The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-15 00:00:00

borough stunk in the nostrils of the people, for
the members returned for it were unseated at the gene-
ral election in 1841, 1847, and 1852. This imtnacu-
fated the borough, for it co:n tamed only 272 electors, and
it was nothing less than a h ot bed of corruption.
Mr. FERGUSON seem ided the amendment, as a
member of the committee w hich had sat on this case.
Mr. HEADLAM said bse was chairman of the corn.
mittee, and he was bound '.;o say that no ease of exten-
sive bribery or treating wail made out. Still there could
be no doubt that great corruption had existed in Har-
wich ; but, under the circ unistances he had stated, lie
did not think there was sufficient ground for withholding
the writ.

Sir F. THESIG ER supported the original motion.
Mr. AGLIONBY said the house had issued a writ in
the Plymouth case, which was parallel to this, and he
could see no reason for withholding the writ in the
present instance.
Mr. T. DUNCO.MBE gave it as his opinion that
Harwich was ripe for disfranchisement, and, therefore,
he recommended the house to pursue no half measure
but disfranchise the borough at once, as it must come to
that at last. . _

Mr. MASSEY said it wouT.d be unconstitutional to
issue the writ without previouFily inquiring into the cor-
rupt bargain upon which it wa s alleged the late member
was retained for Harwich. _ _

Sir R. H. INGLIS argu,;(l that the house had no
right to withhold the writ, be muse the committee which
bad already sat upon the subj ect, had reported that no-
thing had come out in evidence to justify the suspension
of the writ.

Lord J. RUSSELL could not agree with his honour-
able friend that the house had no right to suspend the
writ, because the house had exercised such a right since
the period of the revolution. However, the question
which the house had now to decide was this—ought they
to make Harwich an exception to the other cases which
the house had disposed of this session. The chairman
of the committee which had Flat upon the petition was of
opinion that nothing had been proved to justify
their withholding the writ, but how was that ? (Hear,
hear.) Why, the witnesses who could have proved
extensive bribery, absconded, and the inquiry was
therefore stifled. That was a strong reason why there
should be a further investigation, and he was ready to
vote either for that inquiry, or for a bill to disfranchise
the borough, which he thought ought to be done for the
sake of the character of the house. (Cheers.) In the
meantime, however, the writ ought to issue.
Mr. WADDINGTON supported the issue of the writ.
The house then divided.
For the motion 247
Against it lO2

