10 AUGUST 1867, Page 3

It is stated, but we cannot believe it, that Lord

Derby is about -to do an outrageous act of cynicism. Mr. Watkin, one of the ;gentlemen censured by the Yarmouth Bribery Commission., is to receive the honour of knighthood. He may deserve it for what we know, and we quite admit that in the present state of morality a candidate guilty of bribery is not necessarily a bad man ; but surely, to single him out as specially worthy of honour, at the very moment when his inferiors are for the same offence -sentenced by Parliament to political death, is an outrage on com- mon decency. It is society which must put down corruption in boroughs, as it has pat it down in Parliament, and the leaders of society in the work ought to be Her Majesty's Government. If -this report be true, they will show themselves leaders on the other -route.