Mr. Hawes's Select Committee on the petition of the South-
eastern Railway Company has effected as deplorable an official exposure as ever was. Mr. Hignett, Solicitor to the Board of Ordnance, stands confessed as having used his official position to further the private ends of trading companies for his own profit, and as resorting to falsehood in doing BO ; Mr. Bonham,_ the Storekeeper, admits that he has accepted a gratuity from the Rail- way Company for support in Parliament, where he was supposed to be acting as representative for his constituents and the coun- try, and also that, while member of a Government Board exer- cising a kind of.judicial control over railway projects, he dabbled in " shares " •' Captain Boldero, the Secretary, likewise dabbled in shares—a kind of stockjobbing on a small scale ; and Mr. Wray, Receiver-General of Police, appears as the negotiator of Mr. Bonham's lapses. So widespread is the taint in the Go- vernment Board, that the Committee think it necessary to acquit the Master-General, the head of one of the great official departments, from implication in charges so disgrace- ful. Furthermore it comes out incidentally, that Mr. Wray acted, in his professional vocation of barrister, as arbitrator in railway matters ; that while in that capacity he acted also as agent for the company ; and that he thus gave an award of com- pensation to Lord Strangford lower than the company, had ' authorized " him, the judge, to adjudicate. This is not the first injurious official exposure ; for we all remember what doings a tender and reluctant inquiry into the Customs department brought to light. Seeing what must be known by men who are behind the scenes, it is not to be wondered at that very gross charges have been made against the Board of Trade ; but such shameless charges, no less than the conduct in other departments, show how vile is the common opinion of men's honesty in the " highest" and most " respectable" stations. It not only shows the extent— the truly Oriental extent—of venality, and corruption in our own immaculate offices; but it is one of the many reflexes of that universal disregard of truth, and of the honour and dignity of upright conduct for its own sake apart from worldly advantage and repute, which is the canker of our social virtue. Terrible are the self-worked retributions for these sine : the mad dream
of delusion and corruption which this railway speculating mania has fostered will be attended by.the ruin 'and humiliation (bat sooner or later overtake all dishonest adventurers.
