The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

NEW WRIT.

Lord PALMERSTON rose to make the motion of
which he had given notice, That in all cases when the seat
of any member has been declared void by an election
committee, on the grounds of bribery or treating, no
motion for the issuing of a writ shall be made without
seven days' previous notice being given in the votes.
This was a resolution which the house agreed to on a
former occasion, and the object of it was that if, arising
out of the circumstances of any election, there should
appear to be grounds for any measure affecting the
borough itself, time might be given for any member to
make any motion which he might think fit to make on
such a matter, and that the new writ might not be
issued by surprise, so as to preclude the house from
taking into its consideration any circumstances which
might be disclosed before the committee as affecting or
likely to affect the borough itself.

Mr. DISRAELI begged the house to consider what
might be the consequences if they adopted a resolution
of so stringent a character as that proposed by the
noble lord. The noble lord said there were pre-
cedents for the resolution, but he believed there were
not more than two which were applicable to the
present case, and they were agreed to under circum-
stances of considerable party excitement, and with
regard to a particular election. They were now consider-
ing the case with a complete exemption from such excite-
ment,and
nutto it
re
tu highlydesirablea resolution
consequencesshould takeof
f
which might be different from those which the noble lord
sought to effect by his proposition. If they passed this
wasag e
resolution a city or borough might be disfranchised for a
whole recess. A. report was made to the house, and the
writ was not to be moved for a week after. An hon.
member might then say—Here is a charge made against
a constituency, and we must wait tilt the evidence is in
our hands before we can deoide on the merits of the case.
That would lead to a delay of a month or six weeks.
Another week must elapse before the motion for issuing
the writ was brought forward. Gentlemen might then
say that they had not time to consider the question, dif-
ferent views might be taken, and a whole session and
recess might pass without the city or borough in ques-
tion having a representative. All resolutions of this
kind were of an unconstitutional character. He was not
arguing, however, against the general principle of the
resolution, but be thought they should take security that
so violent and unconstitutional a proceeding should not
be had recourse to unless when there was a bona fide
case to justify it. If, therefore, the noble lord would not
from hi his (
anM Disraeli':) improvement
l ' siidne alio w a feeling of suspicion to weigh with him in accept-
ingth e a
house,sug he st on made
would
recommendterms of the resolution, to the effect that they should
not have recourse to this method unless the committee
the
who unseated the member did at the same time report
their opinion that theAiine for issuing the writ should be
extended to the period proposed by the noble lord. Such
an amendment would attain all the advantages the noble
lord proposed, and would be a great safeguard against
the abuses and inconveniences to which he had alluded.
Mr. I'. DUNCOMBE considered that the amendment
of the right hon. gentleman would defeat all the objects
of the resolution, which had worked very well in the last
Parliament. It was no doubt a stretch to suspend the
issue of the writ when once the committee had declared
a seat vacant, but it was the duty of the house, when
the committee declared that a member had been guilty
of bribery, to take care that the vacancy should not be
filled up unless they were satisfied that the constituency
had not abused its privileges. The resolution was agreed
to in 18b2, after the passing of the bill which empowered
the Crown, on an address from both Houses of Parlia-
ment, to issue a commission to inquire into the extent
of the corrupt practices in the constituency. But it they
were to rely on the report of the committee, how could
Ithey ascertain whether it was a ease to justify an address
to the Crown or not I The right hon. gentleman must be
aware that even if 200 or 300 cases of bribery could be
proved, the counsel before the committee confined them-
selves to one or two cases sufficient to unseat the mem-
ber, but kept the others back to save the constituency.
Would a committee be justified in recommending the
house to suspend the writ when only one or two cases
had been proved, and they bad no power to institute any
further investigation! In the last Parliament five commis.
sions were issued on the recommendation of the commit-
tees, in the case of Canterbury, Cambridge, Hull, Mal-
don, and Barnstaple, and in each case the result was the
discovery of a far greater amount of corruption than had
been proved to the committees, and the five constituen-
cies were reported to have been guilty of corrupt prac-
tices, quite as strong, if not stronger, than any to be
found in the report on which they had disfranchised Sud-
bury and St. Albans, and the five writs were suspended
until after the passing of the Corrupt Practices Preven-
tion Act. He thought there was ample ground for re-
solving that the issuing of the writ should not depend
on the report of the committee.

