vernments should have clean hands be- I was about to embark in the most lavish fore they ascended the pedestal of virtue expenditure upon piers and harbours. to lecture half-starving electors with a These were illustrations of what "nursview to prevent them accepting bribes. ing" constituencies meant. A more A very large dose of corruption seemed dangerous form of corruption than that to be the necessary basis of Party Go- arose through the action of permanent vernment. The hon. Member who last organizations-he cared not whether addressed the House considered £100 Liberal or Tory-which manifested their a small sum to expend in proclaiming activity with regard to every kind of throughout his constituency the short- election, and introduced corruption into comings of the Liberal Government; every branch of the Representative sysbut the printing bill which he (Mr. tem. There was nothing in the Bill to O'Donnell) had to pay for the little deal with such proceedings, and, indeed, borough of Dungarvan-and he be- he doubted if systematic corruption of lieved the sentiments he expressed were that description could be stopped. He sufficiently vigorous-did not reach believed, however, that the Bill would £25; and he thought that, with a stop the grosser form of corruption. judicious selection of sentences, and a That, perhaps, was all that the House careful attention to the most telling had a right to expect. But, so far as phrases of opprobium, the hon. Mem- the attempt to try Election Petitions by ber with his £100 would get exceedingly a single Judge was concerned, however good value for his money. As for the objectionable in England that might be, Bill itself, it was very good as far as it it was absolutely intolerable in Ireland. affected the grosser forms of bribery; They could not trust themselves to the but they, he feared, were going out of intense partizans who continually found fashion to make way for finer methods their way to the Judicial Bench in Ireof corruption, which were growing up land. They might have partizans in under the influence of civilization and England, but in Ireland they habitually culture. Under a changed order of got partizans. He knew, in his own things, the Bill would open the door case, that the question whether he to abuses of the most dangerous kind. should be unseated or not depended He should be delighted to see a diminu- upon who the Election Judge should tion in those scandalous bills of costs be. He hoped, if the Government inwhich disgraced many constituencies; sisted on a single Judge for England, but even after the legal expenses had they would consent to allow at least two been reduced to the maximum scale Judges for Ireland. He should support contained in the Bill, he was afraid the second reading of the Bill, although there would still be the possibility of he believed that it would not make an enormous amount of corruption. any great impression upon the political The Bill would not prevent that most morals of the country. dangerous form of corruption - the "nursing" of constituencies, which might be done in various ways. It was carried on by candidates who were wealthy, and by others who were supposed to be wealthy. He knew a candidate who before an election filled the voters of an Irish borough with vain hopes of the speedy erection of a great mill in their midst. He knew another candidate who actually paraded through a town, some short time before his election, a procession of machines, conveying the idea that he was about to make that town the centre of a manufacturing industry. He knew another candidate who ostentatiously sent a staff of surveyors from London to survey the coast in the neighbourhood of a maritime borough, and thus created the impression that he MR. W. H. JAMES said, that the expenditure of Conservative candidates, as returned to the House, was invariably greater than the expenditure of Liberal Members. He did not, however, wish to press that point. There was nothing more difficult to define than bribery. There could be no doubt that it was part of the social system, not merely in the matter of election, but in the ordinary affairs of life. It existed there to a deplorable extent. Sir Edmund Beckett, writing to The Times on this subject, pointed out the great extent of the evil. This was at the root of the electoral corruption which they now condemned. When a candidate came before the electors, many persons in humble position were, unhappily, trained in the belief that the vote they were asked for [Second Night.] was hardly worth the having unless they could get something for it. He would give one illustration of this. In the course of a canvas in the county of Kent, a candidate applied to a butcher for his vote. The butcher replied"Yes, Sir, I shall be very happy to vote for you if now and then you will give me a vote for a leg of mutton." This was the general view taken in a certain class there should be a quid pro quo. When this Bill came into Committee, he should endeavour to make certain Amendments upon it with regard to the furnishing of all details of expenditure to some public officer. He believed that if such a principle were carried out a great discouragement would be given to corrupt practices. SIR WILLIAM HART DYKE said, he was prepared to give his general support to the second reading of the Bill, and he was also opposed to the Amendment then before the House. He believed that the evil with which the Bill proposed to cope was not a stationary evil, but