The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-18 00:00:00

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LONDON:
FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1841.

The Peen NN ere engaged last night in a brief discussion
on the third clause, concerning rape, of the Punishment
of Death Abolition Bill.

Lord DENMAN spoke at some length in its favour, but
suggested that before the clause was passed, Lord Anrs-
GER and himself should have an opportunity of conferring
with the Judges, and ascertain their opinions on the
subject. Some Noble Lords wished to have the clause
amended, others wished it struck out, and after some
conversation it was agreed that the debate should be ad-
journed to this day, to give the Judges an opportunity
of looking into the matter.

The Earl of WINCAILSEA gave notice that he will
move to have the clause expunged.
The Bribery at Elections Bill was passed through a
Committee, after a few objections from Lord ABINGER,
who said.he thought the framers of the Bill did not mean
that it should pass.

Their Lordships adjourned at Eight o'Clock.

The Muse of Commons sat only for a short time,
and did no business of importance. A number of pe-
titions were presented, and Mr. Woomrot7sE moved for
a number of returns, with a view of showing the rela-
tive condition of our population and the population of
other countries. These documents are intended to be
the bases of legislation ; they are to supply, we believe,
a defence of the Corn-laws, on the supposition that for
us to trade with other nations, would reduce
onr people to their level. On this principle, as we
have long had a flourishing trade with Africa and the
West Indies, a people ought to be degraded to the level
of the Africans and the slaves. Strange times bring
the doctcin
forth Btrattet ac"ftri'lles,and so of thmost strange are
t ic"" es'thaette aba won "Our people will be de-
.rcl t3"l- tode- Y with Poland. But if

'bringing in cheap corn from that country would make
Our
,people serfs, will not bringing in the American
.corntmake them republican and independent men? In
fact,;the Corn-law men, driven from evernosetheyWe
occupied, are now seeking to mystify the whole matter
by Multitudinous accounts from abroad,. which have-no
more relation to our Corn-law than they have to feeding
the animals that were saved in NOAH'S Ark. How the
Tories can entertain such arguments we cannot compre-
hend, for they in general maintain that otir institutions,
and especially our Church, more especially our glorious
system of country gentlemen, are the causes of the great
superiority of the presumed condition of our people.
They do their own theory a grievous wrong when they
suppose that to trade freely with Russia would reduce
our people to the condition of theßussian serfs.
The House rose before Six..

We hear from various quarters that much
gold has been prepared on both sides, and that
the elections will be decided 133 Whig gold and
Tory gold. At any time, and on whatever prin-
ciple an election may take place, such a circum-
stance is a disgrace to the country ; but at pre-
sent, when a most important principle is at
issue, it is so flagrant a disgrace, that it requires
strong tvidence to make us believe it. Amidst
the tumult of passion which is already excited,
we can scarcely expect to be heard, but, being
sensibly alive to the honour of the country, it is
at least our duty to ripple the current by our re-
sistance, if we dare not hope to turn it.
On ordinary occasions, such as whether the
Whigs or the Tories shall carry an India Bill,
whether the Catholics shall, or shall not, be
emancipated, whether Mr. PITT or Mr. Fox
shall be Prime Minister, for the electors to ac-
cept bribes is dishonourable enough ; but now,
when the question is whether the bread-tax shall
be maintained or abolished, and whether mono-
poly shall be destroyed or preserved, whether
industry shall be set free and obtain its natural
reward, or shall remain pinioned and plundered
at the will of the idle, for the electors to accept
bribes is like taking slow poison in order to de-
stroy strength and life. We assume that most of
the electors on whom bribery is to be attempted
belong to the labouring classes. Others may
be bribed by the expectation of places, or
some similar improper consideration, but the
bulk of those to whom money will be offered are
poor, and they are chiefly the subject of our re-
marks.

Whatever may be the immediate plan of Mi-
nisters, the contest which rages in the country,
and which the electors will really have to de-
cide, is whether or not the bread tax shall be
abolished. That tax extracts a large sum from
every individual, in proportion to his own con-
sumption, and the number of persons dependent
on him. The Anti-Bread-tax Circular says,—
" The bread and provision taxes take from every
man, woman, and child, two pounds,a head every
year. If the poor voter have a.wife and three
children, these taxes cost him ten pounds a year;
which, in six years, the probable time for which
he elects his representative, will amount to sixty
pounds—sixty pounds, then, would be the value
of his vote, if it were' his to sell." Can any sum
of money a candidate iS likely to give an elector
really compensate him for the money the bread
tax will take out of his pocket? Suppose he gets
two guineas, or four guineas, or ten guineas, it is
looked on as a windfall, and is generally spent as
it is got, in the midst of riot and drunkenness. It
leads the elector into bad habits, and he would
be better without it, though it were not in fact
a small portion of his own honest earnings first
extorted from him, and afterwards returned to
him to bribe him into quiet submission to con-
tinued extortion.

