THE ST. ALBAN'S ELECTION COMMITTEE.
"THE poor woman was in a dreadful state of agitation "—to wit, Mrs. Charlotte Jones, of number 4 Cottage Place, Limehouse. She found herself unexpectedly in collision with the House of Commons ! James Poingdestre, officer of the House, had awfully told her that "she was in a great mess, and liable to two years' imprisonment for having kept Wagg,ett there,"—Waggett being an abducted witness. Mrs. Jones was quite overpowered, espe- cially when she came before the Election Committee ; she was under a perfect panic of candour, and made atonement for her un- conscious crime by telling all she knew : how Hayward the law- yer came backwards and forwards to "the poor old soul, meaning Waggett "; how the lawyer exclaimed "So help me God !" and the witness herself "Lackadaisy me !" how she listened at the door, and heard money talked of and given; how "Hayward seemed looking about him all ways at once," and the cabman "looked very much like a murderer "—" his agitation was so shocking that it caused her to stagger against the wall." All these important facts the Election Committee, representing the House, collected from the ingenuous Jones. Not so with 'William Lynes, whom actual imprisonment could not endow with an effective memory, nor deter from veiling his prevarication in an exaspe- rating abundance of nonsensical gesticulation." With Thomas Atkyns the Committee was totally foiled in the endeavour to as- certain whether or not a particular night had found him in the conjugal couch; Mrs. Atkyns herself declared that "the Blue party," "after she and her husband had served it for forty years, had now served them out " ; and she finished by fairly bearding the Committee.
The Committee is in a dignified position! It has been adver- tizing for the abduced witnesses ; it has succeeded in terrifying the gentle Mrs. Jones ; it has engaged in a vexatious wrangle with the prevaricating witnesses and their counsel ; it has contended in unequal contest with Sarah Atkyns ; it has been fairly bewildered in the confusion between right and wrong, between necessities and impracticabilities; it has at times passed the limit between over- awing and bullying, between the energetic exercise of authority and the convulsive exercise of unauthorized energy. A Commit- tee of the Commons is appointed to snatch the truth from the midst of the contending bribers and bribed of St. Alban's, and the result is that the Committee itself is badgered by electionmongers, witnesses, counsel, and sharp-tongued women. What for ? To establish a case against an individual Member, of deliberately breaking the laws passed by the House and sneak- ing in through illegal loophole against the plain rules of common honesty. In most of these eases there is a complete chain of connexion, between the local delinquents who trade in the corrup- tion of a borough, the mendacious witnesses, the candidates impli- cated, the Committee, and the House ; in other words, the House becomes directly involved in bullying some Charlotte Jones, in failing to overawe some Sarah Atkyns, in the squabbles of law- yers, and paltry questions respecting the money given by drunken voters to public-house waiters. So it is to continue. The Honourable House has made up its mind not "to part with its authority" in election matters; it will not define the broad principles of law and then hand over the ad- ministration to the ordinary tribunals, but insists upon doing all the work with its own august hand—handling all the detailed littlenesses and dirty doubts one by one. So it is written, and the decree is not to be questioned. Meanwhile, Honourable Members must be content to take their share in the contemptible work.
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