The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-20 00:00:00

ANOTHER PARLIAMENTARY VACANCY.

Lord Leconfield's death, which had been expected
for some time, causes a vacancy in the representa-
tion of West Sussex, through the succession of the
Hon. H. 'Wyndham to the peerage, and the Conser-
servative party will thus number one less in the
division on the Irish Church Bill. Mr. Wyndham
has represented the constituency for fifteen years,
having succeeded Mr. Prime in 1854. He has
never had to go through the ordeal of a contest
any more than his brother has, the member for West
Cumberland. In fact, West Sussex is such a Con-
servative constituency that there has been no con-
test there for thirty-two years. This is the more
remarkable because originally the constituency was
Liberal. In 1832 and 1835 it returned two Liberals,
Lord J. G. Lennox and the Earl of Surrey. In
1837 the old members were opposed by General
Wyndham, but in vain, for he was nearly 200 votes
behind the second Liberal candidate. But the
Lennox family subsequently sided with the Conser-
vatives, and the Duke of Richmond and Lord Lecon-
field have from that time forward virtually had the
control of the division in their hands. Lord Lecon-
field received his peerage when the Conservatives
went out of office in 1859.
TAUNTON ELECTION PETITION.
"A Correspondent" of the Morning Herald writes
some particulars respecting the conduct of the Liberal
party in Taunton in connection with the recent
election petition, which if true, are exceedingly dis-
creditable. The correspondent states (but the herald
does not assume the responsibility of endorsing the
statement) that both parties bad been in the habit
barrister's court
money, which is a fee of five shillings to
eovferypamyinemg berwhoaft isthe called
party who attended the
registration court, and that the Liberal party
set the example. When, therefore, the Liberals
petitioned against Serjeant Cox, the Conservatives,
in self-defence, petitioned against Mr. Barclay, the
Liberal member. Thereupon the Liberals gave their
opponents reason to believe that the petition against
Serjeant Cox would be withdrawn. Acting upon
this belief, the Conservatives formally withdrew
their petition against Mr. Barclay. No sooner was
this done than the Liberals violated their engage-
ment, and proceeded with the petition, and thus Mr.
Cox lost ten days for preparing his defence, in which
he would have occupied himself but for the belief
that there was no occasion for doing so, and he was
deprived of the opportunity of
.striking off Mr.
James's voters, who were disqualified under the same
circumstances as were those of Mr. Cox. We have
yet to hear the other side, and until that is heard we
must refrain from passing judgment upon what is ex
pante a very dishonourable manoeuvre.

TOUGHAL ELI C TION.

We still wait to hear the decision of the Court of
Common Pleas in Dublin as to the Youghal election.
The case was a very bad one. Mr. Weguelin, the
successful candidate, had, in one form or another,
paid money to a third of the electors who voted for
him. Although these were but 127 in number, the
election cost him over £5,000, or £4O a head ; for
though__ the trigilLsagrn of 41.4__SAP4,a_a

only - about £2,100, it was tonna aunng tale 141-litl
that he had spent the amount above named. It
was shewn also that for four months before the
election a hotel was kept open, and that there all
his friends enjoyed at his expense wine, " brandy
and soda," whisky, and cigars. A worse case could
hardly have occurred, and yet Judge O'Brien hesi-
tated to unseat the member, on the ground that this
corrupt expenditure occurred before the issue of the
writ. If this should prove sufficient to save Mr.
Weguelin from unseating, we may as well give up
altogether the attempt to put down electioneering
malpractices. It is only necessary for candidates to
do all their bribery and treating before the issue of
the writ, and to be very scrupulous afterwards, to
sanction debauchery for weeks and to practice absti-
nence for days, in order to defeat the present law
and to demoralise a constituency with perfect
impunity.