The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-02-20

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case has closed, leaving the subject in the hands
of the Legislature, with such light as the estmo-
ny heard by the Committee on Corporations may
throw around it. That the Committee can have any
difficulty in determining what report TO make, or
the Legislature be in any doubt as to the proper
course to pursue, people here and at a distance,
who have read the evidence, and are ignorant or
but half informed of the immense exertons that
control legislative action, will find it hard to I'M
derstand, and be proportonably slow to believe
1t is true that no specific act of bribery has been
proven against either the grantees or assignees of
the Railway Ordinance. But it should be remem-
bered that proof Of bribery, like proof of adultery
is very difficult to obtain, and is rarely ever of
direct and positive character. The fact is rather
inferred than proven, or the proof is based upon
evidence which is altogether circumsantal In
the present case and in regard to the means
employed to press the Railway Ordinance
through the City Council the circumstantia
evidence of corruption is of the strongest
character. The palm of the brbe-taker has not
indeed, been actually SEEM but the hand that
offered the bride is shown. Many of the witnesses
admitted that attempts made to bride them,
though all Indignantly denied that they yielded to
the temptation. This was TO be expected De-
mails, in such cases, count for nothing A man
who would take bride, will tell a lie A man
who has perjured himself, 10y the violation of his
official oath, is not likely to sickle at perjury on
the witness-stand. Whether or not any particular
individual, suspected of having yielded to improper
influences in the exercise of his functions as City
Councilman, was or was not bribed, is q question
which must be determined by the general charac-
ter of the individual for frmness and integrity
taken in connection with the unavorable presump-
ton always created by proof of an offer to bride
To recur to the comparison above suggested, just
as no perfectly pure woman was ever approach
ed with an improper proposal so no thoroughly
honest man was ever asked to take a bride Money
was undoubtedly used TO pass the ordinance 1t
was in the hands of Mr. Blocks agents in this
city for that purpose. The fact that the City
Council should have bestowed a franchise of such
immense magnitude and value as that granted by
the ordinance upon men who were known to be
destitute of the means requisite to avail them
selves of it, or render it valuable TO the public,
when other men Of large capital were bidders for
the same privilege, upon inconceivably better
terms, is fact which Standing by itself requires
eXplanation-and no satisfactory explanation has
been given. The violence which was used to
break up the meeting of the friends of Il Three
cent fare, in Monument Square, has been proven.
1t is proven that ruffians and bullies were hired
for the purpose-that they did their work-that
no meeting of the sort could have been held
II, tIaf Of ,,t- H. I
ture hesitate to its action-or what stronger
proof of corruption does il desire? The whole his
tory Of Mr. Blocks operations in this CITY has an
ugly look from beginning to end. 1t is, throughout,
suspicious business and the Legislature should
have nothing to do with it. 1t is not a question
between Philadephians and Baltmoreans - or
between Three-Cent Fare and Five-Cent Fare
neither is it for the Legislature to determine
whether Three-Cent Fare would pay, or whether
stock in such an enterprise would be taken. The
former fact can be demonstrated by fgures-the
latter would cease to be question in twenty-four
hours after the books for subscription were opened
Neither is it important to know how, if the BROCK
charter is refused, the people of Baltimore can be
secured in the use of what they Justly regard as
great public conference.-the street railways. A
charter granted to any number of respectable gen.
tlemen who are willing to undertake the work, or
who will allow their names to be used for the pur-
pose, will obviate that difficulty. But independently
of these and all other outside
the simple evidence of corruption already obtained
the Legislature should refuse to confirm Mr..
BROCK and his associates in the possession of
monopoly oppressive to the people, and obtained
by dishonest means-even if the citizens of Bati-
more, in consequence, go without street railways,
and ride in omnibusses, for ten years to come