ELECTION COMMITTEES.
Early in the session Mr. C. Buller brought the subject of the constitution of election committees before the house of commons, by moving “that a select committee be appointed to consider the laws relating to the determination of the right of voting, and the trial of controverted elections.” In accordance with this motion a select committee was appointed; but its labours did not produce any fruit during the session. In the preceding sessions bills had passed the commons to disfranchise the borough of Stafford; but none of them had passed both houses. A new bill was passed by the commons, and sent up to the lords in the beginning of April. The second reading of the bill, however, in the house of lords was negatived by thirty-eight against twenty-two. On the 11th of June Mr. Hume moved in the house of commons, that the issuing of the writ for the borough of Stafford should be suspended till ten days after the next meeting of parliament. This motion was carried by a great majority.
Another question touching parliamentary purity attracted still greater attention. In May, 1835, the election of Colonel Bruen and Mr. Cavanagh for the county of Carlow had been declared void by a committee. Messrs. Vigors and Raphael were elected in their stead, by the interest of Mr. O’Connell. Upon a petition, however, these members were likewise unseated; and Mr. Raphael, who resided in London, believing that Mr. O’Connell had broken faith with him, published an account of the bargain by which he had secured his influence. It appeared that Mr. Raphael had begun to negociate with the agitator while the petition against Colonel Bruen and Mr. Cavanagh was still pending, and that the pecuniary treaty was concluded on that petition having terminated unfavourably for these gentlemen. Its terms were contained in the following letter, dated the 1st of June:—“My dear sir, you have acceded to the terms proposed to you for the election of the county of Carlow, viz., you are to pay before nomination £1,000—say £1,000, and a like sum after being returned; the first to be paid absolutely and entirely for being nominated; the second to be paid only in the event of your having been returned, I hereby undertake to guarantee and save you harmless from any and every other expense whatever, whether of agents, carriages, counsel, petition against the return, or of any other description; and I make this guarantee in the fullest sense of the honourable engagement that you should not possibly be required to pay one shilling more in any event or upon any contingency whatever.” Mr. O’Connell wrote to the electors on behalf of Mr. Raphael; and, on the 10th of June, Mr. O’Connell received through his son, likewise a member of parliament, the first sum of £1,000. On the 21st he was returned; and, Mr. O’Connell, apparently in the prospect of a petition, wrote thus to his protégé:—“I am glad to tell you our prospects of success are, I do believe, quite conclusive. If only one liberal is to be returned, you are to be the man.
“I have made all the pecuniary arrangements.... I send you Vigors’ letter to me. You see how secure we are. Return me this letter, as it vouches £800 for me; with that you have nothing to do, as, of course, I stand between you and everybody.” A petition was presented against the return; and Mr. Raphael considered himself safe from any further expense except the sum of £1,000, and that Mr. O’Connell was bound by the express terms of his bargain to defend the return. He paid the second moiety of the £2,000 on the 28th of July; on the same day the election committee was ballotted. Mr. John O’Connell, who had received the money for his father, was himself one of that committee; and the inquiry before the committee having resolved into a scrutiny, Mr. Raphael soon discovered that it was in vain to look for the defence of his seat to his patron. He called upon Mr. O’Connell to fulfil his engagement “by fighting the battle so long as a bad vote for the petitioners remained on the poll, or, at all events, to the end of the session.” Mr. O’Connell, however, either could not, or would not defend him; and Mr. Raphael was unseated along with his colleague, on which he published the whole transaction to the world. Mr. O’Connell felt himself called upon to answer the charges brought against him; and in doing so, he began by abusing his antagonist. He had been put on his guard, he said, against Mr. Raphael, by “honest and experienced men,” who described him as “a faithless creature, who never observed any contract, and with whom no person ever had a dealing without being sorry for it.” He admitted the terms of the bargain; but he insisted that he only acted as the agent of Mr. Vigors, who was to pay all additional expenses of opposing the petition. The first sum of £1,000 which Mr. Raphael had paid was expended on the five days’ poll; and he urged that that gentleman had made an excellent bargain in having all the expenses of nomination and of a five days’ poll covered by a £1,000. As for the other £1,000, he said, that had been expended in opposing the petition; and he maintained that there was no obligation to continue that opposition after it had been spent. He averred that he himself had no pecuniary interest in the matter: he had made the bargain as acting for Mr. Vigors; for Mr. Vigors he had received the money; and to him he had paid it over. The most important part of his statement consisted in the admission of the purpose to which the money was to be applied in the event of the return not being petitioned against. He remarked:—“If there should be no petition, I agreed, on the part of Mr. Vigors, that the greater part of the second £1,000, more than one-half of it, whatever might be the amount of the election expenses, should be applied to commence the formation of a fund to indemnify the voters, and their friends and relations, from that persecution which the Carlow landlords then threatened, and have since exercised.” The