131-593.xml

Title: [1819 Oct. 4 Parl. Reform Bill]

Description: 1819 Oct. 4

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons ult o

§.5 Election apparatus

§.8. Election how

4

Note (a[?])?

Some cases /One case/ it is true there are in which the secret mode is not of itself capable of providing adequate /full/ security against the evil in question; against the evil which has place in so far as /where/ the direction given to the vote is not accompanied by a wish pointing in that same direction: meaning always a wish that wish being one /the same/ that would have been entertained without the expectation of any good as eventually about to accrue to him other than the good consisting in the service done by a good Election choice to the universal interest, and thence to his share in that same universal interest.

Such is the case for example where the good administered the bribe (for such in this case it is) given before the delivery of the vote: the confidence being in the voters gratitude, or in his sense of honour, that is his fear of reproach at certain hands on the ground of perfidy. But in /for/ this case in addition to secrecy of suffrage other securities are here provided: securities which havens but for secrecy of suffrage would be altogether inadequate. See[?]

And in comparison of the evil produced by terrorism – meaning the mischief in the shape of Miselection, over and above all the evil produced in those other shapes that will be seen, the utmost evil that can be produced by bribery and corruption will be seen to be inconsiderable.

Not that in this case though to the vote given the wishes entertained by the voter may at the time of voting have been perfectly conformable, yet in this case the wishes to which it is conformable are not the wishes that would have had place had it not been for the bribe whereas /but/

{The supposition is – the only supposition upon which the system of election is ever endeavoured to be justified – the supposition is that the wish of the Elector is that it is upon the fittest Candidate that /should always be he on whom/ the choice may fall: the fittest that is the one who is likely to render most service to the universal interest and thence to the Elector’s share in that same universal interest. But by no person can it be imagined that by the private benefit so rendered to the individual a man is constituted the very man likely to render in the greatest degree of perfection that public service. (With J.B.s proof of aptitude from relick[?])}

131-123.xml

Title: [1819 May 29 Defence ag Ed Review]

Description: 1819 May 29

Defence ag Ed Review

Bribery – excluded in degree

1

First as to bribery Out of gratitude a man who had received a bribe might earn it: might give his vote accordingly: might confer that benefit, in return for the benefit received. This is what might happen, might every now and then happen, not improbably it would for the most part happen, unless in the mind of the receiver some special service might be regarded as rendered to the community either from the contributing to place in the seat some other Candidate, or by contributing to keep out of it the bribing Candidate. But supposing on the part of the receiver an opinion decidedly favourable to the aptitude of another Candidate, or unfavourable to the aptitude of the bribing Candidate, or on any other personal or other private account suppose the briber /bribe-giver/ to be an object of aversion, in that case is it probable that the vote thus endeavoured to be purchased would be delivered accordingly? Surely not: surely so far from probable that, considering how easily any of these states of things might have place without the Candidate knowing of it, it seems not likely that especially for a situation of so short a duration, there are many in whose eyes it would be advisable to bestow so large a sum as would be necessary to the purchasing in this way any considerable chances[?].

131-580.xml

Title: [1819 Oct. 3 Parl. Reform Bill]

Description: 1819 Oct. 3

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons ult

§.5. Election Apparatus

§.8. Election how

Art | | Secrecy.

3

Be the mode of election pursued what it may, no man who has ever professed to approve of it, has ever professed to approve of it any further than in as far as the votes, by which, in the several instances, the Election has been determined, have been the genuine expression of the wishes of the several persons by whom they have been respectively delivered. No one has ever denied but that in so far as any vote has failed of being the genuine expression of the wish declared by it, evil has had place. Though an evil but in tendency still it is an evil: or neither Miselection to any extent, nor Misgovernment to any extent, are evils.

In the rude and inexperienced state of the public mind in early times, the open mode of voting, as being the most obvious, was the mode pursued. For secresy there no inducement presented itself, until by experience proof sufficiently conclusive had been afforded that under the open mode to an extent beyond all power of measurement the direction to /declared by/ men’s votes had by external causes been rendered opposite to that to which their wishes pointed: that in a word they had given their votes in favour of a Candidate, whose success was not among the objects of their wishes.