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    Untitled Article

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    THE BRIBER CAUGHT.

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    hibition , which the Governments of France , Spain , and Belgium have , for a considerable period , laid on the export of rags . . They ¦ wan t to keep this raw material of a noble art as much as possible for the use of their own people . They do npt encourage the use and manufacture of clothing , and so increase the quantity of rags they rather repress these by taxing the import of the raw materials and the finished article ; they frown , too , on luxury of dress , but carefully monopolise their own rags . They do what our protectionists would have had us do with our coal . They

    were very desirous to promote the export of the rails aiid cutlery made by * its means , but wished to keep all our coal for ourselves . The on ^ error is equal to the other ; but the protectionists abroad keep in an old and decredited path ; our protectionists wanted to make us re-enter it . There is no probability of man wanting coal more than rags , or rags more than coal , if the relations established by nature between his exertions and the external world be not interrupted . But the Governments of the Continent first stop their people from getting plenty of clothing , and carry out their interference by maintaining a monopoly of rags .

    It is a complete mistake to suppose , as the Times did , and wrote an elaborate essay on the supposition , that the recent treaty concluded with France made any difference on this subject , or has in any degree aggravated the evil . By that treaty it is provided that a duty shall be imposed bri paper-hangings and cardboard imported from France equal to our excise duty on paper . Subsequently , however , to its . being concluded , and wholly independent of it , Mr . Gladstone proposed , in consequence of the manifest evils of this duty , to repeal it , and at the same time to repeal all the customs' duties on the import of

    paper . To have continued them when he abolished the excise du , ty < woitld have left his work incomplete , and given a pecuniary protection to our paper-makers , against competition such as lias now been taken away from nearly every other description of manufacturer . The negotiators of the commercial treaty , though vehemently scolded by the Tvnies , had nothing whatever to do with the abolition of the excise duty , and could take no steps to procure the abolition of the prohibition to export rags from France . Only unreflecting ignorance could blame them for the new conditions of the paper trade resulting from Mr . Gladstone ' s design of abolishing the excise duties . .. ;

    least in the early stages of their existence , to manufacture paper for themselves , operate in . the same direction . The number of uses to whicb paper may be put , and the demand for it , are , no doubt , very rapidly increasing , but so are also the supplies ^ of races ' -and of the auxiliary materials of paper . If the useof . it be a necessity of civilization , we have good reason to infer from these facts that the relations between the production of paper , the production of rags , the use ^ f clothing , and the march of civilization will be undisturbed . There is no good ground , consequently , for the present alarm , that printing and publishing may be impeded from a deficiency of paper . The United States , which more than any other country , except our own possessions , is our largest customer for stationery and paper hangings , and our very largest customer for printed books , does not in return , except occasionally , and in very small quantities , send us any rags . In fact , the States export books and maps and stationery to a considerable extent ; and they not only use all their own rags , but they are successful competitors w * ith us for the comparatively few rags ^ which the half-clothed Italians have to dispose of . In the natural course of things , the Americans should continue to derive from us not only nmch literature , but much stationery , and should in . return contribute to our paper manufacture a considerable supply of the raw material . The productions of the intellect have however been more free here than the productions of the hand , and the States have in consequence had the advantagesof our wiexcised minds , and have made for themselves unexcise-d ' paper . For books—so far as the intellectual production i& concerned—they continue to be our best customers ; but our excise duties on paper , and tlieir freedom from such duties , have enabled them fully to equal if not to surpass us . the manufacture . ' Such facts corroborate the opinion that the products of our . hands for the general welfare and the general progress , whatever interested parties may say to the contrary-,, should no more be subject to an excise than the products of our intellect . ¦ ' - -

    The Treaty makes no difference in the regulations of France on this subject , and leaves our paper-makers with all their former sources of supply as full and uninterrupted as ever they were . It is not improbable , however , that the anxiety expressed to get rags by new regulations may induce the Governments of Prussia , Russia , the Hanse Towns , Ital y * &e . .- —whence wedraw supplies- —to imitate the Government of France , and tax the export of rags , or make the non-Texportation a means of extorting some concessions from a weak Government unfavourable to freedom . In the year 1858

