The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-02 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, AUGUST 2.

~~L

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
73—highest since noon yesterday.
62—lowest this morning and during the night.
69—this day at noon.

BARONE wrma--30.10.
WIND, S.W.; light, with heavy dull weather, inclining
to rain.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tars DAY.—Morning, 4h. 10m.—Afternoon, 4h. 32m.
To-Moanow-Morning, 4h. 52m.—Afternoon, Oh. 13m.

Yesterday the Financial Statement of the Indian
Secretary was submitted, according to promise, to
the consideration of the House of Commons in
Committee—and it must be acknowledged at once
that the statement was in itself sufficiently melan-
choly, if not absolutely discouraging. It shews an
aggregate deficit in round numbers, for the current
year, of no less than £12,500,000 It reveals an
appallingly rapid increase in the total amount of
the debt of India during the two years of the Sepoy
mutiny among the Bengalese. An increase of such
frightful rapidity that whereas the Indian debt
reached £538,000 less than sixty millions at the
close of April, 1857, or exactly £59,462,000—that
debt had by the close of last April (1859) grown to
the monstrous sum of £81,580,000 Nor is this all
-for Sir CHARLES WOOD himself (though it was
obviously to his interest to make the best of the
matter in bringing
forward his appeal for addi-
tional assistance in the shape of a supplementary
loan) volunteered the intimation last night in the
house, while in committee, that before we have
done with the debt, it will in all human probability,
in the course of two or three years
omoooroeo,
0110a0ve,
swollen beyond a gross aggregate of £1 , , .
That debt, which we have seen was, little more
than two years ago (in 1857), less than £60,000,000
—will in a very little while longer—the hiklian
Secretary himself thinks exceed £100,000,00N.
Something (this) very like doubling the debt in
a single lustre ! Given five short years (three of
them have already nearly elapsed), and the
Indian debt, which in 1856-1857 was between
£50,000,000 and £60,000,000 will in 1861-
1862 exceed £100,000,000. That is really
the financial situation of Hindosta.n in regard to

the immediate present, past and future, pre-
sented last evening to the Commons in Com-
mittee, and through the Commons in Committee
to the country at large, by the Indian Secre-
tary. Sir CHARLES WOOD was plain-spoken
enough in his statement. He did not blink
the matter in the least. He did not gloss
it over. He told the Commons and the country
quite frankly that in all likelihood they would have
other demands of a like kind put to them during the
next few sessions to make up a succesion of other
deficiencies. What he looked to, however, was
naturally enough the actual situation the cur-
rent deficiency. All Sir CHARLES WOOD aspires
to do now is just to make the two ends meet if
possible, or at the most to give himself the proba-
bility of a small surplus of £1,500,000 instead of hav-
ing a large deficiency of £12,50Q,000. The interest
he reminds us with cruel precision, the interest
upon the Indian debt in 1857 was
£2,525,000 whereas that interest was
swelled within the two years following, namely,
by the close of the financial year in April last, to
£3,564,000—0r just precisely £1,039,000 addi-
tional. According to the accepted estimate the
Indian expenditure for 1859-60 will be £64,131,000
—while the revenue is estimated at no more than
£3s,Bso,oo—showing a deficiency of a million and
a quarter, or, to give the exact *amount, of just
£10,281,500. Adding to this a further charge of
£2,250,000 for railways in Hindostan—the
deficit reaches a monstrous aggregate of more than
twelve millions and a half ; or, to put the
figures point blank before the public, precisely
£12,531,500. That aggregate deficiency of
£12,531,500 is the immediate financial difficulty
before us in Hindostan—a difficulty we must get
over somehow. Already, towards meeting this
deficiency nearly £5,000,000 has been raised in
England by Lord STANLEY, and £2,000,000 more
in India itself. The remainder Sir CHARLES WOOD
now proposes to accumulate by completing the
loan begun to be raised by his immediate predecessor
—and by borrowing under his own regime £5,000,000
additional. This arrangement it is which he cal-
culates will leave him, at the close of next April,
with a small surplus in hand of £1,500,000: Other
difficulties will then follow in due course, which
we shall have to look to in their turn—but in the
mean time those immediately pressing upon us will
have been tided over satisfactorily. Darkly though
the financial future of India lowers thus before us,
it is at any rate satisfactory to bear in mind the
gross amount of the estimated debt of India, at
the termination of the present financial year—
£Bo,ooo,ooo—will scarcely be equivalent to three
years of the income of Hindustan. Whereas in the
instance of our own gigantic National Debt of
£Boo,ooo,ooo—a debt under which it was supposed
we should be crushed, but under which we are
actually flourishing !—that positively requires
some fourteen years of our revenue to make up the
monstrous equivalent ! The revenue of India, like
our own, is a growing revenue ; and, therefore,
judging by analogy, we have no rational cause for
excessive despondency.

