The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-26 00:00:00

The Ccst of a General Election.

There are rumours that there is to be a second general
election within twelve months, and at such a time a glance
at the cost of the last appeal to the country will be found
of some interest. The return of each candidate's expenses
was ordered to bo presented to Parliament soon after the
opening of the present session. They have appeared in
isolated batches from time to time. The last was issued on
Friday, and although a large number of places, especially
in Ireland, have furnished no returns, we may still arrive
at some definite idea of what the last general election cost
the country. _ __

The expenses of each kingdom were as follows :
.£ s. d. .£ s. d.
England—Counties 300,108 0 7}
Towns 304,069 19 8 —604,178 0 3}
?I
Ireland Counties 44,768 8 5
, Towns 24,603 16 3} 69,372 4 8}
Scotland—Counties 32,244 12 1
„ Towns 17,743 47 49,987 16 8
Wales--Counties 12,095 5 4
„ Towns 4,211 18 11 16,307 4 3

Total cost 739,845 5 10/
Dividing the cost of the counties from that of the towns
the following is the result:—
Counties £389,216 6 51
Towns
The following places have not furnished any returns :
In England—the counties of Berks, Bucks, and Middle-
sex ; the boroughs of Bedford, Chichester, Dorchester,
Shields, Warwick, Wells, and Worcester. In Wales—the
county of Brecon, and the boroughs of Brecknock, Flint,
Radnor, and Swansea. In Scotland—the county of Caith-
ness. In Ireland—the counties of Armagh, Cavan, Clare,
Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Meath, Roscommon,
Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Wicklow ; the cities of
Cork and Kilkenny ; and the borough of Dundalk. Even
in the returns which are given in many cases the elected
members only, and not the unsuccessful candidates, publish
their accounts. The official returns are, therefore, so far
defective ; yet even from what they set forth the cost of
a seat in the present Parliament may be assessed at a high
rate. For instance, there are 147 county seats in England,
and, as more than £300,000 was spent to obtain then;
each is worth about £2,041. There are 320 borough seats
in England, and they make up an aggregate cost of about
£4,000 more than the counties. Each English borough
seat is, therefore, worth £950. The fact that so many
.
counties have furnished no returns renders the estimtbaetefno-
each county seat of little value, but, according ton
-piece,
formation we have, they are worth about £7OO
The borough seats in Ireland,
at the rate of £630 each. Scotland
The price of every county seat 'cras
nore'
burgh seat £770. Wales wasmuch
average expense of a 00. unhty
borough seat £3OO. raking t
King-
dom, and deducting the me
there are 652 county and boroug
cost of each seat now held by Irish
last July, were
as
paid for
ore
expensive.
W:1071n5 and of every
reasonable. The
a: was £BOO, and of a
wholese of the United
me bers for the Universities,
h members. The average
these hon. gentlemen is
the case of Mr. Milbank, who came
county is illustrated in
£ll,'ll3los.onormous expe_nse attending a contest in an English
in at the head of the poll for the North Riding of York-
shire
after an expet
nditure
members he two o
. fmtoree
Nthottin.
for the.clloounty
who, according to the sheriff, wore returned for
h
Milbank must envy
Down, M
of
*vc-and-twenty shillings each! This is all the returns :
t, Expenses of putting up and taking down hustings, .£2 10s.''
The election for the borough of Downpatrick was equally
cheap. In both cases, of course, there was no opposition.
There was likewise no contest for the county of Kildare,
where the total expense is put down at £7 10s. Lord
Otho Fitzgerald and Mr. Cogan each paid £3 15s. for their
seats. Captain Mervyn Archtla.ll and the Hon. ..A.. L. Cole
were returned for the county of Fermanagh for £lB and
£ll9a. respectively. The sheriff of the county of Leitrim,
where there was a contest, writes:—" I cannot give the
returns required, as my sub-sheriff has disappeared for
some time put, I believe he received £6O from each of