26 SEPTEMBER 1868, Page 16

THE MUNICIPAL AND PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sin,—Will you have the goodness to permit me to second the appeal of "S. C. O.," but with this difference, that instead of addressing high people, I care only to reach low ones ? If men of education and high position are willing to prostitute their manhood by either bribing or being bribed, why, let them drink their cup of degradation to the dregs. If clergymen, and ministers of religion generally, are too cowardly to denounce bribery as it deserves to be denounced,—as our Lord and His Apostles would have denounced it, in bitter, unqualified terms,—why, let them go on in the con- ventional ruts till there comes another voice preaching in the wil- derness the baptism of repentance, that will once more infuse new life into the nations.

But I should like, as a poor man, to plead with poor men to do their duty in the coining election, and set an example to rich people of a manhood that can neither be bought nor "influenced" from the straight path of duty. I saw somewhat of the scenes of the Lancaster election to which "S. C. 0." refers, and I was glad to leave the smiling candidates, and unscrupulous agents, and placable shopkeepers, and workmen hired for a hate- ful purpose ; and if it had not been for the last of these classes, I should have taken my last look that night of that beautiful old city with the one single feeling of contempt. There were better and nobler men in Lancaster, but they did not enter into the scene of that disgraceful day. Virtue was silent, and Vice was in all its glory, under leadership that made poor people feel that they scarcely knew whether all the law and the prophets were not on its side.

That, however, is past ; but an election is at hand, under cir- cumstances that call forth the gravest apprehension. The Parlia- mentary and municipal elections will this year run on side by side, and I am told by a gentleman who has good reason for what he says that there is every indication in some quarters of the machinery available for the latter being used for the former. What that machinery, is every one knows who has ever been in any way mixed up with a contested municipal election. It is generally tenfold worse than a Parliamentary election. Sharp eyes watch the latter on both sides. Cunning watchers are cun- ningly watched. But in a municipal election, where all the wards are contested, you have the very huckstering of bribery. Every "open house" is a nest of depravity. Men are made drunk to induce them to give votes for the one side or to make them unable to do so on the other ; and I have seen educated men, and promi- nently religious men—" pillars of churches "—in one of the most

demonstratively religious towns in Great Britaiu, look on all this, or wink at it, and pay to the fund that produced it. Nor can we get out of the matter by saying it is a phase of Old Toryism. I have seen it done by Liberals (so called) of the first water. And who cares about such men, if only they were contented with brib- ing one another ? but they bribe poor people—degrade poor people —for that day and ever afterwards. A refined workman (and people who think there are no refined workmen are greatly mis- taken) who is once "overtaken," as it is called, and made drunk to be used as an electioneering tool, scarcely ever again holds up his head as he did before. A blackguard holds his head all the higher, and defies the moral law and social order, with the help of justices of the peace and professed servants of the Most High.

This is the machinery that the nation is threatened with in a month from this time. A candidate for the Council or Board can help a candidate for the House of Commons, and run clear of election petitions. The law, that can at times be sharp enough to make itself dreaded in the case of a Parliamentary election, is powerless in that of a municipal one. In the latter case every man does what is right in his own eyes ; and there are agents who know this, and will use it, in the very teeth of the Bribery Act, if workmen cannot be themselves induced to try with these " gentlemen " the law of the duck-pond. It is not often that this law is defensible. Here it would be praiseworthy, and the man who ducked, or assisted to duck, the greatest number of bribers ought to have a gold medal for service to his country.

Shall I be taking a liberty, Sir, if I ask you if you think a fund (the Duck-Pond Fund, it might be called) could be raised to pur- chase such a medal? I should dearly like to subscribe to such a fund ; I should still more dearly like to win the medal. I would make it the choicest heirloom in my family, especially if it had for its inscription :- A HEARTY HATER OF TUE MEANS USED BY RICH MEN TO DEMORALIZE POOR ONES.