The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-20 00:00:00

go pretty well towards retaining another, for the

counties certainly. :Look to it, Reform Club ; the
Carlton, by Mr. AYRTON'S kind help, have made

a nice litfle arrangement for the coming election ;
if you do not get the thousands ready too, be as-

cured your uew Whig members will go to the wall

at the next election, and sad indeed would the
loss be to exchange a Whig for a Liberal Conserva-
tive. The wromg clique would pocket, for years
it might be, the salaries of office.

We hope, now, we shall hays no more laughing
at the Ballot as a nechartical device to make men
virtuous. If a railway pass, instead of money,
be not a mechanical device, we should like to
know what is !

MADAME .RISTORL

This accomplished actress took her benefit last
night at Covent-garden with the most undoubted
3.xxczs. She appeared in the charactJr of Queen
Elizabeth, a part which gives her an opportunity
for displaying the wonderful versatility of her
powers. Her delineation of the varying passions
that sway the haughty sovereign by turns, her
majestic carriage, her impetuous temper, her
sudden elevation to heroism, while defying the
threats of the Spanish ambassador, were all finely
represented. She was equally great in the more
conflicting emotions, where her love for Essex
and her haughty spirit are at variance. The scene
in which the exasperated Essex defies the Queen
before the assembled Court, and in which she
appears almost overwhelmed with her terrible anger,
was rendered very effectively. The struggle in the
mind of Elizabeth before signing the fatal warran,,
and her despair when she learns that her reprieve
is toellate, gave Madame Ristori full scope for the
development of her fine tragic powers, as did the
last act, showing the proud monarch bending be-
fore a mightier despot than herself, but keeping Ler
lofty spirit in face of death himself. The last agonies
as is unfortunately the case with all our great
actors, were painfully elaborated and lengthened.
We would sugpst to the geod taste of Madame
Ristori, that such encouragement of a morbid taste
is scarcely worthy of her artistic abilities. The
house was fully attended, and the audience testi-
fied their admiration by bouquets and plaudits,
and by the enthuliastic demand for her appearance
after every act. The acting of Signor Mejeroni, as
the unfortunate earl, deserves eulogistic notice.
We are that Madame Ristori has
been
great success of this perform.
induced
glad
by to
the see
ance to reappear in the same ',character at Covent
Garden on Friday next, the night before her de.
parturJ from England.

His Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke of
Mecklenburg-S:reli z, accompanied by hiq son, the
Prince Adolphus, arrived in town yesterday nf;ercoon
from Germany, on a visit to the Duchess of Cunbrid.ge.
His Rqyal Highness, who, we regret to learn, is labour
ing under an almost total deprivation of sight, was met
at the London I riJge station by his illustrious consort,
the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
A peerage ha., it is said, been offered to Sir John
Lawrence, with 2, 000/. E-year.
PARLIAMENTARY WlTNESSES,—Fienceforth the select
committees (Attie House of Commons may extraine wit-
nesses on oath, according to a bill brought in (but not
passed) by Mr. Wilson Patten, M.P., and lir. Henley,
M.P.
THE 901311 T OF CITANCERY.—By an appointment of
an additional Taxing Master in the Court of Chancery,
some progress has been mach to remove the delays com-
plained of by suitors.

_ ..opeless Ilittle. 'He is seeking to compel the
elector to renou.lee the briber and all his works ;
' and that too with out baptising him in the seorecy
which alone can enable both to resist temptation,
or which rather would take away the temptation
itself. He finds that like all our naughtier pro
pensities, darn up bribery at one outlet, and it will
soon make itself another. Just as in Maine itself,
law forbids the roan to retail liquors publicly, but
the wickedly " thirsty soul" finds the shopkeeper
selling something else, selling, it may be, the
very " cup whici cheers but not inebriates "--
so, he asks for a little tea, but also "asks for the
baby," and is shown, of course, into a back room,
babies not being exhibited in grocers' shops, and
can stay there, if he likes, till the baby itself
could walk out better than he. Mr. WALPOLE
has a law, which he too thinks ought to put down
bribery. It expires this year, and he proposes to
re-enact it ; but it is found to want some patch-
ing. What is a Candidate, and how ought
Auditors to be remunerated, were questions
1 which needed to be settled, but, above all, the great
question to be decided was, ought the travelling
expenses of electors to be paid 7 And, if they
are, how are you to pay them and not leave open
a door to bribery ?
On this last great question Mr. WALPOLE, and
the House too, were, we believe, far more
puzzled than on the India Bill. That was a
great, grand, imperial measure ; one of which
most of them knew little practically, and the
working of which would hardly affect a single seat
in the house. But "Payment of travelling ex-
penses"—who did not fully understand that ?
Almost every member bad paid long bills for cab
hire in boroughs, and for railway tickets and re-
freshments, and --- no one knows what be-
side under these names, in the counties. They
all knew how the thing worked too. Some recol-
lected how the out-voters sent for had just about
given them the majority ; others that a very nice
douceur proved very acceptable to a poor fellow
in London, who rode "Parliamentary" and re-
ceived first class fare, and lived well for a day
or two at free quarters. We believe honourable
members were not wanting who recollected the
efficiency of buying up at the right nick of time
all the public conveyances for the day of election.
We certainly have heard of such things. There
was, therefore, a pretty little scuffle over the
clause proposed by Mr. WALPOLE, that it should
be " lawful for any person to pay the actual
travelling expenses bona fide incurred in bringing
any voter to the poll."
Hereon, then, arose the commotion. As the law
stands, since the recent decision of the Lords in
the case of COOPER Y. SLADE, it may not be bri-
bery if you pay a voter's expenses, teithAtt asking
the promise of his vote ; but if you ask it, you
present a corrupt inducement. Now, as all the
members, and the Home Secretary and Lord J.
RHSSELL especially, have a great horror of bribery,
yet want to keep elections expensive enough to
deter a poor man from becoming a candidate,
the object was to enable the candidate to pay the
voter's travelling expenses, yet to prevent the
possible incidental bribery. If money passed, the
opportunity for bribery was seen to be so very
plain ; yet, how dispense with money 7 Then, if
the journey were more than a very few hours, even
our virtuous mortality cannot dispense with refresh-
ments ; and our frail mortality is liable to need
them in unusual quantities at election times, or to
accept payment of them in a round sum, instead
of noticing the trifling difference between the odd
pounds and shillings, and a five or a ten-pound
note. At last Mr. AYRTON hit upon the plan
which found favour with the Home Secretary, and
with a majority of seventy-five on Friday night
—it is to be lawful for the candidate to provide
conveyance for the voter, but not for any money
to pass between the two parties.
Thus has the " wisdom of Parliament" provided
for the payment of travelling expenses, and also
for the virtue of candid sto and voter. A convey-
iance may now be legally hired and voters carried
in it, or railway passes furnished ; at least so we
f read.the clause, but silver and gold, and beer and
beef are henceforth corruption. Well, we wish
th,9 long-pockets joy of their scheme. They have
abolished one property qualification, but this will