IMPROVEMENT IN POLITICAL EXCURSIONS.
HEAD-240NEY has been avowed as the legitimate liability of a re- presentative towards his electors; but few candidates would count among contingent liabilities that of affording to the free and inde- pendent electors the means of a trip to Boulogne. Yet such is the fact. The last St. Albans election was the occasion of bribery in- sufficient to unseat the Member, though sufficient to be the sub- ject of an inquiry ; and it was deemed politic to abstract some of the witnesses. There are various services which, in these highly constitutional days, a free and independent elector may do for his candidate : he may vote, he may canvass for other votes, he may accept a consideration and be an example in that proems to others,
he may take instructions as to the evidence he shall give, he may ignore all that is notorious, he may ignore even what he himself has done, he may have a memory reduced to a tabula rasa, he may put totally new interpretations on English words, he may run away. Running away is a very great service.
Of course such valuable services merit rewards, and the rewards may be various,—the head-money, or other consideration direct; much good ale or such luxuries ; the chance of a place in the Cus- toms or Excise ; or a summer trip to Boulogne. You are can- vassed, you vote, you are paid some ineffable sum, you run away ; and then your right to comfortable lodgings, with board, at Bou- logne, and with your expenses there and back, is readily recog- nized. The object of your Reform-Bill Reformer was to "ame- liorate our institutions, correcting what was corrupt and preserving what was good" ; and the trip to Boulogne has been preserved among the good things.
It must be a want of appreciation which induces the House of Commons to divert some of the advantages derivable from the ex- isting arrangements. Evidently there is an idea that the fugitive voters have done something that is " wrong "; and although this theoretical notion is amply contradicted by the practice of Parlia- ment, it so far operates as to occasion needless inconvenience to the parties concerned and loss to the nation. In conformity with theoretical decorum, the Sergeant of the Black Rod establishes a pursuit of the voters, which obliges them to evade ; and thus, in the present case, three if not more of the voters are obliged to take up their residence at Boulogne. Now as all these pursuits and dodgings are merely formal, we do not see why the voters should be obliged to travel so far; and if they were allowed to remain on English soil, the money which they are the means of circulating would not be exported. Every object might be attained if a par- ticular place—say a town on the sea-coast—were set apart as a city of refuge for the temporary residence of persons whose votes were under discussion.
This would not only be good for trade, but it would tend to strengthen the bonds of affection with which the humbler class of electors regard the institutions of the country.
Previous page
