The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-13 00:00:00

not tolerate a considerable amount of bribery
rather than give the elector absolute power over
his vote, and we may be also allowed to rest this
doubt upon another—namely, whether he really
deems landlord influence over tenant votes undue
influence. All the vulgar and brutal forms of
intimidation he has no reluctance to punish
as becomes a gentleman ; but the intimidation
which is as mighty, yet as regular, as noiseless, as
invisible, and in the counties as all-pervading, as
the pressure of the atmosphere itself---would Lord
JOHN RUSSELL like to destroy this ? If not, he
dares not give the ballot to a single town. No
urgency will move him to do it. No reasoning
will conquer an aversion which yet may not be
uttered. Not even two-thirds of the electors, as
Mr. HUME suggests, could gain from the great
Whig Lord the local privilege, which would soon
inevitably become a national one. We consider
it so sure that the ballot, if tested in a few con-
stituencies, would, by its palpable merits, provoke
an irresistible demand for it from all, that we can
conceive of no other reason for the dogged refusal
of a single trial. A politically free and indepen-
dent tenantry is the King of Terrors to la :dlords.
To all real reformers, on the other hand, the fear
which needs neither look nor hint, is the Doctor
HORNBOOK who unobservedly destroys the freedom
of more votes than the grim forms of intimidation
against which the hero of two Reform Bills pro-
fesses to legislate.
Lord JOHN proposes to attack bribery and
" undue influence" by some modifications of the
old Parliamentary remedies. The heavy penalties
which no 'one would sue for, and which in the
case of tIA poor elector would bring to the prose-
cutor , but a, proverbial return, are to be, super-
seded by the more classic penalty Of the loss of
civil status-; :the bribery candidate is to be in-
capable of ever attaining the object of his ambition,
the bribed elector to lose for life the right of
voting, and, in addition, to be posted annually on the
Lists of Electors as a disfranchised man. We may
suggest to -his Lordship that to make the parallel
complete the disqualifibd member ought to be
posted also on the doors of the House of Commons.
The agent, if we understand aright, is not to be
so heavily punished ; he, however, is just the per-
son who ,ought to be unsparingly .dealt with ;
but for him, bribery would be almost impossible,
at least to any large extent. These are the chief
alterations in the bribery penalties. Lighter ones
are provided for 'treating. That' is not to con-
sign the guilty party for life to political 'annihi-
lation. The alterations in the plan for, trying
election petitions may probably be most of them
for the better. The introduction of responsible
legal assessors to-aid-the committees we regard as
the most substantial improvement ; it is a step
towards that rendering a contested election' a
matter of legal investigation before a Judge
sitting in . public, which would, after all, be the
safest and most effectual procedure. On the working
of the proposed Grand Jury of fifteen members
we can hardly Offer an opinion, but hope for little
from it. The proposition that when a member is
unseated for bribery his opponent should have
the seat, if he polled two-thirds of the votes, will,
we suppose, after the remarks upon it, be with-
drawn. It would obviously open the door to the
worst species of fraud, and it would often occur
that the unsuccessful candidate had bribed as well
as tue other, or that he .had not a real majority of
votes.

We freely concede that reasonable penalties, and
none can be more so than those now proposed,
are likely to be far more effective than penalties
which it seemed almost malicious to enforce.
Moreover, bribery is still a misdemeanour, and
liable to be proceeded against as such. Still, but
little can be hoped for from the best system of
penalties. If too severe, impunity is secured by
the general reluctance to inflict au odious punish-
ment. If moderate, and more likely to be
enforced with general approbation, ingenuity
will quickly devise "good and safe" schemes
_ _ _

defying all detection. We have heard of some
which would nonplus Mr. Inspector 1317 mm-iris him-
self, even if he knew the general fact of their ex-
istence. What it is the interest of all the parties to
conceal, what would bring punishment upon them
all, will never leak out, but must be extorted on
the rack. It would, however, be impossible to
apply the commissions en bribery to the criminal
conviction of individuals. It will not be endured in
England that a man should be compelled to criminate
himself, if doing so rendered him liable to

punishment. The Commissioners are at present
empowered to indemnify those whose answers
convict them. Even a great religious body has
lost in the last few years some 70,000 of its
members through asserting the right to propose
self-criminating interrogatories, under the guise
of " brotherly questions." Right or wrong, every
Englishman deems it a birthright that he may
not be compelled to accuse himself. Lord JOHN'S
proposals were viewed in a friendly spirit by; all
parties, but Mr. M. GIBSON and Mr. BERKELEY
did not fail to remind him that the true remedy
was to deprive the corrupt and the corrupter of
the power to deal securely with each= other, and
that no conceivable remedy for rural intimidation
could be thought of but the Ballot.
Mr. BALL.introduced, episodically a charge of
bribery against Norwich, which met with a just
denial. We suppose the Hon. Member has not
quite lost his soreness from the signal defeat which,
as East Anglian champion of Protection, he re-
ceived from Mr. COBDEN in the old city during
one of the great Leaguer's campaigns against
agricultural ignorance. We happen to know,
however, from some inquiries we had occa-
sion to make at the time the affair of
Colonel DICKSON'S petition was under discussion,
that the last election of Messrs. Prro and WARNER,
was really a pure one. The written compact
entered into by the -four candidates was honour-
ably kept, and, for the first time probably, a Nor-
wich election was decided without, recourse to
bribery, cooping, and every disgraceful resource
of party. We have the very best evidence
that it was a fair stand-up fight, and it is an
example, which ought not to be lost, of the
possibility of electoral regeneration in a con-
stituency which had been schooled in corrup-
tion by all parties from time immemorial. We
oniy hope the City will be stedfast in its repen-
tance. We may add, what we believe has not
been hitherto noticed, that in Norwich, and, no
doubt, elsewhere, the corruption at municipal
elections is the source and training-school of .that
complained of in Parliamentary elections. Occur-
ring annually, and not being conducted by ballot,
they keep bribery alive in the. intervals of Par-

liamentary elections. There is no time fox-
the habit to be lost, the consequences are
not so likely to be serious to the individuals, and
frequently the spirit of party runs as high as in
contests for national honours. If Lord Jowl
could overcome his fear of any trial of the ballot
issuing in the freedom of the counties, it might
do much towards diminishing the habit of bribe-
taking, if, as we believe has been asked in a nie-

morial from Norwich, municipal elections at least
were taken by ballot.

Conspicuous among the many acts which have
gained for NAPOLEON 111. that extraordinary po-
pularity which he is now known to have acquired
among the masses of the French population, are
man ifestly and incontestibly his magnificent schemes
for the beautifying of Paris by a series of grand
and remarkable building improvements. It were
well for London if this imperial display of enter-
prise and munificence excite a salutary emulation
amongst ourselves. There is a probability of,
its doing so ultimately. It is the duty, therefore,
of every conscientious journalist to accord a prompt
and earnest attention to whatever project may
give promise of carrying these hopes, however
slightly, towards their desired realisation. We
may not cherish the extravagant day-dream of
erecting a Louvre of our own, but, at any rate, I
it cannot be unreasonable to look forward to the
time when the capital of England may, at
leait, possess some structure not altogether
unworthy of being designated a National Gal-
lery. The admirable and eminently beautiful
design of Mr. LiorrEL GISBORNE has afforded us
something like a rational prospect of a compre-
hensive succession of Thames Improvements.
Then there is the spacious thoroughfare recently
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