The Northern Guardian. — 1898-03-14 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

BY ALFRED YOUNG.  CHAPTER 1.--Ccnitin nod. OTHER EX P I.S lON P.  In 1695, Sir John Trevor. Speaker of the House of Commons, was found guilty of accepting a tribe of 1,000 guineas—the price of his support tl secure the passing of a certain bill through the House. As Speaker, it would have been his duty j to put the question for his own expidsion before the House, but he very wisely absented himself r.O that particular occasion, and thus a little of the humiliation, which his exspulsion naturally entailed, was spared him. lln 1711, Sir Robert Walpole. member for King's Lynn, "was also expelled and committed to the I Tower for taking a bribe of 1,000 guineas on con! tracts for forage made by him when Secretary of i War." He was soon re-elected by his old constituents, but the House of Commons declared  him incapable of serving in that Parliament, inasmuch as he had been adjudged "guilty of a high reach of trust and notorious corruption." Mr Justin McCarthy, in his history of the Four Georges, rather rashly attributes the expulsion of Mr Walpole to the action of the " reckless and trthless' Tories, who fully availed themselves of the opportunity thus given of showing their dislike to a Whig Statesmasi. At the General Election of 1713, King's Lynn again chose hian as its representative. Eight years later, in 1721, Aislabie, Chancellor of the ExAequer, was expelled for his transactions in connection with the South Sea Bubble— the greatest fraud of the 18th century. Indeed, the National Credit was at stake; but the crisis produced the man to grapple Buccessfualy with the difficulty—and rather curiously that man was W..lpole, the expelled Whig Statesman of 1711. With but a slight interruption, Aislabie was member for Ripon from 1695 to the time of his expulsion in 1721. In 1843, Smith O'Brien, who represented an Irish constituency, was expelled for Treason Feiony. The reception which he received on rising to address the House for the last time, has been " compared to that given to Catalina by the Roman Senate after his designs against the city had been unmasked by Cicero." Forty years later, the Commons, by 209 votes to 20, refused to admit Michael Havitt, who had been returned unopposed for Meath, and who had been punished for a similar offence ;but, in a subsequent Parliament he was permitted to take his seat. In 1858, the House also expelled Mr James Sadler. the representative of Tipperary, who, in con. junction with his brother Mr John Sadler, the member for Sligo, had been found guilty of em. hezzlemeut. Mr John Sadler, rather than face the ordeal of a trial with its, in his case, natural sequel, committed suicide. Mr James Sadler, whose courage was less marked, became a fugitive from justice. The three most recent examples,which the House has found it its pounder) duty to make in order to maintain its dignity, have been those of Mr Cobain, one of the members for Belfast, Capt Verney member for Bucks, and Mr G. W. Hastings. member for East Worcestershire, These members were all associated with that ParIn-ment, which was so wittingly and wittily described as "of high mortality and low morality;' and which existed from 1886 to 1892. Appenaecl are the last polls in which the above named quartetta figured BELFAST (East), 1686. E. S. W. de Cobain (C.) 5068 R. 31cCALMONT (N) 1239 BUCKS (North), 1889. CAPT. E. H. VERNEY (L) . HON. E. HITBBARD (C)  .4855 .4647. 

Article type: NotIncident