The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1868-12-10
How Members OF the British Parlia-
ment are Chosen.


- ment are Chosen.
The American system of political COM
mittees has no counterpart In England.
There are however two electioneering
headquarters in England-the Carlton
club for the Tories, and the Reform club
for the Liberals Each contains an cleo
ton committee, chosen by nobody, re-
sponsible to Nobody, welding an authority
all over the kingdom. Of these two the
Carlton committee is considerably the
best organized. They raise great sums
ofmoney, and spend it at their own dis
cretion and for which no account is ever
rendered to any one. The Whips of the
House. as they are called, may be said to
hold the purse strings of the party they
represent. Each party has two Whips
They are responsible for party discipline
for the presence of members at divisions,
and are the mouthpleces and exclusive
agents of the real party leaders. The
work is hard and one would think by no
means agreeable, but no place is more
coveted by an energetic politician.
Although great portion of the cleo
ton expenses is borne by the candidates
themselves, there is also a general party
fund, to which, as with us, the wealthy
men of the party are expected to contrl-
butte. This fund is collected and con-
trolled by the committee from the two
clubs, Carlton and Reform. It is rumOr-
ed that Lord Derby contributed to the
Carlton Club this last autumn 100000,
equal to 100000. fla great land owner
wants Peorage, but does not care for
seat in Parliament, all he has to do is to
give sufficient sum of money to these
clubs, which is done in so quiet manner
that scarcely any one is cognizant of the
fact till few months after, the public
reads, with more or less amazement in
the party organ, that Mr.. -, the great
land-owner-on account of public services
has been raised to a baronetcy or peer
age
There are four ways by which candi-
date is nominated to represent borough.
First, by requisition borough is not
confined to its own locality from which to
choose, but has all England, residence
not being essential as with US. Requisi-
ton may be employed by the electors in
terested in securing good representative
or by the friends or agents of the candi-
date interested in securing a good seat
A paper requesting Mr. - to come
forward as a candidate is circulated among
the electors If number sufficient to
encourage the movement sign this requi-
sition it is then forwarded to the person
named, and becomes the basis of his can
didature
Second A nominee of the Carlton or
Reform Committee, may be, and very
often is sent down to borough,
backed by all the influence and machin-
ery-and often by the money-of the
party. In such case the electors have no
choice in the matter, but nave to accept
the person sent.
Third. A candidate may be the nomi
nee of great Nobleman or proprietor,
who has a controlling influence in the
borough. The electors have to vote for
the man whom their landlord appoints, or
refuse at their peril. Fourth, and finally
if man cannot or does not choose to Sc
cure a nomination in either of the above
three ways, he may nominate himself
The first thing candidate does, is to
publish an address, which is what we
would call his platform. As each candi-
date has to do this same thing, the news
papers previous to election are flooded
with them. In the smaller boroughs the
candidate has to canvass his own district.
Votes are asked and given as favors. No
matter what the social condition of can
dldate may be, whether he is the son of
a Duke or an heir to three counties, he
must go into the humblest cottage and
solicit from its occupant, if he happens
to be a voter, the actual pledge of his
vote. There are, however, two worthy
exceptions to this custom of personal can
yassing, John Stuart Mill and John Bright
who have far too much dignity of charac
ter to stoop before any constituency. The
expenses of an English election are known
to be very large and bribery is common
otfense, although not as publicly done as
formerly and boroughs are not put up for
sale in open market, but disposed of pri-
vately at the Carlton or Reform As a
general thing man cannot regain his
seat in Parliament without spending at
least $4,000, equal to $4,000, but occa-
sionally ard very rarely candidate is re-
turned without expense, as is tie case
with John Stuart Mill and John Bright.
The Kingdom is divided for the pur-
poses of election into counties and bor-
oughs, and the larger counties are again
subdivided into districts. No county re-
turns more than three members, most of
them two, the smaller one In the coun-
ties there are two classes of franchises
property and occupation. A man is EMIT
led to vote if he owns an estate of .e5
year, or is tenant of an estate rated at
so year. There are likewise two fran
chises in boroughs-household and lodger.
A man votes if he has occupied any
dwelling whateverin the borough as owner
or tenant for twelve months and paid bis