The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-25 00:00:00

BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION.

Proposed Bill.—An act to require from Members
returned to serve in Parliament a-Declaration
against Bribery, Treating, and undue Influence.
Whereas, notwithstanding the laws now in force
for preventing corrupt practices in the election of
members to serve in Parliament, such practices •
having been proved to be extensively resorted to
by candidates, their agents, and other persons in
their interest at such elections ; and whereas it is
expedient that more stringent and effectual provi-
sion should be made by Parliament for the preven-
tion of such corrupt practices, and for better secur-
ing the freedom of election ; be it therefore enacted,
by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal, and Commons in this present Par-
ment assembled, and by authority of the same, as
follows :
Section I. That every person who shall in future
be elected and returned a member of the House of
Commons shall, before he shall sit and vote after
the choice of a Speaker by the House of Commons,
make and subscribe at the table of the House the
following declaration :
" I (A. 8.) do solemnly and sincerely declare that
I neither before, during, nor since my election for
(the county, division of a county, borough, univer-
sity, cinque-port, as the case may be), have directly
or indirectly, by myself, or any other person on my
behalf, given, lent, or agreed to give or lend, or
offered, or promised to procure, or to endeavour to
procure, any money, or valuable consideration, or
any office, place, or employment, to or for any
voter, or to or for any person on behalf of any
voter, or to or for any other person in order to
induce any voter to vote for me, or refrain from
voting against me at my said election, nor have
I paid, nor will I repay by myself, or by or through
any other person, any sums of money corruptly
given or promised by any agent or other person in
respect or my election ; nor have I corruptly, by
myself, or by, or with, or through any person on
my behalf, or by any other ways or means, at any
time, either before, during, or since my election,
directly. or indirectly given, or provided, or caused
to be given or provided, nor have I been accessory
to the giving or proziding, nor have I paid, nor will
I pay, wholly or in part, any expenses incurred for
any meat, drink, or entertainment or provision to
or for any voter in order to be elected, or for being
elected, or for the purpose of corruptly influencing
any voter to give or refrain from giving his vote at
such election. Nor have I, directly or indirectly, by
myself or by any other person on my behalf,
made use of, or threatened to make use of, any
force, violence, or restraint, or inflicted, or threat-
ened the infliction, by myself or by any other per-
son, of any injury, damage, harm, or loss, or in any
other manner practised intimidation upon or
against any person in order to induce or compel
such person to vote for me, or refrain from voting
against me, or on account of such person having
voted at my said election ; nor have I impeded or
otherwise, interfered with the free exercise of the
franchise of any voter at my said election. And I
make this solemn declaration conscientiously be-
lieving the same to be true. And by virtue of the
provisions of an Act made and passed in the 23d
and 24th years of the reign of her Majesty Queen
Victoria, intituled "An Act to require from mem-
bers returned to serve in Parliament a Declaration
against Bribery, Treating, and undue Influence."
And such declaration and subscription here-
inbefore directed to be made, shall .be entered on a
parchment roll, to be provided for that purpose, by
the Clerks of the House, and shall be filed and kept'
by them.
" Section 11. And be it further inacted that any
person who shall make and subscribe to any such
declaration as aforesaid, knowing the same to be
untrue in any material particular, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanour, and, upon conviction,
shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not
exceeding two years, with or without hard labour,
and be incapable of serving as a member in Parlia-
ment for ever after.
" Section 111. And be it further enacted that if
any person who shall in future be elected and re=
turned a member of the House of Commons shall
sit or vote as a member of such House before he
shall have made and subscribed such declaration as
aforesaid, his election shall be void, and a new writ
shall' be issued to elect another member in his
room."

