The records of the Election Committees for the week are
an avowal that the present state of the representation is too much for the Committees, and that they give up the task of keeping the larger abuses in cheek ; leaving the whole system to be dealt with by the House of Commons. The Berwick Committee has nakedly "reported the facts," with an intimation that nobody was in fault or had any "guilty knowledge ": Forster listened, Hodgson bet- ted, Taylor offered, Coppoek compromised—but it was all in the abstract! At Liverpool, there was bribery, and extensive bribery, and the election was void ; but the six or ten shillings fee to the voter was not in general a "primary object." In Durham, on which the Committee have not yet decided, the facts are equally transparent, as the judgment will probably be equally polite.
The last case is singular for the candour with which a flagrant petition-compromise is avowed. Mr. Granger and Mr. Atherton were returned for Durham, defeating Lord Adolphus Vane ; Mr. Granger died before he took his seat, and a petition was presented against Mr. Atherton. Lord Adolphus would probably have been elected to the vacant seat, but a clever dodge was invented by an illustrious friend whose name Mr. Atherton conceals : a petition was presented at the instigation of Mr. Atherton against the return of Mr. Granger, and, effectually to arrest the writ, that petition prayed to have the seat for Lord Adolphus. This shut out the very man it professed to advance. But now there was a mutual withdrawing of petitions, and Lord A.dolphus was elected after a contest. His friends, however, could not keep from bri- bery; he was unseated upon petition. Meanwhile, a new motion to inquire into the old compromise was made, to force Mr. Cop- pock to withdraw the bribery petition ; but instead of that, as the reasons for these mauceuverings had got wind, the inquiry became unavoidable, and Mr. Coppoek quietly enlightens the public as to the way in which he thus arranges to seat or unseat Members at the request of his friend and opponent Mr. Brown. Queen Victoria sits on her throne " Dei gratia " ; how many Members sit in the People's House by grace of Coppock and Brown?
