date

3 Dec 1809 Parl y Reform Influence
3 Dec 1809

Parl y Reform

Influence

Ch.17

'.2. Error cause

55

3

We have now a key to that virtue which under the existing system of corruption Ministers are and ever will be on every occasion so ready to make proof. Against Corruption of members by bribes they can have no rational objection to point the penal inflections of the law it being in their situation a species and mode of corruption at the present day altogether needless, full of danger, and unfit for use.

Sale of boroughs /Purchase of seats/ for money it is their interest to check and if possible put an end to as being a species of traffic that can, in direct competition with that of which they possess the monopoly, viz. purchase of seats or of the members already sitting in those seats by means of peerages, and ribbons[?], and in short every thing else that is of any value except money /but money/.

Bribery of parliamentary electors they never can have any reasonable objection to the suppression of, which with /having/ the means of corruption /corrupting/ by any thing but bribery /bribes/ in their hands, the suppression of /the effect of suppressing/ bribery thus applied would in their favour have the effect /have the effect of a grant made to themselves/ of an exclusive right of applying the matter of corruption to persons in that situation, and to that purpose /such persons and such purposes/.
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  • Title: [1819 Oct. 11 + Parl. Reform Bill.]
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    Follows here against the necessity /utility/ of the secret mode an argument, of which {my respect for the quarter} /the respect inspired by/ from which it has been understood to come prevents /forbids/ the suppressing /suppression/. It is here exhibited in the fairest and clearest light that a sincere endeavour could find for it

    In insisting on the secret mode your object /design/ is that by means /in virtue/ of it, no vote shall ever be given that is not {in the opinion of the voter at least} subservient to the universal interest: as much so at least as if it were disposed of in any other manner: taking as evidence of such subserviency the opinion of the voter himself, that being the only evidence which the nature of the case admitts of.

    Suppose then in the majority of the districts the majority of the Electors bribed: bribed, and by means of the bribes, a set of representatives chosen, by whom the community would be ruined /brought /consigned/ to destruction/, in the shape of anarchy on one hand or unbridled despotism on the other. In this there is nothing that might not be effected in the secret mode: for, if it were so ordered that in case /in each instance/ the mischievous Candidate was elected the money or moneys worth should fall into the Electors /Voters/ hands and not otherwise, the bribery might thus take effect in the secret, as easily as in the open mode: and thus the interest of all or the interest of the majority might be sacrificed to the particular interest of this corrupt majority of the whole number of Representatives.

    Against evil from this cause, not only would the secret mode be inefficient, but the open mode would have an advantage over it. For of those who under the secret mode would concurr in putting in a share for their sinister profit, there might be those who under the open mode might be deterred from so doing, by shame or other considerations.
  • Title: [21 Dec r 1809 Parl y Reform]
    Description: 21 Dec r 1809

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    To excite a mans antipathy against an act, it is not necessary that it should be productive or to be in a way to be productive of any sort of mischief: it is sufficient that it would be disagreeable to him to do it himself.

    In this case /these cases/ the corruption generally /almost always/ assumes that shape in which it wears the name of bribery.

    Bribery accordingly being a species of corruption of which it is impossible that the King and his agents should ever stand in any /feel any/ real need, it constitutes a fit mask for their pious indignation /love of justice/ /morality/ to vent itself upon. By crushing /punishing/ private corruption, individual purchasers of votes and seats, they render to themselves the same service that opulent shopkeepers render /do/ to themselves /the opulent shopkeeper renders to himself/ by the crushing of Hawkers and pedlars: and (what is more than the traders can do, in and by the very act of crushing their antagonists /all competitors/ and giving perfection to their own scheme /system/ of profligacy, they make or at least if they know what they are about may make, display of the purity of their own principles, and their severe love of virtue.
  • Title: [23[?] Aug 1809 Parl y Reform]
    Description: 23[?] Aug 1809

    Parl y Reform

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    From the practice of bribery, as applied to electors one consequence there is which in my eyes is a mischievous one, productive of a mischief which in my view of it has been sufficient to bespeak /secure/ my endeavours - and those not sham but sincere and honest ones, for /towards/ the prevention of it.

    This is the giving to /a/ candidates whose sole qualification may consist in opulence, the exclusive possession of these seats, to the utter exclusion of men of talents and industry, qualifications to /with/ which though a degree of affluence above that of the labouring and most numerous classes is necessary, a certain quantity of wealth /degree of affluence/ is little less than incompatible.

    This in my view of the matter is sufficient - to oppose to every idea of having bribery unprevented not only an objection, but that a peremptory one.

    But those men, those that in terms of such convenient ambiguity, maintain that "property ought to have a predominating influence on the Election of Members" +, those men whose opinion it is that a man who can not shew himself to be in possession of ,600 or ,300 neat[?] income in a particular form ought not to be permitted to sit in the House, by whatsoever numbers of electors deemed the fittest of all men that could be placed there - with what consistency can such an exclusion be ranked under the head of evil in their estimate?

    + Speaker's Speech Cobbett

    King's 10[?] Jan[?] 1809

    N.B. This only for the moment: till a proper[?] example can be found: his words not warranting it.