The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-14 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 14, 1851.

ST. ALBAA'S BRIBERY COMiIIISSION.
ST. .A LEAN'S, THURSDAY.—To-day the Commis•
sinners re-assembled for the 10:1 time, and closed
their inquiry so far as at present practicable. A num-
ber of additional cases, disclosing systematic bargain
and sale of votes, were gone into. Each voter re-
treatel, on the extraction cf the shame-faced confes-
sion, into the obscurest corners of the court, waiting
for his certificate of protection, given under the Act of
Parliament, to all such as confessed to the truth of
being bribed.
The principal case was that of a voter named
Blanks, innkeeper, of the White Hart, who admitted
he was one of the parties who came up to London with
the view of getting Sir R. Carden to stand. This
man acknowledged boldly, that he entered on the
electioneering campaign solely in the sense of a
matter of business, and of pounds, shillings, and
pence. Purity of principle was all prunella, it had
nothing to do with elections in St. Alban's, nor did
he believe that any candidate, however estimable or
honest, could become sitting Member for St. Alban's
without he spent a great deal of money. In his
opinion, however, the money that had been laid out to
secure the last election at St. Alban's, as compared
with previous elections, and with Maldon and other
places he could mention, was comparatively nothing
more than a " milks core."—(Lnughter.)
A number of voters known to have been bribed,
and who had been summoned to attend, did not ap-
pear, the reason assigned being that some of them
were absent from St. Alban's a week at a time, at
work in the neighbouring districts, and others, from a
mistaken notion of the consequences of disclosing
their venality, bad, to use the parlance of the place,
" stepped it."
A considerable object of attraction during the pro-
ceedings, and which,•either by accident or design, was
brought under the notice of the Commissioners, was
a massive silver snnff box, belonging to Edwards, who,
on the closing of the court, mounted his horse, in
waiting without, and rode off to his farm at
Bricket-wood, some three miles from St. Alban's,
halting at stages in the town to talk with the voters
he bribed. The snuffbox, containing some excellent
rappee, had on its lid the following inscription :
" Presented to Mr. Henry Edwards by 1,000
and upwards of the working classes of St. Alban's,
by ld. subscription, as a mark of their respect and
esteem, in token of their disapprobation of the perse-
cution to which he has been subjected, Bth Aug.,
1851." The strange character of the tribute will be
a sufficient apology for giving publicity to a pre-
sentation so contemptible, the date being indicative
of the fact that it was given after the owner's 18
weeks' imprisonment in Newgate for the people who
presented it.
Shortly before 1 o'clock the Commissioners intimated
that they had determined on adjourning the further
proceedings to Ist December, to give time for the
production of still absent voters, and the examination
of Messrs. Wilks, Craven, and Repton, the candidates
at former elections. They had to thank the Mayor,
and all parties concerned, for the great assistance they
had given them in the course of the inquiry, and a
general feeling of satisfaction was expressed through
the court at the urbane and considerate manner in
which the Commissioners had discharged the very
stringent duties and powers conferred on them by the
Act of Parliament.