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    THE WAKEEIELB BRIBERS.

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    THE BE-APPEARANCE 03? THE EASTERN QUESTION.

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    duct will raise the market value of French aid , and even Caygtjb may be compelled to purchase it at a- melancholy price . The complete liberation of Italy ought to be the keynote of ' a wise foreign policy , and unless Prussia will join England in giving a hearty and unmistakeable moral aid , she will remain in the bondage of Russia or Austria , and can have no moral claim to British support . We dp not say this from a sentimental love of Italy—although an , honest sentiment is better than a sordid interest—but Governments , as well as individuals , should be tested practically , and those who will not support the right side in the primary question of the day should be distrusted and thrust back . It is in the power of

    England to lay the foundation of alliances for the support of liberal ideas . The mere preservation of territory in the hands of particular sovereigns is a trumpery question compared with the maintenance of popular right . Civilization is a gainer when the people of any country become its masters as well as its inhabitants . That is the best condition for commerce and the arts of peace . Non-intervention is better than "wrong intervention ; but a noble nation cannot always look on and see righteous causes perish for want of a helping hand .

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    circumstance which , unless he were a little more than human , would be likely to incline him to mercy towards that gentleman s brother-in-law . He is a radical barrister , on the look out for a seat in Parliament , and was the trusted adviser of the other Leath am , him of Huddersfield , who , in the exuberance of his gratitude for the preservation of his seat , called upon his constituents to giye three cheers for the Serjeant , and even suggested the propriety of inviting to a great demonstration . There is ,, in fact , nothing to show that Mr . Leatham is entitled to the special lenity asked for him , but there is much to show that he is a particularly eligible subject for prosecution . We cannot forget that before the Committee of the House of Commons he solemnly affirmed that his whole expenditure for the election amounted only to some six or seven of the done

    hundred pounds , and that he knew nothing bribery in Ms name ; whilst before the Commissioners he confessed that the expenditure was really four thousand pounds , and admitted enough to show that he was cognisant of its application . There has seldom been a grosser case ; and , if Mr . Leatham is allowed to go scot free , the Attorney-General . cannot undertake another prosecution for bribery . Mr . Charlesworth was quite as bad as Mr . Leatham , so far as the bribery was concerned , although he did not make the same false statements—perhaps because he was not exposed to the same temptation . We have dwelt especially upon Mr . Leatham ' s peccadilloes because he was the especial object of the sympathy of the virtuous foes of corruption . We wish to see both candidates prosecuted , and both punished .

    Sufficient discredit has been cast upon the House of Commons , and , what we are more inclined to resent , upon the Liberal cause , by the miserable apologies offered for these men . But if the result of this debate , and of the further efforts of Miv Leatham ' s friends , should be any such decided expression of its opinion as to warrant the Attorney-General in dropping the prosecutions , the Housejnust at once make up its mind that no further informations at the instance"of that officer will be suffered . The country will not allow the tools of honourable gentlemen to be- fined , imprisoned ^ and branded as infamous , whilst the em- * . idences of their let off

    ployers—riowever clear the ev guilt—are . Much better to remove from the statute -book' the laws against bribery , aritRegaliSe aU contracts of the kind between candidate and voter , than continue this disgusting farce , in which men of high character do not scruple to take part . Let us be spared the miserable spectacle of a House of Commons hounding on the officers of justice upon poor ignorant wretches , and preventing at the instance of popular leaders those officers of justice from pursuing for worse degrees of the same offence men of wealth * position * and connexions .

    TITHE House of Commons is very jealous of its privileges ; we X wish it were half as careful of its honour . The night it adjourned for the Whitsun holidays it followed up the appointment of a Committee to search for precedents with respect to the late invasion of its rights by the Lords , with a most disgraceful attempt to " burke "the prosecutions instituted by the Attorney-General against the Wakefield bribers . And . worst of all , the noisiest and most zealous vindicators of the privilege were the most active agents in the plot to screen the criminals . Mr . Tom Buncombe , Mr . Edwin James , and Mr . Bright , whose intense zeal for the exclusive power of the people to tax themselves would not suffer theinrto rest content with Lord

