J:fUJNVbUr ••.t ^TilJONYSOl^ I I >• '^^adAiNH-aviv o f %a3AiNa-3\r m -J %om '^OJITVDJO^^ UFO/?^ ^<3AllVMll-# ^OFCA XllBRARYi 1IBRARY<3/. lf\^v' /^t/ninu-i irvJK'' .^iEUNIVERi"/; w'-PTiinifu r "^J^liDNVSOl^"^ %a3AINI]3WV' ^.JfOJIlVDJO^ ^\WEUNIVER%_ ^^^clOSANCElfj-^ ^OFCAllFO/?^ ^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^J5i3DNVso# %a3AiNn3# "^^'Awaan^ ^OAavaan-^ AvvtllBRARYQr -sj^ullBRARYQr^ ^v\fCALIFOfi'^ ^ i':lmm^■^\y VI '.-nil I >-'.T'' ^'^Advaan^ AWElINIVFPr/>. .", nr.,'i>.irri rr ^ri>ii i^i^^s %a3AINi; , o -J133NVSO\^ ■lOSANGElfJ^^ %a3AINa-3WV ^J?133NVS01^^ lEUNlVERy/A ^>:lOS-ANCElfx^ o ^tUBRARY^,r ^llIBRARYa^ ^OFCALIFO/?^ il3QNVS0F ^J3AiNn3\vv^ ^(^Aavaaiix^ ^^Aavaaii# IIBRARY(?^^ y ^\\EUNIVERy//) t u— 3 -< THE BALLOT CORRUPTION AND EXPENDITURE AT ELECTIONS. THE BALLOT COKRDPTION AND EXPENDITUEE AT ELECTIONS, A COLLECTION OF K'iSAYS AND ADDRESSES OF DIFFERENT DATES W. D. CHRISTIE, C.B., Fijfincrly Ihr Majesty's MUiislcr to the Arycntine Confederation ami in Brazil ; A uthor of " Life of the First Earl of Shaftesbury." Ifonbou : I\I A C M I L L A N AND CO. 1872. ['/'/('• Ji'/i/Jif 0/ Trail: lid iov aiir/ Jxcjiyi ilnrtuiv ?.•> rcKcrrirl. LONDON : U CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PHINTEKR, BREAD STREET HILL. CONTENTS. I'AIIM rKKFAOE AND DePIOATION TO KkV. F. D. MaUUICE vii I. , An Argument in Favouu of tiik Bam.ot, 1839 1 II. SrEEGii IN Favour of the IUlt.ot in the House of Commons, June 21, 1842 65 III. Suggestions fok an Okganization for Restraint of Corrup- tion AND Expenditure at Elections, 1864 75 IV. Electoral Corruption and its Remedies, 1866 105 V. Address to the National Refor.m Union, Manchester, on Election Corruption ,\nd Expenditure, Nov. 16, 1869 . 161 VI. Scotch P^lections and the Paiiliamentarv Elections Com- mittee of 1868-9, 1869 181 C4^b TO THE REV. FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. My dear Mr. Maurice, I have been chiefly moved by your approval, and by that of Mr. Mill, to hope that the following collected Essays may be usefully republished on the eve of a session of Parliament in which the whole subject of Ballot and election abuses and election inquiries is to come on for discussion and legislation. The last of these Essays has appeared within the last two years ; the first was published thirty-two years ago, at the time when I was first known to you, and when I remember the strong influence on young minds both of Oxford and Cambridge of some of your earliest writings, — then not so widelv i known as your name is known now, after a loup- PREFACE AND term, poorly enough requited, of good works and learned labours and firm unostentatious battling for conscience. It may not be known to some even whom the subject of j)urity of elections specially interests, that you have found time, amid your many pro- fessional and literary labours and various works of philanthropy, to write on the law and practice of elections.^ I felt that you did me a great honour, some years ago, when 3^ou kindly came forward to co- operate with me in an efibrt for reform of elections ; and I feel greatly honoured now by being permitted to connect again my name with one so excellent and eminent as yours by dedicating to you this volume. In view of the renewed discussion of the Ballot which is near at hand, I shall do a good service by making known that your name is not enlisted ao;ainst that much-abused measure. I am able also to claim the honour of your agreement w^ith me in opinion that many other 1 "Corruption at Elections," in Macmillan's Magazine, July 1864. "The Means of checking Bribery and Corruption in the Election of Members of the House of Commons," a Paper read before the Juridical Society, 1866. LEDTCATION. metion. " — TiOUD John Kussell, February 11, 1853. "So far from diminishmg, the evil is on the increase, and has perhaps been practised more generally at the last than at any other previous election." — Earl of Derby, May 29, 1866. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. One great fault of the unsatisfactory Bill of Parliamentary Eeform of 1866, which broke up Lord Eussell's govern- ment, was the absence of adequate or of any considerable endeavour to deal with corrupt practices at elections. It contained only one small proposal for that object, which was unjust and preposterous, — the disfranchisement of voters in dockyards on account of their subjection to Government influences, the exercise of which is the voters' misfortune, and the fault of governments. Election peti- tions tried in the course of the session of 1866 led to the issuing of Commissions to inquire into electoral corruption in the four boroughs of Totnes, Eeigate, Great Yarmouth, and Lancaster. The foul revelations of election iniquities in these boroughs shocked and excited the public mind : and when Lord Derby's government met Parliament in the beginning of 1867, a new measure against election corrup- tion was a necessity. The Government proposed a Eeform of the Eepresentation Bill, and another Bill for the repres- sion of Corrupt Practices at Elections. The first was passed during that session. The second, considerably changed and improved from the first proposal, became law in the ensuing year, 1868. 108 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION The following essay was published before the meeting of Parliament in 1867. The state of things which it de- scribes is what existed before " The Representation of the People Act" of 1867, and "The Parliamentary Elections Act " of 1868. In the course of the discussions in the House of the latter measure, Mr. Mill described and strongly recom- mended the scheme of reform propounded in the following essay, and referred in complimentary terms to the author.^ Some changes have been made by the two Acts of 1867 and 1868, which affect several of the arguments and re- commendations of this essay. The Pepresentation of the People Act contained a clause prohibiting electors employed for payment six months before an election from voting, and making the voting a misdemeanour. The same Act made it illegal, in boroughs, to pay money on account of the conveyance of a voter to the poll, either to a voter or to any other person, and subjected the violator of this law to punishment. Prohibition in both cases was recommended in the following essay. But enough has not been done to enforce the prohibition in either case. The only effectual mode of prevention is by voiding the seat if voters paid for employment vote for their paymaster, or if a can-ididate or agent gives money hn- conveyance of voters. This is the deliberate opinion of nil the three Judges who tried the election petitions which immediately followed the general election of 1868, — Mr. Justice Willes, Mr. Justice Blackburn, and Baron Martin, — as given in evidence before the Parliamentary and Municipal Elections Committee. All three think mere penalties after prosecution inoperative : the fear of losing 1 Hansard, March 2G, 1868. AXD ITS REMEDIES. 109 the seat is the only effectual deterrent. ]\Ir. Justice Willes, speaking particularly of Section 11 of the Eepresentation of the People Act, which makes the voting of A^oters em- ployed for money by a candidate a misdemeanour, calls it " nugatory and exceedingly lame," and adds, " It appeared to me to be quite ins-ufiicient, because the voters will vote, and it is a chance whether it turns out that they have been ]);nd ; and if it does turn up, then for the reason stated by my Brother JNIartin, no one would take the trouble of in- dicting them." Baron jNIartin expressed his desire that the Judges should have power to void an election in case of several proved breaches of the law by a candidate or his agents, which the Act made only liable to fine and impri- sonment on prosecution. The rarliameutary Elections Act of 1808 introduced an entirely new mode of trying election petitions. Under that Act the petitions are tried by Judges of the Superior Courts, who go to the respective county or borough to try them in the scene of election. But while this plan is obviously a great improvement on the old system of Parliamentary Election Committees at Westminster, the new measure is very defective, as leaving the discovery of bribery, almost as exclusively as before, to the action of a defeated candi- date or his friends, able and willing to incur all the expenses of a petition and impelled to do so by the hope of obtaining tlie seat, and also as comprising no new provisions for pre- vention during the progress of the election of corrupt or lavish expenditure. The scheme suggested in this essay proposes that properly qualified l)arristers should be re- turning officers and also judges of the elections, with powers of supervision and control at the time and of summary judgment between the polling and the return : reserving a 110 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION AND ITS REMEDIES. power of appeal which, it is here proposed, should be to a Committee of the House of Commons, aided by a legal assessor. When this proposal was made, it was not ex- pected that the House of Commons would consent to part with its power over elections. It did so in the Act of 1868, and transferred its jurisdiction to Judges of the Superior Courts. It may now be easier to induce the House of Commons to substitute duly qualified barristers for the Judges for first trials, and give an aj^peal on points of law to one of the Superior Courts, or to a special tribunal composed of Judges of the three Courts. With this modification, which woukl be a decided im- provement, I again strongly urge the adoption, in its main features, of the plan described in this essay, which in 1868 was unsuccessfully pressed by Mr. John Mill upon Mr. Disraeli's government. It is one of the advantages which have resulted from tlie trial of election petitions by judges, that the law of elec- tion agency, the former unsatisfactory state of which is spoken of in the