The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-16 00:00:00

on the eve of a general election. I felt it to be niy
duty to point out to that house into what kind of
saturnalia the country was about to be plunged. I
laid before them the miserable position, the de-
graded position in which the electors were in various
boroughs. I pointed out to them that while inti-
midation would be rampant through the land,
drunkenness would stagger after it, and bribery
would not be far behind,and that intimidation,bribery
and drunkenness would reduce our electoral system
—the most beautiful working system in the world
in theory—to the most degrading thing possible in
practice. (Hear.) Both times that which I stated
was realised. Both elections proved. that, instead
of intimidation having ceased, bribery being dead,
and the electoral body being in a more exalted po-
sition, it never was in a more degraded one. You
have just passed through the last of the two ordeals,
a contested election. You have passed an ordeal in
which temptation has been held out to the poor, in
which the poor wretch has been bribed until he has
become the most degraded of slaves, having to place
his neck beneath the foot of his master whether in
county or borough. England presented herself be-
fore the world in a condition shocking to behold.
We have had a taste of it in Bristol, and this I will
say, that although I believe we were more secure
than we ought to have been, I do not believe that
the Tories ever took the field in greater force, and
with more appliances at their hands for debauch-
in b 0., corrupting, and depraving the constituency.
(Hear.) The election, however, as fought by the
Liberals might satisfy even the stanchest teetotal-
ler in this city. (Cheers.) I believe that a more
pure election never was fought, or else the orders
issued from the office of Baxter, Rose, and Norton
would have been carried out as regards this city.
We know what those orders were, they have be-
come patent throughout England—" Win fairly if
you can, if you cannot, win foully ; and if you are
beaten, petition." (Cheers and laughter.) That
they attempted to win fairly may be ; that they at-
tempted to win foully and contrary to law we
know ; and as regards the last of the three methods,
they were unable to put it in practice, because
your election here was so pure. (Loud cheers.)
And- yet they dare to put it about that my friend
Mr. Langton went about with money sacks in his
carriage. They knew, when they stated that, that
they stated that which was untrue, and which I
here declare, and maintain to any man who says to
the contrary, is a black lie. (Loud cheers.)- The
election here was as I have stated ; what it was in
otherplaces you know. You have had precious speci-
mens- ii Glocester, and in Wakefield, and in other
constituencies ; and now, Lord Derby, in talking of
a Reform Bill coming forward, what does he say.?
He says, " Why, really the state of corruption in
these boroughs is such that it makes us pause be-
fore we can extend the franchise." Did you ever
hear such a wretched pretence ? Do you mean to
say that Lord Derby and the rest of his party in
the House of Commons did not know that Mr.
Rolt's committee disclosed exactly that state of
things which exists now ? There is nothing new in
electors being corrupted and debauched in Gloces-
ter, or in any other city. It is monstrous for Lord
Derby to say, "I will not grant you a £6 franchise
because the £lO householders are a bad lot." He
knew what they were before his agents bought
them—not in his name—oh, dear no! but in other
persons', in the name of the " Man in the Moon,"
who came down and debauched various places for
pleasure. (Laughter.) I think that very disgrace-
ful. Will it be believed, that when a gentleman
and a candidate for a borough goes to the. Treasury,
or to the Conservative club, as the case may be, and
offers to spend £2,000 or £3,000 in contesting a
small borough, is it possible he does not know it
must be spent illegally ? We know how it is with
these candidates, what they all say when examined,
" I set my face against bribery ; I hate corruption ;
I told Mr. Thingamy that I would not have corrup-
tion for the world • there was £2,000 for him, but it
must be spent in the most virtuous manner possible."
(Loud laughter.) It is a most disgraceful state of
things that such a set of men should exist as candi-
dates—(hear, hear)—and it is no credit to the
House of Commons that there should be there the
vast number of men who have got into it in that
way. There is a farce I have seen for 20 years in
the House of Commons exceeding all belief. Such a
horrid state of corruption is proved in some borough
—men have been bought wholesale. Mr. So-and-So
is supposed to know something about it. He comes
into the House in a grave and florid manner, he
looks around him and he says—that is, he makes a
declaration by which he states that we are mistaken.
What is it, after all ? If any gentlemen are
here who frequent the theatre they must have seen
the farce of " High Life below Stairs," in which
there are a couple of rascally servingmen, who as-
sume the titles of their masters, the one being." my
Lord Duke," and the other " Sir Harry." (Laugh-
t ter.) My Lord Duke is given to telling lies, or,
speaking more politely, to romancing a good deal.
