Morning journal and courier., 1880-11-06
Saturday Morning, Nov. 6, 1880.

CORRUPTION IN BRITISH POLITICS. There is melancholy satisfaction in the knowledge that great and notorious as is the corruption of politics in this country our English friends cannot fairly claim to be any better than we are in this respect. The in- vestigation of the last English election reveals startling state of affairs. The following account of what was done in Oxford appears in one of the English papers:
 He lone of the conservative managers) told his inexperienced associates that 1t was very improper to bribe, that they must find
 ''eolorable employment for their people, and that they should try the 'sfiag-and- pole
 business With the money which MT. Mat
 thews supplied flags were at once bought,
 and one hundred men were employed to car ry them. Jericho soon looked like fairy
 land, and the people forgot their trouble. In
 the night they robbed each other and next day
 application was made for more flags. Rib
 bons were put on horses and oxen, dogs and
 cats and donkeys were dressed in blue,
 to represent Conservatives Of course, the
 Liberals followed suit. Similar tactics were
 pursued in the matter of bill-sticking. The
 Conservative alone sent out from their com
 mittee rooms 60, ,OO0 circulars and placards
 There were, apparently on both sides, ''elec
 tioneering knackers,'; who received good
 wages for tearing down the enemys bills
 and flags. There was a perfect army
 of messengers, canvassers, clerks, com
 mlttee-men, guards" and sElambs," all
 nominally engaged in the work of the con-
 test. Twelve hundred persons were so em-
 ployed by the Conservatives on the day of election. A Conservative publican took some fifty or sixty men into his temporary service I ptu some to work on my land ; some sent to watch the Birmingham men; some I sent to do nothing. took care that oifb f6nc 1-al a0f% %ho;- lations, were voters. I went on increasing the number every day-all could get. Add to this most prodigal employment of cabs, and on the Conservative side an open tap at all the public houses, and one can form some idea of the value of the test which this, ! the first great contest after the general cleo tion, was supposed at the time to supply of l the feeling of the country. To poll 2,725 I votes, the Conservatives spent about e9, ,OOO, I or nearly e3 per vote. The Liberals did the thing more cheaply, and lost accordingly. ! Of the 400 persons who voted on both sides 1t would seem to be no exaggerated calcula- | ton that considerably over third had been bribed, in one way or another.
 At Macclesfeld, out of g., GOO disbursed by | e1O0 were spent legally. One of the Con- servative captains of the wards ''took each | voter that came to him into pantry, which was rather dark, and made the best bargain ! he could with them. Then he took each | having paid them individually, to the polling booth and saw them inside. If he had let them slip they would have gone to the Liberal committee room and have got money there. Out of the 2,672 persons who voted for one of the candidates, all but 209 had a direct 1 interest in his success, 1868 hay l ing been bribed and 600 being paid canvass srs. In ward No. 8 the Liberals bribed or employed 800 and the Conservatives 5OO, ,and, I IS only 1,233 voted, it seems probable that not a few took the money of both sides At Sandwich, which has less than 1000 voters, every voter appears to have been bribed, the price rising as high as $25 vote. And it is exported that here many Liberals assisted the 1 Conservative candidate because 1t was feared l hat If the Conservatives were beaten this lime they would never come again. In that event there would be no contest, nobody would need to buy votes, and field of easy md profitable business activity would have to oe abandoned.
 These are timely and interesting disclos- lres. It seems hardly possible that Flee ion Commission in this country could match hem, but it would undoubtedly find enough 0 horrify all right thinking people.