The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-01 00:00:00

HORSHAM.

The Earl of MARCH moved that the Clerk of the
Crown be directed to issue a writ for the election of a
burgess to serve in Parliament for Horsham.
Mr. 1-113 ME said, if he had been enabled to bring on his
motion on this subject, it was his intention to have sug.
gested to the House the propriety of not only suspending
the writ for Horsham, but for every place the election
for which had been declared to be void, on account of
bribery and treating by Committees of the House, until
further inquiry by newly-appointed Committees had
been made into the allegations. He considered such a
course absolutely necessary if the House wished to
maintain its character before the country, and
if they wished to discountenance such pro-
ceedings as those which had been proved to have
taken place at Horsham and other places, they must take
upon themselves the task of doing so, for they could not
expect individual Members to go to the expense of
doing so.—(Hear, hear.) From the evidence taken
before the Horsham Committee it appeared that the peti-
tioning candidate stated that having got what he wanted,
ho did not wish to proceed to any further inquiry into
the allegations of the petition. He had thought that
Harwich, which was an extreme case, shotild have been
made an example for the proceedings that had taken
Place in tr.prp_ %c m, ra c CJeIIitII.IIJUUL putpte
f
NI teat f louse. From the evidence to which he had
referred, it appeared, according to the testimony of one
witness, that the night before the election, about 160
out of the 300 persons who voted, were kept drinking
and listening to music until four the next morning.
Surely this was derogatory to the character of the House.
He felt it his duty to move as an amendment to
the motion of the Noble Lord, " That in all cases
where Committees of this Housee have declared
thy- scat of any Honourable Member void through bri-
bery or treating, this House will, with a view of promoting
purity of election, suspend the issue of any new writ until
a Select Committee had entered into an inquiry as to
the extent of the bribery and treating in every such
county, city, or borough.' lie should most certainly
take the sense of the House on that amendment.
Lord COURTENAY said that, as chairman of the
Horsham Election Committee, he wished to make
a few observations to the House upon the subject
then before it. He should feel it his duty to
support the motion of the Noble Lord for the
issue of the writ, because, in his opinion, no facts had
been proved before the Committee to lead to any conclu-
sion sufficient to justify a refusal to issue the writ.—
(Hear, hear.) The minutes of the evidence as laid
before the House contained nothing which would
warrant the refusal of the writ. In consequence of the
withdrawal of the petitioners frcm any further pro-
ceedings in the case, the Committee thought it right, in
accordance with the powers granted to them by the 5
and 6 Victoria, to institute further inquiries, in order to
ascertain whether the result would justify the Committee
in making a special report to the House. The Com-
mittee called before them the agents upon both sides,
and from each of them they received the most distinct
disavowal of the impressions which certainly had existed
in the minds of the Committee, that a compromise had
existed between the parties. It was distinctly stated
by one of the agents that a proposal to with-
draw from the inqury had been made by the agent
on the other side, but that proposition did not in the
least degree arise from any wish to keep back evidence
with respect to bribery. The counsel for the parties
admitted that the sitting Member was guilty of treating;
and the Committee felt that they were bound, in the
discharge of their duty, to institute the inquiries
they had ; and the result of those inquiries had been
that, in the opinion of the Committee, there was not
sufficient evidence to justify them in making a special
report to the House. It might be a subject worthy the
consideration of the House whether, in prospective cases,
powers might not be given to Committees to make spe
cial reports in such cases, when the evidence did not
extend to that length which it was now required it
should do.

