The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-23 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ISM

SIR,—A. principle of legislation in reference to the
suppression of corrupt practices at elections has just
been affirmed for the first time by a maj3rity of the
House of Commons. It is a principle of such great mo-
ment—one that is likely, if permanently recognised, to
be productive of such important consequences, that I
deem it desirable that public attention should be more
particularly directed to it. As the adjourned debate
upon the disfranchisement of the borough of Galway
is fixed fur this evening, I think the present is an oppor-
tune time to make a few remarks on this important sub.
jest.

Hitherto the only penalty really inflicted upon elec-
ti-rs convicted of corrupt practices has been the total
disenfranchisement of the borough.
This system of punishment violates a principle of
natural justice, inasmuch as it involves the innocent
in a common punishment with the guilty. In the most
notoriously corrupt boroughs which have undergone
the sentence of disfranchisment there have always
been a considerable number of voters who have been
free from participation in venal practices, including
many poor electors who, and whose ancestors, had long
and honestly exercised their elective privilege. Tae
law that punishes these equally with the guilty,
by a total disenfranchisement of the borough obviously
violates a first principle of natural justice ; but
uo such principle can be infringed without its en-
ta liog in the long run injurious consequences which
far more than neutralize the apparent gain immediately
attained. lam well aware that statesmen who have re-
lied upon the universal application of these simple but
great principles of truth and natural justice, and have
sought to press them into the service of political
affairs have been too often called ' Theorists"
and doctrinaires; but, sir, let the public depend
upon it, these are, nevertheless, the principles
which must and will ultimately prevail. We are rapidly
passing into an era in the progress of civilisation when
the universal application of these simple, butt great prin-
ciples of legislation will be more and more recognised
a. a paramount necessity, and when those who yet
oppose them, upon utilitarian considerations of present
gain, wi►l be regarded as products of a past age.
As one out of the many evil consequences of this un-
just law we have this result, that those constituencies
which have been guilty of the most flagrant corruption
escape unpunished, because petitions agr.i❑st bribery
will not, as a general rule, be promoted when the known
result would be a disfranchisement of the borough.
So that this system, thus based upon a glaring viola-
tion of a principle of natural justice has this for one of
its natural results, viz., it defeats its proper end as a
penal enactment, f it instead of operating to suppress, it
actually becomes the means of sheltering the vice it is
framed to punish.
Now, sir, the House of Commons has, in a division
upon the last debate upon the bill brought in by Mr.
Give to disfratichise the borough of Galway, for the
first time affirmed the principle that the disfranchise-
ment shall be confined to those elect ire only who have
been convicted of corrupt practices. I would fain
hope that the strong go d sense of the country and
the House of Commons will support Mr. Walpole
in this the first attempt to give Parliamentary sanction
to this just principle of legislation.
It requires some moral courage to propose and carry
any measure that involves novel principles, or is unsanc-
tiuned by precedent ; and in this respect alone, I doubt
not, the measure will encounter serious opposition.
But I would press upon those who would oppose this
measure to weigh well the benefits that will surely fl
from its adoption. One of its immediate and
direct consequences will be to withdraw the im-
pediment which has hitherto prevented the bring-
ing forward of p-titions against bribery at elections ;
for so soonas it will be known that the disfranchisement
f the borough will not be the inevitable penalty of gross
bribery, but simply the disfranchisement of the guilt,
voters, the result will be that petitions will be preferred
simply for the purpose( f purging the register of electors'
name,s, who, and, too often, whose ancestors are known
for generations, to have made a venal use of the fran-
chise whenever occasion offered. In all habitually cor-
rupt constituencies such men are well known. To give
the uncorrupted electors the opportunity of ridding the
register of such members without incurring the risk of
a total disfranchisement would, I am convinced, do
more to suppress c rrupt practices at elections than any
other measure that has yet been directed to this object.
For tnese reasons I would appeal to the strong com-
mon sense of the country and the House to support the
Secretary of State in this the first attempt to give
legislative sanction to this principle.
There is only one honest objection that can be urged
against the measure, viz., that its tendency would be to
diminish the franchise ; but in fact there never was an
argument more essentially hollow, or base i upon a more
transparent fallacy ; because, though it will, it is true,
diminish the number of electors, it will only do so by
the removal of those who make a corrupt use of the
franchise, a result which must prove a positive gain, in•
stead of a loss, as every honest politician must admit.
In conclusion, I may be just allowed to say that I are,
I think, emitted to speak with some authority on this
subject,* having for a long time advocated the adop'bn
of the principle, now for the first time affirmed by a
majority of the House of Commons, and endeavouredlo
press it neon the consideration of successive govern-
ments. At the same time, lam desirous of adding that
I am in no way connected with the borough of Galway,
and therefore advocate the measure a. lely upon general
principles and abstract merits.
.1 am, Sir, &c.,

E. T. WAKEFIELD.
Lincoln's Inn, April 23, 1858.

* In 1851 I published a pamphlet advocating the prin-
ciple of this measure ; " A Letter to Lord John Russell
upon the Suppression of Bribary at Elestions." London :
Wady & Sons, publishers.

