The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-14 00:00:00

TilE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY. 14, 1840.

NEW WRIT FOR LUDLOW.

The Earl of DARLINGTON rose to move that the
j Speaker do issue his warrant to the Cierk of the Crown,
for a new writ for the borough cf Ludlow. He was happy
to see the Noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies in
his place, and es the public journals must have made
him acquainted with the proceedings in that House,
he would offer no further observations to the Noble
Lard, than to say thet, it he supposed he meant
any discourtesy, he begged to assure hies that it was far
from his intention to do anything, of the kind.—( Hear,
hear.) No person could been more happy to have dune
anything to meet the wishes of the Noble Lord, and if,
after that explanation he still thought he was in the wrong,
no one could regret it more.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.")
with these observations he would move, that a new writ do
issue for the Borough of Ludlow, and after lie had
heard what the Noble Lord had to say on the subject, per-
haps the House would allow him to make a kw remarks.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL could assure the Noble
Lord that he had no intention of accusing him
of any want of courtesy to himself, and he
presumed to think that the Noble Lord had been influenced
(entirely disregarding any request that he might have
made) solely by a wish to discharge his public duty in that
House. He considered, however, that the present was a
question of very great public importance, and the
Noble Lord would allow him to say further, that he
did not think the Noble Lord had taken up that view
which was consistent with the advantage of that House in
making the proposition he had done, without giving the
House an opportunity for the fullest consideration.—
( Hear, hear, hear.) 13 saying that he certainly
thought that no party advocacy could be drawn
in any way from giving the subject the
fullest consideration with respect to the parties who
had been concerned in such disgraceful proceedings which
had- been brought to light by the Committce.—( 1-1 2ar,
hear.) Ile could not undertake to say that either one
political party or the other had any reason to pride
itself on being free from the contamination of
those proceedings—( Cries of " Hear, hear)—but
going on froui the proceedings, therefore the Committee,
after it had come to a resolution, declaring that the can-
didates for these two boroughs had been guilty by their
agents, both of bribery and corruption—having likewise
entered into a special resolution, which was then pre-
sented to the House, end the House having theught
but to order the whole of the evidence to be laid before it,
he must tell the Noble Lord that any one who interposed
an obstacle to the proceedings which the House might
think proper to adopt to mark his sense of the grave
and important character of the subject would be
doing an injury to his own party —( Hear, hear.)
The two parties he believed had little advantage the one
over the oilier in respect cf the election, but that party
would be prejudiced who ehoull in that House in any way
appear to the public as being justly chargeable
with the endeavour to slur over these proceedings,—( Hear
hear.) I consider them as a light m itter, and to proceed
at once, without further notice, to issue writs, as if this was
merely an unfortunate case in which corrupt practices
having been discovered, the parties must 1e more
prudent for the future, but not marking in
any way a sense of the dereliction of the parties
and their determination to remedy the evil of such prac-
tices.—( Hear, hear, hear.) Therefore lie thought
the Noble Lord had committed an error, and though
be no doubt would differ from him in opinion,
he Lord John Russell) thought lie would agree
with him in the general priaciple that that party
would be the looser which appeared to countenance these
proceedings, and that there could be no greater advec-
tage, if he wished to make a party use of this, than having
an opportunity of showing that his (Lord John R 112..
sell's) party in the House were anxious to dis-
courage, prevent, and punish such proceedings,
and those opposed to them took a more favourable
and lenient view of them. But he felt assured, when he
stated the course he meant to take, that whatever opinion
there might be as to the propriety of the proceedings
which he should ask the House to adopt, that weever
might have happened in the last few days (which he
wished not further to notice) he felt quite sure all parties
would join in what he had just now said, and feel it no;
only disadvantageous but disgraceful to them not to show
themselves forward in adopting any measure which would
appear to remedy the evils exhibited in the Report.—
( Hear, hear.) With respect to the notice of the Noble
Lord, he would state at once that he did not mean
to oppose the issuing of the writ; but he mu:,t
at the same time state he did not take that course because
be did not think there was sufficient ground to induce the
House to suspend the writ, nor that be thought there was
wanting precedents of good times fur taking such a course ;
but looking at the whole proceedings—looking to what
was the case with respect to every other borougl•,
and what had taken place at the last general election,
he thought it would be more advisab:e if the House should
proceed by sonic general measure to provide a further too
medy against bribery and treating, then that which at
present existed (he alluded only to what was done at pre-
sent in this particular case) than to use what was
the undoubted porter of the House, and which it
had frequently exercised, but v.hich certainly was a very
strong- power, that of keeping below the proper number
the Members of that and refusing the electors of
any particular place the right of sending Members to repre-
sent their interests, and the enjoyment of the franchise.
Ito would make a very short observation with respect to
the evidence in these cases, for the Noble Lord must al-
low him to allude to Cambridge as well as Ludlow--
( Ilear)—because there was a veay great similarity between
the two cases, and because he was not then making a•
objection solely to the passing over the ease of Ludlow, but
an objection to their not considering the whole of the coo:
as of great public importance. It appeared by the evi-
dence before those Committees that there had been parties
bribed directly by gift of money, and that there had been
most notorious cases of treating in both the burghs.
(Hear, hear, from Sir R. Peel. ) Indeed, although be
had looked into many cases of this description:—although
in former times he had bad to deal with several cases in
which there was more direct evidence of bribery among a
great number of electors in which in certain casts
the great majority of electors were proved to have
received certain sums of money, and thus thy,
evidence went more directly to the disfranchisement of the
borough, and the punishment of individuals, yet lie must
say, cases more disgusting, or showing a more profligate
state of the constituent body—( Loud cries of " Hear,
hear")—and showing more degrading practices on the part
even of those who stood in the highest situations with re.
Bard to the clections,tdovvn to the lowest, he must say he
never sat in evidence taken before any Committee.—
(Cheers.) It was not, therefore, on account of the light-
ness of these cases, t.r that either of them was to be,con-
. sidered as venial, but they ought to refrain from suet.
measureseas they might think the case propily required
But he would observe, before he went any further in stat-
ing what he proposed to do that these eases of continued
meeting, of opening a great number of public-houses, alio
allowing persons to go to those houses for any period 01
time, and to drink to any extent, provided only they
were supporters of a certain eandididate—( Hear,
Lear)—to ask no question as to expence, and thus
as it were to drug the electors into voting f.r
a particular candidate. He thought that was not only
bribery, but was one of the most disgusting and offensive
tricks of bribery.--( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") It was
certainly a distinction, and it was a distinction which was
favourabble to taking means to prevent these prac-
tices, that there were more means of discovering
treating than there was of discovering bribery. With
respect to sums of money being given, he thought that was
au offence udon which it was the most difficult to procure
satisfactory evidence, and therefore the House would ob-
serve that those few instances that were given with respec,
to bribo7 could not be taken as giving anything like
the whole of the amount of bribery ; but there were
cases which did affard a sample of the proceedings of the
party by whom bribery was resorted to; because if the'
had a person who was not much connected with the burgh
willing to distribute money, and they had an elector
ready to receive that money, that transaction might be kept
secret.

