The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-13 00:00:00

SIR JAMES GRAHAM.

Sir James Graham has been for upwards of 40
years engaged in public affairs. Before he had
acquired any reputation as a clever administrator,
he was distinguished in the House of Commons as a
detector of abuses. He tracked corruption in its
most secret windings, and gained celebrity by drag-
ging it to light. At a time when Toryism was all
powerful and Reform only mentioned to be sneered
at, he was a fellow-labourer with Mr. Hume, and
helped most materially to bring about the improved
opinion prior to 1830 from which flowed the Reform
Act and all subsequent legislative improvements.
As First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of
State for the Home Department he has adminis-
tered the system he before held up to obloquy. He
knows it thoroughly, therefore, both from watching
its course and working its springs. For all its
movements he is an unimpeachable authority, and
his accusations are those both of a detective and an
accomplice. What he said at Carlisle on Monday
is on this account of great public importance, and
though it might have passed as mere electioneering
squibs had it fallen from other men, coming from
him it is most instructive. For a party purpose it
is of no value, for it affects all parties alike. Sir
James bore testimony against himself and his
friends as well as against his opponents, and made
the public so much the better acquainted with the
system he has administered and now condemns.
Other elections, when Sir James and his friends
have been in office, have been influenced by the same
means as the present elections. Knowing this, he
could divine and state that at Berwick-on-Tweed the
election had been decided in favour of two Govern-
ment candidates by a promise given by the Govern-
ment just before the election that the old castle I
should be repaired and a new barrack established
there. So the expectation of the advantages to he
derived by the town from an expenditure of the pub-
lic money, only to be obtained by returning two
Conservatives, secured their triumph. The packet
service, Sir James reminded the public, costs nearly
a million a year •, and how the expenditure of this
sum may be used to influence elections, and pro-
bably has been used to this end by every sucoessive
Administration since the first subsidy was granted
to the Cunard line, Sir James explained by the
examples of Dover and Galway. The public has
been amply informed of the refusal by Captain
Carnegie to contest Dover when requested by the
First Lord of the Admiralty, but probably only a
ci-devant First Lord could explain the dishonour-
able means by which he was expected to succeed.
The controct for the employment of packets at
Dover had been modified or eked out in some way
just before the election on such terms, according to
Sir James, as turned the election in favour of Ad-
miral Leeke, the new Lord of the Admiralty, and
his colleague, Mr. Nicholl. When Sir James ascribes
the success of the Conservatives to Admiralty
patronage, it is impossible for the public to forget
that between Dover and Mr. Bernal Osborne there
were no peculiar sympathies, and impossible for it
to avoid suspecting that he owed his former success,
when Secretary of the Admiralty, to like arts exerted
in his favour. Sir James informs us then, very
clearly, that the election at Dover was carried by
the public money having been employed, though in
a way to escape legal punishment, to bribe the
electors. Of Galway Sir James could speak more
positively, but not for the public more conclusively.
Already, he said, a communication by packets is
established between America and Liverpool, at an
expense of £240,000 a-year. And the American
Government, following our example, had also, at a
considerable expense, established a line of packets,
so that the communication between the two coun-
tries is carried on with the regularity and certainty
of the old mail coaches. But Government, at the
instance of a valuable body of members in the west
of Ireland, thought it would be advisable to add to
this communication by establishing a Galway line
buying the votes
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and debauching the voters of Galway,
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to apply £70,000 per annum under a contract
thus
for seven years. The consequence of the
contract, however, was to return Mr. Lever, a
supporter of Lord' Derby, at the head of the
poll—a gentleman who is reported, indeed, to
havelhsicirh offered his vote to any Ministry which would
enable him by such a subsidy to buy the electors of
Galway. These are only specimens of the corruption
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