an address to the Crown for a commission in a case of
this kind, the concurrence of the other house was neces-
sary. He thought it almost a pity that the statute con-
tained such a provision, because he feared it might lead to
delay, and because he was one of those who thought the
house should not unnecessarily delay, even for one day,
the issuing of writs to boroughs whose members had been
unseated, so as to deprive the honest and bona fide electors
of their right to be represented in that house. He could
not go into the historytf the previous elections for Can-
terbury. He was told, however, that the election before
the last was uncontested; and therefore a pure election ;
and if that was so, the commission for which he meant to
move would be limited to the last election. He had been
told that he had no locus standi for a motion of this nature,
inasmuch as the committee in the Canterbury case had not
reported that the bribery practised at the last election
was "extensive," in conformity with the term used in
the statute. But he would remind the house that

they reorted that it had been " general and sys-
tematic," which he thought was tantamount to its being
" extensive." (Hear, hear.) He felt he had now done
his duty in bringing this question before the house, he
thanked them for the attention with which they had
listened to him, and he confidently left the case in their
hands. (Cheers.) The hon. gentleman concluded by
moving that an address be issued to the Crown, for a com-
mission to inquire into the state of the borough of Can-
terbury.
The question having been put,

Mr. MALINS, as a member of the Canterbury election
committee, thought the justice of the case would not be
met if the proposed inquiry was limited to the last elec-

Evidence was adduced before the committee show-

ing that for the last 50 years colonrmen's tickets had been

given at elections, both on the one side and on the other.
It might be some satisfaction to the house to know that it
was made perfectly clear to the committee that the prac-
tice in question prevailed only among the lower class of
voters in Canterbury. There was no single instance proved
of a ten-pound householder having availed himself of a
colourman s ticket. The practice was limited to the free-
men alone ; and a more miserable class of persons than
those brought before the committee to give evidence it
was impossible to conceive. He thought any hon. member
who would take the trouble of reading through the evi-
dence would come to the conclusion that there was but
one remedy against the repetition of the practices which
had so long prevailed in the city of Canterbury, and that
was to prevent the franchise descending to the class of
persons who had so lamentably abused it. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE said he did not rise for the purpose
of opposing the motion of the hon. gentleman opposite (Mr.
K. Seymer), but he did not see, as the hon. gentleman pro-
fessed to do, any great anxiety on the part of that house
to put an end to the abuses in our representative system.
He (Mr. T. Duncombe) confessed he was not competent
to form an opinion on that point. He should be able
to form such an opinion if he saw on the table of the
house the new Reform Bill—the bill, he might say, which
was to re-reform the representation. (A laugh.) Until
he Baiv that bill, and the mode in which the house dealt

with it, he would not say that the House of Commons was
anxious to put down corruption. He wanted especially to
see how honourable gentlemen opposite would deal with a
bill that should greatly extend the franchise. (Laughter.)
If it was possible to arrange that there should be no con-
stituency under 20,000—(oh, and hear, hear)—he was quite
satisfied that bribery would be put down, for it would be
utterly hopeless to attempt to bribe so large a constituency ;
but so long as the present small borough constituencies re-
mained, things would continue as they were. He did not
believe with the hon. and learned gentleman opposite (Mr.
Mathis) that poor men as a body were more corrupt than
many of the rich among the borough constituencies.
(Hear, hear.) The hon. gentlemen opposite (Mr. K. Sey-
suer) had said that the election committees on this occasion
had nobly done their duty. He (Mr. T. Duncombe) sup-
posed he meant by that they had been unseating the mem-
bers and making special reports. (A laugh.) He did not
say the committees had not done their duty. So they did
during the last Parliament. Then there was the same sort
of corruption disclosed as now; and he (Mr. T. Duncombe)
was afraid that all this virtuous indignation against bri-
bery and corruption among committees of that house was
too good to last. (Laughter.) Thirty-three petitions were
tried during the last Parliament—not all for bribery,
some' being on the ground of want of qualification, and
others for prematurely closing the poll—hi twenty of
which the members were unseated on the ground of bri-
bery and corruption. In ten of those twenty cases
special reports were made. There was the Great Yar-
mouth case, in which the members were unseated, and
the committee reported that there had been systematic bri-
bery and treating, and recommended the disfranchisement
the freemen ; Lyme Regis, in which there was a special
report ; Carlisle, extensive bribery and treating—(derisive
laughter from the Opposition)—carried on under what was
called travelling expenses ; Bewdley, treating in public-
houses and beer-shops during the week of the election, and
drink given away to a large extent ; Harwich, three peti-
tions, and the members three times unseated—but really
Harwich was so old and incorrigible a sinner that the
*house had given up dealing with it altogether. (Laughter.)
Lincoln, treating, and a special report ; Derby, the mem-
bers
unseated—bribery and treating, with the knowledge
of the Right Hon. Edward Strutt and the Hon. Leveson

