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CAPTAIN RUSHOUT moved—
That Mr. Speaker do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a New Writ for the electing a Burgess to serve in this present Parliament for the Borough of Bewdley, in the room of Thomas James Ireland, esq., whose election has been determined to be void.
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SIR J. HANMER, in rising to oppose this Motion, would not occupy the time of the House by dilating on the evils which resulted from the irregular practices that had been proved to exist at elections for the borough of Bewdley. It was, however, a most difficult thing for a private and individual Member of that House to propose any remedy for those evils; because if lie proposed a general measure, numerous obstacles were thrown in his way; and if he took up any particular case, and proposed the disfranchisement of a particular borough, experience had shown that the adoption of such a measure was attended with no beneficial result. It had been said the other night that that House ought not to establish any general rule with regard to these cases, but ought to exercise a discretion; it never did exercise and never had exercised a discretion in an ameliorating direction. It was true that proposals had been made at various times to disfranchise the boroughs of Carrickfergus and Stafford, and the freemen of Liverpool and Yarmouth; but what had been the result of those proposals? His wish was that the House should be compelled to act in such cases according to the circumstances of each case, and with the exercise of a certain discretion. The law on this subject was at present in a very unsatisfactory state. In the last Parliament some Members who had taken every precaution to avoid corruption were deprived of their seats, or had their seats endangered, by the indiscretion of their agents, and were placed in the same category with those who had resorted to direct bribery. He called upon the House so
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far to divest themselves of the discretion they at present possessed, that, when a seat was declared void on account of corruption, some steps should be taken, before the issue of a new writ, to ascertain whether the exercise of the franchise in the place for which a Member was unseated might not be placed upon a better footing. He could point to places which were notoriously corrupt, and which had more representatives in that House than the Welsh counties, or many important and wealthy districts. He thought, after the report which had been presented to the House with reference to the last election for Bewdley, that they ought not to issue a writ without further inquiry. The Committee had reported, that the Gentleman who was returned for the borough of Bewdley was not duly elected, and that he had bribed a certain voter by a payment of 15l.; and they also reported, that that Gentleman had, by his agents, committed acts of treating for the purpose of unduly influencing the electors of the borough. Now, he thought the law on the subject of treating required some alteration; it was rather too prudish. It was very proper that candidates who kept houses open during elections should be liable to punishment; but he thought it rather hard, when poor electors came thirty or forty miles to vote for a candidate, that such candidate should not be able to exercise the ordinary rites of hospitality without jeopardizing his seat. The Committee on the Bewdley election reported that the unsuccessful candidate had, by his agents, been guilty of treating, by giving meat and drink to the electors after the issuing of the writ; and that it had been proved before them that during the last election, as well as at the election of 1841, almost every public-house and beer-house in the borough was kept open, and that meat and drink were supplied to the electors to a very great extent. He did not, in the Motion he was about to submit to the House, propose any definite course with a view to meet the evils to which he had drawn attention. All he proposed was, that the House should suspend the writ until it had an opportunity of considering the condition of the elective franchise in the borough of Bewdley. The noble Lord at the head of the Government had stated that he would bring in a Bill with regard to Horsham; and if he had known the noble Lord's intentions with reference to that borough, he would have wished, if it were possible,
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that the Bill should also apply to Bewdley. If the House assented to his Amendment, he hoped the Government would feel it their duty to take the initiative, and to say in what manner, in their opinion, the borough of Bewdley might be reformed. He would recommend the principle of the hus-bandman—
Inutilesque falce ramos amputans, Feliciores inserit.
He begged to move as an Amendment—
That the Return for Bewdley having been declared void for bribery and corrupt treating, and other corrupt practices, stated to have prevailed there, it is necessary to consider the condition of the Elective Franchise in that place, with a view to its reform, and in the meantime to suspend the Writ.
§ MR HUME, in seconding the Motion, said, it was evident from the report of the Committee, that great corruption had taken place at the last election for the borough of Bewdley, and he thought the House ought to suspend the writ until they had considered that report. He hoped the noble Lord at the head of the Government would bring forward some measure with a view to prevent such demoralising practices.
§ VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH did not wish to occupy the attention of the House; but as he believed he was the only Member present who had undergone the penalty of fourteen days' sitting on the Bewdley Committee, he might say he thought the House ought not to pursue a different course with regard to Bewdley to that which they had pursued in the case of Harwich. They had had a great deal of evidence before them of treating, some evidence of intimidation, and some of getting voters away—in short, a system appeared to prevail in Bewdley which could not be justified either in or out of the House. There was strong reason for that House to look to the representation of Bewdley, with a view to its reform; but he would ask them to give to the borough the same measure of justice which they had given to Harwich. If they looked to the question of representation—which he thought would very soon be pressed upon them—if they looked to a new Reform Bill, and a measure for enlarging the representation of this country, and would take advantage of the lesson which was taught them when they refused to the large towns a representation at the time of the Reform Bill, they would find that the case of these boroughs would be the first that would call for their interference; and, wherever they found the same 178 practices prevail, it would be their duty to endeavour to corret them.
§ The House divided on the question, that the words proposed to be left out, stand part of the question:—Ayes 80; Noes 38: Majority 42.
§ Writ issued.