(From the Times.)
Mr. Edwin James has opened ground for the
ensuing parliamentary campaign by circulating a
proposed bill " to require from members returned
to serve in Parliament a declaration against bribery,
treating, and undue influence." The bill carries
out its title with that superlative and redundant
phraseology usual to those who wish to do by word
what is difficult or impossible in deed. We cannot
say that it adds anything to the usual idea of a
self-purging declaration, or suggests any Security
which shall redeem the bill from the usual charac-
ter and fate of well-intentioned measures. It ex-
hausts, indeed,: all the possible modes of corrupt
action, and even includes under its terrible ban
some that elude mortal apprehension. For our
part, we cannot understand how a man can do a
thing after an election in order to obtain a vote in
it, though this is one of the crimes distinctly and
emphatically denounced by Mr. Edwin James. The
only conceivable meaning it will bear is, that if a
member of Parliament should either do •any kind-
ness whatever for a constituent, or show the least
coldness to a man who had not voted for him, he
shall be liable to the extreme penalties of the act,
which are imprisonment for two years' hard labour,
and exclusion from Parliament for life. Now, it is
quite possible that a m'an like Mr. Edwin James
may be incapable of stirring a step, writing a line,
speaking a word, or giving a look in favour of a
voter, not only before or during an election, but
even after. It is quite possible that no mortal eye
may be able to detect any difference in his bearing
to a warm supporter or a bitter antagonist. But
that is not the real question, or the true test of this
measure, even in the case of a Marylebone elector.
Would the public-houses of that borough be open ?
Would Mr. E. James's supporters find themselves
utterly excluded from the benefit of those kindly
mediations with the heads of departments now ex-
pected from members ? With regard io the coun-
try at large, our misgivings as to the working of
the measure are even more serious.
There are many such declarations known to the
law, and they are always either wholly inoperative
and swallowed as a matter of course, or they are
simply traps for tender consciences, giving the free
and easy an advantage over the scrupulous. The
declarations required in the way of church " secu-
rities" under the Catholic Emancipation Act have
been laughed at by agitators, have kept out some
excellent men, and have been generally explained
away, and in practice altogether forgotten. We
believe that everybody would now wish they had
never been required. There are declarations against
what is called simony in the Church of England,
which do not prevent acts of this character. The
only effect is that when a living is to be sold some-
body buys it for the man who wants it ; and, if the
sale takes place during a vacancy, as a scrupulous
man will not make the declaration, an unscrupulous
man gets the living cheaper, just as you pay less for
a piebald horse, or one with a rat tail. The clergy
are further required to make certain annual declara-
tions, intended to secure full residence, and the per-
formance of other duties. The conscientious, of
course, keep a diary ; the others don't. But, after
all, these declarations can only come under the
general character of purgative oaths, which modern
legislation has wisely reduced to the smallest num-
ber possible, from an extreme distrust of their effi-
cacy. It is, indeed, contrary to the English notion
of law and justice, that a man should be compelled
either to criminate himself, or to purge himself, or
to plead in any fashion, unless there be a proved and
recognised ground of suspicion. Mr. Edwin James
has made his declaration so elaborately searching
and comprehensive that we cannot see how any
man can take itmithout winking at something or
forgetting something. If so, public opinion would
soon hit on a view which would emancipate not only
one member, but all; and the nabob who had paraded
his money-bags through the town and bought men
at £5O a-head would take the declaration, and jus-
tify himself by the example even of Mr. Edwin
James, unless the next election for Marylebone be
very different from the last. ,
The question is one not of words, but of acts ;
and we have to consider what actually takes
place at an ordinary election, of which an ad-
mirable example is detailed in our columns
to-day.
,As soon as the candidate is introduced to
his committee he communicates to them his earnest
desire and solemn determination that there shall be
Ito bribery, treating, or undue influence of any kind.
They assure him that they are quite of the same
mind, and that nothing of the End shall occur as far
as they are concerned. He goes through with the
election, or, at least, may go through with it, with-
out once putting his hand into his pocket, or letting
anybody else do so, or committing himself to the
least exercise of Parliamentary influence. If he uses
Ma eyes and ears, lie must become painfully aware
of an expenditure going on upon his account, but he
feels that the less he knows about it the better ; and,
if he does recognise it, it is to deprecate it with the
utmost energy of language. When all is over, some-
body, it matters not who—perhaps his lawyer, per-
haps a man he never saw before—tells him that his
political friends will suffer a loss they cannot afford
unless he can help ,them out of it with £2,000 or
£5,000, as the case may be. What is he to do ? Is
he to let his zealous and too open-hearted, open-
handed friends, be ruined on his account ? That
would be simply atrocious. He cannot think of it.

So he storms and raves, reasons and sentimentalises;
denounces and invokes the interference of the LegWU
lature ; declares he never said a word to justify
extravagance ;is quite resolved that nothing, to
the
sort shall ever occur again, and ends by flinging to
the fellow, just to save him and his friends from
ruin, a check for the required amount. Has h!
bribed anybody before the election, or at it, or
Hafter r
Ha he
Has he done anything to obtain a vote ?
Has
employed anybody to do a single illegal act ?
he authorised or countenanced a single illegal act
On the contrary, lie has expressed the strongest in-
dignation at all that has been done, and wiped his
hands of it altogether. Cannot he make
Edwin James's declaration ? Of course, he can,
every word of it. He has already made it a hunh
dred times, most freely and spontaneously, bot
before, at, and after the election. He has given
away money, he knows, and he does not altogethert
like the people he has given it to; but that does no
compromise him with what has been done. Why'
a man may pay the chairman of his comm
£50,000, and make Mr. E. James's declaration with
a clear conscience. Our most laudable and conscien-
tious expenditure is that which is intended to save
others from the consequences of their own folly 0.1.
crimes. We pay large sums to reformatories, pal-
tentiaries, hospitals of all kinds, institutions for
orphans and widows left destitute by improvident
and generally unprincipled people. We pay our,
sons' gambling debts and our wilfes'milliners
bills. Of course, we don't thereby sanction aul
of these things, even though we go on rePee.li
ing the process twenty times, and vowing we W 1
never do it again. Depend on it, our leo4slatell/d
will always be found equally tender-hearted
placable with their political families and thil d,e."
claration will no more check the gusliings of pow
tical benevolence than it will the infirmities of the
paternal instinct.

