Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/158

 proved by experience, would stand in need of no more than that announcement of their names which the Gazetted list would publish. A man of less distinction might require something more; possibly the charges of some public meetings, and of advertisements or printed addresses, declaring his general views on political questions. This, perhaps, would be less necessary, if the candidate were a person of any mark in literature or science, and had in his previous career become known to the public. Those who would probably be compelled to spend most, would be the persons who have the least to recommend them besides their money.

The following clause would relieve the candidates from all necessary expenses, except the payment which it is proposed shall be made to the Registrars:—

It has been well said that the remedy for bribery, under whatever form of temptation, is to be found, not in penal laws, but in taking from one side the disposition to give, and from the other the willingness to receive bribes. It must be sought for in a consideration of the motives which ordinarily govern the conduct of mankind. The causes of bribery, and especially those causes to which most of its virulence and nearly all its public evils are owing, are not difficult to discover; and once discovered, it will be found that they are not difficult to remove, so far as they stand in the way of the