Majority
THE BALLOT
Mr. M. CHAMBERS presented a petition from Green-
wich, and Sir J. V. SHELLEY three petitions from West-
minster, in favour of vote by ballot.
Mr. H. BERKELEY said he rose, pursuant to notice,
to ask leave to bring in a bill to give to the electors of
Great Britain and Ireland the protection of the ballot.
When Lord Aberdeen's Ministry announced to the country
their intention to bring forward a measure of reform, he
he had hoped that the ballot might be a component part
of their scheme, and that they would have deemed it ne-
cessary to protect the consciences and the persons, the
minds, and the bodies of electors, by the ballot. But
having had a distinct intimation in the addresses of Lord
John Russell and Sir James Graham to their constituents,
that they were determined not to have anything to do
with that measure, he, under a strong sense of duty, and
by the counsel of friends for whose judgment he enter-
tained a great respect, had deemed it necessary to ask per-
mission to legislate on that subject. When he last ad-
dressed a House of Commons on that question, it was on
the eve of a general election. Lord Derby had determined
to throw himself on the country ; and perhaps that might
have suggested to Mr. Dickens the; strange idea of Lord
Coodle throwing himself on the country in the shape of
sovereigns and beer. (Great laughter.) The hangers-on of
the two factions were on the alert. The springs for
moving the constituencies were put in order ; and they
had it in evidence that gentlemen high in office—for in-
stance, the Right Hon. Wm. Beresford—had taken counsel
with Mr. Frail, of Derby notoriety, no doubt for the pur.
pose of securing the purity of the great Tory party ; at the
same time they had ocular demonstration that the Right
Hon. Wm. Goodenough Hayter might be seen taking
counsel with Mr. Coppock, of St. Albans celebrity, no
doubt for the purpose of securing the same laudable result
for his party. (Cheers and laughter.) They had evidence
that the masquerade shops had been ransacked ; that wigs,
spectacles, and disguised had been put in requisition—that
aliases and alibis were in vogue—(hear, hear)—and all this
to usher in with due solemnity England's great septennial
saturnalia, and to do honour to that freedom of election
in which her Majesty's Cabinet Ministers would seem so
greatly to rejoice. (Cheers and laughter.) At that time
he raised his feeble voice to point out to the house the
gathering storm. He endeavoured to show that England
was about to place herself in a position disgraceful to a
Christian country in the eyes of Europe. Two hundred
years ago, old John Evelyn had made the same
complaint, almost in precisely the same words. He
spoke of." the confused, debauched, and riotous manner
of electing members qualified to become representatives
of a nation," and said that elections more resembled a
Pagan bacchanalia than au assembly of sober and Chris-
tian men. (Hear, hear,) Was it not a disgraceful
fact, that after the lapse of 200 years, with the march
of intellect, the increase of intelligence, the progress
of education, and the ceremony, not to say the mockery of
a reform bill, those very evils still formed the earnest com-
plaint of every honest man, from Dover to Inverness, from
the Cove of Cork to the Giant's Causeway? (Hear, hear.)
Some 40 years after John Evelyn had made this complaint,
another great reformer arose, and attacked the same evils
which Evelyn had deplored—Daniel De Foe; and he
pointed out the ballot as the remedy. His writings must
have taken great effect on the public of that day ; for the
House of Commons passed a bill to make the ballot the
mode of electing members of Parliament, but it was re-
jected by the Lords, who of course refused to lay the axe
to the root of their own unconstitutional influence. Well,
our great Pagan bacchanalia had passed over, and left the
nation staggering under its effect. A great struggle bad
taken place, in which tyranny with its iron heel had
crushed in the dust the liberty of the elector, through
means of our existing electoral system; bribery and inti-
midation had gone hand in hand to complete the work of
general demoralisation. When he (Mr. Berkeley) last spoke
he warned the house that flocks of low attorneys, the means
by which the House of Lords returned their nominees to
the House of Commons, were hovering over the land—
(cheers)—like the harpies of old, seeking to pounce upon
and defile the banquet spread before them. (Cheers.)
Those flocks of attorneys were new gorged, sated, rumi-
nating upon the past enjoyment of unlimited expenditure
and untaxed bills—(loud cheers and laughter) —or re-
pluming themselves for another fight, allured by the pros-
pect of a hundred teeming election petitions up stairs,
involving the outlay of some 200,0001., of which those
gentlemen expected, and no doubt would obtain, the lion's
share. (Cheers.) Such were some of the consequences of
our glorious electoral system, that system of which we
were so proud, which was so manly, so English— so es-
pecially English, that other nations repudiated it. (Cheers.)
The honest portion of the electors themselves hated and
detested it, for it was to them a system of humiliation and
disgrace, and at a general election they suffered under
what might be appropriately termed a reign of terror.
(Hear.) While they hated and detested this system, a
majority of the elected were determined to abide by it ;
thus showing to demonstration that they were not elected
by the voice of the electors, but by a power which con-
trolled that voice. The evils of the system were twofold;
they consisted in bribery, including treating and intimida-
tion. That house had made many futile attempts to put
down bribery ; all its efforts had been addressed to that
point ; no effort had been made to put down intimidation.
They compelled their committees to take an anomalous
and inconsistent course ; they forced them to turn out of
that house members who were perfectly innocent of bribery
themselves, because some agent, either through gross cu-
pidity, or the greatest rascality and treachery, had either
given some venal elector a couple of pounds, or had
drenched some beast with a gallon of beer. (Laughter.)
While thus intent on purity of election, they equally per-
mitted candidates, candidates' friends, and candidates'
agents, to drive their tenants to the poll, there to falsify
their consciences and to ogive a dishonest vote. '(Beer,
hear.) They permitted customers to compel tradesmen to
vote under pain of ruin. (Hear, hear.) They permitted
creditors to drive their debtors to the poll or to prison.
(Cheers.) They permitted masters to discharge their ser-
vants ; and they permitted a reign of terror to pervade the
country from one end to the other. (Hear, hear.) That,
was straining at the gnat and swallowing the camel. Inti-
midation was the giant malady of our electoral system ; in
comparison with it, bribery was but a puny dwarf. The
action of bribery was simple ; they purchased a man's con-
science, and commanded his vote. Though bribery was
indefensible, there might be redeeming features in it. He
had known a workman redeem from pawn his box of tools
through receiving an election bribe. He had known me-
dical aid furnished to an ailing family through an election
bribe. But what redeeming feature was there in intimi-
dation ? (Hear.) Its action was complex ; its effects were
manifold. Its weapons were punishment ; and it worked
by that far-famed instrument, wholly and solely English
in its invention and application, the election screw. Need
he tell the house what the election screw was, and how it
worked? (Cheers.) It was a power which the elector
could not resist. It commenced with an inquisition into
his private affairs, worthy of a Fouche or a Vidocq, carried
on by the election agents ; and when, by means of this
severe inquisition, his liabilities and misfortunes were laid
bare, the power became clear by which he might be acted
upon. The working of the system was to twist from the
free, manly, and independent Englishman a dishonest vote.
(Hear.) Fourteen years ago, in seconding Mr. Grote's mo-
tion, he had demonstrated at some length on the mischiefs
of the election screw, and he would state a few instances
which he then gathered from the canvassing book of elec-
tion agents. These books contained the names of the elec-
tors, either printed, lithographed, or in manuscript, with
their residences and avocations, against which was left a
margin for the experienced agent to enter his remarks.
The following were some of them : " John So-and-so,
publican, votes against us. Mem.—Put the screw on him
through Mr. So-and-so, the spirit merchant, with whom
he is in arrears." (Cheers and laughter.) " Thomas So-and-
so, beershop-keeper, refuses to promise. Mem.— Canvass
him in company with Mr. So-and-so, the licensing magis-
trate." (Laughter.) "Peter So-and-so, cheesemonger,
splits his vote. Mem.— Put the cheesefactor upon him to
make him plump." (Laughter.) " Abel So-and-so, tailor,
votes against us. Mem.—Makes Sir Thomas So-and-so's
liveries; apply to Sir Themes to compel him to split, or not
vote at all." (Laughter.) He could add instances of this
kind ad infinitum, with the names of the parties; and, if
he were before an election committee, he could call evi-
dence to prove the existence of that election screw to an
extent scarcely credible—certainly not believed by the
hon. members who opposed that motion. (Hear.) For one
case of bribery, there were 5,000 cases of intimidation.
It was ramified through every grade of society ; every
man was brought more or less to screw his neighbour.
The committees- took a course that appeared anomalous
I and ridiculous, if their object was purity of election ;