The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-03 00:00:00

MORNING EDITION

the evil of the old systems. He had, for this reason, been
anxious that the evidence produced before the Committee
on the St. Alban's electien should be placed in the bands
of the Members of this House. He did not wish to cast a
single reflection upon the Members of that Committee; but
undoubtedly it had been asserted that the Committee
had thrown obstacles in the way of obtaining evi-
dence of bribery and corruption. He was extremely
anxious as an individual to see the evidence
laid before the House, that the House might know upon
what grounds the Committee had come to their decision.
It could not be denied that bribery and corruption had ex-
isted in the late election in the borough of St. Alban's to
an enormous and alarming extent. It was impossible
that individual Members could spend their whole fortunes
in investigating such abuses. The expense of investigat-
ing such flagrant cases should not :be thrown upon private
individuals. Constituted as these tribunals were at present,
no private expenditure would be sufficient for that purpose.
He had no knowledge of the particular circumstances
which influenced the Committee ; but, perhaps, Hon.
Gentlemen would agree with hint that when the Counsel
for the petitioner came forward volunta-ity, and said
that he had no case against the sitting Member,
the Committee ought to have pronounced the petition
frivolous and cextatious.—( Hear, hear.) It was rumoured
(he knew not with what truth) that there had been a com-
promise.—( Hear, hear, hear.) He thought the House
ought to watch whether such a system was
in practice that a Member who was not able
to defend his own sent should threaten his oppo-
nent with a counter petition.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.")
He did not care for tither side cf the House—( Hear,
hear)—but he would say that it was necessary to
put down the system of bribery, which prevailed to an
extent that no one could deny, and which had been greatly
increased since the Etform Bill.—(Cheers and a laugh.)
At present he was not sure that he would not move for fur-
ther inquiry into the procJedings at St. Alban's,
but when he saw what the evilerice was he would know
what steps to take. He concluded by moving that the
evidence ta'ten before the S!. Alban's Election Committer,
should be hid on the table.

Mr. THOMIS DUNCOMBE assured the Honour-
able Member that in the amendment which he was
about to propose, it was not Ws intention ,to in-
terfere with the Hon. Member's motion, for be was
as desirous as the Hon. Member to put an end to the system
of bribery which undoutteily existed. He agreed with
the Hon. Member Vast it was necessary to watch the
proceedings of the Election Committees under the
nek_system, It was to be remembered that
this was the first year these tribunals had a trial.
It was therefore of the utmost importance that those nem
tribunals should not only have the confidence of the Houce,
but of the puble, and those individuals whose cases should
come before !limn It was impossible that they could have
that confidence if those statements and reflections
were to be passed upon them by the public prints
which be had seen that day, without contradiction:--:
." When things have conic to the worst, there is hope
that they may mend,' says the old proverb: With refe-
rence to the St. A:bari's election Petition, and the law and
practice of Commit.ees in cases of bribery, this sayieg
seems to come into full force.

" There never was a more open, unblushing, reckless
purchase cf a borough than that effected at St. Alban's at
the last elect in. The facts of the case, happily, are be-
yond all doubt. One of the leading Miuisterialists of the town
comes up to London on hearing of the vicancy, drives to the
Treasury, and here contracts fur one of the Lords of the Bed-
chamber, whom he duly escorts down to Sr. Alban's as the
candidate of his procuring. He then sets to work, loudly
proclaiming to (very one that we have plenty of money,'
and dispeming this commodity in open day-light, in ex-
change for yin's, alike to Whig or Tory, without the least
apparent wish or attempt at concealment.
" Of course th se proceedings became universally
known and universally talked off. They have lot en
brought before a Committee of the House of Com-
mons, and there preyed ; and no attempt at disproof
so much as thought of. The whole reliance of the
Lord of the Bedchamber's advocates was placed upon or.e
point :---‘ The bribery we don't deny ; but you can't prose
the agency.' And accordingly, having a majority cf Mi-
nisterialists on the Committee, they have steadily adhered
to thri, point, • agency not proved.'
" According to the decisions of this Committee, if, which
God forbid, they should become authority and precedent,
nothing could he more clear or more certain than that, if
the money be but forthcoming, the whole of the borough
constituencies of.Engl ind must be mado matter of pur-
chase and sale in all future elections. Notice is hereby
given, that so long as the candidate gives no written ap-
pointment, under his hand, which can afterwards be pro-
duced in evidence, and takca care not to declare before
witnesses any person to be his agent, the whole of his
Committee may run about the open street, with money in
both hands, offering it to every voter they meet; and the
verdict of a Committee, acting on the St. Alban's pre-
cedent, will be, Agency not proved.'
" We repeat, that this state cf things would be frightful,
ware it not for the hope we alluded to at the outset, that
things will now be felt to have come to a crisis. If there
are any honest Reformers among the Whigs and Radicals,
they will feel exactly as we het. Except a change takes
place, and that right soon, every idea of public principle is
elections is lost, and one abyss of universal corruption ab-
sorbs the cgfzregate constituency. The St. Alban's case
must operate injuriously to all par ties. The Ministerial-
ists have been promising us for this month past that they
should unseat Mr. Smythe on the; Canterbury petition. But
their counsel, on looking over his case, finds that the very
principles which he himself had succeeded in establishing
in the St. Alban's case, would inevitably re-act on him
in the Canterbury, and that his own arguments
would put hint out of Court! He therefore at once aban-
tdons the petition, and the Treasury Journal of last night
bus accounts for the withdrawal : They were influenced,
we are assured, not by any apprehensions of any failure
in proving the genera,' el'egations of the petition, but be-
cause of the difficulty they anticipated in sativeactordy
connecting the sitting Member, or his recognised agents,
with those illegal acts.'
" Exactly so 1 Beyond a doubt, on the principle adopted
in the St. Alban's Committee, licre never can be another
instance of a candidate unseated for briLery, except he
shall have acted like an idiot.

