The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-15 00:00:00

last night, with respect to his motion to suspend the
issuing of the writ until the 18th of April. He did not
consider the Hon. and Learned Gentleman the Member
for Cockermouth (Mr. Aglionby) was justified in
complaining of him, inasmuch as he had oa a former
occasion been in favour of the course he (Mr. Black-
stone) now recommended—namely, that the House
should have an opportunity of perusing the evidence
adduced before the Committee before it con-
sented to the motion for issuing a new writ.
When that evidence was laid before the Honse, he
did not wish it to be understood that he should either
bring in a Bill to disfranchise the borough, or to
increase its limits. He could not now state what
course he should adopt. It was due, he thought, to
the sitting Member (Mr. Bagshaw) that the evidence
should be printed. The course he pointed out had been
adopted on former occasions. The House should
bear in mind that Mr. Attwood had been a second
time unseated for bribery for the same borough, and
it was due to him and to the borough to institute the
fullest inquiry, and to be in possession of the whole
of the facts before they came to a decision with
respect to the writ. With this view he
begged to move as an amendment that the
Speaker do not issue his writ until the evidence has
been printed.
Sir G. GREY disclaimed that, in what he said
last night, he intended to impute that the Hon.
Member had adopted an unparliamentary course.
The Speaker distinctly stated that any Hon. Member
might move the issuing of a new writ, at any time
during the sitting of the House, without notice; and
he (Sir G. Grey) perfectly agreed with him.—(Hear.)
It certainly did not appear the wish of the House
that the objection of the Hon. Member should be
decided at one o'clock in the morning.—(Laughter.)
Besides, he ventured to hope if the motion were de-
layed until to• day, that the report of the Com-
mittee would be in the hands of the House. If
the Committee had reported, as in the case
of Sudbury, that systematic bribery had prevailed at
the last election, and had expressed a wish that the
writ might be suspended, there perhaps could have
been no objection to the proposition of the Hon.
Member, but they did not do so ; and as the writs for
Carlisle, and other places, had been moved for without
opposition, he did not think it unlikely that a similar
course would be adopted in this case. The House
had had an opportunity of reading the report of the
Committee. (No, no.) Well, then, Honour-
able Members might have done so, as it had
been printed, and the Hon. and Learned Member
for Cockermouth, who was ready last night to sup-
port the issuing of the writ, had a copy of the report
in his hand. The Committee reported that it had
not been proved to their satisfaction that Mr. Attwood
had paid the two persons who had been bribed ; also,
that treating had taken place to a great extent, but they
stated it had not been proved upon whose authority,
so that it was unlike . the case of Sudbury. If the
borough deserved to be disfranchised it ought to have
been done between 1842 and 1848, for the
circumstances of the two elections were alike.
Surely the Honourable Gentleman did not in-
tend by his motion to affect the position of
his Honourable Friend the sitting Member,
who had not been petitioned against.—(Hear.)
It was contrary to all practice to postpone a writ in
the manner proposed, and he therefore hoped the
House would not consent to the amendment.