one which was growing in our very midst, and was one which required harsh measures to grapple with it. He thought the hon. and learned Gentleman might be congratulated on the favourable acceptance with which the Bill had been received at the hands of the House; and he was of opinion that he had done right in assenting to the further debate on the second reading of the Bill. His (Sir William Hart Dyke's) experience with reference to such matters was, that if a Bill was hurried through the second reading, it generally recoiled upon the promoter, who had much greater difficulty in dealing with it at the Committee stage, in consequence of his ignorance of the general feeling of the House. With reference to the remarks of an hon. Member opposite, he was strongly of opinion that if, instead of discussing the merits or the demerits of the Bill, they proceeded to throw stones at each other across the floor of the House, they would be only wasting the time of the House, and cause a sudden and abnormal rise in the price of plate glass. He wished to add his experience to the assistance of the Attorney General, with the object of making the Bill a good one; and with regard to any other matters he was utterly hard-hearted and reckless. Although the Bill was a most excellent endeavour to stop bribery, he was somewhat alarmed that it was so harsh in some of its provisions. However good their intention might be, the Bill would frustrate it by the harshness of the proposed remedy. He thought they ought to be careful, in order that they might not, by passing the Bill with such severe penalities, cause a swinging back of the pendulum and a re-action against it which might lead to a very serious modification in the future. They had been told that it was a very great hardship that many excellent men should be debarred, by the existing system, from taking part in the proceedings and debates of the House; but it seemed to him that if some of the provisions were not seriously altered, the Bill would have the effect also of preventing a large number of candidates, whose presence would be of great advantage to the House, from ever taking part in an election. He alluded to Clause 4 more particularly, in which it was laid down that if any unfortunate candidate, through his agent, was guilty of any illegal practices, he could not again become a candidate for the constituency. He thought that the clause was a very harsh one as it stood. In the first place, it was obvious that they could not restrict the time occupied in an election, which might last a week or 10 days, or, it was possible, might go on for many weeks, or even months, directly or indirectly. Under the clause, as it then stood, he could not conceive it possible that any two candidates, running a hard race for an election, could carry on the contest for many weeks without being almost distracted by the danger they would run under that harsh clause. Then, with regard to the appointment of only one agent for each constituency, the agent, under the Bill, was made a very important man indeed, and was, practically, the arbiter of the destiny of the candidate during the election. thought that the severe provisions of the Bill would put a candidate for a large and straggling county in the utmost danger if he were only allowed to have one agent. In such a constituency, with a contest lasting three weeks, it would be utterly impossible for any one agent to prevent, "here and there," some illegal act, which might upset an election. There was not a single county constituency which he would dare fight tomorrow, with anything like security, He with only one agent, as the return might be made invalid, with all the pains and penalties attaching to it. He had a great objection to the clause dealing with the maximum of expenditure, because there was too wide a margin. The maximum was not truly fixed, because if it were a correct scale for the expenditure of an election which might last a fortnight, he would say that it was not a true and correct scale for an election which lasted two months. It was certainly wrong in one case or the other. He could see a good and solid reason why there should be a maximum; but, at the same time, he did not see how any election could be conducted in a very large county constituency for a considerable time under the maximum scale. He did not think it would be fair to press the Attorney General to abandon the principle of a certain maximum; but perhaps the hon. and learned Gentleman would consider whether it would be possible to make some alteration in his maximum scale, more especially as they could not restrict the time of commencement or the duration of a contest. In Section 4, Clause 32, of the Bill, it was provided that where a person was prosecuted before an Election Court for any corrupt or illegal practice, the Court should immediately proceed to adjudicate. Supposing that some corrupt machinery outside the ecope of the Bill should be introduced by irresponsible persons totally unknown to the candidate, he wanted to know why the section should not be applied to a tribunal sitting in a borough for the summary decision of any charges which might arise? His suggestion was that they should have two Justices sitting in a borough during an election, who could at once decide upon any case which should be brought before them. He thought by those means that they would deal a more deadly blow to corrupt practices than could be found in a great many clauses of the Bill before