The House of Commons, has granted a Commission of Inquiry
into the prevalence of corrupt practices at Norwich. The inquiry may go back to the last election, and it seems to be admitted on all bands that it will reveal a regular practice of treating, confined, no doubt, to i small minority of electors, but still favoured by voters enough to turn the scale. Mr. Bright, in a remarkable speech on the subject made on Thursday, gave his opinion that the leaders OD both sides ought to unite to put down corruption. This had been success- fully done at Rochdale, as also, added Mr. Rathbone, at Liver-
pool. An arrangement between the candidates and their Com- mittees could, no doubt, be arrived at in most places, but the difficulty now-a-days is to control their outside friends. When the price of a vote was twenty pounds, nobody would pay but the candidate, but when a hundred votes can be bought for the same money, any partisan with full pockets and no principles can secure the votes. The advice of the Select Committee to make this officious bribing punishable with three months' imprisonment goes to the very root of the evil, but there is no chance of legislation on the subject this Session.
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