THE PRINCE OF WALES AT
EIbLAR

DUBLIN, We lneslay.—The R-iyal tourist is ex-
citing the liveliest interest in the districts through
which he is passing. Every little town on his route
has its story to tell of what he said and d!d. At
Skibbereeu the Prince has immortalised the hostelry
of a certain Mrs. Doyle.
MONDAY EVENING.—His Royal Highness is still
quietly &mesticated at the Victoria, visiting each
point of at ractiou from day to day, and at inter-
vals enjoying with all the keen appetite of a fine
spirited boy, the duck and rabbit shooting which
the shores of the Inwer and Middle Like pit now
furnish in great abundance, and ever and anon
wiling from' its watery home the silvery trout. The
weather is glorious, which leads to the hope that
his Royal Highness will prolong his stay to the end
of the week. I have reason• to think he will then
proceed to Valet:Fig, to visit the notables of that
interesting locality and the terminus of the Trans-
atlantic Telegraph. The Admiralty yacht, now at
Bantry, will, my informant states, then take leave
of this Prince on board, and having given him an
orportuoily of viewing the wondrous Skelligi_
where, by the by, he can enjoy right royal shoot-
i,,g, the magnificent scenery of the Dingle coast—
st, am away for the Shannon.
A lively letter from a lady in the Cork Constitu-
tion gives the foliating account of the Prince on
his way to Glengariffe

_
" Two great events have happened since Sunday
—the arrival of a whale in this harbour, and a live
Prince in our western metropolis. The papers have
intormed us of his royal highness's arrival in Cork,
but we hardly believed he would have the good
taste to visit that Very celebrated and interesting,
locality, Skib., which must have appeared to advan-
tage its a down-pour such as we had all day Thurs-
day. However, he did not much seem to
mind, though the people remarked that he was
" very badly clothed," and he was driven by
the gingle-tioy to Mrs. Doyle's hotel, where he
went in and asked for a tumbler cf Bass's ale,
1
which he took standing at the counter.
He then asked if she had any real potheen, and,
being answered in the affirmative, he ordered a
glass, which he tasted, and then mixed with the
Bass, which his suite all skired. Mrs. Doyle took
the party foe people come about Mr. Madder's
promised steamer, and on the Prince remarking that
Skibbereen seemed a ri;ing place, she said 'lt would
be, if there was any one there who had interest to
have the river deepened from the quay at Old Court,
to allow the steamers to come up to the town.'
Shortly after a crowd tegan to collect, as a rumour
spread of a Prince, an actual live Prince, bring to
be seen, so he speedily mounted the gingle and set
off for Bantry. The gingle-driver, who e ill, of
course, be immortalised as 'the boy who drove the
Prince,' is now an object only secondary, and he is
full of all the Prince said and did. How he told
him to get some of the sods of turf as they drove
along, with which he amused himself pelting, or, as
the boy said, cruisting, everything as they passed.
I think some of the magistrates were disappointed
that the Prince did not commit some breach of the
peace, and, like a second Prince Hal, get himself
brought before the worthy bench. Mrs. Doyle is,
of course, in ecstacis, and Mrs. Hegarty in pro-
portionate despair at the celebrity of her rival, who
is going to get a case for the highly-honoured tum-
bler, though she remarks, with no little mortifica-
tion, that 'it was unfortunately the most discol
cured glass in the shop, and had 'a bit out of it.'
Everybody was running to look at the glass yes-
terday and to hear all about it, and the happy Mrs.
Doyle is going, of course, to call her hotel ' The
Prince of Wales'—in fact she seems to consider that
she has now some private property in the Prince,
and she called the gingle-boy an ' impudent ruffian,'
to dare compare himself to a Prince, because he
said he was about his height, as if he was like such
a f'llow in any way.' 1 fully expect that the
highly-honoured gingle will, like Neison's ships,
the Victory and Royal George, be cut up in frag-
ments akid converted into all sorts of Imick knacks,
and no doubt the stuffing of the cushions—if in-
deed they were not stuffed with stones, as one I
last travelled on certainly was—will 10,3 sold for
putting into rings, &c. If you wish for any me-
mento you ought to apply for it in time, for the
fever of royalty is now at its height."