Mr. HUME was quite surprised at the speech of
the Right Hon. Baronet who had just sat down. It
appeared to him to be a defence of the gross practices
which had taken place at the last Harwich election.—
(Hear, hear.) The House would, no doubt, remem-
ber that in the last Parliament Mr. Roebuck obtained
a Committee of inquiry into the corrupt practices
that were resorted to at the election of 1841, upon
his undertaking to prove bribery and corruption in
the cases of five boroughs. Not only did the Hon.
Gentleman fulfil his undertaking in that respect, but
he showed beyond all doubt that he could, if he liked,
have made out fifty instead of five cases.—(Hear
hear.) How was it then that the disclosures made
before that Committee had not had the effect of
putting a stop to these corrupt practices ?
Why, simply because the cases established in
the last Parliament were too leniently dealt with,
and if they did not now visit these corrupt boroughs
with the severest punishment there never would be
an end to these abominable practices of bribery and
treating.—(Hear, hear.) For his part he thought
Harwich ought to have no representative at all,
and he would tell the House why. He had been in-
formed that the: parties who had just unseated the
sitting Member were prepared with evidence to
show the utter rottenness of the borough,
and that one of the local committees were
bribed with the present of 1,0001. each to
give their support to a rival_ candidate ; but by an
agreement with the other side, they only produced
just sufficient evidence to entitle the Committee to
unseat the sitting Member.—(Hear, hear.)
Sir JAMES GRAHAM certainly laboured under
the impression that an understanding was come to
last night that this writ should be postponed till the
minutes of evidence were before the House, and he
must admit that he thought it rather unfair that the
writ should have been again moved for without
notice.—(sear, hear.) He understood that the Hon.
and Learned Chairman of the Committee intended to
bring the minute under the consideration of the House,
and the writ ought, in justice to the Committee, to
be postponed until the discussion on the minutes
should have been disposed of. Certainly this case of
Harwich required great caution, and he would
strongly advise that this question should be adjourned
till the Hon. and Learned Member for Bute had put
the House in possession of his views upon the sub-
ject.— (Hear, hear.)
After a few words from Sir G. GREY,
Major BERESFORD could not allow it to go
forth that a local committee at Harwich had been so
grossly bribed as the Hon. Member for Montrose
would have the House believe. He denied that such
bribery had taken place at all, and defied any Hon.
Member to prove it. -
Mr.: ELLIOT, one of the members of the Com-
mittee, agreed with those who wished this discussion
to be adjourned; but still he must remind the House,
that only one case of bribery was fully made out
before the Committee, that was the case of Saxbey.
True, there were other cases reported to the House,
where parties had been supplied; with loans; but
it was not brought home to the agents of the sitting
Member that the loans were advanced for
the purpose of influencing their votes. The
truth, however, was, the whole of the evidence
disclosed a system of collusion between the
sitting Member and the committee of another can-
didate, which rendered it exceedingly difficult, if not
altogether impossible, to prove the agency of the
parties who administered the bribes, and nothing
was brought before the Committee to warrant them
in reporting specially that the borough ought to be
disfranchised.
Mr. BLACKSTONE said it was evident from what
had fallen from the Hon. Member who had just sat
down, that there was something behind in this case
which ought to be enquired into, and he should sup-
port the motion for adjournment.
Mr. T. B. ROCHE trusted the House would
sift this matter to the bottom, for an impression
had got abroad, and particularly in Ireland,
that English boroughs were becoming more
corrupt and rotten than before the Reform Bill.
—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) He trusted, therefore,
the House would look carefully into the case, for he
bad now to give the House notice that every borough
the House disfranchised in this country, he intended
to claim for Ireland.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.)
He hoped the House would not laugh at this matter,
for it was a most serious affair, when they found
that :a millionaire had it in his power to secure
his interest being represented in that House by four
or five borough Members. Indeed, it appeared to
him, that a system of corruption was going on in this
country which strongly resembled that resorted to by
a recently deposed Monarch.—(Hear, and laughter.)
Mr. BRADSIIAW admitted that there was great
bribery and corruption in Harwich in 1841, but in
that year there were only 180 electors of that
borough, and out of that number in that year
121, as he believed, independent voters promised him
their votes.—(Laughter.) It had been said that his
Committee had been bribed—the chairman with
1,0001. in his pocket. He denied it altogether. He I
had denied it out, and he now most positively denied
it in, the House. The number of voters now in
Harwich were 280, half of which were not on the
register in 1841. He thought, therefore, it would
be most unfair and unjust to suspend the issuing of a
writ for Harwich, which would have the effect of dis-
franchising a number of voters that had nothing to do
with the act that took place in 1841. He trusted,
therefore, that the debate on the subject would not
be adjourned, but that the writ would be ordered to
issue.

Sir B. lIALL said the question for the considera-
tion of the House was, whether a borough that was-
notorious for bribery and corruption should be
allowed to send Members to that House, after the
report of a Select Committee that a repetition had
taken place at the late election of that bribery and
corruption. He for one could not consent to the
issuing of the writ, because he thought if they were
to have any credit for purity of election out of doors,
it would be a disgrace to that House to issue a writ for
Harwich after what had lately taken place. A friend
of his, in 1841, put up for Harwich, and on that oc-
casion one of the electors told him that he was secure
of one of his votes, but that he would not say
who else he should vote for—(Hear, hear)---but
he stated that he would not vote till
late in the day, and he (Sir B. Hall) had reason to
believe that that voter had no less than 475/. for his
vote at a late hour of the day. He trusted that the
House would not allow the writ to issue until the
matter had been sifted to the leettom.—(Hear.)
Mr. J. STUART WORTLEY was not aware
that the question would hare been discussed before