THE HERTFORD ELECTION.
THE report of the honest and indefatigable Committee which sat upon the Hertford Election Petition, will be hailed with satisfac- tion by every friend to private and public virtue. It would indeed have been a grievous shame, if, after an examination of the facts which the evidence of the petitioners against the return of Lord
SALISBURY'S nominees disclosed; the Committee had decided that all was right, and the election valid. ThOugh by no means novices in electioneering matters,—and, unfortunately, the opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of them in their most corrupt and fla- gitious form have been frequent, and accessible to almost every one in this country,—still we do not recollect to have seen or read of any interference in the freedom of election so palpably and glaringly illegal as that pursued by the Conservative ex-members for Hertford and their tools, previously to and during the late con- test. The requisition to them to come forward was obtained by the influence of high promises and open purses. The whole ma- chinery of corruption and intimidation was set vigorously to work. They who were not to. be bullied, were to be bribed. When threats and bribery were found insufficient to secure a man's vote, hired ruffians, " bullies and gipsies," were employed to prevent his voting, by main force. The Marquis of SALISBURY'S tenants were all made to sign leases for fourteen days ; so that a fortnight's notice to quit would enable the immaculate Mr. NICHOLSON, his Lordship's factotum, to turn any refractory elector with his family into the streets. Unquestionably this novel mode of tyrannizing over the poor and friendless was found highly efficient, especially in the depth of winter. But the feelings of every true-hearted Englishman in the land are revolted by such an abuse of the rights of property. Even the Duke of NEWCASTLE'S tenantry were al- lowed six months' time to seek for otherdwelling's the invention of a fourteen days' lease, as a Means of intimidating electors, was .surely decreed to turn men from the idolatry of worshipping the Reform Act as a "final measure."
It is in no slight degree gratifying to find, that all these scan-
dalous proceedings have produced only a sltortlived as well as a disgraceful triumph. There is some reason, too, to hope that dis- franchisement of the bribed electors, to a certain extent at least, will take place. We very much regret, however, that there ap- pears to be no prospect of punishing the Main mover of this mass of corruption. We have no doubt that the same noble person, whose thousands have been lavished in the treating of drunken Voters and the hiring of professional bullies, is perfectly ready to make pious Speeches in PailiaMent about the enormities of beer- shops, the immorality of the lower orders, and their grievous and growing want Of 'deference to the high-born and wealthy. Should he ever act as a magistrate, he would probably without the least compunction consign a poor wretch to jail for an assault, or for being intoxicated; while his own agents, not certainly acting con- trary to his instructions, have directly encouraged hundreds to violate the laws'which it is their master's duty to enforce.
It is by such conduct as that which has just unseated Lords MsHost and INGESTRIE, that the Aristocracy of England are working their downfall as a privileged order. Open disregard of the laws is peculiarly offensive in hereditary legislators. The peo- ple of this country are getting into 'the habit of viewing the actions Of their superiors in a clearer light than formerly ; and they consi- der all the parties, high and low, who have figured as lawbreakers in this inquiry, to be very much on a par in point of reap respectability . The noble lords, no doubt, look down upon such fellows as Dacic and TWADDLE with infinite contempt, as their hired agents,—men whom they have bought, and may therefore use as they like; but the eternal distinction between right and wrong is not destroyed by difference in rank : Worth makes the man, the want of it the fellow ; The rest is all but leather and prunella."
Previous page