    we imported 11 , 379 tons of rags , equal to about one seventh par I ; of the paper made in the . same year—for that portion only of our supply are we dependent on others . The bulk of them came from Prussia and Hamburg ; the remainder from Russia , Holland , Tuscany , the Papal States , and our own possessions , From all these sources we shall probably continue to derive as many nigs as before , and probably an inci easing quantity . All the countries of the world , except those iii which the pro * hibition to export rags- is continued , will be open to our rag importers ; and with our extensive trade they must be deficient in energy and skill if we cannot obtain supplies of rags better than

    any other country . The present consequence of the . prohibition ia to make rags fifty per cent , cheaper in France than in England , which carries with it the certainty that rags from other countries will come to England , not go to France . The prohibition to export rags , which keeps the price loiy , extinguishes the power to buy elsewhere ; and if the prohibition secure the French manufacturer the use of all the rags made in France , it excludes the raga of other countries from his use . The advantages of such a law are on the side of the non ^ prolubiting countries . Everywhere , as the people increase , in . numbers and prosperity , they will use mpre clothing ; but the French increase very slowly in comparison to tlic populations , except the Italian , * . .. V i T IS j . l /» ... Ml . i thereforewill not

    from which we dorive rags . France , , moroaso hex * paper manufacture by the prohibition . If there be a great increase in the demand for paper as civilisation advances , there is also an equal or greater increase in the demand for clothing . Throughput the countries which export xags , and in almost every part of Europe , the multitude is very imperfectly clothed .. Now , without any effort on the part of Governments , or paper manufacturers , the present activity of trade , arising from increasing freedom and increasing prosperity , ia sure to cause a continual and rapid increase in the demand nnd supply of olothing and of rags . All the nieasuros , including the Treaty , for permitting' or promoting commerce tent ! to those ends . The rapid increase in ourcolonittl population , and their inability , at

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    rpHE briber has at last been tracked to his lair . T he law , X hitherto believed to be inoperative , has vindicated itself ; not , it is true , without much difficulty , but still with sufficient potency to establish a conviction , which will lead the way to other results . The borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed has long enjoyed , politically , a nascent notoriety . Respectable candidates avoided its representation as they would a plague . Berwick ; consequently , attentionof millionaire

    became the object of the political s s , or adventurers , backed by the Reform or Carlton Clubs . What Walpole said with respect to men , Berwick always proved for constituencies . It had its price ; and so long had the practice prevailed , that Berwick began to imagine the right to dispose of votes to the hig hest bidder was a constitutional prerogative vested in its voters . It was in vain that petitions wiu'c presented by defeated candidates , the re-issued writ only caused a repetition of the sale of votes , so that at last Berwick cuased to be offended at a mere imputation of bribery .

    At the last general election Messrs . GoitnoN and Eakxe , the Conservatives , defeated the Liberals , Messrs . Majoiu . banksiiikI Staplkton . A petition was presented , and then a compromise was effected of a curious character . Mr . Eable was to sock tlic retirement of the Chiltem Hundreds , and UliLr . Majoutbanks was to come in unopposed . Mr . Gobuon and ]\ Ir . Eakj-e bound themselves not to interfere , but to advise their friends to allow Mr . Majoiuhanks " a walk over . " But the local Tories were not so to be disposed of ; so setting aside the practical ' part of the fact , they started Mr . Htciiakd Hopgsox as a candidate . All inducements to retire were resisted by the Tories . At tlio poll Mr . Majoutbanks was returned by a majority of one / There happens to exist in the counties of Northumberland nnd Durham an association . called the Northern Reform Union ,

    of which a gentleman well known to reformers , Mr . Joseph Covojn , juu ., is the head . Constituting its local members at Berwick a vigilance committee , and Messrs . Cowjen , Rred , and Gijlmoue n siib-committee ait Newcastle to watch events , the Union soon discovered that Mi ' . MAjoiiiBANKs ' a election hnd been procured by bribery . A report was published , animadverting in strong terms upon the friends of Mr . Majoki banks . Evidence was taken , and writs for ' penalties issued . The Berwick Liberals fairly took nlurrn , and taking advantage of fcho strong language of the report , ' in which the names of six gehtlemen ncoused of bribery were mentioned , ns innnv notions for libel wore commenced . Those actions , nnd those for the penalties , went down for trial to the Northumberland Assists last . week .

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    226 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . ( March 10 , 186 a .. .

    The Briber Caught.

    - ' ¦ ' ' THE BRIBER CAUGHT .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2337/page/6/