THE MORALS OF MODERN REFORM.
WAKEFIELD, Norwich, Gloucester, and other 'boroughs, here afforded some useful specimens not only of election tactics, but of the new fashion in which Reformers support their " principles" in those immaculate places. The time was, in the days of " the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill," when Reform, then in the green tree, was sappy and pure, that we Reformers, in our per- secuted innocence, lived in a state of chronic horror at Tory cor- ruption. Before Punch made Lord John chalk " no Popery " on Cardinal Wiseman's door, and run away—when watchwords were still in repute—what reform cry was so often uttered on hustings and blazoned on banner as "No Bribery," "Purity of Election," and "Freedom of Election ? " In the advanced stage of our pre- sent enlightenment, our matured political virtue and exquisite sense of purity,—shocked at the shortcomings of Conservative Liberals, and bent on still higher measures of Reform,—impelled us to give them battle in the election which is just over; and sad. to tell, it seems that we have out-Heroded Herod in the worst arts of corruption,—so far outstripping the trained Thersites of the Tory camp in bullying and brazen-faced bribery, that the very first bevy of election petitions results in unseating six Reformer) for malpractices so gross and flagrant, that the franchise of the offending places is imperilled by the revelation of a tithe of their iniquities. The worst feature of the case is, however,—not the growing adoption of the vilest devices of the old Tory school in the Reform ranks,.L-hut their open sanction by men of social status and, con- ventional respectability.
Let us borrow an illustration from the tales told by these Elec- tion Committees ; and in the embarras de richesses they afford, we take the ancient city of Gloucester, because a file of the local -papers during the canvass, and a published poll-book, happen to give us the fullest development of this episode in its social life.
The history of the Gloucester elections proves that the two parties are nearly balanced, and the most intelligent and in- fluential of the Reform party, failing in their effort to induce Admiral Berkeley to stand, were nearly all agreed that it was unwise, and to some extent unfair, to create a contest for the sake of simply monopolizing. both seats. But there is, it -seems a " Reform Club " Gloucester, and three of its members determined otherwise, and proceeded as a deputation to London ; how commissioned or appointed, except by this club, appeareth not, but certainly at no public meeting of the electors (for none was ever held up to the day of nomination). They there select, of all people in the world, as a fitting champion of every extreme in the Radical creed (the abolition of Church-rates inclu- sive), the son and heir of their late High Church and State Bishop, then and now holding the Chancellorship of the Diocese ! Nothing loth,—and having before contested Cricklade on similar principles, after some rather unexplained and abortive visits to the Carlton Club,—down comes Mr. Monk to Gloucester, and a fierce canvass begins. He is introduced to the "Reform Club " again under the auspices of the three deputies, whom we find designated as " Innell' President of the Club, Wilton its Doctor, emd one Robinson." Who these three worthies may be it is boot- less to inquire. Two or three attorneys speedily join in the movement. At the "Club" (which held its conclaves in the re- freshing purlieus of the "Fountain Inn") Mr. Monk and his cause were hatched, nursed, and very effectually done for. The proceeding took its rise amidst.the cool indifference of the leading Liberals, and the wrathful indignation of the Tories, who, brood- ing over his parentage and principles, persisted in regarding Mr. Monk's advent as a candidate to Gloucester, in the light of a special affront to their ecclesiastical sympathies. It was soon openly proclaimed that ' if money could do it, Mr. Monk should win." His means were loudly vaunted. Sums then deemed fabulous were said to be forthcoming for the fight, and a leader in the Gloucester Journal not satisfied with pour- traying Mr. Monk's pretensions in glowing terms, ingenuously publishes the significant fact that Mr. Monk has a millionaire father-in-law, in the person of M. Ralli, the head of one of the first Greek houses in the corn-trade : then follows a statistical summary of the unceasing number of M. Rail's brigs, which frequented the port of Gloucester, with the probable sums his patronage brought to its coffers and those it would bring were his son-in-law returned.
About this time, a sudden change seems to have come over the, leading Liberals of the City. Mr. Price, now, alas ! the ex Member (whose return would have been inevitable, and his seat secure, had he simply issued an address and stayed at Kamts- chatka) must needs rush into a suicidal coalition with the op- ponent of his colleague. From the hour he did so, the humiliating result of his del:nap:she must have been manifest to every one who remained sane among the Reformers of Gloucester. If Monk had been Bright, or any lesser luminary of the Parliamentary constel- lation to which Mr. Price belongs, such risk of self-sacrifice would have been partially justified by possible service to the public in- terest. But as no such benefit awaited mankind by the election of Mr. Monk, we have to deplore the loss to Parliament of one of its most consistent, sensible, and business-like members, from a freak of Quixotic chivalry.
