The Warrington Examiner. — 1870-07-02 (Warrington, Cheshire, England)

CORRUPT MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. ,  (From the Daily Yeses.) A small but influential Committee of the House of Canamons has been sitting during the past month to inquire into the state of the law affecting Members of the House who have been reported guilty of corrupt practices at elections. Fortunately for the gentlemen implicated, the Committee has found that nothing can be 'done to them. They have only been reported guilty by a Commission, not found guilty by a competent tribunal after trial. Then, too, the offences are old, going back in some cases as much as seventeen years, and in no case having to do with any election to the present Parliament; and some of the members implicated have sat without question in more than one Parliament since the reports were made. In these circumstances the Committee do not recommend that any • direct action shall be taken by the House. The last expulsion of a member took place in 1724, but it was for a corrupt compromise of an election petition. The House, has, in fact, let the matter alone so long that, so far as theee individuals are concerned, there is no fair course open but to let it alone altogether. The Committee, however, recommend that some guarantee shall be taken for the future. The Corrupt Practices Act exhibits a curious flaw in its application to such cases as these. Candidates are disqualified only for bribery which, on the trial of an Election Petition under the Act, may affect the election then in controversy; but any other person than a candidate is disqualified for sitting in Parliament if he is convicted of bribery at any election whatever. The Committee believe that this distinction ought not to continue; they further recommend that the law should be further altered so that any person hereafter reported guilty either by a Judge or an Election Commission may, within three months of such report, be prosecuted for it. "In this manner," the Committee add, "the mischief arising from reports of this nature not being followed up by proceedings against the parties inculpated, may for the future be avoided, or at least materially dimihished."  Over 8,000 persons have petitioned the House of Commons to repeal all acts of Parliament which make vaccination compulsory.  MURDER AND Sur= nv WEsrstoumtsrrs—A sad case of murder and suicide is reported from Westmorland. It appears that about noon on Saturday two dead bodies were found in a lake near Menting Bridge, not far from the borders of Yorkshire. These bodies were at once identified as those of Margaret Stephenson, 29 years of age, and Frederick Stephenson, one year old, the wife and son of William Stephenson, labourer, Deepdale ; and judging from the position in which the bodies were found—the child was lying on the mother's breast—it at once became apparent that the poor woman, in a fit of desperation, had put an end to her own existence by drowning herself, and had added to the crime of suicide that of murder. The woman was seen going in the direction of the lake an hour and a half before the bodies were found, and it is, therefore, presumed that she had gone direct and committed the acts. In her house a piece of paper was found, on which was written the following significant words: "You need not look for me back; I shall never see you any more." An inquest on the bodies will be held to-day.