following essay, has been clearly and satisfactorily settled by concordant judgments. ELECTOEAL COERUPTION, etc A PLAN was put forward in 1864, under the auspices of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, which included an endeavour to organize in all constituencies committees composed of leading men of different politics for restraint of corruption and expenditure, and to promote agreements between opposing candidates and leaders of parties in constituencies to abstain from and prevent bribery. Some weighty words of Sir Eobert Peel, de- livered as long back as 1842, were used in support of this proposal. " In every borough there are certain individuals who take a lead in all political matters, and altogether influence the electors in their respective places. Xow I believe that if these influential persons of both parties in boroughs set their faces against bribery, and came to an understanding to discourage all unnecessary expenses, they w'ould do a great deal more towards the suppression of the evils complained of than all the acts of the legislature." ^ It was the hope of those who attempted the movement of 1864 to establish a central Association, strong with the ^ Hansard, June 6, 1842. ]l-2 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION auilioriiy of distinguished names, and sufficiently supplied with the pecuniary means indispensable for extensive and effectual action, through whicli, a general strong feeling or enthusiasm being roused and fashion enlisted on the side of purity of election, the requisite impulse might be given in the several constituencies. Sir Robert Peel, in the speech already referred to, had looked to "the leading men of the country" to give the critical impulse. " I do hope," he added, " that the leading men of the country will set their faces so eflectiially against bribery that, after the next general election, come when it may, there shall be little or no cause to complain on the score of bribery." These words, as has been said, were spoken in 1842. There have since been five general elections, and all five have been dis- graced by extensive and scandalous corruption. In April of this year the disclosures of some of the Election Com- mittees, tame enough in comparison with the later revela- tions of the Commissions of the autumn — which again, however, are not more striking and revolting than those of previous Commissions — led a writer in the Times to enun- ciate very similar ideas, — that " nothing but a thorough awakening of the national conscience on this subject will deter men of no more than average scruples from doing as others have done," and that bribery will be cured only " when high-minded and honourable men cannot be found to become candidates for seats which can only be attained l.ty bribery, and v:licn the more rcs'fcctaMc electors league themselves iogctltcr, vjitliout distinction of 2)arty, to haffle and crush it." ^ But in boroughs like those which Commissions 1 Times, April 24 and 26, 1866. AND ITS REMEDIES. 113 liave lately been investigating (and it is well known that there are many others just as bad which have escaped in- quiry), it is obviously a hopeless task for any few righteous men that may exist within these political Sodoms and Gomorrahs to purify dense masses of corruption without external aid ; a strong and general movement from without is needed to fortify, if not to initiate, any reforming efforts within. There appeared in the Times of September 7 an interest- ing letter signed M.P. ; and the writer describincf himself as having sat, since the passing of the Eeform Act, for a borough in the West of England, with a population of about thirty thousand, and a constituency of from twelve to thirteen hundred, it is not difficult to identify him as a- Liberal member of the House of Commons of high cha- racter and varied attainments.^ The writer of this letter proclaims the purity of his own borough, and puts it for- ward as an example of the efficacy of a high moral tone among the leading inhabitants. " I do not hesitate to affirm that the chief, if not the only, cause of the total absence of corruption in this particular borough has been the deter- mination of the leading gentlemen of all parties within it, indeed I may say of the entire mass of inhabitants, to pre- serve a high tone of public morality, to set their faces against any attempt to stain the character of the constitu- ency, to ostracize any voter who should try to make private profit of the public trust confided to him." Now this is all very well in the borough of Stroud, where, as is said by the writer, the great bulk of the constituency has always ^ Mr. G. Poulctt Scrope, since dead. I 114 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION been pure, but who is to begin the work of purification with hope of success, unaided, in Totnes or Eeigate, Great Yarmouth or Lancaster ? With a strong national excite- ment caused by a central agitation, with "a thorough awakening of the national conscience," such as these Com- missions which have been sitting might well produce, or wliich might have been produced by equally shocking dis- closures of previous years ; with well-directed systematic efforts through the constituencies carried on as efforts are now being carried on in every borough to effect a lowering of the suffrage, there might be hope of turning generally to profitable account the following excellent advice of M.P. in his letter to the Times : — " Above all, let the educated and respectable dwellers in parliamentary boroughs rouse themselves to the conviction that it is their fault, and theirs alone, if the reputation of the jilace they inhabit becomes infamous through these foul and criminal practices, and the very foundation of all morality, private as well as public, is destroyed Ijy their cynical encouragement or indifference to them." The scheme of 1864 for an organization for a general crusade against corruption in constituencies was soon aban- doned, and the objections and difiiculties under which it succumbed may be usefully reviewed, as they are the objec- tions and obstacles which confront all proposals of remedy. It was objected to the effort of 18G4 that the extinction of bribery was an Utopian dream, and that to extinguish it was simply impossible. This is a very old and common, and yet a very obvious, fallacy. Perfect success is seldom obtainable in any enterprise, and all that was proposed or AND ITS REMEDIES. 115 hoped for was greatly or considerably to diminish corru}>- tion. Sir Eobert Peel, in that speech which has been already cited, also said, " I think that good example and improved habits will more effectually lead to the diminu- tion of bribery — its extinction I scarcely hope for — than any legislative enactment whatever." It is no answer to those who propose to diminish, to say that they cannot destroy. The same objection has been made to the Ballot, but its reasonable advocates have never pretended for it more than that it would greatly diminish illegitimate influences. tSo of a proposal made by Sir John Pakington in 1849, for a declaration to be made by a candidate, it is not difficult tu make out that it would not always be successful, but it might still do a great deal of good. " Half a loaf is better than no bread." This objection is so obviously incon- clusive that, while many doubtless have advanced it unthinkingly, many must use it as a pretext. In an organization for influencing the public mind on this question, the co-operation of a considerable number of members of the House of Commons is of prime importance — of members of eminence to give authority, and of mem- bers generally to facilitate the good work in their respective constituencies. This is a question in the agitation of which I'eers would feel scruples as to taking a prominent part. But, while a few members of the House of Commons of both political parties joined the movement, the generality kept aloof. The truth is that, with a general j)revalence of corrupt practices of one sort or another in constituencies, there are few members who might not foresee some diffi- culty with influential supporters through their joining such I 2 llfi ELECTORAL CORRUPTION a movement, or might not shrink from incurring the strict and solemn obligation to prevent all corrnption in connexion with their own elections, which would arise out of member- ship of an anti-corruption association. It need not he said that many members sit in the House of Commons through the operation of corrupt practices, either studiously " know- ing nothing," but yet strongly suspecting and perhaps even virtually knowing, or really not suspecting or dreaming of anything wrong. Even in the last class of cases, knowiug supporters would be unwilling to see their members com- mitted to a general crusade against corruption. Then again, there are several modes of corruption besides gross money-bribery, and local managers of elections, who may conscientiously say that there is no " bribery " in the limited sense of the word, may yet find profuse expenditure necessary to secure a return, or they may have an interest of their own in keeping up this profuse expenditure ; and members who wish to keep their seats cannot always inter- fere with, or ahbrd to risk to offend, their leading committee- men. Candidates are by no means always free agents ; the established " manager " for the party in the borough, or the regular leaders of the committee, are often despotic, and will manage the election their own way, and kick at a candidate's interference. To gain or to keep a seat in Par- liament is a matter of strong desire ; but the desire of local party-chiefs to gain the election is also strong, and is with them an independent motive of action. Now all this is said to show that members, who might in simplicity be expected generally to guide their constituents, may often be oppressed by them ; and the same local exigencies which AND ITS REMEDIES. 