The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-04
POCKET BoRoUeHs.
The Prices of Seats In the House of COM
mons In Pitts Time.

NS-~NS - ~-AN -ASAoo WA
mons In Pitts Time.
When William Pitt first entered parlia-
ment, it was as member for seat con-
trolled absolutely by Sir James Lowther.
He writes to his mother, "Appleby is the
place am to represent, and the election
will be made, probably in a week or 10
days, without my having any trouble or
even visiting my constituents. Naturally
the proprietors of seats soon learned to
traffic in them. Men bought them and
kept them for sale at election times, sure
of a market Chesterfield offered "bor-
ough jobber," as he called him, e2, 500 for
a seat for his son, but learned that prices
had gone up to e3, 900 at least, and that
some seats sold for e5, 900. Old Sarum is
famous 1t was reduced to one house and
for a long time to seven voters who elect
ed two members. The constituency of Hell
ston, where the franchise was originally
in a corporation, at length dwindled to
one elector who alone in 1890 named two
representatives A little earlier, on a petit
ton for another constituency, it was
proved that 2O3 voters out of 210 had been
bribed.
Major Cartwright, in his efforts to intro
duce universal suffrage, gave statistics for
1920 that show that 81 lords practically
owned 200 seats in the house of commons
800 wealthy commoners for 1O2 vile
sinks of corruption pocket boroughs)
brought in the house 1877 members. p" Min
isterial patronage furnished 90 more, so
that 353 members of the house were cor
ruptly or tyrannically imposed on the COM
mons in gross violation of the law and to
the palpable subversion of the constitu-
tion."
Such evils could not of course, endure.
There must either be reform or complete
loss of freedom. The first great step was
taken in 1889 when the great reform bill
disfranchised Sc of the worst of the rotten
boroughs returning altogether Ill mem
bers, lesseDed the representation of 30 more
and gave votes to new constituencies either
by splitting old ones or by creating new
ones that like Manchester, had grown up
with no representative at all. This stopped
the sale of boroughs but it did not stop
the venal voting.
In 1854 a corrupt practices act was passed
that served to make bribery more danger
Gus, but which was still regularly evaded.
In 1868 q most important act provided
that contested elections should be settled
by court and not by the house, as had
been customary heretofore, since it had
been found that the majority in the house
would strengthen it's power rather than do
Justice. The chief step against bribery per-
haps was taken in 1879 by the passage Of
the secret ballot act, which, in general, is
not materially different from our new so
called Australian ballot acts.
These acts, however, were not sufficient,
though they were good and necessary as
parts of a system. According to Sir Henry
James, in late article in The Forum,
corrupt practices, certainly bribery and
treating, remained in full force" in 1874.
1t was found that, though the ballot was
secret, where bribery has been resorted to
the votes very generally followed the
bribe.'' In the election of 1880, when the
law had been in effect eight years and pol
iticians had learned to evade it successful
ly, cit became evident" on trails of petit
tions, THAT corrupt practices had in no
way diminished" In that year it was
proved by one election agent that he had
bribed 1868 voters out of the 1874 that
voted for his candidate and like cases were
not rare Indirect forms of bribery were
common. One campaign pole was bought
for e25. 1t took 80 men three days at high
wages to erect it. Two reliefs Of watches
of six men each stood sentry by it at 60
each, etc.
In 1874, says prominent Conservative
of London, man took the trouble to dis
guise himself as chimney sweep, to pro-
vide himself with supply of oranges, each
of which contained sovereign, and to
crawl up the chimney in an appointed
room. The bribed voters were instructed
to enter the room, and an orange was
dropped to each from the chimney. At
Birmingham the practice of giving voter
glass Of beer with a sovereign in the bot
tom became so common that it was known
as the Birmingham trick. Century.