Mr. ROEBUCK last evening, according' to his in-
variable wont, came directly and resolutely to the
point. Whatever others may do, he at any rate
never beats about the bush. He sees clearly into it
from the first—and, keen of eye, steady of head, in
his way a dead shot, fires upon the game uner-
ringly. His mode of seconding Sir JOHN SHEL-
LEY'S amendment yesterday in the House of Com-
na,ctiinv. zrz. afterii fashion, perfectly characteristic.
mince the matter the least bit in the world. He
put the enormity actually before the house in all
its glaring and unmistakeable enormity. Re-
ferr.ng to t';e results already accumulated
in the shape of the reports of various election
committees just as we ourselves have re-
ferred to them in these columns, yesterday, for
example, and on Saturday—Mr. ROEBUCK re-
minded the house of the malignant rumours of
bribery not so very long since proclaimed to the
prejudice of the leaders of the present Opposition!
And having called up this pleasant memory the
hon. member for Sheffield, in a few truthful and
pungent words, showed how the tables had been
effectually turned upon the successors of the late
Ministry by the reports already delivered by
various Election Committees. " Some time ago,"
said Mr. ROEBUCK, " the public was warned that
great corruption had been practised by gen-
tlemen sitting on these (the Opposition) benches ;
but I am sorry to say that, by discoveries re•
cently made, it has been found that corruption
has taken place on that (the Ministerial)
side of the house ; and the remarkable feature of
the case is, that noble lords and right hon. gentle-
men are sitting on the benches opposite in conse-
quence ; for I believe that pretty nearly the whole
number of their majority have been disfranchised
since inquiries hare been instituted, and that they
have been disfranchised because of bribery. Why,
sir," continued the member for Sheffield, " the
whole country was startled, the isle was frighted
from its propriety,' by the statement which was
made by the virtuous gentlemen opposite. It was
said that a noble lord and right hon. gentleman
had subscribed, combined, and conspired for the
purpose of bringing a majority into Parlia-
ment. Upon which side," asked Mr. ROEBUCK
scornfully last evening, " Upon which side
does the imputation rest now ?" Mr. ROEBUCK'S
views upon this point, as upon many others,
are as nearly as possible identical with our own.
What he said last evening, so very admirably, in
the House of Commons, we wrote as plainly as
printed words could put it in our columns yester-
day. What Mr. ROEBUCK said afterwards, in re-
ference to what we may term the exceeding
amenity of committees, we must confess, appears
to us only most reasonable. " I say," he observed,
" that our committees are too cautious by half "
adding, by way of explanation as to his precise
meaning—" When they discover that £3,000 or
£4,000 has been spent in order to seat a gentleman
in this house, I think they would be quite safe in
assuming that it is by the direction of that hon.
gentleman himself. (Cheers, oh, oh, and no.) No!
Is there anybody of such a soft disposition, with so
soft a head and so tender a heart, as to fancy that
there is a man in existence so wild in his charity as
to give £2,000 or £3,000 in order to seat a gentle-
man, that gentleman knowing nothing about
it?" The gentleman, of course, was dream-
ing in Utopia who raised that hysteri-
cal cry of "No"—but Mr. ROEBUCK was
there, in the middle of 1859, talking plain English
from the floor of the House of Commons. " Why
the statements which have been made within the
last few days before Committees of this House,"
said the hon. and learned gentleman, in tones of
very reasonable and comprehensible indignation,
" are enough to shock the feelings of the country at
the conduct of a party which calls itself Liberal, and
a great number of whom I recollect in the year 1830
raising a great outcry against the corruption of the
ancient Parliament. Why. sir, there was nothing
ever done in the ancient Parliaments worse than
has been done in this. I do say, then, that it
behoves this House to take into its most serious
consideration how it can by any possibility stop

this evil, and I entreat hon. gentlemen who are
sitting on our committees to have the courage to
be honest, and not to add base hypocrisy to the
horrible corruption which now prevails. I
repeat, sir, that it is base hypocrisy for any one
to say he can believe that a man is seated at
an expense of £6,000 or £7,000 without knowing
that such money has been given for the
purpose." Really, if this is not just plain, blunt
common, sens&—we don't know what is. It was
too much, however, entirely for the sensitive nerves
of Mr. BOUVERIE. It partook, altogether too pain-
fully for him, of the coarse impropriety of " calling
a spade a spade." We rather think, however, that
JOHN BULL likes above all things that honest kind
of talk—the telling of home truths (however pain-
ful) in our mother-tongue.

A few weeks back, after having investigated,
on the spot, the facts and rumours of the case, we
asked, " What shall be done with Norwich ?"
And by this time the question has received an
answer, so far as the members are concerned. The
suggestions of some of our contemporaries as to the
singular coincidence of the Berwick and Sandwich
petitions being withdrawn together, induced us to
make also careful inquiries into the electoral proceed-
ings of the former borough, and we may now cer-
tainly, with nearly equal propriety, ask—What
shall be done with Berwick?