But this is not all. In the majority of cases,
the Corn-law deprives a large portion of the in-
habitants of towns annually of a considerable
quantity of profitable employment. In addition
therefore, to the money which the Corn-tax
takes out of the elector's pocket, it v. ill subject
him to great loss from want of employment. On
a mere calculation, then, of profit or loss, without
considering any higher motives, all the labouring
classes who vote for a bread-taxer, whether they
live in Hull, or Liverpool, or Nottingham, give
away a valuable right for a most insufficient con-
sideration.

The labourer, however, who sells his vote, in-
flicts a double injury on all his class. He not only
dooms his fellows, many of whom have no votes,
to poverty, scarcity, and want of employment,
but he inflicts a moral degradation on them.
They are now claimants for an enlargement of
the suffrage, and one of the pretexts for refusing
to comply with their claim is their accessibility
to bribery. At a meeting of the electors for the
Tower Hamlets, no longer ago than Tuesday, the
following scene is reported to have occurred:—
An Elector—What about the extension of the suffrage?
Col. Fox—lf education was more generally diffused
among the people, and the electors all over the country
were as prepared by their knowledge and intelligence to
receive the franchise as those of the metropolitan
boroughs, he would have no objection whatever to the
fullest extension of the suffrage.—(Loud cries of " Oh,
oh," and considerable disapprobation.) He (Colonel
Fox) would fearlessly state that there were many
persons possessed of the suffrage at present who should not
have it, as they had no idea of exercising it beyond that of
the money they could make by it; and of this fact he
(Colonel Fox) had had recently a pretty sample.—
(Cheers and disapprobation.)
There is the proof then that the bribery to
which the electors submit is made the pretext—
most unwarrantably and unjustly—lbr continu-
ing the disfranchisement of the working classes.
It is plain from this circumstance, as well as from
the influence which the votes of the electors may
have over the pockets of the non-electors, that
the latter are deeply interested in the honesty
and independence of the electors. They may
be unable to prevent an elector from taking a
bribe any more than a police can prevent crime,
but they may be able to punish him. If he
know beforehand that they will punish him, that
may prevent him accepting a bribe. Let 'the
non-electors, then, clo•sely- watch the electors,
and when they have reason to believe that, any-
'Of them have accepted bribes, let them stigma-
, tize such electors as contemptible, worthless
wretches, the betrayers of their trust, and the
enemies of the industrious, unenfranchised
classes. The electors are not independent of the
good opinion of the non-electors, and that which
is of great value at any time may soon be almost
inestimable. He who forfeits it for the paltry
consideration of a few shillings or a few pounds,
makes a very bad bargain. The knowing electors
who take bribes may fancy themselves to be
very shrewd, but in fact they are completely
overreached, and outwitted, in the transaction.
It is the duty of all ministers of the Gospel
and of all the influential persons in all the bo-
roughs where bribery is likely to be committed,
to enforce on the electors the higher considera-
tions of morality and religion which should now
guide their conduct. We notice only its palpable
worldly injuriousness to themselves and their
neighbours. We cannot, however, blame the
humbler class of electors, 'without saying that the
influential class are in many cases much to blame
for allowing the two sections of the aristocracy
to dispose of the representation, or to fight for
it as if it were a prize for them, andthe,:lbeigct. electors
had no other interest in the matter than merely
to be honoured by selecting a
a Tory. 'When the humble class of electors
disposed of, as it were by wholesale,
siteeisbzoiorotu
surprising that they should think of
making what they can of their single votes. The
upper classes, who are in all cases the bribers,
arid in many Sell the whole borough, are un-
doubtedly more to be blamed than the humble
electors, but the iniquity of the former is no jus-
tification of the lesser iniquity of the latter. The
working classes make very lofty, we do not say
unjust pretensions, and now they have an excel-
lent opportunity, whether they be electors or
non-electors, by subjecting bribery to moral ex-
communication, of proving their superiority to
the classes who sell and buy boroughs, and seek
to bribe the people into starvation and slavery.

We inserted yesterday an admirable letter,
written by Dr. WHATELEY, the Archbishop of
Dublin, on the law of marriage. The general
principles, however, laid down in it aro co
prehensive that. they apply-equally to corn and