    Palmerston's slow , Tfomdrunr expedient of trComnrittee ± o inquire into precedents , professed as great a horror , and probably a much more sincere one ,- at the-bare idea that Messrs . Leatham and Charlesworthshould be calledirpon to answer for thewholesale corruption of which they were guilty at the general election . If any credulous person has hitherto believed in the sincerity of the anti-bribery zeal of the leaders of the House of Commons , this admirable commentary upon the fine speeches and virtuous declarations must thoroughly undeceive him . The Radicals are quite as bad as the Tories , and even worse , because they make much greater professions of virtue . The only man who comes out

    of ^ e ^ iT < m ^ sfcm ~ c ^^ consistency and determination are probably due quite as much to hi ? natural obstinacy , as to any particular abhorrence of ^ the offence or anxiety to punish the offenders . If the prosecutions had been instituted against any other , persons than the candidates , not an exception would have been taken . The House would have looked on very composedly whilst the subordinate agents were being harassed with a trial , which as poor men they could ill defend themselves against , and would have felt a glow

    of conscious virtue when the poor wretches were sentenced to some twelve months' imprisonment . But when Sir R . Betheli ,, after being badgered by questions into taking up the matter , determined to strike at the great sinners , and selected four leading men , including the candidates , on each side for prosecution , the virtue of honourable gentlemen oozed out like Bob Ache's valour ; and a jeremiad is raised against the hardship of the proceeding , the real cause of complaint being that such a precedent may expose members themselves to unpleasant consequences . Bat veniam corvti vexat censura columbad .

    Very little was heard of Mr . Charlesworth in the discussion . The great object of compassion was Mr . Leatham . Let us see , therefore , what are this gentleman ' s claims to immunity from the consequences of his illegal acts . The only plea openly put forward is , that he made a full disclosure , and ought , therefore , to have received from the Commission a certificate of indemnity ; but that argument is worthless ., The certificate is not a formal document ,, to , begxant ^ the discretion of the Commissioners ; in the exercise of that

    discretion , they have refused to give one either to Mr . Leatham or Mr . ' CiiAHLEawoRTir , and no one can review their decision . The evidence of neither gentleman can , as Sir G . C . Lewis showed , be used against him ; and the attempt to override the discretion of the Commissioners in favour of two gentlemen of wealth and influence is , to say t \\ a least , most indecent . It is true the opinion of one of the Commissioners—Serjeant Pioott—was in fhyour of granting Mr . Leatham n certificate , but the opinion of the learned Serjeant must bo received with some considerable ) < ulowtfn < ce . He enjoys the honour of Mr . BuiGirr ' s friendship ; a

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    514 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 2 , 1860 .

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    THE Treaty of Paris , although but a poor return for all the sacrifices made in the war which preceded it , might yet have been found a sufficient solution of the Eastern question , for this generation at least , ' if any two of the Great Powers which signed it had accepted its conditions with sincerity . Unfortunately , England alone so received them . She has no other interest than the . independence and integrity of Turkey ; a highway across Egypt , and facilities for her commerce throughout the empire are all she needs or would wish to have : and those requirements arc assured her by

    the retention of the present Government under the guarantee of the European Powers . The possession of Egypt and Candia , which the late Czar held out as a tempting bait , would be avoided by her ; as an acquisition costing more than it was worth , unless her possession of those territories was the only way to keep them out of the hands of France or Russia , llussio , on the other hand , could only regard the stipulations of the treaty as concessions , to be evaded upon the first opportunity . The traditional policy of her Emperors urges on them , the conquest of Constantinople , and the tendencies of her people point to nn expansion to the south . There is an almost irresistiblo impulse in the nation to the Bosphorus , and no mere pledges recorded the action which that induces

    in a treaty can stay impulse . The Turks are intruders upon European soil . They came as < '' c 6 hquef 6 rs , and how that they have ceased to be the strongest , they must turn back again . They are tenants whose term of possession is up , and whether Constantinople becomes the summer residence of the Czaus or the seat of u new Greek empire , it must soon cease to be the home of the house of Othma ' n . As little interest has Austria in the strength and integrity of the ' Turkish empire . Servia and the Herzegowina would fit nteely enough into the strange conglomeration of provinces governed by the house of Hapsburg , and the onl y ground of her anxiety for that integrity in times past has been the fear that Russia should take the whole of the booty ; It suited the purpose of

    The Wakeeielb Bribers.

    THE WAKEEIELB BRIBERS .

    The Be-Appearance 03? The Eastern Question.

    THE BE-APPEARANCE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 2, 1860, page 514, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2350/page/6/