the House. It was necessary to deal with a difficulty when it arose, and he would venture to say that were such a system as that applied it would be found best calculated to afford immediate relief to any candidate placed in a difficult position. He trusted the hon. and learned Gentleman opposite would carefully consider the many suggestions and amendments which had been proposed with regard to the Bill; VOL. CCLXVIII. [THIRD SERIES.] and he could assure him that all on the Opposition side of the House would cordially co-operate with him in putting an end to a great evil which they had all talked about for many years, and all had regretted, but he believed had never seriously made up their minds, one and all, to obliterate from their electoral system. MR. LEWIS said, he found himself in great difference with his Friends on the Opposition side of the House with regard to this Bill. He was unable to support the second reading on any ground. It was obvious to the House that it would not be right for him to withhold the expression of his opinion on the subject. He objected to the Bill strongly, because he considered that all the chief alterations which it made were alterations which were highly inexpedient, if not absolutely unjust. It appeared to him that the Bill was remarkable for the alterations it would make upon three leading points, one of them involving several other points of no little importance. In the first place, the character of treating for which the candidate was made responsible, was entirely altered by the Bill. In the second place, a totally new class of offences, with penal consequences, was created by the Bill. And, thirdly, they were asked. to give the go-by to the benefit of legislation as to the strength of the Election tribunal, which was based upon the Report of the Select Committee of the House, to which he would refer presently. With reference to the constitution of tribunals to try Election Petitions, he had the strongest possible objection to the clause embodying that alteration. He looked upon it as a most reckless and vital invasion upon the safety of Members' candidates, that their liberties, their character, their political history, their hopes for the future, and all the objects which political men held most dear, should be placed in the power of one Judge, without appeal, under circumstances which did not preclude the possibility even of bias. From their past experience, he was entitled to say there were some sad cases as to which they had heard the remark that a political bias had existed. He had no hesitation in saying that there had been, in the decisions of one Judge especially, most painful evidence of political bias; and in saying, further, with reference [Second Night.] 3 A to one decision, which was perfectly | peal even on interlocutory matters. But notorious throughout the Kingdom had the House the least idea how that under the name of the "rabbit case,' appeal worked? Were the Judges althat it had excited grave dissatisfac-ways right? Those Judges were of great tion against the tribunal of a single experience. Many of them had been Judge. Nothing would induce him to in a leading position at the Bar, abstain from opposing this unjust Bill and others upon the Bench, for years. in every way which the Rules of the Did we find that even in the large maHouse would enable him to do so. The jority of appealed cases their decisions House, in a fit of self-denying generosity, were upheld? By no means. He had thought it right to cease trying Election been able to obtain a Return for the Petitions, and with a kind of idolatry for year 1878 of the appeals from the decijudicial personages which was, unfor- sions of the Chancery Judges. There tunately, too rife in England, and for were 253 appeals from the Master of which there was no just foundation, the Rolls and the Vice Chancellors, and said, "We will place the trial in the in no less than 106 cases their decisions hands of one man." He was bound to were either reversed or materially alsay that in one or two cases in Ireland, tered. He believed that the fact of there in which Members not connected with being two Judges trying Election Petithe political Party to which he belonged tions would frequently save a large were concerned, there were judgments amount of time. As regarded the new by which one or two Members of the offence of illegal expenditure, the proHome Rule Party were turned out, which visions of the Bill would probably be, he read almost with disgust. The House he believed, evaded. If he were a single appointed a Committee in 1875, of which candidate for a double-barrelled constihis hon. and learned Friend the Soli- tuency, he should only be allowed to citor General was a Member. The Com- spend some £500; but if he got three mittee, by a majority of 11 to 5, de- "bogus" candidates to stand with him cided that no decision turning a Member during the whole time of the election, and out of his seat should be allowed with- if they gave him the advantage of their out the concurrence of two Judges. In agents and expenses, he should be enabled the majority, he remembered, was his to spend a considerable amount more hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor than the Bill intended he should; while General, and he was in a position to say if a candidate contested a county with there was no more determined supporter 30,000 electors, he would only be enof that Resolution than the Solicitor titled to have one agent, and to