The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-09 00:00:00

to prevail amongst those constituencies. That Committee
had performed its duty admirably, and had let in light on
all those who did not think proper to remain in darkness.
(Laughter.) The Noble Lord at the head of the Govern-
t, the Right Hon. Baronet the Member for Ripon, and
the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Northampton,
had professed to be sceptics as to the extent of the evil ; but
in order that there might not be any further repetition of that
evasive and erratic mode of meeting the question, he would
make a statement from a clever breviate ut the proceedings
before the Committee, and would show by a reference to
many instances, which were of very modern occurrence, that
the evils which were proved to have existed in the year
1835 were to be found flourishing in rank luxuriance in the
year 1818, and that whatever remedies the Legislature might
have applied had been total failures.—(Hear.) All their
legislation on the subject of bribery had been addressed, not
to the prevention of bribery or tJ the counteracting of its
secret influences, but to the prevention of bribery when
discovered—(A laugh)—and it appeared to hien that they
had carried their law of agency to such an extravagant
pitch, that it was difficult for any Honourable Member
to hold his seat, or avoid a petition. They had strained in
an unnatural manner, as it appeared to him, the law of
agency, and the grand evil they had left entirely untouched.
In calling attention to the evidence adduced before the Com-
mittee of 1835, he would commence by a reference to the
testimony of Mr. Alexander Edward. Cockburn, a gentleman
whose forensic abilities commanded admiration even then,
and fore-shadowed the eminence he had since attained.
Being questioned on this matter by the Committee, he gave
it as the result of his experience that the public and the
Legislature had no conception to what extent bribery
at elections was carried.—(Hear, hear.) Being asked
whether the great difficulty in. detecting it did not arise
from the imperfect state of the law et' evidence, his reply
was this—" I can conceive no case, except a case of actual
infatu:tion, in which, if bribery be. tolerably well ma-
naged, conviction would be possible."—( Hear, hear.) He
had reason to believe that the opinions upon this point
of the ilonourable and Learned Gentleman, who he was
happy to observe was now a Member of that House, had not
undergone any change whatever since he gave that evidence
before the Committee. The next testimony to which he
should allude was that of a number of most respectable wit-
nesses, and it had reference to the borough of Westminster.
He took their testimony in the aggregate—premising that
there could not anywhere be selected witnesses who were

more competent to speak upon such a subject, and-
he found
that their joint testimony was to the effect that in the

borough of Westminster great influence was exercised by
Government officers and persons of rank, wealth, and station,
and that the whole current of the evidence want to show that
the instances were numerous where considerations of self-in-
terest influenced a class of tradesmen to vote in a particular
way, or to abstain altogether from voting, who could not be
directly bribed like more venal classes. In attestation of the
truth of this assertion. reference was made to these fads, that
two-thirds of the electors, in order not to offend any party, did
not vote at all, and that many of them did not even register.
There were 13,000 on the register, but not more than 4,500
went to the poll. Such was the state of things that existed
in 1837. In the year 1841 the election at Westminster was
of a strong political character, as Honourable Members
would, no doubt, remember; it was when the question of free •
trade flourished luxuriantly ; the Protectionists worked
heaven and earth to return a Member to support the Right
Honourable Baronet the Member for Tamworth, who at that
time was the champion of protection.—(A laugh.) Extraor-
dinary exertions were made by the aristocracy to support
Captain Rous. The Gallant Gentleman's cause was espe-
cially favoured by the ladies, of whom large bodies turned
out— (Laughter)—and canvassed in his behalf with as
much earnestness and vehemence as any paid canvassers
could have done. He would select two cases out of in-
numerable ones which had come to his knowledge, and
the authenticity of which he could himself attest. He
should state them just as they had been detailed to him by
the tradesmen themselves. The first case was that of a
man at the west end of the town, who had very strong
opinions on the subject of free trade. He had been all his
life a liberal, and was anxious to vote for the Honourable
and Gallant Gentleman opposite (Sir De L Evans). In
the course of the day before the election, six carriages
drew up to his door, each bearing a coronet on the panels.
