66 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



pulled down the hustings, the poll booths, and de- 

 stroyed everything they could lay hands on. About 

 fifty of the rioters were captured and lodged in 

 Aylesbury gaol, where many of them caught the 

 spotted fever, and were set at liberty after the elec- 

 tion was over. They carried this frightful disease 

 all round the county, and many people died from it. 

 I have every reason to believe that the system of 

 bribery tainted the whole kingdom at Parliamentary 

 elections at that time, and up to the establishment 

 of the ballot the practice existed more or less in 

 many boroughs. The counties were too extended 

 for ' the man in the moon ' to utilise his blandish- 

 ments ; and the plan of closing the poll, in one day, 

 was a great blow to corrupt practices. From the 

 poll lasting for so many days, and voters being 

 brought, for many miles, from little country villages, 

 there was every opportunity to e.xercise the power 

 of gold. In the present day it is questionable 

 whether another form of bribery, now existing, is 

 not nearly, or quite, as pernicious as a money bribe 

 given to an individual. I allude to the gifts of large 

 sums for endowments of societies, the erection of 

 public libraries, baths and wash-houses, the presenta- 

 tion of public parks and recreation grounds, the 

 giving of prizes at agricultural, horticultural, and 

 other associations, and the like, and I question 

 whether they are not as potent as personal bribery 

 in the good old days. There is the still more whole- 

 sale and shameless promises to constituents of Acts 

 of Parliament, to carry out the vagaries of political 