We may acknowledge that the evidence furnished
us is not on oath, but it has been obtained in a
manner which satisfies us that we have not been
wilfully deceived in the least matters, and most
of them are subjects of notoriety in the town
itself, and facts, which, unless they should involve
legal consequences, neither side would much care to
deny. It seems Berwick is a very old offender.
The results of all our inquiries harmonise with the
statement of DOD, that though once " considered a
Government borough, for a considerable time
afterwards, money was considered all•powerful."
The process, we are told, has been this :—Ever
since the Reform of 1832, up to, and including the
election of 1852, as soon as an election was in
prospect a canvass was commenced, and all parties
went to work in earnest. " Runners " went in
every direction, with ready cash in their hands,
not, however, the full amount which was to flow
forth ultimately, but sufficient to give small sums
as earnests, or retaining fees, to the voter. About
the day of the poll, generally, the sum finally
agreed on was paid. Not always, however, did the
hopeful voter obtain it. The " runners " frequently
seemed to think that he who ran ought also to
win, and, secure from legal exposure, pocketed the
cash themselves. At first occasionally large sums,
enough to tempt any " runner," were given. One
family we heard of who, in the election of 1837,
received £l5O amongst three of them. Since then,
votes have been cheaper; £5 or £lO have been
much more common " prices for the article," as our
informant told us. That is up to 1852.
In that year occurred a scrutiny, and the two
Liberal members therefore lost their seats for bri-
bing and treating; the election following this—as in
the case of the recent one at Norwich, where the
pending petitions were the cause of the virtue—
was a pure election. The recent tragedy, as
ARISTOTLE might have said, purified the hearts of
the electors by pity and terror. We come now to
the elections of 1857 and 1859. In the former year
three Liberals and one Tory contested the borough.
Two Liberals were nevertheless returned ; the
lesson of 1852 seems to have been remembered, and
from all we can ascertain, little or no money was
_ ~ertainlv to

affect the election.

This year, on the Tory side at least, the old tac-
tics was resumed. A mighty change, from some
cause, certainly came o'er the spirit of the borough.
In 1857 though the Liberal votes were split among
three Liberal candidates, yet two of them were re-
turned. In 1859 the highest Tory was 109 votes above
STAPLETON, the Liberal, who headed the poll in 1857.
It would seem that the Liberals who had been the
sufferers by the scrutiny in 1852 had not yet re-
covered their courage, while their opponents, not
having smarted themselves on that occasion, and
seeing no other means of carrying the election de-
termined to run all hazards.

Berwick appears to have a considerable majority
on the Liberal side, among the masters, and the
non .electors ; nine-tenths of the people, it is said,
are Liberals ; but the workmen, who are voters in
considerable numbers, and the humbler class of
electors, consider money the soul of patriotism, and
their votes are determined solely by the offers of the
best bidder. This is hardly concealed. The mas-
ters rarely, if ever, attempt to put the screw on
their workmen ; the latter resist it as a body, hold-
ing it as much their right to make the best of their
vote as to make the best of their labour. A house
was open long before the election, now known as
" The Gull Hole," where money was duly paid to
all who desired it, and here every purchaseable in-
dividual was secured. The windows of the house
were afterwards smashed, and the house entered by
the angry and disappointed populace, and but for
the persuasion of the Mayor the place would
doubtless have been gutted. Another elector, who
had sold his vote, found his ploughs thrown down
a coal-pit near at hand, and was told to "go and
plough there, as he would there be warm
The bribery, open and determined, however, was
not permitted to escape quite unpunished even at the
time. Lynch law was resorted to. The non-elec-
tors, for whom Lord JOHN RUSSELL holds the elec-
tors to be trustees, thought their trustees did not
do their duty, and the Court of Equity not being
open to them, they constituted themselves into a
Court of Chancery,with the small difference that not
being able to enforce performance of the specific
duty, they fused lynch law and equity, and inflicted
damages in the shape of broken windows, and in one
case by broken porter bottles ; while so great was
the intimidation that no one dared to give evi-
dence against the offenders. But Lord JOHN must
Mot suppose that his cestui que trusts acted quite
recklessly, they gave their trustees due notice.
When the bribery became notorious, and electors
who had formerly voted for Liberals, were openly
saying that if the Liberals did not " come out',
they would vote for the Tories—the non-electors
convened a public meeting, and formed a com-
mittee to watch the proceedings of their trustees.
Resolutions were passed at the meeting condem-
natory of Tory principles, and calling on the elec-
tors to do their duty, and on the people to watch
the polling booths.

They did not, however, stop here. They resorted
to such intimidation as non-electors could practise.
Publicans were threatened that if they voted
wrong their houses should be deserted ; other
tradesmen that they shoull lose their custom ; if
they dared to vote for the Tories. Such was the
fear inspired by the attitude of th© people, that
many who had sold both votes to . the Tories were
glad to compromise by giving one to the Liberals ;
many have repented ever since, for their pocket's
sake, that they took the Tory gold, and operative
electors who did so had a wretched life of it after-
wards at the hands of their fellow-operatives.
On the other hand, there were probably many who
would have preferred to vote for the Tories, but
were prevented from doing it by the intimidation

• ,
• k, 7-.!:
-41
f
ok if . ori ;4., "bnorr
•

THE SUN.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1859.