117 baffle the free action of members would be impediments for any inhabitants, themselves standing apart from and above impurity, who would desire to ])urify their boroughs. The same circumstances w^ll contribute to explain the slack- ness of zeal on this subject in Parliament, but for which assuredly by this time the evil so long known would have been " stamped out. " Then again, where, as is often the case, both sides are tarred in a borough, there is a disposition to combine to keep things quiet, and not to employ the re- medies w^hich the Legislature has provided, such as criminal prosecutions and actions for penalties and petitions, to say nothing at present of other difficulties in the way of these remedies. For many reasons, then, IMembers of the House of Commons are, as a rule, not disposed to rush forward on this question. Let the system be changed ; well and good, all will rejoice ; but while the system is unaltered, each is more or less unwilling to take any step which may risk the loss of his own seat, highly prized, and attained perhaps after much waiting and by much labour and expense. And is the value set on a seat in the House of Commons unna- tural and inexcusable ? Is it strange that in order to gain or keep a seat men of fair character will reconcile it to their consciences not to see many things which they need not see, and not to make themselves suffer by being more scrupulous than most others ? What is a seat in the House of Commons ? It is not only a possible gateway for some to society or to lucrative office ; that is the least part of the temptation ; it is a necessary condition of political life and political usefulness and political power for all Englishmen who are not Peers. Without a seat in Parliament no man. 118 SECTORAL CORRUPTION however rich or high-born or able, can be a member of any Government, or aspire to the political offices which spur the ambition of English statesmen. The loss of a seat may, even with men of high reputation and great connexions, make a long break in a political career. When Lord Pal- merston lost his seat for Hampshire in 1834, it was not without some difficulty, though he was Foreign Secretary, that he found, after a time, a convenient refuge at Tiverton. When Mr. Gladstone lost his seat for Newark in 1845, he remained for some time out of Parliament. These are men of the highest mark. What must it be for the multitude ? Apart from political office, participation in parliamentary life and its opportunities of usefulness and fame is a laud- able or noble ambition. We may therefore look with some indulgence on cases of submission to existing circumstances and to an apparently unshakeable enthronement of evil. Mr. George Denman, in his late Address at the Man- chester meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, signalized another noAV prevalent form of paltering with the conscience on this matter. Urging the necessity of a higher tone in high quarters, he observed that " members of the House of Commons must be more unanimous in the feeling that to pay thousands of pounds down without inquiry, in order to secure a seat which their own agent will return as a seat which costs him only as many hundreds, is an act unworthy of a gentleman." This is strong language and just. Yet there is a singularly ac- commodating power in men's consciences, under the influ- ences of strong interest and passionate desire, contagion of general laxity, and encouragement given by a general dis- AND ITS REMEDIES. Hi) position, amiable aud not quite unreasonable, to condone in individuals what, in the abstract, none refuse to reprobate. This evil of electoral corruption has taken hold of the nation like a nightmare ; the victims desire to get rid of it, but they are bound down and cannot move. A strong excitement or enthusiasm, such a whirlwind as " fitliest scatters pestdence," is needed to clear the air and enable a sick multitude to breathe freely. As the Tines said, we must have "a thorough awakening of the national conscience to deter men of no more than average scruples from doing as others have done," and " high-minded and honourable men from becoming candidates for seats which can only be attained by bribery." An opinion prevails that there is a disposition among what are called the governing classes to keep up the ex- pensiveness of elections as a virtual property qualification ; and large expenditure and corruption are really insepar- able. This opinion is probably much exaggerated, and reluctance to deal with this subject may be partly other- wise accounted for. It is difficult to believe that any one, if free to choose, would not prefer a cheap to a dear elec- tion. If elections were cheaply conducted, and bribery banished, the chances of election in boroughs for country gentlemen, members of old families, men creditably known in their neighbourhoods, and men also of personal merit, though not locally connected, could not but be increased. The losers by the change would be the new men of wealth, the class of borough-seekers from a distance, who have nothing but money to recommend them, and who outbid all men with moderate fortune^ and swamp all local claims 120 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION with long purses and large patronage in boroughs open to corruption. There is nothing new under the sun, and in the first beginnings of corruption of constituencies, when, two centuries ago, the House of Commons sought to legis- late against the new evil, we find a member saying that " these charges arise, commonly, from competitors that live in another country," and that the residents "must be undone by out-doing him that comes from another country with indirect intentions;" and there was then a general desire to exclude strangers by requiring that all candidates for boroughs as well as counties should have an estate in the respective county.^ Many persons say that they feel a difficulty about this question, thinking it unjust to denounce and punish the poor man who takes ten or twenty pounds for his vote, and to eave untouched the attorney who requires his fees, or the gentry, small and great, who profit by getting places. Many also use this seemingly plausible argument as a pretext for inaction which they find convenient. This objection involves a confusion between two evils which are distinct, and in a great measure independent of each other. If attorneys desert their politics for a retaining fee, or if voters are bribed to vote by gift or promise of places, this is pure bribery ; and no one could distinguish between such cases and cases of bribery with money ; any measures against bribery at elections must apply to all these cases. But the attorney rarely changes his politics for the occasion. If the candidate of his own colour re- 1 Debates on regulating of Elections, Jan. 22, 1674 ; Nov. 12, 1675. — Pari. Hist. iv. G5S, 783. AND ITS REMEDIES. 121 tains liini, he works and votes for him ; if not, he does not act for the other side. It need not be said that there are very many solicitors who are far above this sordid mode of proceeding, as there are doubtless some who are more sordid, and are ready to go whichever way they are re- tained; IN"ow it is very desirable to get rid of the practice, utterly indefensible and degrading to solicitors, of retaining them as election agents and procurers of votes ; but the question of bribery may be separately dealt with. So, again, there is a difference between bribing with patronage and finding places for steady supporters. The former comes within the scope of our subject : the latter, so far as Government patronage is concerned, is part of a separate important subject, — our system of party and patronage. Some of the evils of this system have been well described by Lord Grey, who calls it a system of corruption, but yet seems to regard it as inseparable from Parliamentary Government.^ Whether this be so or not, there is a pal- pable difference between bribery of voters and distribution of favours, from a dukedom or garter, or from a colonial government to a nomination for a clerkship or tidewaiter- ship, among political friends ; and \ve may endeavour to get rid of the scandalous evil of wholesale corruption in borough elections, without attacking the question of government by party. The Government machinery of course may be put in motion for bribery, as it has been done systematically among voters in dockyards ; and here the obvious remedy ^ "Parliamentary Government," by Earl Grey : Chapter on Evils and Dangers of Parliamentary Governmcui. 122 -ELECT on AL CORRUPTION is not the strangely nnjust proposal of the Bill of last session to disfranchise a whole class peculiarly open to demoralization by the Government, but to ensure (which should be easy) action of the Eirst Lord of the Admiralty, who is a member of the Cabinet, to purify dockyard administration from all political influences. If there is corruption among Government-dockyard voters, it is the Government which corruj)ts ; the straight and easy way is to stop the evil at its source, which is the Government itself; and the threatened dockyard victims of Treasury and Admiralty jobbery might fairly have said to Lord Piussell, " Physician, heal thyself" It is also, of course, likely that favours granted by Government to parliamentary supporters for their constituents may be used for bribery ; and it may be more difficult sometimes to detect or defeat bribery of this sort than the vulgar money bribery: but this only brings us back to what has been said before, that we may do a great deal, though unable to do everything, and because we cannot do everything is no reason for doing nothing. There is a Government machinery for superin- tendence of elections, arising out of our system of party government, which doubtless fosters and strengthens the corruption of elections ; tlie political Secretary of the Treasury has his election agent, who again has his myr- midons in London and throughout the country: and the Opposition " whip " has a corresponding organization. As long as there are two political parties, some organization on both sides may be a necessity. But considering that the heads of the two organizations are the actual and the future (or late) Prime Minister, the chief agents the actual AND ITS REMEDIES. 