date

2 Jan y 1810 Parl y Reform
2 Jan y 1810

Parl y Reform

Ch.14. II. Electors

4

2

If the above position be just /true/, then it is in the case and by the existence of the pocket boroughs that the freedom of election is most harshly /badly/ trenched upon, and most mischief done: next to them, in the case and by the existence of the close boroughs: lastly, perhaps in the case, viz. by accident, but not at all by the existence, of the open boroughs.

Unfortunately, I mean for the credit of this argument such a weight /so formidable a weight in the shape/ of authority to contend against, the order in which these several results /state of things/ in the scale of mischievousness these several states of things appear to range themselves in the scale of disreputableness is directly the reverse, in the scale of mischievousness or at least of disreputableness as marked out /laid down/ by the highest authority directly the reverse.

1. The Borough being an open one, such as Norwich for example, suppose the taunt of bribery /undue influence/ to have found its way into it. bribery in the shapes in which it will make its appearance. Behold the whole number of Electors, or at least the whole majority, and half a guinea a piece the sum at one time rumoured the bribe. Here we see gain gain of the "driest and most sordid" kind raining down in a vast shower: a number of drops not fewer than 4000 or 5000: laps, not fewer than that number to receive it: pairs of eyes not fewer than that number over and above bended[?] importunate[?] viewing it. Here then is not only the very driest and most sordid kind it being the nature of gain to be the more sordid the less there is of it, but the "scandal great": so great that it seems difficult to conceive how even by such an instrument even as a public auction it could have been made greater.
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    Such is the order in which the three cases stand in order of mischievousness if constructed upon my principle. And /But/ already on the scale of mischievousness as constructed upon the principle /principles employed/ brought out by the Right[?] Honourable and Official hand, it must already have been suspected at least if not perceived, that the order is exactly the reverse /reversed/.

    1. At the top of the scale stands the case of the open borough. I mean the[?] case of every open borough in which it happens to the freedom of the Electors to experience any sort of disturbance: {and in particular from that sort of disturbance to which it is most exposed, and which is called bribery.} /in any occasion undue influence comes in any shape to be exercised to exercise itself: and in particular in the shape of bribery, which if the number of the Electors be to a certain degree considerable, is the only shape in which in /to/ any considerable extent it in general can be exercised./

    Here in the first place is the dry and sordid gain. To a "taint and contamination" of this same sort, true it is, that the close borough is also exposed. But in the first place the number of parcels in which in the case of the open borough the dry and sordid matter may be seen dropping down is to the amount of many times it is difficult /not easy/ to say how many times as great. 2. Then comes the " scandal": which {as already observed} could not /scarce/ be greater if the votes were " advertised for sale by Public Auction."
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    How wide the difference is between the two scales, viz. that of mischievousness according to my humble conception of it and that of disreputableness will framed upon the principle laid down or pursued by the Right Honorable Gentleman now appear /appear already/ not only from the difference in the places occupied in the two scales by the same cases {of corruption} but even from the difference in respect of the number of the degrees.

    For so far as concerns the situation of Members here already, here at the second degree it will be seen, under the scale of disreputableness. For no one of the three other articles can any place be found in it.

    First as to the case which on the scale of mischievousness constituted the highest degree, viz. the case of habitual Court dependence alias Ministerial dependence alias diet' which is as much as to say corrupt dependence. For this case in the black book of our Right Honourable censor morum I can not after the most careful scrutiny find any thing like a place any where.

    His scale of honour or say reputableness supposing him to have constructed any such scale, is the sort of scale in which, as far as the evidence goes indications afforded by this document extend, the place for this case would /might rather/ be to be looked for, "In the election of Members to serve in this House" a proposition plainly /indisputably/ implied in this document /instruction/ if not directly asserted /declared/ is that "the virtuous and generous motives of friendship and affection" ought to have in conjunction with "the possessions of property" ... "a predominating influence.
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    2. Next to the above case on the scale of disreputableness would come beyond dispute that other by which the abhorrence of the Right Honorable Gentleman for the dry and sordid matter was actually called forth, viz the sale /"the public sale"/ of seals the " traffic" in seals.

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