268 
Gregory—Political Corruption. 
little earlier. We are just learning that there are better titles to 
all these than “titles by purchase.” 
The great first step toward purifying elections has always 
been the widening and not the narrowing of the suffrage. It 
has always been more convenient to corrupt a half dozen great 
gentleman aud landed proprietors than 1,000 starving weavers, 
and the Reform bill which did away with old Sarum and other 
rotten boroughs and the various extensions of the suffrage in 
England, which have made it, in some ways, wider than our 
own, have struck strong blows at the purchase of elections. 
The removal by Lord Palmerston’s famous order in council of 
May 21, 1855, of the civil service from political control took 
off perhaps the greatest of all baits for corrupt and venal activity 
in elections. 
A member of parliament is absolutely stripped of the power 
to obtain, or even speciously to pretend to obtain, paid public 
place for his supporters. He must solicit their suffrages with 
something beside the promise of influence and the hope of fat 
jobs. We still cherish the right of our representatives to cor¬ 
rupt us by patronage, to our shame be it spoken. 
A year earlier than Lord Palmerston’s courageous order, there 
had passed “An act to consolidate and amend the laws relating 
to bribery, treating and undue influence in elections of members 
of parliament. ” This statute imposed heavy fines and penalties 
upon any candidate convicted of treating or bribing, or even fur¬ 
nishing a cockade or badge, and provided fully for publicity as 
to all the election expenses of the candidate but did not deal with 
the errors of those not candidates, and it was naturally ineffect¬ 
ive. In 1868, an act was carried by Mr. Disraeli providing for the 
trial of election petitions by certain of the highest ges, in¬ 
stead of a committee of the house, and this did much to assure 
a fair judicial determination to such contests and so discourage 
corrupt practice. 
“In 1869, however, a committee was appointed with Lord 
Hartington (the present Duke of Devonshire) at its head, “to 
provide further guaranties for the tranquility, purity and free¬ 
dom of elections.” In an investigation of three months’ duration 
