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

never had been so insulted. (Laughter.) He
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
went to Taylor on the day of nomination, who punched the
ticket as was done by a railway officer, and gave it back to
the holder with another ticket for ls.' and the same process
was repeated on the day of polling. He mentioned that to
show how very complete the system was. Had these
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 10s. each.
To prove how entirely colourable the employment was,
be might state that a boy, six years old, received one of
them, and afterwar‘ls cemhanged it for money. It might
be asked what benefit the electors
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
in some instances to the electors. The election, in fact,
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
his debtor, on the understanding that some of the money
got for it was to go in discharge of the debt due to the
voter. Other of the voters again put down fictitious names
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
formed 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 (Mrnier
Seymer) thought it told against him. It showed the small
esteem in which the electors field 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 corruptiop 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, however, it might be fairly inferred that a great
portion of the electors were brjbed 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 history of 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 comm;ssion for which he meant to
move would be limited tp 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 reported 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-
tion. Evidence was adduced beitre the committee show-
ing that for the last 50 years colop-men's tickets had been
~.riven 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 committ-ie 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 conire;ttee to give evidence it
was impossible to conceive. lie thought any bon. member
who-would take the trouble of reading through the evi-
dence would come to the conclusi.m that there was but
one remedy against the renetition of the pried= which
had so long prevailed is time 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 ho 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 opirion 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 saw 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 largo 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.
Malins) 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. Soy-
finer) had said that the election committees on this occasion
had nobly done their duty. He (Mr. T. Duncombe)
spp-
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—in 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 repoi:ed that there had been systematic bri-
bery and treating, and recommended the disfranchisement
the freemen ; Lyme Regis, in which there was a
public-
houses report ; Carlisle, extensive bribery and treating—(derisive
in
laughter from the Opposition)t—carried
called travelling expenses ; Bewdley, treating
unseated—but drinkhousesgaivnednbara-ysht
beer-shops
during
large
tHioan4,riacnhdwtahse
so
oemolbed rasndthreeincotriirTgiesbunle
v natl.
house had given up dealing with it altogetphee%
th
thetll;
Lincoln, treating, and a special report ;
hers unseated—bribery and treating,
Hon.kn Leowvleedsogne
of the Right Hon. Edward Stitt
members
Gower, the sitting members. (Laughter.) Leicester, the
on the
and the attention of the ground of bribery and corruption
Aylesbury, ss. refreshment tick est distributed before and
and, lastly, St. Albans,
after the poll, the member
lig.hrisieated; and a special report ;
of a member was not alwayse a criterion of corruption,
because proved that the unseating
because there the members were allowed to sit thoughr. bill had passelvdafsorthdeisfranchising Now what
only hope was in cure for all that ? H
the borough. (Laughter.
the new Reform Bill. The confessed
nnfoeble lord
(Lord J. Fussell) had promisedt,re reform the represen-
tation,re
present occasion.
and he was well tha-t the bill or anything like
the bill, that he introduced last year would not do on the
of the bill that was to be introduced,
consequence of
He (Mr. T. Duncombe) had great hopes
ohforhe:
speech of the right hon. baronet the menrr
passed, he (Mr.
(Laughter.) Ever since the
Duncombe) had made than he believed, any
insufficiencies in the Reform Bill,one
of .s
bi greatest
view to cure
hanonourable baronet the
other member of thatmhooreuseni!:it motions
isfwll the
antagonists had been the right
had broken his sword, and.
right hon. gentleman had member for Carlisle. (Laughter.)
right (Mr. Duncombe) looked
thrown
away
the
see) afford valuable assistance in itwee-
a9ghter.) But now that the
upon him as likely Bill. The right honourable gen I_,-t
parier, a good Reform
told his oo Ctuents at Carlisle that lie was
Lord John Russells
preparing a new Reform Bill, the Go-
wan latelynu3ilan—(laughter.)—neither was tie
bee:u de novo, but to commence
ht not to -why did
vernment o g
ous Reform Bill had left off.
where the
Derhyitc ;
PlvviSchedule A's" said the right hon. baronet ;
you leave off at
1. a' schedule C, and a schedule D." so said
that in
"let us now have ;
perfectly hopeless to attenipt
0 malkeet Pitarliament but ext. xel the con-
nd they would have no more petitions
to corrupt them, a
andtreating from the city of C
• of bribery
complaining
shteit(uMenrc. ieDs,usonc°asin t
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 a 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. 'ha Lou,