Mr. SHAFT() ADAIR, as a member of the late
Horsham Committee, begged to corroborate the state
ments of the Noble Lord (the chairman of the Com-
mittee), who had just sat down. He should
support thu motion of the Noble Lord for the
issuing of the writ, being decidedly of opinion
that nothing had been brought before the Committee
that ought to induce the House to suspend its issuing.
rho Honourable Member then went at some ler;,,,th
into the facts of what took place before the
Committee, stating that, in his view, nothing
like an attempt at compromise had taken place, and %lig-
gested, after what had taken place before Election Com-
mittees of that House, whether it would not be well f,r
the House to adopt some system in order to put an end
to the useless litigation that took place before them.
Sir JOEIN RIMIER said it was clear from these
frequent cases of corruption that the c3nstituency of the
country was not in a satisfactory state, and he should
vote for the postponement of the issuing of the writ, in
the hope that it would have the effect of inducing the
House to pass a measure for remedying the evils. For his
part he was prepared to go into a thorough reform of
the elective franchise, and sooner or later Parliament
would be forced to take upon themselves the duty of
adopting some steps for guardding against a repetition of
these instances of corruption.—(Hear, hear.) Discontent
already began to manifest itself in the country upon this
subject, and the House would do well to take the matter
in hand at once. At all events, whether it did or not,
the House might be satisfied of this: there was an
agitation going on oat of doors that would shortly
toree upon it the duty of considering the propriety of
an amelioration of the elective franchiso.—(Hear, hear )
Sir D. L. EVANS thought the House ought not to
lea' too leniently with these cases, however light they
might appear in the reports of the Committees. Only a
fractional part of the corruption of general elections
came before these Committees. He knew a large city
which, at the last election, had forty five public-houses
open for six months before the election.—(Hear, and a
laugh.) Such things were disgraceful to the country and
to the House ; and it was high time, as soon as the case
was
proved,
that an example should be made by the
suspension of the writ.
Mr. BAILEY was understood to support the issuing
of the writ.

The Earl of MARC II said that some lion. Gentlemen

)pposite admitted they had not read the evidence, and
4e thought they could not hare read even the report.
['here was nothing in either to warrant the suspension
of the writ.

Mr. SHERIDAN, a member of the Committee, sup-
ported the issuing of the writ. He denied that any sus-
picious circumstances came before the Committee to
excite the suspicion of compromise, beyond the fact of
the sudden abandonment of the defence on the ground of
undeniable treating. Nevertheless, the Committee were
determined to sift the matter to the bottom ; and he
doubted whether they had not gone too far in requiring
a list of the parties bribed. At all events, this was the
view taken by the counsel for the petitioners. Had there
been any evidence of a compromise the Committee would
have reported accordingly. The contrary being the case
they were justified in their resolution, that there was no
call for a special report.
Mr. WARILEY thought it would be unjust to the
electors of this country to issue the writ. The election
had been declared void through treating: and was it fair
to punish only the candidate, and not the parties who
led him into the error by their corrupt propensities ?
They were infinitely more deserving of punishment than
the candidate; and on that ground he would suspend
the writ.—(Hear.)
Lord J. RUSSELL said that two very distinct ques-
tions were involved—one with respect to the conduct of
this Election Committee, whether they had acted with
due regard to the law; another, as to the course the
House should pursue, supposing the conduct of the
Committee to be irreproachable. He thought the
Committee had pursued a course in conformity with
'heir duty, and had exercised their discretion very fairly.
One question before them, and to which their attention
was directed by the Act of Parliament, was, whether
there had been any compromise between the parties,
and whether one party had refrained from going into
evidence of bribery with the view of preventing the pro-
secution of the petition. The Committee had inquired
into the facts relating to that circumstance, and
had come to the opinion that there had been
no such compromise. Ho entirely gavo credit to
the Committee, and thought they had come to a
right decision. Then there was a provision in the
Act that further inquiry and investigation regarding
it. But this Committee bribery should take place if
ethecoaCldomnmotittw
Committee
recom-
mendedellmakeC
'hat recommendation; for although there wore allega-
tions in the petition respecting bribery, those bad not
ynotthebyewgoroonepreineltou,debdyfrtohme
k-,Cu7aimgagtiitntseeuec,ihnaatnodr,
eaccoonnindsn3ecgootnluedlndattlion._(
there had been Hear, hear.) Under
these circumstances he saw no occasion for suspending
the writ. —Meer hear.) One of the allegations was, that
liament referred to
And that such b. gross,
systematic bribery,
and notorious in the
borough. '
should have bee
ribery was open
,y
ehre.though extensive,t
iatnwdas
Though he had introduced the Act of Par
'louse, defective, and he
given to the
to order the case glad had a special
Where such allegations were . made,
Select Committee and to
be further tried by . a
power been
to obtain from a special
report. In this case there them . .
I
report. Still he waS disposed
More this writ issued, that there
inquiry respecting the allege-dreb
could be no such special
lie thought the case was one of sribery.—(
it was right for the Muse to furtherinaotilt=hs
think it might be fit,
should be some further
Hear, hear.)
that
tie was not prepared, however, to agree to tbinquiry.
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