100 



Bickndl on Pur 



toils of acquisition with the reflection, 

 that he is pursuing the direct path to 

 the reputation, affluence, and comfort, 

 of a really useful member of the slate. 



Fo7- t/ie Monthly Magazine. 



BICKNELL on PURITY of ELECTION. 



THE question of parliamentary 

 reform has so long and so deeply 

 engaged the public attention, that the 

 friends of constitutional liberty hail, 

 with pleasure, any rational production 

 connected with the subject. While 

 the expediency of the measure, or the 

 safety of the experiment, has been 

 doubted, or denied, the inequality of 

 our representation, and the increasing 

 influence of corruption, are too palpa- 

 ble to be controverted. It would 

 argue, indeed, irremediable blindness, 

 or extreme perversity, to affirm that 

 our representative system requires no 

 amelioration. Every thing human, by 

 an ordination of nature, has a ten- 

 dency to decay. Where the counter- 

 action of any evil, whether moral, phy- 

 sical, or political, is practicable, it can 

 be effected only by the occasional 

 adoption of salutary checks, or by ex- 

 citing in the system a renovating pro- 

 cess. The political condition of no 

 state, whether great or small, remains 

 stationary. It is continually either 

 progressing to maturity, or verging to 

 dissolution. Change and vicissitude 

 form the very essence of all sublunary 

 things. Hence, it is wisdom in every 

 people, when they are framing a new 

 system of government, to provide for 

 its revision at stated periods. Thus 

 may abuses be speedily removed ; thus 

 may errors in its principles, or its ad- 

 ministration, be corrected ; and such 

 alterations as the lapse of time, or 

 change of circumstances, may have 

 rendered expedient, be seasonably 

 introduced. Then will the political 

 machine, firm and sound in every 

 part, continue to effect the purpose for 

 which it was constructed. 



Parliamentary corruption has been 

 long and justly the subject of com- 

 plaint. Its baneful effects, not only in 

 a political, but moral view, arc univer- 

 sally felt; and, by every friend to vir- 

 tue and rational liberty, deeply la- 

 mented. Against this evil, though 

 several peual statutes have been 

 enacted, no efl"ectual remedy has yet 

 been devised. 



To remove this grievance, and to 

 secure a purer representation of the 

 peopl«, is confessedly an object of 



itif of Ekction. [ March I , 



superlative importance. This is the 

 main purpose of a letter, addressed to 

 the Right Hon. G. Tierney, by John 

 Laurens Bicknell, f.r.s. How far the 

 measure, recommended by the acute 

 and intelligent author, is calculated to 

 operate as a preventive of the evil, the 

 friends of liberty shall be enabled to 

 judge for themselves. 



After defining, what is implied in the 

 term " Parliamentary Reform," the 

 author proceeds to enquire into the 

 expediency of annual parliaments, 

 vote by ballot, and universal suffrage. 

 Elections annually recurring he expli- 

 citly condemns, as unfavourable to the 

 acquisition of parliamentary experi- 

 ence, higiily injurious to the morals of 

 the people, and likely to augment, in- 

 stead of diminishing, ministerial in- 

 fluence. 



Of voting by ballot, he expresses 

 himself thus — 



•' Voting by ballot appears to me to be a 

 mode of election perfectly nucongenial to 

 the open and generous spirit of English- 

 men. It hazards yoiir being stabbed in 

 the dark by a man, who, in tiie day-light, 

 would not dare to raise a finger against 

 you. It is calculated to give a loose to all 

 the basest passions of human nature— to 

 cover fraud in its worst and most malevo- 

 lent operations, and to shelter the ungrate- 

 ful and the hypocrite in the veil of obscu- 

 rity. The candidate must necessarily face 

 his constituents ; let iiiui have equal fair 

 play, and be ever enabled to distinguish 

 his friends from his opponents.'' 



Universal suffrage he considers to be 

 liable to still graver objections. 



After enumerating the various evils 

 arising from the practice of bribery 

 and corruption, he proceeds to ob- 

 serve, that, if means could be devised, 

 by which the candidate for a seat in 

 parliament could be deterred from 

 bribing, purity of election, as a neces- 

 sary consequence, would be effectually 

 secured. The Statute against Simony, 

 it would appear, suggested to him the 

 mode, by which, he conceives, that this 

 important result might be completely 

 attained. In the 15th and 16th centu- 

 ries, this abominable barter was as 

 common as the "sun at noon-day." 

 By the Ecclesiastical Law, the pur- 

 chaser was liable to ecclesiastical 

 censure ; but, as it was a crime not 

 punishable by the Common Law, the 

 patron, who participated in the benefit 

 of this iniquitous traffic, escaped with 

 impunity. By the efficacy of our 

 Statute Law, the offence has been 

 nearly annihilated; and, unless by 

 name. 