LETTER OF M. MAZZIATI 2'o Bii-ROY

RICASOLL

•
The following is a copy of a letter which g•
Mazzini has addressed to Baron Ricasoli
" Sir,—l have been informed that you halve lof
your possession a letter of mine containing a 13181;ise
military operations in Perugia, which has given

_
to persecutions and annoyance. in y.t
ollr
Were Ito address myself solely to you
character of Tuscan Minister
i it might be suffielee.
to assure you that the letter n question concerns int
no way the affairs of Tuscany ; that it does itt
appeal in the least to.the Tuscan functionaries; the.
it does not threaten either government or renP
But I prefer addressing myself to the patriot--
the man who loves to confer with his friends patriot
do with mine—of the unity of Italy as the only silo
and end to be attained by the present movement•
proposing this movement I mean to indicate the 0.11
operation which not only can accomplish the ohJs.ct.
in view, but also of saving Tuscany from an inevl.o
able restoration. You profess to know as cert-al
fact (which is far from proved as yet) that
that K-leg
Victor accepts the fusion of Central Italy' and is
the acceptation since the treaty of Villafranetioe•
equivalent to a declaration of war you have ust
much perception not to behold. The revolution rn
es
be extended, or it is useless ; localised it beeenice
powerless. Central Italy is lost if it does not at nileo
fix its basis upon a foundation as sure and strong__
that of the government. The elements which e°rto
pose the strength of Central Italy are condeinne etti
disunion, the columns commanded by Gen.
threaten mutiny if nothing be done to prevenVero
a very natural thing to happen with vel,een`e. e,
from Ombria, the March of Ancona, and leilicag
who fight with enthusiasm, if, instead 01 being
soldiers of Parma and Bologna, they were fig'nnt
for their own rights. Revolution which dceBit
press forward the cause, can only serve to retard
se
by many years ; and the elements which coma.
the strength of Tuscany are undermined hY 'scot)
tent, which originates in a great measure freni.ety
duke's party. By throwing the volunteers ltbe
active service they would remain steadfast Witillved
hope of promotion—by keeping them uneirate: of
they will ferment—they do ferment—and ar•
these days they will give the signal for civil order
Our late masters are waiting for this result in e'
to be able to cry out to Europe—Behold!
" The election of Garibaldi as active chiefigga
i/
be accepted with enthusiasm, and if that acts v
universally desired be withheld much longer, it to
give, as you well know, fresh cause of discontell'ija,
the regular militia. Before the retaking of Pelet,
Rome herself, compelled at present to remain (Poo
will rise—the soldiers forming the outposts 0,11.
be-
Pontifical arm will join our columns—an', to
tween Perugia and the Abruzzi there is nothinothn
resist us. Eight or ten thousand men wictil•eilir
name of Garibaldi, and the movement in 0-011
which has been prepared for a long time, ana-mue
for explosion at a moment's notice, would i'vsre.
the insurrection of tha whole state. The in„6ol.its.eit
'ion of the state would swell the movemelibte
to such proportions that its chiefs would iii le
er tr°to treat on terms of equality as' from Pew
power, for the move must bring the King °f Sa
dinia once more upon the field of action.'
vii,liya.tii_u„.g
"France cannot take up arms without hrinen,..
EuroP
upon herself a war with the whole of
Germany, Russia, England. ,
" These things I should have told you, and it
men who have been chosen to rule the countrY,
instead of treating us like enemies and forcing
to abandon our country, you had been led to 30
upon us as men who love Italy, and for the last in
yaars have been endeavouring to educate hei
iu 08
those sentiments of unity Without which sbe w
lost once more.
" The proposition I now make may be COnsider.. t
as imprudent, but cannot be considered
have sought no other aim than unity. It is always
alone that I have fought so long. I have ailwbs..
been, and ever shall be, unitarian in principle
fore anything. Those who know me may r,eP that
me with many faults, but will acknowleoge
my soul is too proud to stoop to falsehood. t the
I speak not for myself when I say t'itach to
persecution of exiles is a shame and 0-p a
ll re-
Tuscany, and will injure the cause beyond:loop
paration. Those exiles have risen since Vilia,atoyal
for the sole purpose not of disturbing the ',1% and
government of the country, which they admitFil.o. in
which is necessary to ensure its respectain Iti be.
the eyes of Europe, but merely in the hePeteeryal
holding an equal energy imparted to the c21t,4 the
relations of the Government, for lam sure lot
restoration will be tried, and our task is to sea
it, without any foreign or forced and impose(' more
Great numbers of volunteers have enlisted' to
would do so were it not for the persecution

