The Sun. — 1842-07-28 (London, England)

PUBLIC JOURNALS. FROM TUE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY. GLOBE.—The present • Session of Parliament hastens to its termination. Its closing scenes resemble those presented at its earlier sittings. Bribery supplied it with business when it first met ; Bribery furnished abundant employment for its Committees, and fruitful' themes for debate, as the Session advanced—and 'Bribery constitutes the Chief discussion, now that the curtain is about to fall upon the stage, and the House break up for the season. The history of Parliaments presents nothing equal to the odium and reproach which rests upon the present House of Commons, caused by the unprecedented corruption of the elective bodies by those who sought, and obtained by such means, the questionable honour of a seat within its walls. Former Parliaments have been distinguished by some circumstance arising out of the occasions on which they were called—the length or shortness of their duration, or the more prominent measures which they originated or matured. From one or other of these causes they have been designated in history. The notise of Commons which hails Sir Robert Peel as its chief, and passes his measures, is, beyond all question, the most corrupt of any one of its predeceSors. "Bribery" is inscribed upon its portals— " Bribery" is written with a pen of iron upon many a brow of brass within its walls—and by the characteristic appellation of " the Bribery Parliament,". will it be handed down to posterity ! The proceedings of its numerous committees the resolutions recorded upon its " Votes and Proceedings "—and.the neeesSity apparently admitted on all hands of something being done to rescue it Irons undying disgrace, originated the Bill of which we vesteraay save an analysis. 'STAND A R Robert Inglis subjected him;self to the attack of Messrs. O'Connell and Sheil, by declaring that violent intimidation is at least as great. si:poiitical crime as bribery. We have no hesitation in S-s4ing, that, in moral guilt, violent intimidation is at least ass black a crime as bribery; and politically a Much blacker crime. If bribery leads to hypocrisy, so dOes' intimidation ; for to vote against one's conviction frdm cowardice is just as bad as'to vote against silie'S conviction for gain ; and if bribery some!, ' • tuneS lea& to perjury, violent intimidation as often ii,i&d to mutilation and to murder itself.' Politically,' violent intimidation is a worse crime than bribery, because, first, it openly insults the law, and secondly, because -it .always provokes bribery, and the- worst kind of bribery, more especially 'treating. Men will not always • willingly confront danger, and hence the motive to add the stimulus d a bribe to their political zeal. nd even where men would scorn to touch money, they Will. be "easily persuaded to assemble fora their common safety ; and when they are assembled they must eat and drink, and will not think that they do wrong or dishonour themselves by eating and drinking at the expense of those in whose behalf they expose themselves to inconvenience, and, it may be, danger. If the Legislature desires that elections shall be pure, let them first take care that elections shall be free—they may be very well assured that they cannot have the one without the other. Now,' elections at present are certainly not free, as we may know by the history of the electors forcibly carried elf by professional pugilists at Nottingham, and cooped in the garden of the ex-Prime Minister— know, if possible, more certainly by the report of the Cork Committee, which, in defiance of the evidence recorded before it, proving that no pretence of freedom existed at any one moment or in any One street attiring the last contest, nevertheless awarded the seat disputed to the author of sueli- outrageous violence. It is absurd and insulting to common sense to countenance this txrannical exercise of brute force, and then to affect a zeal for the fairness of elections. Let Parliament begin at the right end, and place violent intimidation and bribery upon at least the same footing, and as, even in the present defective state of the law, a bribe traced to a candidate or his proved agent, deprives the former of his seat, declare that an act of violent intimidation so traced shall have the same effect. Until this shall be done there can be no end of bribery and treating.