123 and future (or late) Secretary of the Treasury, and the chief assistants London solicitors of high standing, it should be easy for the leader of either party to secure scrupulous adherence to what is right, and scrupulous abstinence from all connivance at impurity and all con- nexion with persons of doubtful or disreputable character. Yet we have lately seen the " private and confidential " correspondence produced at Totnes between the head electioneering agent of Lord Derby's party, Mr. Spofforth, and " my dear Sir," " Eobert Harris, Esq.," the Tory briber of Totnes, containing these passages : — " Failing Mr. Dent, I will endeavour to procure you a commercial man of the spirit you require." — " The only difficulty is finding a man with plenty of money to carry the seat." Mr. Spofforth, when afterwards called before the Commissioners, said that he had not known, at the time of his correspondence with " Eobert Harris, Esq.," what manner of man Eobert Harris was. But Mr. Spofforth must have known what was meant by what he himself wrote of " a man Avith plenty of money to carry the seat," and of the " spirit " required for Totnes. The heads of both parties should, as they easily could, stop all this semi-official subornation of corruption. The magnitude of the scandal of our electoral corruption has been so broadly asserted by leading statesmen during so long a period, — indeed, ever since the passing of the Eeform Act, — that it may well be matter of wonderment that we are where we are in this matter in the year 1866. Not to go back further than 1842 for authoritative decla- rations of widespread and gross electoral corruption, Mr. 124 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION Thomas Duncombe, early in that year, inquired of Sir Robert Peel, whom the general election of 1841 had brought back to power at the head of the Conservative party, if the Government intended to introduce any measure for putting an end to "that wholesale system of bribery to which he believed the vast majority of the members of that House w^ere at present indebted for their seats." ^ Later in the session Mr. Roebuck's famous Committee to investigate a number of cases of corrupt elections, which had led to compromises between peti- tioners and sitting members, produced a startling sensa- tion ; and, in the discussions which followed, Lord Palmer- ston and Lord Derby (then Lord Stanley, and in the House of Commons) both spoke out. Lord Palmerston used these words : — " I speak it with shame and grief, but I verily believe that the extent to which bribery was carried at the last election has exceeded anything that has yet been stated within these walls. These corrupt practices I hold to be one of the most dangerous symptoms of the times, tending more than anything else to sap the foundations of social order, and to undermine the Constitution ; and I hold, also, that it is the bounden duty of Parliament to provide an immediate remedy for the evil." And on the same day on which these words were uttered by Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby said : " No man deplores more deeply, or is prepared to censure more strongly, than I, the bribery and corruption in large towns and in small towns. There is no member of this House 1 Hansard, February 4, 1842. AND ITS RFJIEDIES. 125 who will be prepared to go further in applying, if we can apply, an effectual remedy."^ But after the lapse of four- and-twenty years Parliament has not provided the remedy for the evil which Lord Palmerston, in 1842, declared to be its bounden duty to provide immediately; and Lord Derby has now the opportunity of making an earnest effort in the coming session, and thus gaining an advantage, which would be to his honour, over his predecessor, who omitted the subject in last year's Eeform Bill. After the general election of 1847, Sir John Pakington questioned Lord John Eussell, as ]\Ir. Buncombe five years before had questioned Sir Eobert Peel, asking if the Government in- tended to propose any measure " in consequence of the extent to which bribery and corruption were imputed to have prevailed at the last general election." ^ Lord John Eussell replied, at the moment, that the Government had uo such intention. But the usual disclosures of the Com- mittees arising out of a general election produced the periodical fever against corru]3tion, which has so often appeared and passed away ; and, during the session of 1848, public opinion influenced Lord John Eussell to make an attempt at legislation. Sir Eobert Peel, holding then the position of an impartial and dignified arbiter, had made a further strong appeal to the Government, saying, " I retain the opinion that it was the duty of the noble lord (Lord John Eussell) to make some proposition to the House, when there was such a multitude of instances of gross corruption brought under our notice, with a view of ^ Hansard, May 9, 1842. 2 Ibid., November 25,. 18i7. 126 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION instituting some new inquiry."^ This was on the occasion of a motion for issuins; a new writ for the borousjh of Derby, in which an election committee had reported ex- tensive corruption ; and in the same debate Mr. Cobden liad said, " From an investigation I have made, I am sure that the majority of members of boroughs sent from Eng- land to this House are returned either by bribery, or corruption, or patronage. That is my deliberate opinion, after having taken pains to look into it." Lord Brougham said, August 21, 1848, that "it was absolutely necessary, for the honour of Parliament as well as for the morality of the country, that a stop should be put to the practices which commonly j^revailed all over it at elections, and never to such an extent as at the last." But bad as was, in Lord Brougham's estimation, the general election of 1847, he afterwards pronounced the next, of 1852, to be worse ; saying (February 25, 1853) that " there had hardly ever been a general election in tliis country at which more bribery and corruption had prevailed than at the last ; he feared he might go further and say, so much had prevailed on no former occasion." The general election of 1852 was under Lord Derby's auspices, and that of 1847 had been under Lord John Eussell's. On the eve of the general election of 1852, Lord Derby had again spoken out as to the evil, — " the extended, and he feared he must add, the extending system of bribery at elections."- On the 11th of February, 1853, Lord John Eussell, then acting as leader of the House of Commons in Lord Aberdeen's Government, spoke as follows : " There are no means of 1 llausarJ, June 23, ISiS. • Ibid., March 22, 1S52. AND ITS REMEDIES. 127 Parliamentary representation, however partial and limited, no defects in the distribution of the franchise, however unjust, which are so destructive of public virtue or of the credit of our representativ^e system, as these acts of bribery and corruption." It is needless to carry on the history of our electoral corruption from the general election of 1852 through those of 1857 and 1859, to the last of 18G5. The strong declara- tions of former years of Sir Eobert Peel, Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby, Sir John Pakington and others, still apply. Mr. Baxter, the member for Montrose, made a statement during the last session, the truth of wliich will be univer- sally admitted : " It was not into the existence of the evil that they needed to inquire, but into the remedy. He was sure that lionourable gentlemen would bear him out when he said that there was no part of our constitutional system of which we ought to be so tlioroughly ashamed, and which intelligent foreigners, whether from the Continent or from the other side of the Atlantic, were so apt to put their finger npon, as the continued existence of constituencies which, as they all knew right well, could be bought and sold in the market." ^ Mr. Vivian, member for Glamorganshire, who was Chair- man of the Eeigate and Gal way Election Committees, said, May 29 of last session,^ " that he believed it was generally admitted that probably at no previous time had bribery existed to a larger extent than it had during the late elec- tion." And on the same night Lord Derby said in the 1 Hansard, May 1, ISG'J. 2 iggg^ 128 ELECTORAL CORRUPTION House of Lords, that lie agreed with Lord Grey in thinking that "so far from diminishing, the evil was on the increase, and had perhaps been practised more generally at the last than at any other previous election." Now what has been done during the last four-and- twenty years for abating the evil always so fully recog- nized? The efforts made for this purpose when, after general elections, each renewal of public scandal has pro- duced a passing fever-fit, have all been signal failures : and the failure of all these efforts should now teach wisdom. First, there was Lord John Eussell's measure of 1842, passed in the excitement caused by Mr. Eoebuck's expo- sure of the " compromises " of that year, and specially designed to provide means of investigation of bribery in boroughs, if petitions in the interest of candidates were not presented, or were, after presentation, withdrawn. It contained two principal provisions with this design : 1, K a petition charging bribery were withdrawn, after nomina- tion of an Election Committee, or if any charges of bribery contained in a petition, or asserted in recrimination, were not proceeded with before a Committee, the Committee was empowered to inquire into the causes of abandon- ment, and to report to the House recommending further inquiry ; and if such recommendation w^ere made, the Speaker was to nominate an agent to prosecute the inves- tigation, and the Committee was to reassemble within a fortnight to inquire and report, having all the powers of an Election Committee, but such further inquiry was not in any way to affect the seats. 