'rite fair occupants of these carriages entered the trudge,
man's shop, and there was no cajoling or threat to which
they had net recourse, in order to extract from him a
promise that he would vote for Captain Rous. In a
word, they worried the unfortunate man to that extent not
only by menacing to withdraw their own custom, but by
threatening to denounce him to others of their acquaintance
who would do the same, that although he could not be
intimidated to vote against his conscience he was induced to
promise not to vote at all.—(Hear.) He (Mr. Berkeisy)
had the curiosity to call the following year on that man to
ask him whether he had succeeded in pleasing his customers,
but he assured him that he had not.—(Laughter.) Of thesix
families represented by the six coronets, four, with all their
connexions, never set foot again within his threshold be-
cause he had refused to vote.—(Hear, hear.) The man, who
was a most respectable trader, had requested that his name,
should not be mentioned in the House, but he (Mr. Berkeley)
would take any Member aside and satisfy him as to the per-
fect authenticity of the statement. The tradesman estimated
the loss to which he was subjected by that scandalous exer-
cise of tyranny as amounting on the whole to not less than
601. per annum.—(Hear, hear.) The case was certainly one
to point a moral, if not to adorn a tale.—(Laughter.) But
the beauty of it was, that a few months after Captain Rous
turned round, followed his leaders, and, throwing completely
overboard the persons who suffered all that wear and tear of
conscience in his service, voted for free trade.—(Laughter.)
How well might the ladies who coerced the unhappy trades-
men exclaim, " What shadows we are—what shadows we
pursue !"—(Laughter.) The other case to which he wished
to call attention was that of an unhappy publican.
His case bad a double aspect. It exemplified evil effects as
well of democratic as of aristocratic interference. Here
the aristocracy and the democracy were both united in doing
the wrong thing. The publican was waited upon by a lady
of high rank, who, having called at his house and sent for
him to her carriage, made a strange overture to him. "You
serve my house with beer," she said. The publican replied in
the affirmative. "I understand that my servants also use
your house." The publican assented. " Well, continued the
lady, "I have called upon you to inform you, that if you..
dou't vote as I wish, not only shall you lose my custom, but
say servant of mine who hereafter sets his foot within your
door I shall immediately discharge—vote as I wish, and you
shall always have our custom, and I will see what I can do
for your son in the Custom House." Frightened by the threat
or allured by the promise, the publican got up very early in
the morning and voted for Captain Roue, but he did not
gain much by either on the score of peace of mind er in
any other sense. It so happened that there were twelve or
thirteen tailors who held their Saturday night orgies at his
house —(Laughter.) They were very formidable tailors,
quite of the Cuffey school.—(Laughter.) Tremendous fel-
lows.—(Laughter.) One of them being very enthusiastic
in the cause, went to the poll at a very early hour, and
having discovered that his host had voted for Captain Rous,
he lost no time in communicating the fact to his comrades.
The upshot was, that on the next Saturday night they
called for their bill, abused the unfortunate man in round
set terms, told him that he was not only a publican but a
sinner—(Gr. at laughter}-and gave him to understand that
they would drink no more of his beer, but denounce him to
the whole trade.—(Great laughter.) These two cases be
had selected from fifty or sixty which had come to his
knowledge. He seriously put it to the House whether it
was to be tolerated that such a state of things should con-
tinue. Were they not bound in justice and in mercy to
give to the victim of such tyranny the protection of secret
voting 2—(Hear, hear.) In 1847 he was Chairmin of &Com-
mittee appointed to carry out the election of the Noble Lord
, now at the head of the Government, and other Liberal mein-
, hers. The Committee sat at the west-end of the town. and
the object was to enlist the suffrages of west-end trades-men
who had votes in the city. The result of his experience
' on that Committee, was the conviction that the evils. com-
plained so much of in 1835, existed in an aggravated form
' in 1847, and that the instances were numerous, ot trades•
men disfranchising themselves, rather than be subjected to
the terrors and horrors of the worrying system.—(Hear,
hear.) A common reply to those who asked a tradesman
for his vote was, "Thank God, I have no vote • when I was,
a younger man I had one, but I have suffered too much
from the exercise of it of late, and I have become a wiser
man—l will never vete again." In nine cases out of ten,
they added this saving clause, " unless you get the ballot
for us " (Hear, hear.) The same system prevailed all over
the country. Mr. Philipps, a Conservative witness, examined
before the Committee of 1835, attributed the loss of Mr.
