The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-11 00:00:00

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Ur4deetbe Management of Mr. Charles Kean
THIS EVENING will be presented Shakspeare's 113 t orical
play of KING HENRY V.
King Henry V., Mr. C. Kean ; Chorus, Mrs. C. Kean.

'IIHEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckatone.
THIS EVENING will be performed the new and original
Comedy, entitled THE WORLD AND THE STAGE. The
characters by Messrs. Compton, Buckstone, Howe, W. Far-
rell, Rogers ; Miss Amy Sedgwick, &c.
After which, a new Classical Extravaganza, entitled
ELECTRA IN A NEW ELECTR'IC LIGHT. Messrs
Compton, Braid, Clark, Mrs. Wilkins, Misses Fanny Wright,
Eliza Weekes, and Louisa Leclereq.
And 'TWAS I.

that she is competent to manage public affairs at a

period of extraordinary difficulty, although " cog-
nisance" is to be given .to "Uncle JEROME," the
Presidents of the .great bodies of the State, the
Members of the Privy Council, and the Ministers.
Were it NAPOLEON 1., in place of NAPOLEON 111.,
matters might be very different. The former was
educated from his boyhood as a soldier. He was,
if not the most brilliant, certainly one of the
greatest generals the world ever saw. His extra-
ordinary triumphs not only flattered the national
vanity, but procured the support of the people in
the most important forms—that of men and money.
He also generally contrived to make the enemy
pay the expenses of the wars in which he was
engaged, and thus avoided the main difficulty—for
the pocket is the most sensitive point on which a
nation or an individual could possibly be assailed.
The system of hostilities, too, has been mate-
rially altered. Science is now greater than mere
brute force. The materiel is even more important

than the personnel of war. Matters may be more
speedily decided, but it will be at a much heavier
outlay. A dozen leading capitalists seated in a
small room can decide whether it is to be carried
on, or terminated. Austria is almost in a bankrupt
condition ; she wants twenty millions sterling,while
France presents a little bill for precisely the same
amount. These are not very auspicious omens at the
commencement of what may be a sanguinary, expen-
sive, and protracted contest. I,Vc believe that the
English Government will observe perfect neutrality.
and not interfere on either side. 'We trust that

English capitalists may observe a similar course,
and that they may not advance their money on in-
vestments, the value whereof will probably be
greatly deteriorated ere many months have elapsed.
Although, as we have already stated, the Austrians
have fallen back and withdrawn from the positions
they had previously occupied, it must not be sup-
posed that they are conquered. They have
powerful fortresses, which they will pro-
bably defend with all their power. They are
also thoroughly acquainted with the country, know
every stragetical position, and, although they may
be disturbed with revolutions, or enteutes, in the
Italian States, may prove themselves very stubborn
customers when the day of trial has arrived. War
is, however, an expensive luxury, and it is probable
that the Ministers of Finance will have greater
influence in restoring peace than the million of
troops engaged by the conflicting Powers.

BODMIN is the first borough which has placed
its delinquency on legal record in the election of
1859. We would not condemn any man before he
has had a fair trial by a jury of his countrymen ;

yet, unless the facts sworn to in the magisterial in-
vestigation we published on Monday can be denied,
it cannot be doubted that bribery at a pretty hand.
some rate was practised in the little borough. It

does not appear that TllomAs CHAPMAN'S evidence
was impugned, or an attempt even made to impugn
it in any material point; with the reserve, there-
fore, of suspense as to what may come out at the
forthcoming trial we take the uncontradicted evi-

dente as true, and we must add that we cannel

think it likely it will be in the least shaken.
We all remember the devices of 1852 ; the veiled
ladies, W. B.'s good and safe man with his myste-
rious room, the coloured tickets, the money left in
beds—and so forth. But bribery is the mother of
invention, and ever new ways must be devised to
compass old ends. The Bribery campaign opens
at Bodmin with a novel device. The purchaser of
a vote now does it by the offer of a loan ; a loan, in
this case, of £lO to an elector who it is supposed
will not object to that loan being converted into a
gift. But two things are desirable in bribing ; one
that the bribe-taker snout,..•••- _ _ ,

and then decline to vote, or vote for the wrong
man, or take a larger bribe from the opposing
candidate, and then jilt one, or both, according to
his fancy ;—the other, that he should not be able,
if inquiry should be made by the " grand inquest
of the nation" to prove his seducer guilty of