pay him General, whose name was on the back a wholly inadequate sum. The result of this Bill. The Report of that Com- must be that the candidate, unable to mittee remained unnoticed for a con- secure the services of a respectable man, siderable period. The late Government would be obliged to employ some shady brought in more than one Bill in which customer. At the last Election a certain they overlooked that recommendation of gentleman stood for Middlesex alone, and that Report; but the late Attorney Ge- his expenses amounted to £7,000. That neral was so satisfied with its just re- candidate was the pure son of a pure quirements, that in the last Bill which father; he represented a pure interest, they proposed before they left Office they and it was impossible to suppose that he decided to introduce trial by two Judges. did any impure thing. Well, the beneIn an Election Petition the Judge tried volent author of this Bill would only both the law and the facts. Had allow him to spend £930. It was ridicuthey any analogy in the whole of their lous to suggest that a Middlesex Election judicial system to that? Yes, they had. could be conducted, even in the most All the members of the Judicial Bench niggardly and miserly fashion, upon in the Chancery Division were exactly such an amount. How could the expenin the same position; and what was the diture be controlled? At the Election case with regard to appeal? Why, that for West Kent in 1865, it became known there was an appeal in every case, which at half-past 3 on the day before the might ultimately reach the highest polling day that a forged circular had Court of Appeal in the House of Lords. been sent to all the out-voters, stating From the decision of a single Judge in that each Party had agreed to withdraw a the Chancery Division there was an ap- candidate; and it at once became neces sary to spend £200 in despatching mes- | consideration weighed with him (Mr. sengers and telegrams throughout the Callan) and therefore he proposed to county, in order to counteract the in- speak his opinion regarding the Bill. fluence of this wicked and impudent ["Divide!"] Last night, when he asked forgery. Yet, under the Bill, payments the Attorney-General to grant an admade in such emergencies would be journment of the House, he would illegal payments, and would render a not consent to do so. No doubt, he candidate liable to be for ever pre- wished that there should not be a disvented from representing the consti- cussion which might disclose some untuency. If he might invent a title for pleasant facts about the borough of the Bill, it would be-"A Bill for the Taunton and other Liberal constitupurpose of frightening Persons from be- encies. The Attorney General did not coming Candidates for a seat in Parlia- desire to fish in troubled waters, and to ment, and for imprisoning and disquali- expose the corruption of the Liberal fying all those who do." If it were con- Party. He regretted it was not proceivable that it could be passed without posed that the Bill should operate retromodification, a pretty equal division on spectively, because he thought, with both sides of the House would find Baron Dowse, that if they were to view themselves in gaol. He intreated the with a judicial mind all the proceedings House not to assent to the second read- that occurred in reference to Members ing, because it was impossible to mend of that House, they would scarcely have a Bill like this when it got into Com- a House of Commons at all. Why had mittee. ["Oh, oh!"] Well, they would the word "corruptly," found in previous ring the bell for a Division, and Gentle- Acts, been omitted from this Bill? It men like the hon. Member for the North must have been left out designedly. He Riding of Yorkshire (Mr. Milbank), who was not surprised that a right hon. so ejaculated, who was now reaping the Gentleman representing Taunton should advantage of sitting so long on that side designedly leave out the word "corof the House, would come trooping in ruptly." No explanation of this had to vote down every Amendment that been offered, and in the short time that was proposed. The whole legal and remained it was not possible for the moral character of treating, he might Attorney General to give an explanaremark, was changed by the omission tion. of the word "corrupt.' "" In conclusion, he asked the House not to agree to the second reading of a Bill which was reckless, an inexpedient, and an unjust attack on the liberties of constituencies. Sir R. ASSHETON CROSS said, he did not rise for the purpose of taking any part in the discussion, but merely to ask his hon. Friend to withdraw his Amendment. a MR. R. N. FOWLER said, he was quite willing to comply with the request of the right hon. Gentleman, but hoped to raise the question in Committee. MR. CALLAN said, that, not being amenable to the blandishments of the Treasury Bench or the Front Opposition Bench, he had no intention of yielding, even at this late hour, to the request of the right hon. Gentleman, made probably by arrangement. He had observed the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs taking notes throughout the discussion. He supposed the hon. Gentleman declined to speak now, lest it should be said the Government contributed to prevent a division. No such of the clock, the Debate stood adjourned And it being ten minutes before Seven till this day. The House suspended its Sitting at Seven of the clock. The House resumed its Sitting at Nine of the clock. |