Spooner's election to the int.midation of the opposite party.
and on being asked if he would not advocate the ballot, he
only replied that he was " too much a Tory for that."---
( Hear, hear.) He would not weary the House by mention-
ing many similar cases to those which he had cited, which
had occurred in various parts of the country, but he would
beg the House to remember that if the ballot was neeessarf
for Engla, d, it was eoubly so for Ireland.—(Hear, hear.)
There the intimidation of landlords and the intimidation of
priests vied with one another. The evidence taken before
the Committee, io 1835, disclosed some strange facts en
this point. We have the testimony of Mr. Fitzgerald
and Mr. Wilcox—both magistrates of the county Tipperary.
Those gentlemen took a very singular view of matters;
for, while they entertained no kind of objection to
landlords making their tenants vote as they (the landlords)
thought fit, but, on the contrary, praised them for it, they
denounced in the strongest manner the interference of the
priests.—(Laughter.) What they felt to be a crime in the
..e.
priest, they regarded as a virtue in the landlord. The 04'
dence ot Mr. Wilcox in particular was extraordinary. That
gentleman did not scruple to advance such a doctrine so
this, that if he were kind to a tenant who lived under him, he
had, in the event of his ambitioning the honour of becoming
a Member of Parliament, a right to command that tenant'
vote, " and," he added, " if he refuses to gratify me in that
honour, I think all ties are severed between us."—(Loud
laughter.) Colonel Bruin advocated a similar doctrine. Se
roundly maintained the right of landlords to discharge their
tenants or servants for not voting as they pleased, and men-
tioned instances where he had exercised that power for the
punishment of the refractory. But not to dwell further
on that point, he now came to the last accusation against,
the ballot—namely, that it was productive of lying and de'
ceit. If the ballot were objected to on that account, wolf
there ought to be something in the present mode of taking
votes remarkable for the encouragement it gave to truth.
He would meet the assertion by a counter-assertion. The
present elective system, and especially the system of taking
votes, was ono vast lie, branching out into all the rassifiq;
tions of deceit, delusion, equivocation, and quibble. Di"
they not show the example of deceit in their sessional orders
with respect to the non-interference of peers at elections ?'
(Hear.) In order to show how those orders were eludea
and set at nought, his Hon. Friend the Member for Mop'
trose, when his motion was under discussion a few nights
since, referred to a certain gentleman, Mr. Dodd, who wrote
a certain book, " the Parliamentary Companion," from
_:
which it appeared that the cases of interference by Reel,:
were exceedingly numerous. If, in the teeth of the ff.;
which lie bad himself collected, Mr. Dodd . were
on,
enough to assert that non-interference was prroVi'd*
and virtue encouraged by the present system, BI
ought to be summoned to the bar of that House.—(Laugh-
odd s
book,
andlle (bite' r.B
founde Berkeley) )
that f
rhnamd a
n himself
analysis consulted
o the Mfa facts
ter
collected, this deduction might be extracted, nalne.fY,.:l99
there were in England and Wales 12 boroughs with tio_a
kind—thatelectors. returning
n9eals
eMbeomrnbnegrhs s all
we
were
enudnedr influenceunder
o influence
norfom_.2:Joef
hoe
Government
tniectrlat cosi?
tahn,,d
day. In
fiveln wfusr3e7,ur2id9erwtehres inctinnuteereedt;la
futile it, was for any independent gentleman
Gtlirlo44evme,rr4l only. The gradual and steady increase showed
startsi a
them
fore
them, be-
candidate fur
whata n3a, of those
rce it woe to
puth theth t
shateoseseioaini
es
touching non-interference with elections ! In putting
forth they coul e scarcely be supposed to have any
._u_rvarc'rer
tention but that ot damning their own, Character
tier Sur sincerity, and they could not surely troew well
selves from the charge of deceit.
andidste to
House? The nut unfrequeut custom was for ac
fully
go down to some borough at a generi election, and
'oral orders, te ,
did the candidate follow the example thusbsuett him by tbat
g
horn
presQed with the true character of these sessional
that they were "free and inaependent electors,
while that Eng
at the Barns
publish among his collate trews his manifesto,
men never would consent to be slaves," and
time he was issuing this address, he and
___ elections
thing
e r
Ling in force every screw and artiflcolulhoisrusag'nts were