The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-06-06
Pocket BerOughs.


ment, it was as member for seat con-
trolled absolutely by Sir James Lowther.
He writes to his mother, "Appleby is the
place l am to represent and the election
will be made probably in 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 market. Chesterfield offered q Dor
Ough jobber," as he called him, 60, 500 for
seat for his son, but learned that prices
had gone Up to 93 900 at least, and that
some seats sold for 95, 900. Old Sarum Is
famous 1t was reduced to one house and
for 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 petit
ton for another constituency, it was
proved that 203 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 102 vile
sinks of corruption (pocket boroughs)
brought in the house 1877 members" 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-
ton.
Such evils could not, Of course, endure.
There must either be reform or complete
loss of freedom. The first great step was
taken in 1882 when the great reform bill
disfranchised 56 of the worst of the rotten
boroughs, returning altogether Ill mem
bers, lessened 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 1t did not stop
the venal voting.
In 1854 corrupt practices act was passed
that served to make bribery more danger
Gus, but which was still regularly evaded.
In 1868 a 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 dc
justice. The chief step against bribery per
haps was taken in 1872 by the passage Of
the secret ballot act, which, in general, l:
not materially different from our new Sc
called Australian ballot acts
These acts, however, were not sufficient
though they were good and necessary a
parts of system. According to Sir Henri.
James, in a late article in The Forum
corrupt practices, certainly bribery ant
treating remained in full force" In 1874
= tha hol LOT
secret, where bribery has been resorted t,
the votes very generally followed tn
bride" In the election of 1880, when tn
law had been in effect eight years and pol
iticians had learned to evade it successful
ly lit became evident" on trails of petit
tions, THAT corrupt practices had in n
way diminished" In that year 1t wa
proved by one election agent that he ha,
bribed / 1868 voters out of the 2,674 tina
voted for his candidate, and like cases wer
not rare Indirect forms of bribery wer
common. One campaign pole was bough
for f25. 1t took 80 men three days at higl
wages to erect it. Two reliefs of watchc
of six men each stood sentry by it at &
each, etc,
In 1874, says prominent Conservativ
of London, a man took the trouble to dis
guise himself AS n chimney sweep, to pre-
vide himself with supply of oranges, eac
of which contained a sovereign, and t
crawl up the chimney in an appointe
room The bribed voters were instructe
to enter the room, and an orange wa
dropped to each from the chimney. A
Birmingham the practice of giving vote
q glass of beer with a sovereign in the bot
tom became so common that it was know
as the Birmingham trick."-Century