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    106 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. |_F...

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    THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL. ~nON.A LOCTJTA ES...

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    Reform;—Corrupt Cost Of Elections. Pa.Ki...

    festly indispensable that some new and -. stringent law should he made to check the misuse of money at elections . As the case now stands , there is literally no limit to the extent to which honest candidates may be plundered , or to which profligate candidates may diffuse the taint of corruption . Excessively large constituencies are indeed a fertile source of the former evil , as excessively small constituencies are of the latter . But we must not deceive ourselves with the hope that these are the only causes , or that if they were removed either the one or the other would thereupon cease . Take , for example , Norwich , containing six thousand one hundred and seventy-five electors , —or Hull , with its constituency of five thousand four hundred and ninety-four ;

    vet both of them unhappily notorious for the extravagant cost of their elections , and for the gross misuse of money by both Whig niul Tory agents . Nobody at all conversant with such matters , speaking under a sense of * moral responsibility , will venture to say that the ' mere , lowering of the franchise from £ 10 to £ 6 would ' put a stop to extravagant or corrupt expenditure in either place . / .. The price , of votes in the market would in all probability be lowered in proportion as their number was increased ; .. but no moral or political restraint whatever would thereby be imposed . Tt is folly to talk of increased risk of exposure when risk there is literally none . Practically , bribery is not an offence punishable by law , no more than was witchcraft in our grandfathers' time , though certain obsolete statutes declared it to be so . Repressive laws that , don ' t and can't work are , to all intents and purposes , no laws at all , and at present we have no other . The revelations made

    in the report , of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into corrupt practices at Gloucester , must stagger the most incredulous dreamer about purity . Every witness of experience in contested elections — -including Sir William Hayteu , the late Secretary to the Treasury ; Admiral "Berkeley , who was frequently returned for ( rlpueestef ; Sir Robert Garden , the late Tory member ,, and Mr . Phice , his former Whig colleague—concurred in scoffing at the hypocritical nullity ~ of what is " called the Corrupt Practices Prevention A . ct ; and the Commissioners , in very significant terms , intimate their coincidence in the popular belief that Parliament never intended that Act as anything hilt-a screen and a sham . They accompany this intimation with a most : positive and precise . decoration'of \ i . ts absolute inutility , ami with some useful . suggestions on various points whenever the subject shall be seriously taken in hand . One of these is , that any candidate should be

    precluded , under the penalties of a . i sdemeanour , from paying any money , either before or after the election , save through the election agent and auditor ; another is that some limit . shall be placed on the employment of solicitors as agents , and of humble men as messengers or subordinate canvassers . Mr . Melloh , Q . C ., who represents Nottingham in the present House of Commons , has obtained leave to bring in a bill embodying these suggestions , as well as some others professedly aimed at the direct traffic in votes . He proposes that either the briber or the bribed should be exonerated from legal consequences upon his turning approver , and giving true testimony in a criminal proceeding against the other party to the crime ; and he would give a

    discretion to the judge who tried the case to sentence , the offender to hard labour as well us imprisonment for six months . Hut who is to . prosecute ? Mr . Mellqk says anybody that likes , provided he gives security to the extent of $ 200 for the payment of costs in case the charge turned out to be unsustainable ! We fervently hope the House of Coihmons will spare itself the ignominy which must attach to the enactment of n law . so flagrantly farcical and worse than foolish , , Prosecutions for bribery will never be undertaken by private individuals , save in rare and worthless instances , where . some personal object is to be gained . Prosecutions for other offences are undertaken daily , from an active sense of individual wrong or injury sustained . But it is contrary to the instincts of English life that a respectable citizen should turn ( Motor against his felloW-oitizens who have done him no harm : and if prosecutions were attempted by

    any mere party tool or hack , the disgust and resistance they would provoke would speedily wurp the integrity of witnesses , nnd paralyze the judicial rigour of jurors . There is but one way of dealing with the matter , and that is by appointing ai mimbor of men of standing , learning , nnd integrity to initiate , prepare , and conduct prosecutions in the name of the Crown , as for an oll'once against the public health and public weal . The expense of such proceedings ought in i'vory case to be borne by the county or borough where the offence had been committed } for we take it as now almost conceded , that nothing is more important than to bring the moral pressure of the community to bear upon the tendencies to doctoral corruption . A difficulty has been suggested Nyith regard to juries , who , it is supposed , would bo unwilling to give verdicts against their neighbours or townsmen : and some persons of great weight nnd oxporience have recommonded that upon any

