Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/88

 July, 1839; when they set on foot the plan of purchasing men their freedoms, on their written promise to vote as a named individual should direct; and the channels, the sums disbursed (three hundred sovereigns at the first swoop), were all matters of notoriety, and brought before the cognizance of a public meeting at the time. Of course it is not an occasion to be hard upon the Tories for following the example. Rightly does Sir Robert Peel say, 'There was something besides the Chandos clause that carried the election at Hull.' If he will come to Hull, we will show him to his heart's content And when we ask to have the strength of bribery and intimidation weakened by the Ballot, the Whigs tell us they will make it an open question, as the best means of putting it down; and the Tories call it our 'cowardly, mean, lying, hypocritical, sneaking, un-English, unmanly invention,' though' all the time, the lords and honourable gentlemen who call the Ballot a 'cowardly, mean, lying, hypocritical, sneaking, un-English, unmanly invention,' are using it in their own