Gower, the sitting members. (Laughter.) Leicester, the
members unseated on the ground of bribery and corruption
and the attention of the house recommended to the case ;
Aylesbury, ss. refreshment tickest distributed before and
after the poll, the member unseated, and a special report ;
and, lastly, St. Albans, which proved that the unseating
of a member was not always a criterion of corruption,
because there the members were allowed to sit though a
_ _ . .

bill had passed for disfranchising the borough. (Laughter.)
Now what was the cure for all that ? He confessed his

only hope was in the new Reform sill. The noble lord
(Lord J. Russell) had promised to re-reform the represen-
tation, and he was well aware that the bill or anything like

the bill, that he introduced last year would not do on the

present occasion. He (Mr. T. Dancombe) had great hopes
of the bill that was to be introduced, in consequence of the
_ _

speech of the right hon. baronet the member for Carlisle.
(Laughter.) Ever since the Reform Bill passed, he (Mr.
Buncombe) had made more motions with the view to cure

insufficiencies in the Reform Bill, than he believed, any
other member of that house ; and one of his greatest
antagonists had been the right honourable baronet the
member for Carlisle. (Laughter.) But now that the
right hon. gentleman had broken his sword, and
thrown away the scabbard, he (Mr. Duncombe) looked
upon him as likely to afford valuable assistance in pre-
paring a good Reform Bill. The right honourable gentle.
man lately told his constituents at Carlisle that he was not
Lord John Russell's man—(laughter.)—neither was he
Derbyite ; that in preparing a now Reform Bill, the Go-

-
vernment- ought not to begin de novo, but to commence
where the previous Reform Bill had left off. " Why did
you leave off at Schedule A?" said the right hon. baronet ;
" let us now have a schedule C, and a schedule D." so said

he (Mr. Duncombe) ; let Parliament but extend the con-
stituencies, so as to make it perfectly hopeless to attempt
to corrupt them, and they would have no more petitions
complaining of bribery and treating from the city of Car-
lisle. (Laughter and cheers.)
A conversation arose out of an objection made by Lord
John Manners, as to whether the address was in accord-
ance with the decision of the committee and the terms of

the Act of Parliament. Ultimately the motion for the
address was agreed to, and ordered to be carried up to

the House of Lords.
BLACKBURN ELECTION.
Mr. W. PATTEN presented a petition from the mayor
and magistrates of Blackburn, signed by all parties, and
among them by the gentlemen upon whose petition the late
member, Mr. Eccles, had been unseated, praying that a
writ for a new election might immediately issue. The hou.
member also presented a similar petition from the watch
committee of the borough.
Mr. PILKINGTON presented a petition from the inha-
bitants of Blackburn to the same effect.
Mr. W. PATTEN then, pursuant to notice, moved that
a writ be issued for a new election for the borough of
Blackburn, in the place of the late member, unseated.
The house would recollect that, about ten days ago, several
propositions were made with regard to the manner in
which the issue of new writs should be dealt with where
committees had unseated members on reports on the
ground of bribery and treating. His hon. friend the mem-
ber for Westminster (Sir John Shelley) took part in the
debate on that occasion, and proposed that in every case
where a member had been unseated for bribery, a com-
mittee of inquiry should be appointed for the purpose of
investigating whether the bribery had been conducted on
an extensive system, or whether it was merely confined to
the cases brought before the committee. The house de-
cided that in every instance where a committee had un-
seated a member upon the ground of bribery and corrup-
tion, it should be necessary for any member moving for the
issue of a new writ to give seven days' notice of his inten-
tion. Having waited for the expiration of that time, he
(Mr. W. Patten) had acceded to a request made by gen-
tlemen connected with the borough of Blackburn, which
was in that part of the county of Lancashire which he had
the honour to represent, and should now move that the
writ be issued. No case had been made out in Ow com-
mittee establishing the fact of a system of bribery at the
late election for the borough. He made inquiries whether
there was any wish on the part of anybody in Blackburn
that the writ should not issue ; the result was that all the
feeling was the other way. Great excitement already pre-
vailed there upon the subject, which according to the uni-
versal opinion would be evaded if the writ was issued, for
really no ground had been laid for longer suspending it.
He concluded by moving that the Speaker do issue his
warrant to the clerk of the Crown to issue a new writ for
the election of one member for the borough of Blackburn, r
Sir J. V. SHELLEY opposed the motion, the ground
that time had not been, given for inifficien' ntoinquir Fula