80 Notes of the Month on [JAN. 



chising the borough of Evesham forever. A hint to this effect was 

 given by the chairman, Mr. Clive." In this suggestion we must heartily 

 coincide. If the " free and independents" of any borough are found 

 turning their " most sweet voices" into the current coin of the realm, 

 we can discover no possible reason why the laws against bribery and 

 corruption should not lay their gripe on every knave of them. So much 

 for the boroughs ! 



But if the tales from Liverpool be true, that ancient and loyal town 

 should take its share in the benefits of public justice ; and thus the open 

 town go hand in hand with the flagellation of the close borough. Our 

 clever contemporary, John Bull, has made up his mind on this point ; 

 and decides that in the recent Liverpool election " we have had exhi- 

 bited to us the practical advantages of giving the elective franchise to 

 large and populous towns we have obtained a new, strong, and striking 

 proof of the excellence of that system, which proposes to prevent cor- 

 ruption by increasing the number of voters." He is a little in error in 

 his theory of corruption. Because, the close boroughs having always 

 exhibited instances of the purchase of the votes by wholesale, cannot 

 well be surpassed by the purchase of votes in retail ; and the chance 

 is in favour of the larger number, as the fifty t( free and independent 

 consciences" may come within the reach of along purse, while the largest 

 might find a difficulty in the purchase of five thousand. We allow that, 

 even to this limit, Liverpool seems to have formed a brilliant exception. 

 Our contemporary says " In Liverpool, during this extraordinary con- 

 test, money was openly offered for votes so open, indeed, were the 

 advances, that they were actually made in the open street; free and 

 independent electors were driven in droves often to the hustings, and at 

 last a regular market-price was established for their voices and con- 

 sciences. By all means, let us transfer the right of voting from some 

 iniquitous small place, where the influence of some high and honourable 

 person perhaps prevails, to Manchester or Birmingham, so that these 

 populous towns may speedily enjoy the benefit of bribery and corrup- 

 tion, and exhibit in their streets and markets the splendid traffic which 

 has been carrying on in the Lancashire metropolis." 



If those things be true, we ask, where does the cat-o' -nine-tails sleep ? 

 The thing is iniquitous; and a part of the crime will undoubtedly be visited 

 on the ministers who shall let this abomination go unpunished. It is fur- 

 ther said that the purchase was as publicly made as at an auction ; that 

 the price of a voter rose as regularly in the market as the price of sugars 

 after a West Indian hurricane, or of teas on the news of a quarrel between 

 the Company's supercargo and the Mandarin of Canton ; that it finally 

 advanced to seventy pounds a head ; that to avoid the penalty which 

 every man of those honest persons was conscious he was incurring, the 

 purchase was made through a wall, the seller standing at one side and 

 the buyer at another ; that the whole purchase amounted to 70,000 ; 

 and that Mr. Ewart was thus declared to be chosen by the " free, pure, 

 unprejudiced, unpurchased, and unpurchaseable" votes of the freemen 

 of Liverpool ! Again, we say, let Lord Grey look to this ! We may be 

 told that the rival candidate has exhibited no intention of disputing the 

 claim ; and with good reason, if he had done the same thing ; for both 

 must be equally thrown out. But is there no man of sufficient patriotism 

 in Liverpool to demand, in the name of justice, that the matter shall be 

 inquired into ? Any man in the town may prefer a petition, and thus 