2. A petition alleging AND ITS REMEDIES. 129 general or extensive bribery, but not to affect tlie seats, presented, with certain conditions of time, after the period prescribed for presentation of election petitions, or a similar petition presented within twenty-one days after the withdrawal of an election petition which had charged bribery, was to be treated and proceeded with as an ordinary election petition, the costs of the petitioners to be borne by the public if the Committee should report that there was reasonable and probable ground for the allegations ; the petitioners, however, being required to enter into recognizances for the sum of 500/. for the event of their being made liable for costs. The results of this piece of legislation have been that, during the four-and- twenty years which have since elapsed, there have been only two cases of further inquiry founded on special reports of Election Committees (the cases of Plymouth and Eyde in 1853), neither of which two inquiries had any practical consequence, and there has not been one single case of a petition for inquiry into bribery in the absence of election petitions. The Act, therefore, has been useless, and it is not difficult to say why. Com- mittees were empowered, but not enjoined, to investigate the causes of withdrawal or abandonment of bribery charges. The Act may have stood in the way of com- promises to withdraw petitions after the nomination of an Election Committee ; but it could in no way affect compromises to prevent presentation of petitions, or to effect their withdrawal Icfore nomination of a Committee ; and the number of timely withdrawals of petitions in pairs during the last session was considerable. Still there have E 130 SECTORAL CORRUPTION been many cases where an Election Committee might have exercised the power given by the Act; but Committees have not brought themselves to consider it a part of their duty to go beyond what the lawyers of the two sides put Ijefore them, and what affects the seat ; they are none of them anxious to prolong their labours by an inquiry which tlie Act leaves at their option ; the office thus left to their tar was edited by that very able writer and independent politician, Mr. John Morley, now the Editor of the Fortnightly Bevievj, in a letter signed "A True Scot." The writer of this letter was the Eev. W. H. "Wylie, a Baptist minister, Scotsman by birth, who was residing in Scotland during the whole of the general election campaign of 1868, and was particularly con- versant with the elections in the West of Scotland, of which Mr. Eussel confesses his ignorance. After de- scribing the intimidation in Scotch counties, as to wliich Mr. G. Young, the present Lord Advocate, is a powerful witness, and which the Editor of the Scotsman was eager ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9, 185 to proclaim and denounce, tlie " True Scot " proceeds to speak of Scotch burglis : — " If excessively large expenditure of money by a can- didate is any evidence of an impure election, tlien many of the Scotch burghs stand condemned. At Dundee, J\Ir. Guthrie and Mr. Armitstead spent 8,352/.; at Falkirk, Mr. Meriy, in a contest of only a few days' duration, expended 2,885/.; at Stirling, Mr. Henry Campbell spent 2,543/. against his unsuccessful opponent's 1,863/.; at Glasgow, the vain attempt of Sir George Campbell to win the third seat was made at an expense of 5,143/.; while Mr. Bouverie retained his hold of Kilmarnock by spending 1,616/. Perhaps the worst case of all, comparatively, was that of the burgh of Greenock, won by the Provost of the town, who, at the outset of his struggle for the parliamentary prize, avowed his intention to 'bleed freely' in order to win, and who was as good, or as bad, as his woi'd, for the official account shows his expenses to have been 2,801/. — a pound a head for each voter — or more, comparatively, than the expenditure at Bradford, which Baron Martin stig- matized as 'iniquitous,' and on account of which Mr. Pipley was most righteously unseated. The petition trial at Greenock, which extended over five days, presents a most gloomy picture of political immorality ; and any one who reads the judgment delivered by Lord Barcaple must wonder why his lordship did not unseat Mr. Grieve. That gentlemen, it was proved, had employed nearly all the solicitors and several accountants in the town as paid canvassers ; and the sums admitted to have been paid to these lawyers for their services in going about influencing voters amounted to nearly 2,000/. The evidence revealed modes of working on the part of these paid legal agents as unscrupulous and immoral as anything that has transpired in the worst English borough. All their acquaintance, gained professionally, with the private business and family affairs of their neighbours, was utilized by them on behalf of their employers, to coerce the timid and to make more 186 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND THE PjIRLIAMENTJRY resolute men remain at least neutral ; and so effectually was their work clone that jMr. Morton, the present chief magistrate of the town, solemnly asserted his belief before Lord Barcaple that a thousand electors had been induced to violate pledges which they had most willingly made at the commencement of the struggle. So dead was the moral sense of many, that even a leading Free Church clergyman of the town, a Eev. Mr. Stark, published a letter, in which he treated the employment of all the lawyers in the capacity of paid agents as an exceedingly good joke, and expressed his warm admiration of the candidate who had the astuteness and the cash to carry out the plan. To do justice to the Scotch Judge who presided at the trial, he had more respect for decency than the minister of religion exhibited. His lordship most cordially condemned the employment of the monstrous regiment of paid legal canvassers as illegitimate, and said it nmst not be repeated. " It woidd be easy to accumulate thousands of facts to show that, in spite of her intelligence, Scotland is very far from being without electoral corruption, much of it more grievous and deplorable in one sense than the gross bribery and treating which abound in certain English boroughs, inasmuch as the Scotch system involves the coercion and turning aside from the path of duty of men who have education, intelligence, convictions, and who in very many instances are susceptible of the anguish which so seized the spirit of poor Lord Glenalmond that he sought deliver- ance by self-destruction." I was the losing candidate and petitioner for Greenock in the general election of 1868. The flippancy and ignorance of Mr. Eussel, in his evidence, can hardly be better tested than by his statement as to this petition. " The Judge threw it out ; it was some very small charge about whisky : " this is j\Ir. Eussel's account of it. Lord Barcaple, the Judge, though he did not upset the election, did not take so slight ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9. 187 a view of the petition. The following is an extract from his judgment : — " I think that the present discussion is a very serious one indeed. I have felt it to be so throughout, and I have felt some matters connected with it to be of extreme diffi- culty. The first that we heard of this election in the evidence was a letter from the sitting Member, in which, certainly, an ill-advised and unfortunate expression was used. He said, writing to his correspondent, ' If I go in I must do it properly to win, and I suppose that Christie is not prepared to bleed freely.' Nom', I do not in the least degree assume (very far from it indeed), that that im- ported any intention on the part of Mr. Grieve to spend any money any illegal way. That is not the thing, and I do not believe it did ; but it did import an intention to come into the field with money ready to be spent, and that freely, for the purpose of overcoming an opponent and gaining the election. I cannot imagine a worse key-note to be struck at the commencement of the contest than this. If it comes out, it will certainly be very imfortunate for the candidate ; and whether it comes out or not, if the election is conducted upon the footing which that seems to indicate, it will be extremely liable to give rise, at least, to suspicions, whether well-founded or not, as to how the election is truly conducted and is gained. " Now it is quite unquestionable, I think, that this deter- mination Avas carried out. There were employed for Mr. Grieve, besides his principal agent, Mr. King, eleven ward agents, as they are called; but that is, as every person who knows Greenock must be perfectly well aware, not an agent for each of eleven wards, for there are only five wards, but three agents for the first ward, and two agents for each of the rest. The result of that was, that a sum of 1,715/. 10.S. was paid to those eleven agents and Mr. King, — Mr. King's bill, however, being only a hundred guineas. I am excluding at present all charges for outlay and clerks ; but for fees, for remuneration, there were bills 188 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND TEE PARLIAMENTARY sent in to the amount of 1,715/. 10s. I think, if it stood alone, and it does not stand alone, the charges of that sort would be a very large sum indeed to expend in this way in an election of this kind. It is true that the elec- tion lasted for a long period of time, and that probably increased the expense. But then the expense was being carried on upon the footing of employing so very large a proportion of the law agents in this place, subject to the payment of a fee for this kind of work, and the charge I observe is quite in general terms, ' To fee for acting as agent in Parliamentary Election.' I think that is the way in which the thing is stated. In the case before me, it is 157/. 