" Corruptien must become the order of the day, so long
as there is a Whig Treasury' to go to; except the
honourable men of the House of Commons, of all par-
ties, shall at once demand that a remedy be unflinchingly
applied to an evil so frightful and so advancing."
" He knew nothing of the proceedings that had occurred
before these Committees, and ha was, therefore not able
to say whether those statements were true or not, but he
believed them to be unfounded, and most gross libels on
the St. Alban's Committee. With regard to the ru-
mours to which the lion. Member f r Wallingford had
alluded, he should like to hear whether they were true;
but certainly after reading the report of the proceedings,
he thought there was a prima facie case made out of a
most discreditable compromise. In the Report of the
proceedings before the Committee upon the Canterbury
Election, he found it stated that—
" Mr. Austin rose and said, that after dilly considering
the evidence he should have been able to produce in sup-
port of the petition, and having communicated with the
counsel for the sitting Member, he had °lily now to an-
nounce that he should not further prosecute the petition.
" Mr. Serjeant Wroligharn, on behalf of Mr. Smyth,
said that the petitioner's counsel had Greed MOST FAIRLY
AND HANDSOMELY towards him."—[Great laughter on
both sides of the House ] " In thus, in the very outset,
making the communication he had then addressed to the
Committee; and on behalf of the sitting Member he
begged leave to add, that he not only did not ask for, but
sincerely deprecated, any resolution passing the Com-
mittee injuriously abrectiny the petitioner in cons quence
of the withdrawal of his opposition."
" If ever there was a prima facie case of compromise; not
to say of corruption, it was this. What was the conclusion
the Committee come to ? It was that the sitting Member
(Mr. Smythe) was duly elected ; that the petition of
George Hobby and others did not appear to be frivolous or
vexatious ; and that the opposition to such petition was not
frivolous or vexatious. —( Laughter. ) A prettier arrange-
ment he had never seen.—( Renewed laughter.) But si-
multaneous with the withdrawal of that petition nearly the
same thing took place at the St. Alban's Committee. In
the report in the same paper it was stated
" Upon the admission of strangers,
" The Chairman stated that the Committee had resolved
that the evidence should be received, but desired that it
should be given by Lord Grimston himself.
" Mr. Hildyard then addressed the Committee, and
stated that after the close of the proceedings on the pre-
vious day, he had thought it his duty to uni.e with his
Learned Friend, Mr. Talbot, in taking into serious consi-
deration the position and prospects of the case, and that
the result of Cie consultation was, that they had determined
to proceed no further with the case, as the v ews which the
opinion thatthen:
Committeeent from
ll takenohsaedof hi
mof (
Ntlio
re. lawtii
ioly
ar d ) widenedaiaw were so
Tdaiiffheorte,
wtheereCoofmmittcc or the that
wouldhe n andot
t:
ehis u
slte,efiacrdn e
inl
pFurtiteinndg
the peti
sit-
ting Member to any further trouble."
He begged to draw the attention of the House to this fact.
If he had been correctly informed the two. last decisions of
i'Vweyre camei nfhactvoo
wouldua rdoef the
ehi
alson pen
the;le II
eyvreh•
thathear
,hoa Committee
They
titioner greater facility "
Prove
because
ccaausse, o
theyi bribery, and
yet the counsel far the.dpetitioner,had come
to that conclusion, set —ad. e,
petition.—(
Lauehter
and withdrew bine • ) Was net a
prima fac'e case of compromise to be
.found in that Re-
port? Whether
the statements con tau e 1 in the Report
Me b •
were correct or not, ther.n ere who sat npon that Corn-
mitteS,
d who were: t: en 13 the House,could
mittee, a , state. But
if they wished those tribunals to have the confidence of
the House and the c entry, such proceedings as these
ought not to be allcoved to take
plate. It was really
transferring a scene from the Beggar's Opera-
into the
Committee-rooms, and were the h
eac erns and the Leckie
to be allowed to g o into a room together, and say,
4,Brether, brothe-, we arc both in the wrong: we shall
be baths losers in the end, and we
may both hang each
other ?"
—(Great laughter.) Was that the way in which
business was ta be transacted ? It was making a perfect
farce of an Election Committee, and it would be a perfect
mockery to
, institute any inquiry before a Committee, if
that sort of proceedicg were to be tolerated.—(Hear,
hear.) lie did not know whether the Committees had the
power—he supposed they bad not—when parties were
guilty of such dishonest and corrupt practices, to
\push the inquiry:further,—(Cries of " Ilear, hear.")
He trusted that tire House would be more careful in fu-
ture. With these observations he begged to move as an
amendment, in addition to the motion of the Hon. Mem-
ber, " That the proceedings and minutes taken before the
Canterbury election be laid on the table."
I Mr. Mllmay (a Member of the Committee) and Mr.
\Sandford rose together to second the motion. There
were loud cries for the latter. Mr. Mildmay gave way, and
Mr. SANFORD said be heard the notice given by the
Hon. Member for Wallingford with the greatest pleasure
(Hear, hear)—because as Chairman of that Committee
he would not have thought it his duty to have made such
a motion unless he had received instructions to that effect
from the Committee—unless he had found something out
of the proper and usual course he should not have thought
he would have been paying proper deference to that Com-