272 
Gregory—Political Corruption. 
with this provision. To make a knowingly false declaration is 
wilful and corrupt perjury and also a corrupt practice. A sum¬ 
mary of the return of election expenses is required to be pub¬ 
lished in two newspapers. All documents as to aa election are 
kept for two years open to public inspection. A justice is to be 
removed, a barrister or attorney dealt with for professional mis¬ 
conduct, a licensed victualler reported for participating in any 
illegalities under this law. A list of persons disqualified to vote 
by corrupt or illegal practices is certified to every parish in the 
county or borough, appended to the list of voters and published 
with it. If corrupt practices have extensively prevailed, the 
court may charge the costs of the petition in whole or in part 
on the county or borough, or on any one guilty. No witness is 
excused from testifying on the ground that it will incriminate 
him, but may have a certificate of indemnity if he answerr 
truly. The act moreover limits the expenses to a moderate 
maximum determined by the number of electors registered. In 
a borough in England if the electors do not exceed 2,000, it is 
limited to £350, and £30 is added for every 1,000 electors over 
2,000. In Ireland the limit is somewhat lower. In a county 
the maximum of expense allowed is nearly twice that in a bor¬ 
ough of equal voting population. 
The law came into operation October 15, 1883. It is ad¬ 
dressed to men’s interest, to their fear and to their consciences. 
It compels integrity in elections by loss of political rights, by 
severe criminal penalties, and by the further exposure of the 
offender’s name to public obloquy, and it searches his conscience 
and that of his agent by the most exact statements made under 
oath and accompanied by vouchers. It deserves to be effective 
and it has been so. 
Says the editor of one of our most valued magazines, the Cen¬ 
tury: “It is true that the English act is long, but it is also 
true that it was so completely successful from the moment of its 
application to an election that it abolished corruption and 
bribery at a single blow. ” 
All prior acts had failed as we have seen, to stop the tide of 
corruption, ample though they seemed. The expenditures in 