From this time up to the election, the most open system of making threats, promising bribes, and plying drink appears to have prevailed. There seems to have been no sort of compunc- tion amongst the great body of the Reformers, even the most reputable, to sanction Mr. Monk, and to back pretensions which could avowedly be successful alone by foul means. Men talked openly of the necessity. of " fighting the Tories with their own weapons ; " and many joined daily in the work of bribing their neighbours, who prayed night and morning with their accus- tomed fervour, not to be led into temptation ! When the fol- lowing day arrived, of all the Reformers who had at first so lustily denounced the contest—foreseeing the bullying, bad blood, and denioralization it must entail—seven or eight only abstained from polling for the candidate who caused it all, giving plumpers for Mr. Price!
Among the sup rters of Mr. Monk appear clergymen and -ministers, Mr. S. wly the great teetotaller, and a very near relative of an eminent bishop (nowise Latitudinarian), and the Vice-Chancellor of aii University. We can perfectly understand the thoughtless good nature which prompted some of these votes ; but the countenance to what is vile and debasing thus recklessly given, cannot be too sternly denounced. The conditions of po- litical purity are inseparable from those of moral rectitude. They stand or fall together: their decline proceeds peel pass; and ends in a common grave. Let us, however, pursue the his- tory of this salutary exhibition of the electioneering morals of Reformers, a little further. The practice, it seems, has now generally obtained of doling out large sums, not to the poor voters, but to each of a select number of gentlemen, trusted tradesmen and others, for each to bribe and secure ayen number of voters ; the residue of the money Why sneoeeetulscrewing any can be secured) returning —certainly not into the candidate's pocket. The evidence in, the
Gloucester case throws light on this system of farming bribery. Among the persona who figure chiefly in the evidence as en in this delectable office are a Mr. Hall, grocer; Mr. Henley, Cr seller ; Mr. Wilton, a surgeon ; and a " Mr. Jacobs, of the Little Dustpan," whom, from that euphonious addition, we presume to be an ironmonger.
The auri sacra fames of the " free and independent," seems to have got a-head even of the supplies and energies of these in- defatigable gentlemen. The "surgeon" was bled to exhaustion, Mr. Hall was reduced to 6d., and the "Little Dustpan" cleaned out! An opportune telegram, in this dire distress, brings down not only a mysterious agent yclept " Clark " from London, (and who unfortuately struck for wages, and turned against his em- ployers,) but with him a still more mysterious " Mr. Thompson ;" a golden myth with a couple of names and no locale, who is non inventus at the hearing of the petition, and of whose existence Mr. Monk had never once heard before. This magical person, nevertheless, not only enjoyed the close companionship of Mr. Wilton, but on being assured by him that the election will be lost if there be no more money, telegraphs to " parties out of town ;" and the upshot is, that he says he can get, and doubtless did get, 10001. mole than he brought with him. He pays sundry fresh sums, and Mr. Clark swears that after the first hour's polling, " Thompson paid Wilton 501. more." If all this, or half of it, be true, there must have been bribing for the sake of bri- bery; for so thoroughly-were the "Blues" distanced and beaten, that from the beginning of the polling, Sir R. Carden was con- siderably behind Mr. Monk,—remained so the whole day,—and Mr. Monk came in by a majority over him of something under 200 votes ! Long before midday, a gentleman, rather late in selling himself, modestly offered his vote to Monk and Price for 4/., but was impolitely assured that the shop opposite had been shut up some time, and " he wasn't worth 4d." He affirms that he nevertheless• received the 4/. for his vote. A case of gross in- timidation of a voter in the employ of Messrs. Price and Co., but not by themselves, was also proved. It is full time that, out of regard not merely to the character of Parliament, but to our national credit and reputation, these iniquities should be unsparingly exposed and summarily dealt with as felonies. It is a mere farce, and a cruelly unjust one, to wield the penalties of the law simply against the poor man who takes for his vote money which he sorely needs. We must grapple with the bribers of the bribed. They are the real culprits, who finger in no slightly suspicious fashion money which they do not need, and who themselves administer the very corruption they are bound to prevent. These are the people to punish. As to such a phenomenon as a Member turning up who knows anything at all about the means by which he was seated, or who ever dreamt of any bribery going on, or who has the least idea where the money came from,—we quite give up all idea of such an oc- currence. The loss of their seats, the election expenses which they do know of, Sand those they will soon know of, added to the costs of their defence to the petition, must be taken as some punishment and penalty. As we have often said and shown, the Ballot, by rendering it impossible for the buyer to know that he gets the thing he pays for, is the sole effectual preventive of the purchase. This was, to our own knowledge, Mr. Coppock's opinion. We call attention to the fearful progress of venality among a higher class than have ever before succumbed to or administered these influences. The moral turpitude is the same whether the dirty work is done by the sellers of dustpans or the members of learned professions, but the scandal and the force of the evil example is in tenfold greater ratio as the status of the culprit rises. We trust that these audacious outrages against the free- dom and purity of constituencies will be signally punished by law, and especially when committed by people who, having' no vestige of principles themselves, assume the name of Reformers for their own selfish ends, and degrade a great party by the abominations they perpetrate in its name.
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