Page:Once a Week, Series 1, Volume II Dec 1859 to June 1860.pdf/186

. 18, 1860.] of Egremont, in the Tory interest—the town-clerk, who was the Treasury agent, pawned the charters and all the records of the corporation to raise funds to carry on the campaign (in plain English, to bribe the freeholders), and afterwards the Treasury redeemed the pledge. They could not do such a thing now-a-days,” added our companion, with a sigh, “not even to turn out a ; Mr. Williams would be down upon them, for the sum was too large to be stuck into the miscellaneous expenses. Well, Mr. Nesbitt’s son afterwards sold the borough, for 15,000l., to the Earl of Darlington and Mr. Barwell, the nabob and millionnaire, who, by the way, lived to want half-a-crown, and whose four daughters received 80,000l. a-piece after his death, when his claim against Government was paid. Every freeman of Winchilsea was paid 100l. for his vote.”

“That was something like ‘bribery, ” replied Charlie. “Why, 5l, in these degenerate days, is almost as much as a man can get. Now, what is the largest sum you ever heard of, as having been given for a single vote, Mr. Minkinshaw?”

“Well!” replied he, solemnly; “this I know—an elector of Scarborough received 1000l. for his vote. There were only forty-four electors in all; forty-two of them had polled—the numbers were equal, and the forty-third man was at sea, but the voter I speak of did not know it. He’d have asked 5000l. if he had, and, by Jove, sir!” exclaimed the old gentleman, this time venting his superfluous energies upon his own thigh, “he’d have got it!”

“The elections that were contested must have cost something, if people were bribed at that rate,” said Charlie, who had taken upon himself the office of ring-master to Mr. Minkinshaw and his hobby.

The Performer shook his head severely, and then winked. He next took a long breath, and spoke as follows:

“The election for the county of York, in 1807, lasted fifteen days, and cost the three candidates half a million of money! The expenses of Mr. Wilberforce, the philanthropist, who stood at the head of the poll, were defrayed by public subscription, and those of Lord Milton (afterwards Earl Fitzwilliam), created an annual charge of 17.000l. on his estate. The unsuccessful candidate, the Hon. H. Lascelles, a son of the Earl of Harewood, and a Tory, spent even more than that. Never was there so vigorously contested an election, either before or since. The roads in all directions were crowded each day with every description of machine that could go on wheels, from my lady’s barouche down to the tanner’s tax-cart,—some with eight horses to them, taking voters up to the poll. You may judge how hard the work must have been, when I tell you, that upwards of 23,000 votes were recorded, and that a hundred and twenty horses were found dead upon the roads during the polling! Two thousand electors a-day came into York City, and provisions, that would have lasted its inhabitants for twelve months, were consumed in a fortnight! Another famous election was that of Shrewsbury, in the year 1797. It was contested between the late Lord Berwick, and Sir Richard Hill, of Hawkestone,—their brothers being the candidates. It cost them more than one hundred thousand pounds—all spent in bribery and corruption of one kind or another.

“You think, I dare say,” continued Mr. Minkinshaw, addressing Charlie, “that the proceedings of the fellows your friend there (contemptuously indicating me) was reading about just now, are new election dodges. Lord bless your innocence! they are as old as the hills. We’ve had ‘Pedlars,’ and ‘Punches,’ and ‘Men in the Moon,’ dropping down into a county or borough, with their pack filled with bank notes for circulation amongst the electors, at any general election since the year 1724, when the first Parliament of King George the Second was elected. ‘Punch’ was old in 1774, when an alderman of Shaftesbury, dressed up in a mask and hump, and hidden in a dark room, bribed the electors with twenty guineas a man, paying the money through a hole in the door. Some blundering of outsiders led to an election petition, and in consequence of the disclosures that were made, Mr. Mortimer, the unsuccessful candidate, brought actions against a Mr. Sykes—a supporter of his opponent—for twenty-six distinct acts of bribery, committed previously to the election. The causes were tried at the assizes at Dorchester, on the 27th of July, 1776, before Sir James Eyre, when the plaintiff obtained a verdict for twenty-two penalties, amounting altogether to eleven thousand pounds!”

“That was paying for his whistle,” said Charlie.

“Served him right, for acting so clumsily,” replied Minkinshaw. “Millions of money have been spent in bribery and corruption, and who can say—except those whose interest it is to keep the secret—how it went, or to whom? I tell you, men were bought and sold, like sheep, in the pocket-boroughs, and sold themselves to the highest bidder in the counties and boroughs that were open to the contests. A drunken tinker might have ridden to the poll in the carriage of a Duchess, if the time were short and the numbers equal. During the polling for some northern county,—I forget exactly which now,—one of the candidates found out that two of the freeholders were living away in Cornwall. He sent for them, and they were brought in two post-chaises (each would have his own), a distance of two hundred and ninety miles, at an expense of above a hundred pounds, for they lived like fighting-cocks on the road. They were paid a hundred and fifty each besides, for coming; but the best of the joke was, that when they arrived they were so drunk that they both voted against the very man who had brought them!”

“That was a sell!” exclaimed Charlie. “You told us just now, that the Government of the day redeemed the archives of Winchilsea. Was public money often expended in bribery for the Ministerial candidate?”

“Not often in the present century, but previous—”

The train began to stop.

“''Bletchley! Change here for the Bedford Line,''” shouted the porters. Our “podgy” friend started to his feet, caught up his coats and hat-box, and