To what desperation are the Tories driven ! We are
informed by a corre- spondent, that in one instance, a publican offered a voter a horse for a vote for Lewis. [Mr. Wyndham Lewis, the Tory candidate for Maidstone]. His wife was also tampered with by a tailor with the promise of 14 sovereigns and a silk gown to get her husband to vote for Lewis; and last, though not least, a petty tipstaff offered him 10/. if he would take a horse and cart to London on the election-day. —Maidstone Gazette.
This is the game the Tories are playing in other places besides Maidstone—St. Alban's for example. Of course this profuse ex- penditure will have a certain effect. But it would be a libel on our countrymen to suppose, that all that is respectable and vir- tuous in the land does not view such proceedings with abhorrence. Arduous as the coming struggle must be—dire and bitter as the consequences of defeat would inevitably be—the Reformers should scorn to purchase a single vote. Let the guilt of bribery and in- timidation of voters be all on the side of the enemy. United energy and economy are the lawful weapons of the Reformers. At the same time, let means be carefully and quietly employed to obtain such evidence of the corrupt practices of the Tories as will stand before a Committee of the House of Commons.
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