    auflicient allegation on oath of such a danger to the due administration of justice , the criminal plaint should be heard in art adjoining , county . But , upon the whole , we are not much inclined to fear the defeat of justice by the means referred to . A much more serious question seems to us to arise upon the motive which the receiver of a bribe must have to turn approver upon the person who offered it . We are , in general , very averse to holding out the inducements of pecuniary rewards for testimony . We feelall the danger with which the practice is surrounded , and we should much rather try in the first instance what could be accomfor the infiiction

    plished without resort to such stimulants . As of hard labour as an aggravation of punishment , we own we think it inapplicable to the nature of the case . Those who arclikely to be found guilty of the offence , must often be of a class to whom such a punishment would be . exceedingly severe , while to others , not less criminal , it would , by reason of their previous habits , be a matter of comparative indifference ; and yet if the judge were to sentence a merchant or a solicitor to mere imprisonment for having given five pounds to a working man for his vote , and on the same day to sentence a shipwright . or a weaver to the same term of incarceration with hard labour , nothing would

    clear the . bench from the imputation of class injustice . Y \ e had much rather see the establishment of certainty than of severity in the administration of our criminal code ; and we know the two things to be incompatible . .

    106 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. |_F...

    106 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . |_ Fkb . 4 > I 860 ;

    The Pope's Encyclical. ~Non.A Loctjta Es...

    THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL . ~ nON . A LOCTJTA EST ; so there is an end of controversy . JlAj " No Surrender ' " is the mot d ' ordre shouted from the Vatican , and handed on with the fiery cross throughout the serried legions of the faithful . The Encyclical is the answer to the Imperial advice-to the Curia to abandon the iEmilian provinces , and to be quick about it , if it would not throw away the last chance of keeping T 5 mbria and the Marches ; Nor is there any mistaking the spirit which breathes throughout this fresh Papal manifesto . It is war to the knife . With no le ^ deadly purpose , if with the same cat-like steaithiness as marked the ; distribution of the cliupatties amongst our Sepoy reginientthree - year ' ago , is the signal of revolt against the secular power > sent through the sable ranks by the Chief Brahmin and Apostle of Legitimacy . . -, ¦ ., ¦ .

    There is the usual amalgam of whine and menace in the missive . A holy dampness suffuses the whole , although the editors , for the most part , have spared the handkerchiefs of their readers by considerately suppressing the weeping prophet's moistest passages as " verbiage ; " leaving us to supply the sighs and groans for ourselves . Everybody know * th « t , like another Job , with whom Mr . Dickens has familiarised us all , the illustrious sufferer who again passionately calls on " all Patriarchs , Primates , Archbishops , Bishops , and other Ordinaiies in grace and communion with the Holy See , " for sympathy and help , always has the maju laid on , and a servicepipe ever ready for pious uses .

    One is hardly surprised to find' a rather wore bizarre patchwork of prayers and profane swearing in this instance , than on those less exciting occasions when none but spiritual interests have been at stake . The " buttered thunder "has certainly been laid under heavy contribution . But whether wetted with , tears or scorched by blasphemies , every shred of the document speaks one and the ' same unfaltering language . An unflinching and proud resolve not to budge a foot ' s breadth in the presence of any power however imposing , any reason however urgent , or any represehtatiohs however respectful , is ostentatiously paraded throughout . Appeals to pity , abject as those of an unprotected

    female , are lavishly resorted to ; but it is only in reinforcement of feminine obstinacy , and for the purpose of enabling that wilful woman , the Church , who will have her way , the better to carry her point ,. Non possumns is still her well-worn text . The pld flag , with the device of the Cross Keys , is once more nailed to the creaking mast of Petek ' s labouring bark , and with decks cleared for action the crew of the , " Immaculate Conception " hurls defiance at tho enemy . Sink or swim , all or nOnc must be saved . The Holy Father cannot yield one jot of his sovereign he

    authority , which , as he adroitly reminds his large family , holds only as a life-tenant , and as a sort of trustee for them all . So tho persecuted Pontiff , cheerfully tucking tho powder-bags under his arms , calmly prepares for tho stake , and is ready to die in defence of his jure divino and indefeasible " right " to oppress and torture his subjects ,. Between tho " apostolic liberty " of roasting them or being roasted himself , he leaves the Imperial Inquisition no possible alternative , unless , indeed , the civil powers would like a turn on the spit . Of course tho Pope is terribly in earnest . Wo are to believe that ho really courts martyrdom in this most singular of causes , /' .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 4, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04021860/page/6/