bribery.
At Bodmin it seems to have been attempted to
compass both these ends by taking a note of hand
for a loan of the amount required to convince the
voter of the superlative merits of a favourite can-
didate. If he did not vote as expected, of course,
the note of hand could be pressed against him.
He had been ungrateful for pecuniary aid, and he
must pay the penalty for ingratitude. If he voted
aright, then " word and honour"—for a briber may
be an honourable man—are pledged that the note
of hand shall be given up as soon as the election is
over. Moreover, we presume, not being, we must
acknowledge, profound in the mysteries of Whig
and Tory bribery acts, that the existence of the
note of hand, pending the hazard of investigation
before a Parliamentary Committee, would be urged
in proof that there was no serious bribing—that
the money was, in fact, but a legal debt, and could
not be regarded as the purchase of a vote.
Now, THOMAS CHAPMAN, of Hangover, within
the borough of Bodmin, when applied to by the
public-spirited gentleman who, with £lO loans in
his 'pocket, canvassed for Dr. MICHEL, seems to
have been wide awake; he, THOMAS CHAPMAN,
had taken counsel, it seems, with a Mr. PEARCE, a
solicitor learned in election law, and in all the law
a solicitor ought to know, as we doubt not ; and
when the generous offer of a £lO loan for a note
of hand was made him, he objected to such a mode
of transacting business ; after a conversation or
two, electoral prospects, perhaps, not being very
bright, it seems to have been thought neces-
sary to waive the demand for a note of hand;
CHAPMAN is told, " Now, I want to bind you to
secrecy, which you are not to divulge to any one,
not even to Your wife To which the cautious
Cir.iPmAs replied, "it won't do to tell the women
everything that is done." But the imputation on
Mrs. CHAaP3elnA;:l
ir. capacityc keepingpmAN
is
s taakn it
secrete n wasoa
darker
speedily
vpart of the room, a paper is put into his
hands, he is requested to leave by the back door,
and it turns out that the paper contained two five
pound notes! and, as he had not been cautioned
against telling the secret to a lawyer, straight goes
the man who was not to tell his wife, and puts the
notes into the hands of Mr. WYLD's professional
adviser, Mr. PEARCE.
We believe that, thus far, the facts are not dis-
puted. THOMAS CHAPMAN was, in truth, not the
proper man to practise on ; he " did not like to take
the money at all vihen it was first mentioned to
him, and would not have done it if he had not been
advised by Mr. PEARCE." An attempt was made to
get a summons against him for taking the money ;
but the magistrates very properly refused to grant
it, the absence of corrupt motive being so obvious.
Dr. .IIicHEL, who, of course, knew nothing about
what his generous agent was doing, and the too
devoted agent,_in truth, had caught a Tartar ; and
unless appearances become very different before a
jury, and before a committee of the House of Com-
mons, the one will incur the penalties of bribery
and the other be unseated on petition.
That Mr. WYLD may thus be enabled speedily to
contest Bodmin again, and contest it successfully,
we can but wish. Had be seen unseated
by fair means, why he, like all Englishmen,
must take his defeat manfully, and fight

Su N, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 11, 1859,

who works with his hands—from being sacrificed
to the moneyed man, to the fundholder, the annui-
tant, and the officeholder. It is true, indeed, that
as prices rise—and if taxes are imposed they ought,
as we have said, to rise—the man of fixed income
finds that his income will not purchase so many
luxuries or comforts as it did. But he obtains his
advantage in being a participator in the nation's secu-
rity and prosperity, and the moment he ceases to be
idle and becomes a worker he gets a better price
for his talent than he before did. Officeholders of
all classes had their incomes raised on the war be-
tween 1797 and 1815.

It was this system of inconvertible paper cur-
rency which enabled England, to the astonishment
of all Europe, to maintain its armies abroad, and to
make rapid improvements in agriculture, trade, and
social comfort at home, during the period to which
we have referred. " England," says the Times'
writer, " alone came out of the great war without
a stain." Her paper money enabled her to do so.
PEEL'S "ignorant and suicidal" bill of 1819 brought
ruin upon half the nation, impeded progress, created
discontent and disaffection, and fostered crime. A
portion, indeed, of PEEL'S system remained to in-
vigorate the nation. PEEL dared not attempt to
take away our paper currency altogether. But his
bills of 1819 and 1844 crippled and debased it ; and
the consequence is that every few years, since the
passing of these atrocious bills, our monetary sys-
tem breaks down, we are exposed to the contempt of
the civilised world, thousands of rich men are
ruined, and millions of the poor are reduced to the
verge of starvation, while the Usurer and the Hard
Calculator " impound" 10, 20, or 50 per cent. of
the hard earnings of the industrious classes by
PEEL'S system of LEGAL CONFISCATION.