10s. that is charged. Then, in addition to those agents, three of whom w^ere thought necessary for one ward, and two for each of the rest, I find there were two accountants who had charges somewhat of the same sort. One of them is an account sent in in these terms : ' June 13th to November 16th, time and trouble employed be- tween those dates in conducting your canvass, 90/.' Now, I must say that I think that that is a very strong course of expenditure, and that it was not likely that an election could be conducted upon that footing without its attracting attention, and by attracting the attention of opponents creating a considerable tendency to look with suspicion at the whole expenditure throughout the election. I do not say that in itself it is a ground upon which an election can be set aside. Possibly, however, I think that in a strong and aggravated case it could. These gentlemen, no doubt, are not paid to vote, but in consequence of their being paid they must not vote, and I do not advise the experiment to be tried to any much greater extent; at least I would rather hope that it will not be again tried to this extent, for I am quite satisfied that it is an unfor- tunate course of procedure." In a case of bribery which was brought forward, the Judge, after announcing that he would not unseat the ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9. 189 member upon it said : " I can conceive other persons taking a very different view of the matter. I think it is a point that balances very nicely indeed : and I have felt, I con- fess, some difficulty in deciding it, but the decision I have announced is that to which, after much consideration, I have come." I have made these references to Lord Barcaple's jvidg- ment in the Greenock case in order to furnish some truth as to a Scotch burgh election, and give an example of the untrustworthiness of the evidence of Mr. Eussel, editor of the Scotsman. It would be much more agreeable to me, if truth allowed me to join in the Committee's complimentary estimate of the purity of Scotch elections, and if I could follow them in attributing the alleged great superiority to superior education. But truth must conquer partiality ; and the best friends of Scotland will not wish to stifle or repress needed improvement by exaggerated praise. I am not so sure about the correctness of the current boasts of Scotch education. A very careful writer, with special oppor- tunities of knowledge, has lately exhibited to the public some startling statistics of education among the Scotch lower classes.^ He publishes official tables showing the state of knowledge as to reading and \\Titing, of all the criminals who entered the Scotch prisons during each of the six years 18G3 — 1868. I will give the statistics for the first and last years of the six. In 18G3, of a total of 22,452 prisoners, 4,457 could not read, and 10,415 could not write; 12,597 could read with difficulty, 542 could 1 "The Public Houses (Scotland) Acts: their Success and Faihire (with important Statistical Tables, &c.)," by John Welsh, Superintendent of Police, Perth. Edinburgh: Menzies and Co., 1869. 190 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY sign name merely, and 9,477 could write with difficulty ; 5,398 only could read well, and 2,018 only write well. In 1868, the total of prisoners was 26,843 ; and 5,539 could not read, and 11,914 could not write ; 14,187 could read with difficulty, 602 could sign name merely, and 12,352 could write with difficulty; 7,117 could read well, and 1,975 write well. Mr. Welsh, the author whom 1 am quoting, attributes this ignorance and crime to drink : and what Scotchmen have called the " national vice " of Scotland may be expected to appear in parliamentary elections, and whisky does play a prominent part on election-days. It was so in Greenock on the election-day of 1868, and some evidence was given in proof. But the Senior Bailie of the burgh, Bailie John Hunter, was brought forward on behalf of the sitting member to swear that on the week of the election he took his turn as presiding magistrate, and was struck with the small number of offences which came that week before the bench, notwithstanding the excite- ment of the election, and that he had at the time expressed his surprise to some of his friends. The Judge natui'ally attached great weight to this evidence, and thus expressed himself in delivering his judgment : — " Then, though it does not fall under my duty to report upon it, I may, in passing, observe that 1 am extremely glad to find, in the course of the evidence, that some appearances, wliich there were at one time, as if there had l)een some extraordinary amount of dissipation connected with the election, and a great and unusual number of drunken people in the streets, did, when the matter came to be fairly investigated, die away altogether. It was stated, upon what seemed to be competent authority, that rather tlie reverse was the case. It is very probable, I think, that Bailie Hunter, who certainly was in a position ELECTIONS C03IMITTEE OF 1868-9. 191 to judge very ^A'eU of tlie matter in some respects, as he left town rather early in the afternoon may not have seen some of the excitement which prevailed, and not unnatu- rally prevailed ; but I must take it upon the whole of the evidence now that the instances which we have had spoken of (and some of them are very important as matters of evidence as regards some of the charges of instances of individual intoxication, or of three or four intoxicated men being seen at one time), were not indi- cative of the general state of the population, even of the working classes of Greenock upon that day." But Bailie Hunter had discovered, after giving his evi- dence, and before the delivery of Lord Barcaple's judgment, that he had made a mistake in swearing that he was the piesiding magistrate that week, and that he liad at that time observed, or related to any one, the paucity of offences which drink might generate. He did not attend the bench that week. All the evidence given on oath by Bailie Hunter, which made the Judge dismiss as valueless the contrary evidence, was a hallucination of the Bailie. He was thinking of the municipal elections week, three weeks later. The Bailie, when he found out his mistake, was anxious to go again into the witness-box and publicly correct the error, but the sitting member's counsel, Mr. Rutherford, Clark, the present Scotch Solicitor-General, whom he consulted, thought it his duty to prevent the Bailie from telling the Judge the truth. INIr. Rutherford Clark is therefore responsible for having allowed the Judge to make an important statement as to the quiet and sobriety of the election, resting on an entire mistake made known to him in time to save the Judge from his involuntary error. It is not likely that the error affected the question of the seat, but Lord Barcaple was 192 SCOTCH ELECTIONS, ETC. inveigled into an erroneous statement which has been quoted as high authority for orderly conduct of an im- pugned Scotch burgh election. The following paper appeared in the shape of two letters in the Edinhurgh Daily Revieio in December 18G9, while it was edited by Mr. Henry Kingsley. SCOTCH ELECTIONS, etc. I PROPOSE to review the evidence on Scotch elections given in the last session of Parliament before the Parlia- mentary and Municipal Elections Committee. It should cause surprise, and it is certainly a matter of regret, that there was only one Scotch member, Mr. Dalglish, on this important Committee, numbering in all twenty-three. It is, doubtless, owing chiefly to this small representa- tion of Scotland in the Committee that the evidence taken as to Scotch elections is so smal], fragmentary, and unsatisfactory. There were indeed only two wit- nesses whose evidence is of primary or substantial character : Mr. A. Eussel, who, being asked his profes- sion, described himself " Editor and part proprietor of the Scotsman" and Mr. J. H. M'Gowan, writer in Dumfries, who in the last general election was agent for Mr. Noel in the Dumfries burghs, and was agent for Sir Sydney Waterlow in the county in his second unsuccessful contest in March 1869. All the other Scotch witnesses came to 194 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY speak to points, chiefly single points of fact, raised in the evidence of those two witnesses. Mr. Otto, Lord Lothian's factor, and Mr. W. Scott, a tenant of Lord Lothian, whose lease being about to expire in 1870 is not to be renewed, spoke to a statement of Mr. Eussel about the refusal to renew this lease in which it is clear that Lord Lothian was greatly misrepresented. Mr. J, Kennedy, a tenant-farmer of Dumfriesshire, Captain Yorstoun, a Dumfriesshire resi- dent, and Provost Harkuess, of Dumfries, contradicted points in Mr. M'Gowan's valuable evidence. The most careful and conscientious may fall into error, and it may be admitted that these three gentlemen have pointed out some errors in some of Mr. M'Gowan's specific statements, but much that is valuable remains uncontradicted, and all indeed that is of substantial value in the Scotch evidence taken by the Committee is in Mr. M'Gowan's evidence. Mr. M'Gowan spoke from special knowledge acquired by practical experience in elections in Dumfries county and burghs, and it is this which gives value to his evi- dence. Mr. Eussel appears to have been called as a repre- sentative of all Scotland, and his information is certainly as sHght as it is general. As Mr. Eussel was the first witness, I will speak of him first. He thinks that "corruption is almost entirely un- known in a pecuniary form, and certainly it is not on the increase." In municipal elections he " never heard of a single case ever being suspected in any burgh." As to undue influence exercised by customers on tradesmen, he " would say that the shopkeepers are rather masters of the situation now in the towns." There has been only one ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9. 