MODERN SYSTEMS OF BRIBERY 67 



faddists, which has of late become so prevalent. 

 The present system of candidates nursing a con- 

 stituency has one great advantage over the old, 

 it benefits the entire community, and friends and 

 foes alike can participate ; whereas in the past only 

 the recipient of ' hard cash ' was satisfied. There 

 was a very remarkable case which arose in my 

 native town, whose brief history I may be permitted 

 to give — I refer to the ' Great Aylesbury case of 

 Ashby versus White,' as it is called ; and although it 

 occurred more than a century before my existence, 

 I knew so many of the descendants of those who 

 figured therein, that I can somewhat vouch for the 

 authenticity of the events recorded. 



This celebrated case, dragged through two 

 Parliaments, causing the dissolution of one, is an 

 important constitutional record. It was simply this. 

 A person named ' Mathew Ashby' in January 1701, 

 at the election for the borough of Aylesbury, 

 tendered his vote for Sir Thomas Lee, Bart., and 

 Simon Mayne, son of the regicide, and the Return- 

 ing Officers for the borough, of vv'hich William White 

 was one, rejected it. A petition was lodged in the 

 House of Commons by Simon Mayne and some 

 other inhabitants, complaining of the Returning 

 Officers' arbitrarily rejecting his vote, and he, 

 Mathew Ashby, stated that the officials in question 

 had been guilty of an illegal act, and proceedings 

 were thereupon taken against them. This case 

 ' dragged its slow length along ' interminably, and 

 on January 25, 1703, the Hou^e of Commons 



!• 2 