Sir G. GREY said that the object of the resolution
was to prevent a writ from being issued without previ-
ous notice to the house, in order to enable them to be-
come acquainted with the facts of the ease. Under the
existing law, there was a power given to the committee
to make a special report as to the existence of corrupt
practices, and that further inquiry was necessary, in that
event the issuing of the writ was suspended, and there-
forethe suggestion of the right hon. gentleman was quite
unnecessary in such a case. The object of the resolution
was to take care that the writ should not be issued as a
matter of course when the seat was declared vacant, but
he felt there was very considerable force in the objection
of the right hon. gentleman to hying down a general
rule of suspension ; it might happen that a single case of
bribery would unseat a member, and they could not de-
sire that a constituency should on that account remain
unrepresented for several months. If the report was
made at the close of the session, the borough or county
would be exposed to the inconvenience of a very length•
ened canvass. He did not know whether it was intended
to alter the resolution then ; but he would suggest that
it should be withdrawn for further consideration. He
would propose to leave out the 7days, and insert 10 days
or perhaps the words " without previous notice," would
be sufficient to meet the difficulty.
Mr. DISRAELI had no wish to press his amendment.
He should prefer that the further consideration of the
resolution should be postponed until Monday at half-past
4, when they would have a full house. (Bear.)
Lord PALMERSTON had no objection to postpone
mmadoreewhesiephecwiaolulyldabse haeffebcetleiedvbed
nt hoe r me
paotrtte rh
at idl
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been
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it.

The motion was then withdrawn, and the house went
into committee.

SUPPLY.
On the first vote,
24,728/. for the salaries of governors in the West In-
dies and certain other colonies,
Sir J. TRELAWNY asked whether the grant of
3,5001. to the governor of Jamaica was a new vote or not ?
Mr. W. WILLIAMS had given notice of his inten-
tion to move the rejection of this item, which had ap-
peared in the estimates for the first time about three
years ago. The house was then asked to pay half the
salary for three years on account of the distress in the
island. The colonial legislature had since reduced their
payment to 2,5001. He also objected to the vote of
1,800/. fur the Governor of Western Australia. He
begged to move thot the vote be reduced 3,500/.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said that the mode in which
the salaries of the colonial governors should be paid had
often been discussed, and some most eminent statesmen,
including Sir R. Peel and the noble lord the member for
the City of London, were of opinion that, considering
the position in which the governors were placed, and
their relations to the crown and the colonies, it might be
desirable, in order to secure their independence, that
their salaries should be paid by the Home Government.
There were, however, some practical objections to that
course, and he thought it would hardly be right to ask
the :souse to vote the largo salaries paid in some of the
Australian colonies. The Governor of Victoria, for in-
stance, bad, between salary and allowances, about
15,0001. The house, however, should recollect that the
West Indies were in an exceptional position and had
sufferel very much. With regard to Jamaica, it was
quite true that the present arrangement had been made
for three years only ; but last year he had stated it was
proposed to continue it so long as Sir H. Barkly con-
tinued governor. When that gentleman was removed
to Victoria, and Mr. Darling appointed to succeed him,
he (Mr. Labouchere) thought it would, loe as well that
the new governor should not inaug:arate his adminis-
tration by a contest with the ass:ll:ably for his salary,
and therefore promised him the present allowance
should be continued as long as he remained gover-
nor; the subject would then come again under
the consideration of the Governrjaent. The people of
Jamaica and other oolonies wishe?., their governor to keep
up a certain state, and the •
government house in that
island was so large that it rise, aired a large establishment.
iAs to Western Australia, % was in a different position
from the other Austealia al colonies, which had received
representative goverrimeno, and were therefore bound
to provide for their 'awn expenditure, whereas in it there
uablis
was a convict es* hment and it was used for imps-
rial purposes. '

- - -
ir C.
It S
wa, ....PlERthought the vote was rather too small.
Dor--.roposaibl,J for the governor of such a colony as
...mica to maintain a proper position on such a salary
4 1,3001. a year.
air. A. MILLS expreasecl a hope that the day would