Sir Harry each time contradicts him flatly. When-
ever he does so, my Lord Duke draws himself up,
lays his hand on his heart, and says, " Upon my
honour ;" on which Sir Harry raises his hand to
his hat, takes it off his head, and says, " Oh-h-h."
(Laughter.) Now this is what I have seen acted in
the House of Commons over and over again. The
candidate says, "I come to declare thatl have not
been guilty; I know nothing of this corruption,
upon my honour." (Laughter.) Oh-h-h ! (Laugh-
ter.) And there the farce ends, and we all know
it to be a farce, because we cannot fancy it to our-
selves that any third person would go and pay money
to elect a man to Parliament for his own pleasure.
(Hear, hear.) The man who thinks proper to take
an oathl that he knows nothing at all about corrup-
tion because the money has not passed through his
hands to the unfortunate wretch corrupted, is little
else than guilty of perjury. (Cheers.) That is the
state of things with which we have to deal. One
party sometimes falls into error, and is guilty, as
at Gloucester. The Liberals there were exceedingly
gailty ; they bribed in the most extensive manner,
and not only did they bribe, to a great degree, bat
they did it stupidly. (Laughter.) The Tories, the
moment it was found out, exclaimed " Oh, dread-
ful ! what a state of things in this world ! Thus it
is ; these Liberals, who are always talking of purity
at elections, bribing away; we must petition."
They did so ; they stated that bribery by the Lib-
erals had taken place. A commission is issued, and
then it is found that the Tories have bribed ten
times more than the Liberals—(loud laughter)—and
that the only difference was that the Tory agents lied
through thick and thin, while the Liberal agents
blurted it all out. (Laughter.) It is not the
i genius of Liberals to bribe—(hear, hear)—they do
it badly, and very stupidly; but it is the genius of
Toryism, and they do it to perfection. (Cheers
and laughter.) We had a Coppock, the lamented
Coppock ; but he, alas! is no more ; but they have
still a Baxter, Rose, and Norton, and while they have
them the Tory nobility will beat the 'Whig nobility
into fits. That is a state of things than ought to
be done away with—(hear, hear)—but it never will
be until the people rise in their majesty and say it
shall be. As Parliament is constituted now, you
cannot expect a man, a member for a rotten borough,
to disenfranchise himself, but he will join that body
opposed to reform. There is nothing but the people
using and insisting on it that can carry it. Ido
not believe now they are ready to do so. They do
not lead us, their members, to believe they are in
that position ; the people, in fact, are the last to
stand by us. If they do not do so the thing will go
on iu the old way ; the Whig lords, the Whig land-
lords, and the Whig oligarchy will bribe against the
Tory oligarchy, and the Tories will always have the
best of it. (Heel., hear.) If you increase the fran-
chise I am all for it. I will take anything they ee ill
give me. (Cheers and laughter.) I do not press
even for that question which I think of such infinite
importance, and which must come one day ; but I do
not believe you will find any measure of reform sa-
tisfactory to the minds of the Liberal part of the
country until you have a large extension of the
franchise, and put down intimidation by the ballot.
(Loud cheers.) Now, gentlemen, I will not say any
more ou a very volurninops subject—that of politics
—but I will turn for a moment to your local affairs.
I have the honour to be a director of the great
steam ship. (Cheers.) Much has been said aboutthe
power of members, of Parliament with their various
Governments to do this, or that, or the other. A
great deal was said by Mr. Slade—l beg his pardon,
Sir Frederick Slade—who would persuade you that
if he had been returned as your member in Parlia-
ment he would have turned every puddle in this city
into a dock, and that he would have made this a
port for this purpose and that purpose, and a port
of emigration, and so on. (Laughter.) I think it
ought to be so myself, but we cannot always do
that which we desire to do. (Hear, hear.) All we
can do is to try. When Mr. Philip Miles was my
colleague, we set to work to prove to Government
that this was the best, port for the departure of the
West India mails. We said, " Give us a commit-
tee." They said, " No." We said, " You shall ; "
we tried it on, we carried our committee, and had
it. What was the result ? Why, that the com-
mittee reported that this was Rot the most proper
place for the departure of the West India mals.
We did all we could ; we could only get that com-
mittee. (Hear, hear.) We are in the same posi-
tion now with the direction of the Great Ship. We
arc considering the various ports from which it
ought to sail. It is a difficult question to lay before
you. I stand hero in my character as a director of
the great steam ship ; you may guess which way my
inclination leads, and I should rejoice at this being
the port of departure of the Great Ship. (Cheers.)
As for any report that the port of departure is
fixed, it is totally untrue. The claims of every
Dort will be sifted, and examined into, and fully
discussed, and I believe the port which is the fittest
will be the one selected. As for the claims of Bris-