195 case of unseating on the score of corruption in Scotland since 1832 [the Falkirk Burghs, 1857]. There was only one petition charging corruption that he can remember after the general election of last year. " That was at Greenock, but the Judge threw it out ; it was some very small charge about whisky." Voters in burghs are apt to be afraid of losing custom or employment, "but it is generally their own idea, I think, rather than any threat, in the burghs." He does not know very much more about the city of Edinburgh elections than others. " There are plenty of people to work them in Edinburgh without me, but I know a good deal about them. I think, although they have lately gone against the way I wished, they are entirely free from anything like corruption. Of course, importunity, deception, and things like that may have been brought to bear, but not corruption certainly." He would not at all admit the absence of intimidation in counties. In the burghs " there is a little, but it is getting very small now." He thinks this is because for twenty years there have been no contests between political parties in burghs, but he admits that there have been plenty of contests between individuals. He scarcely thinks, however, that the nmnicipal inhabitants in burghs take as warm a part in contests between individuals as they would if they turned on politics. He thinks intimidation decidedly on the decrease in all burghs, large or small, especially with the upper classes. But not so in counties ; he has had a good deal of experience in county elections ; and in the counties " there is a great deal of intimidation in the milder form of influence or o2 106 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND THE PARLIAMENTART inducements by favours, and a great deal also by threats." Tenant-farmers, as the lease approaches a close, are open to a good deal of pressure. He would like to see the Ballot introduced. He thinks then " there would be less canvassing, especially in the counties ; it is very irritating, the canvassing, especially by ladies." The new small county voters introduced by the Eeform Act " were most tremendously squeezed at the last election, especially by ladies. . . . There was tremendous pressure brought upon them." There were threats by ladies of withdrawing custom, and threats carried out when the small tradesmen voted against the ladies' wishes. " There were hundreds of cases of that sort." It is chiefly on account of what thus takes place in Scotch counties that he desires the Ballot ; but he thinks the burghs would be better of it too. He does not know what may happen with the new constituencies. " There is a new class that has not been well tried yet, and the practice may come of employers coercing their workmen. We have not got that yet, but Ave have had only one election. We can hardly say that we have had a political contest in the burghs." The chief advantage of the Ballot would be " its making the elections work smoothly, and there would be less of that imtating canvassing and hanging on people day after day." A countess would then not sit for half a day with a level- crossing keeper, trying to get his vote. He has had ex- perience of elections " all over Scotland, except a little of the west, which I do not know much about." He does not think there would be a balance of advantage in the aboli- tion of public nominations. " It is perhaps a little bit of ELECTIOAS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9. 1!)7 sentimftiitality, but I do not like the idea of proceeding on the hypothesis that people cannot meet together for an important political purpose without rioting or otherwise disgracing themselves. I do not think of an election as something shocking or offensive to view, like an execution." One cause of the want of disturbance at nominations in Scotland is " that you cannot hire a mob in Scotland, and, as I said before, the mob is all on one side." In answer to Mr. Gathorne Hardy, the witness admitted that in Perthshire and Fifesliire there were some mobs ; " they were not very serious, but they were ugly." There is " a very vile habit " of spitting on adverse voters ; the mob does this, "just the mob." The ministers of religion use a good deal of influence, " not like Ireland or even England, but there is a good deal. They do not canvass the people, but they harangue a little." They use their pulpits " in favour of particular religious views. I do not think that they would name a candidate. It is very slight, and on both sides. I may mention I scarcely heard of it till the last election. I must say that I think the clergy of the Established Church were very shy of doing it last time : less than before, I think." The following questions and answers I extract entire ; Mr. Eawcett was questioner : — " Are any elections in Scotland very expensive ? — Yes, there have been some very expensive ones, and some very cheap ones. " What is one of the chief items in the expense ; is it paid canvassers ? — No, I do not tliink it is ; conveyance in the counties is a very expensive item. 198 SCOTCH 'ELECTIONS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY " Is it customary in Scotland to have paid agents ? — Yes. " Have you ever thought it would be well to place some restrictions on the employment of paid agents ? — I would rather have restrictions on canvassing than on paid agents. " You would be in favour of restrictions on canvassing ? — If it could be stopped, but I do not know how it could be ; it is a tremendous evil for both sides, " It is not at all usual to spend much upon treating in Scotland, is it ? — No, it is quite unusual. " And there is no increase of drunkenness either on the nomination or the polling day ? — Not very frequently ; perhaps there may be a little in some counties." The witness further said with reference to expenses of elections : — " I may perhaps be misleading the Committee about expenses; I do not know what you call an expensive election. The county of ]VIid-Lothian, where about 2,000 voters polled, cost Lord Dalkeith about 4,000^. — 3/. a vote for the votes he polled. I do not know whether that is considered expensive or not." What innocence, ignorance, and unconcern in a witness picked out of all Scotland to instruct the Committee on Scotch elections ! I have given a faithful summary of all til at is material in Mr. Eussel's evidence. Intimidation in counties, and the ladies very worrying; but nothing wrong in burghs. It is true that the witness has no special knowledge of any town, except Edinburgh, of ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1S68-9. 199 which he says he does not know very iniieli more than of others ; and he confesses that he does not know much about the west. Paid canvassing, he chooses to say, i.s not a chief item of expense. He would rather restrict canvassing than paid agents, but he does not see how canvassing is to be stopped; and as it would be easy to restrict paid agents, it is difficult to see why he would work directly against canvassing, as to which he does not see how it is to be stopped. As to expensiveness of elections, some are expensive and some are cheap ; but he does not know what "expensive" is; 4,000/. for one candidate for a county where 2,000 voters polled, or 3/. a head for the candidate's own voters, seems nothing to him. He would like to see the Ballot, as a protection against undue influences of landlords, factors, clergymen, and above all ladies in counties. It necessarily strikes one as a wonderful variety of human nature that town ladies are so harmless when county ladies are so mis- chievous. They who were instrumental in producing Mr. Eussel as the chief witness on Scotch elections would hardly have been aware of the idiosyncrasy against county ladies which has evidently absorbed his powers of observation and thought. I am far from undervaluing the importance of protecting him and other modest and timid men from the terrors or temptations of females; but 1 think that the Ballot can be recommended on more serious and stronger grounds, and that one who is not so morbidly afraid of being squeezed by a lady or of half a day's conversation with a countess may see in the expensiveuess of Scotcli elections, which Mr. Eussel 200 SCOTCH ELECTIONS 4ND TEE PARITAMENTARY seems to think of no importance, and in the "tremen- dous " evil of paid agents which Mr. Eussel ignores, but to characterize which I borrow his favourite epithet, matters demanding much more serious attention than any spoken of in this witness's flippant and imsatisfactory evidence. The evidence given by Mr. J. H. M' Go wan, writer in Dumfries, before the Committee, is that of a man who really knows something, and contains valuable solid matter. I need not dwell on that part of his evidence which relates to undue influence in the Dumfries county contests. The prevalence of undue influence in the Scotch county contests of 1868 may be taken as undisputed. Dumfriesshire and Eoxburghshire were almost exclusively spoken of before the Committee. The present Lord Advocate spoke out strongly and deliberately soon after the general election, as to landlord intimidation in Wig- townshire; and like accusations are rife as to Ayrshire, Buteshire, and Perthshire. The Conservatives — the losing party in Scotland — fought in most of the county fights. In the cities and burglis the contests were in almost all cases between Liberals. Mr. Russel's assertion that these contests between Liberals are less keen than contests be- tween members of opposite political parties is contrary to all the facts, and to human nature. The exceeding keen- ness of all the many contests between Liberals in cities and burghs is notorious. There seems unfairness, not to say Pharisaical hypocrisy, in gloating over Conservative misdeeds in counties, and slmtting the eyes to Liberal malpractices in burghs. Corrupt practices at elections (and this term includes undue influence as well as bribery) ELECTIOKS COMMITTEE OF 1 808-0. 