which they are subjected. -
" I have felt the necessity of telling, these
you -- .e
things and of exposing to you the feelings of..iii
man who loves Italyand national union better Pi'
his life.—Believe me, signor, yours obliged, , 0
GIUSEPTE NIAZZIS'

COMi
" PERILS OF RAILWAY TRAVELLING.'"—A
spondent of a contemporary writes :—" Some ownittijohs
was seeking a second-class carriage at the Shored lerl9
minus. A pretty young lady attracted my notice byl2fogit.
Informing me that there was room in bar coin ss
politely pushing m sooliveueli
open the door at the time.
was seated opposite to her she pulled to the door, °toga-
as to say there were enough. We started, I yell .iient,
lantly becomin6 engrossed in my newspaper, 9'l "I felt
having no one in the carriage but myself to speak '°' her
the carriage very narrow, and feared I was crowdiefnts
and 1 moved back as far as I could. In a few Inerd- ded,
still felt her dress against me, and soon was readY crnwthatt
being pressed by her. Now, I confess wither I'B°lB6oor
g a youno• man, I felt a little vanity at ate
to bid,
and I yielded' to temptation so far as not again
from her. In half an hour a gentleman got in, ;
from the lady's face, was not an agreeable t°"d're'd's
she looked vexed. However, our silly conduct proefevesu
she throughout taking the lead. At length the gellt. eing
observed us, and my companion, blushing crimson. e. and
discovered, very wickedly drew herself away from ra‘eiThea
flying to the opposite aisle said I had insulted her.
she found, moreover, that she was known to the third co_
she
became very indignant and screamed for the try el
stop—that she had been most grievously assaulted,
ehod
cannot tell you, Sir, my confusion. I durst not cherg:
with being the first to commence—how cowardly it 'valor
have looked I and upon reaching the terminus her brc'en,
was informed—not by the lady, but by the gelltilike
how infamously I had, insulted her. He flew at net
Igor, thinking I had really ruined his sister—sinnell gan,
new hat over my eyes, and being much bigger than reYevirfa
and assisted by the other passenger, gave me such aTI then
punishment that I shall never forget it. They Weri°.ng to
going to give me into custody ; but upon my el4re,a tin the
hor, she said that she would gladly have given nie ."'; in t§
charge of the police, but was too bashful to app
ea'
court of justice to prosecute; and so I got off." •ntear
RAILWAY STATISTIC3.—By return just pratr tho
on the motion of Mr. Henley, M.P., it is shown
Act of
grand total amount of railwty capital authorised wss
Parliament previous to the 31st of December, 10,,
'1859
£287,908,036 by shares, and £9B 2"3 070 by loas obY
, 199,40,
£5,253,792 was authorised by shares, and us to
loans. The total capital andloans authorised prey°
the 31st December, 1858, was £392,682,781; .£lB:)B.37'sincv
of the capital was not receiving, nor entitled to roofs%
preferential disidend or • t t The total dividend ,
864 547 '4"a
the share capital amounteldntoerf6;lol,o99 ; rL6,, divi-
the stock receiving, or entitled to receive, preferential deb"
dend or interest, to the amount of X 820,331. The tota,n, 179,
of companies 'at the end of 1858 aMounted to £81,6;5,50/
and the interest thereon wable to £3,591,148. £32s''' •iwaY
was the total sum' which at the end of 1858 91,10 r 307,248
companies had raised by shares or loans, and ami %owed
the total amount which at the same period tlieY rg or b
power to raise, either by existing; or by new share'l - en
loans. The total amount expended on railroad wo.r and
rolling stock was X 287,800,208. The total length of li ',eon
capital appropriated by Parliament for the constTchaso
of lines, for which the powers for the compulsorY Mist of
of land have been allowed to expire previous to the were
Decembero
, 1858, without the exercise of such Pewoz*,
respectively 2,531.mi1e5, and £11,082,951. • ueng rd
THE FATAL REVOLVER ACCIDENT.---,-- I
maitio
was held yesterday at the Lord Raglan Tavern, St• wijoso
le-Grand, on the body of Alfred Howell, aged 17 year' our
death took place under the circumstances describe( wool
Guildhall police report yesterday. Verdict IS"ce
death."

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