LEFT SPEAKING.

TATTERSALL'S-_THIS EVENING

THE DERBY.
4 to 1 agst Lord Westminster's Launcelot—ta'cen
8 to 1 agst Lord Albemarle's Assassin—taken
6 to 1 agst Mr. Etwall's Melody colt—taken
10 to 1 agst Duke of Cleveland's Theon—taken
18 to 1 agst Lord Kelburne's Pathfinder—taken
20 to 1 agst Captain Gardnor's Monops—taken
20 to 6 agst Muly—taken
25 to 1 agst Black Bess—taken •
20 to 1 agst Lord Exeter's Lucetta colt—take 18 to 1
30 to 1 agst Mr. Houldsworth's Confederate—taken
25 to 1 agst Gambia—taken
50 to 1 agst Lord Westminster's Maroon
1000 to 20 agst Little Wonder
100 to 1 agst Wardan—taken
40 to 1 agst Angelica—taken
40 to 1 agst Torres Vedras—taken
50 to 1 agst. Velvet
40 to 1 agst Cormorant—taken
1000 to 20 agst Grey Steel
35 to 1 agst I3okbara
70 to 1 agst Prince Albert
000 t) 15 agst Benjamin
000 to 15 agst Ruler
000 to 13 agst Mule
3 to 2 agst Scott's lot—taken
300 to 100ags' Exeter's lot—taken
TIIE OAKS.
2 to 1 en Crucifix
5 to 1 agst Black Bess—taken
12 to 1 agst Lalla Rookh—taken

The Eastern Counties Railway Company. are
now making great progress in completing the works to the
terminus in Shoreditch. On Wednesday last the Directors
travelled with a train to within a quarter of a mile of that sta-
tion. Permanent rails have also been laid down for more than
three miles between Rumford and Brentwood, upon which the
locomotives are at work --Essex herald.
THE LATE ROYAL EXCITANGE.—There are
about seven or eight cases of compensation for the site of the
New Royal Exchange which are yet undecided, and the special.
juries to determine upon them were to have been struck yester-
day, but, in consequence of the illness of the Recorder, they
have been postponed sine die.