2(11 are not, and have never been, confined to one political party. The Committee, by calling Mr. M'Gowan, obtained in- siglit into one Scotch burgh constituency, and it is much to be regretted that the Committee did not call witnesses capable of giving them special and reliable information as to other towns. There were fierce contests in Glasgow, Dundee, Leith, Paisley, Greenock, and the Kilmarnock, A}T, Stirling, Wick and Wigtown burghs. Why no in- quiry in any of these cases ? A pamphlet by Mr. Chad- wick, a defeated candidate in the Kihnarnock burghs, suggested much for inquiry. Lord Barcaple's judgment in the case of the Greenock petition, though affirming the validity of the election, was also an excellent brief for an inquiring Committee, and any one who has read that judg- ment will know that it contains many grave strictures on the mode in which the confirmed sitting member's election was conducted, and that Mr. A. Eussel's account of the petition, " It was some very small charge about whisky," is as misleading as most parts of his evidence. On the subject of treating, Mr. M'Gowan stated as fol- lows : — " That he had been engaged in several of the previous elections in the burghs, and at the election of 1865 had had charge of one of the wards in Mr. Ewart's interest ; that his instructions were to hold ward com- mittee meetings nightly in one or other small public- house, and that he believed the other ward agents had like instructions ; that business at these meetings was soon got through, and then drink was ordered in and freely supplied to all comers, even until after the legal 202 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY hour; that was practised extensively for three or four different elections in Dumfries by both parties, and it was most disgusting." In the election of 1868, Mr. M'Gowan, acting for Mr. N'oel, was instructed by this candidate to spend no money in treating, and to hold no committee meetings in public-houses. Mr. Noel firmly said that he would rather lose the election than permit one or the other. In consequence of Mr. Noel's deter- mination, Mr. M'Gowan says that there was no treating on Mr. Jardine's side ; and, pointedly asked to what he attributed the cessation of treating in the Dumfries burghs in 1868, Mr. M'Gowan said : " I attribute it entirely to the views of my own client, giving me instructions to abstain from anything of the kind, and that exercised a salutary effect on the other candidate, who was delighted to give up the old system. Treating," he added, " is illegal, but we should have still continued to practise it unless we had been ordered to the contrary. On both sides it was carried on till the last general election." Provost Harkness, of Dumfries, who had been principal agent for Mr. Ewart in 1865, and under whom, therefore, Mr. M'Gowan acted, Aveut before the Committee to pick holes in Mr. M'Gowan's evidence, but contradicted only the statement that there were nightly ward meetings in each ward. The sys- tematic treating he did not deny. Does any one doubt that similar evidence would have been forthcoming from other burghs to contradict Mr. Eussel's audacious state- ment that expenditure on treating is very unusual in Scotch burgh elections ? Or will any one doubt, that treating would not liave been practised in the interest of the late ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9. 2(13 Mr. Ewart, of all men — one of the most delicate-minded and public-spirited of men — if it had not been an esta- blished and stereotyped mode of conducting elections by agents in Scotch burghs ? Next, as to paid agents : Mr. M'Gowan speaks of them both in the county and in the burghs. In the county, he says, " There was a great deal of influence used by bank agents and lawyers, a most disgusting mode of using in- fluence, and derogatory to all professional dignity." From twelve to fifteen lawyers and bank agents were, he says, on the Conservative side ; they received fees from eighty to one hundred guineas ; " they were paid for the influence they could exercise on their clients more than for any work they could have done in canvassing." There being six districts of the county, with one polling place for each, the Conservative candidate had fifteen agents, and there were five on the Liberal side. But it is fair to add, from Mr. J. Kennedy's evidence, that Sir Sydney Waterlow, the Liberal candidate, took down a staff of professional men from London, so that he might therefore have required fewer agents of the county. But, severely cross-examined, Mr. M'Gowan persisted in saying of Major Walker's fifteen agents, " That they did no work sufficient to justify so large an expenditure, and that they were paid for their influence more than for what they did." So much for the county. As to the Dumfries burghs, Mr. M'Gowan said that Mr. Jardine, who gained the elec- tion, had thirteen paid agents, receiving each of them sums averaging from 200/. to 300/., in a constituency of 2,379 voters ; that in three of the six burghs, numbering 1,356 of 204 SCOTCH ELECTIONS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY the 2,379, there were as many as nine paid agents, while Mr. M'Gowan was sole agent on Mr. Noel's side. " I think," said Air. M'Gowan, " that the Ballot is insufficient in itself, unless something is done to put a stop to can- vassing by factors, and lawyers, and bank agents, who get a fee in consideration of the influence that they bring to bear. I should like to see canvassing entirely done away with. It was done entirely away with on our side in the burghs. I never saw it done before, but it was done in our case. I think that if the Ballot were introduced, and canvassing were done away with, we should attain to almost absolute purity." Mr. Noel was a perfect stranger in the burghs : " He had never been in the town before, and knew nobody." Mr. Jardine is a territorial magnate of the county, and has much property in one of the burghs. What need can there be for thirteen agents, paid with large fees, to indoctrinate the burgh voters in the superior merits of the local candi- date ? The almost entire absence of money bribery in Scotch elections is ascribed by both Mr. Kussel and Mr. M'Gowan to the spread of education. Why do these edu- cated voters need so many writers, so highly paid, for dry- nurses ? The work of these writers, says Mr. M'Gowan, with an honourable pride in his profession, " is a most disgusting mode of using influence, and derogatory to all professional dignity." But Mr. Eussel told the Committee that he did not think paid canvassing was a chief item in the expense of Scotch elections. I believe that there has been no Par- liamentary pulilication of the returned expenses of elec- ELECTIONS COMMITTEE OF 1868-9. 205 tions for the general election of 1868. I go back to the published returns for the general election of 1865, and give some information from them to show the value of IVIr. Eussel's opinion. I find that in the Dumfries burghs in 1865, Mr. Ewart paid to agents, exclusive of tjieir travel- ling expenses, 782/. 18s. 9d. out of a total expenditure of 1,204/. 3s. Ad. ; and that his opponent, Colonel Kennedy, paid 443/. 10s. to agents, out of a total of 730/. 15s. Qd. I find that in the Ayr burghs, Mr. Craufurd's payment for agency and disbursements was 311/, 15s., out of a total of 722/. 19s. M. ; while his opponent, Mr. Oswald, paid 1,090/. to agents, out of a total of 1,686/. 13s. M} I find that in Glasgow, Mr. Graham paid 1,936/. 19s. to agents, out of a total expenditure of 3,803/. 5s. Zd. ; Mr. Dalglish 329/. 2s. 9f/. to agents, out of a total of 1,506/. 7s. M. ; and Mr. Ramsay 2,032/. 8s. M. out of a total of 3,143/. 10s. lid. Passing to the counties, I find that in Dumbartonshire Mr. Smollett paid 826/. 10s. lOt/. to agents and canvassers, out of a total of 1,728/. 13s. ; and Mr. Stirling, 680/. 8s. IQd. to agents, out of a total of 1,490/. 8s. lid In Inverness- shire, Mr. H. Baillie paid 1,715/. Qs. 6d. to agents, out of 2,894/. 4s. 10c/. total ; and his opponent. Sir G. M. Grant, 1,275/. lis. 7d. out of a total of 2,146/. 45. lOd. In Kin- cardineshire, Mr. Nicol paid 1,011/. 17s. lOd. to agents, out of a total of 2,197/. 7s. 7d. ; and his opponent. Sir Thomas ^ I am informed by a gentleman who is intimately acr|uainted. with the Ayr burghs that the Liberal opposition to the i>resent Liberal member has invariably proceeded from the local writers, who are discontented with a representative who has steadily refused to employ them as paid agents. Mr. Craufurd's expenses in this direction have ahvays been much less than those of other Scotch members. 206 SCOTCH ELECTIONS, ETC. Gladstone, 910/. 14s. 2d,, out of a total of 1,625/. 10s. U. And in Eenfrewsliire, Captain Speirs paid to agents 2,588/. 10s. 3f/. out of a total of 4,440/. ; and his opponent, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, 2,644/. 8s. 5c/, to agents, out of a total of 4,375/. 7s. Id. It appears, then, that paid canvassing, after all, does make a chief item in the expenses of Scotch elections. It is little creditable to the editor of a Liberal paper, the Scotsman, to have gone before a Parliamentary Committee to state what is so far from truth, and throw his shield over a mode of conducting Scotch elections by systematic paid canvassing, which involves corrupt influences, and, being principally practised by writers, brings discredit on an honourable profession. THE END. R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 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