subject was brought before parliament on the 11th of February, by a petition, setting forth the transaction in all its bearings. The petition likewise stated “that the ballot for a committee to try the validity of the said return took place on the same afternoon on which the said second sum of £1,000 had been so received, in respect of such return, by the said John O’Connell, for the use of his father, the said Daniel O’Connell; and the said John O’Connell and Daniel O’Connell both attended the ballot for the committee; and the said John O’Connell was, in fact, balloted as a member to serve on the said committee, and suffered to remain on the list of the committee as finally reduced.” The petition prayed the house to inquire into the circumstances; and if the charge was proved, to adopt proper proceedings against the offenders. A similar petition was presented from Bath by Mr. Hardy, member for Bradford; and it was proposed that both petitions should be taken into consideration on Monday, the 15th. Mr. O’Connell wished the discussion to be postponed till the following day, which was agreed to. On the 16th, therefore, Mr. Hardy moved—“That a select committee be appointed to inquire into the circumstances attending the traffic and agreement alleged to have taken place between Mr. Daniel O’Connell and Mr. Alexander Raphael, as one of the representatives for the county of Carlow, at the last election, and to report the minutes of evidence taken before them, with their observations thereon.” Mr. Hardy said, that it was impossible to consider Mr. O’Connell in the light of an agent, as he had argued: who had ever heard of an agent becoming responsible to such an amount? The terms of agreement were:—“I hereby undertake to guarantee and save you harmless from any and every other expense whatsoever, whether of agents, carriages, counsel, petition against the return, or of any other description.” He thought that Mr. Vigors was the agent of Mr. O’Connell at Carlow, rather than that Mr. O’Connell was the agent of Mr. Vigors in London. At all events, the consequence of the bargain was, that the member for Dublin, whether as agent or principal, put in two members for Carlow—Mr. Vigors, his old friend ex animo; and Mr. Raphael, his friend ex contracta. It was of little consequence what sort of representatives the people of Carlow obtained. They had never seen or heard Mr. Raphael, and they knew nothing about his physical or intellectual abilities; all they knew was his address, and there was nothing of him even in that but his name. In his reply, Mr. O’Connell was violent and abusive. He contended that it was not on account of anything connected with the Carlow election that this charge was brought forward, but because he had contributed to put down Toryism, and had thrown his weight into the scale of government to accomplish that object. He demanded that the inquiry should be extensive and searching, comprehending the whole of the late general election. He had neither been guilty of pecuniary corruption by pocketing money, nor of personal corruption by gratifying his ambition by the improper expenditure of the money on the part of other persons. He entered into a long explanation of the circumstances connected with the transaction, making it appear that he was guiltless in the matter. In conclusion, he demanded that the committee should not be a packed one, but a committee of “honourable gentlemen,” by which he meant gentlemen who would be inclined to take a favourable view of the matter. Mr. Warburton thought that the motion did not make the object of the committee sufficiently extensive; and he moved the addition of words, authorising them to inquire likewise into “the application of the money said to have been received, together with the circumstances under which it was received and expended.” This amendment was agreed to and the committee named, its members being taken equally from both sides of the house. Two nominees were likewise appointed, to assist in conducting the evidence; Mr. Sergeant Wilde on the part of Mr. O’Connell, and Sir Frederick Pollock on the part of his opponents. The report of the committee was made to the house by Mr. Colborne, their chairman, on the 11th of March. It read thus:—“It appears to your committee that the subject may be arranged under two heads—the first as relating to any traffic or agreement between Mr. Raphael and Mr. O’Connell for a seat in parliament, and the second as to the application of the sum said to have been given. It does not appear to your committee to be necessary for them to enter upon any detailed summary of the evidence, but they feel it their duty to draw the attention of the house very briefly to the main points as they bear upon the question. It appears that Mr. O’Connell addressed a letter, bearing date, 1st of June, 1835, in which the agreement for Mr. Raphael’s return for the county of Carlow for £2,000 was concluded; the committee cannot help observing that the whole tone and tenour of this letter was calculated to excite much suspicion and grave animadversion; but they must add that, upon a very careful investigation, it appeared that previous conferences and communications had taken place between Mr. Raphael, Mr. Vigors, and other persons connected with the county of Carlow, and that Mr. O’Connell was acting on this occasion at the express direction of Mr. Raphael, and was the only medium between Mr. Raphael and Mr. Vigors and the Political Club at Carlow. It appears that the money was placed to Mr. O’Connell’s general account at his bankers in London. It was, however, advanced the moment it was called for to Mr. Vigors; and though some of it was paid in bills, the discount was allowed; the amount, therefore, was available whenever wanted, and no charge of pecuniary interest can be attached to Mr. O’Connell. It appears also that this money had been expended under the immediate direction of Mr. Vigors and others connected with the county of Carlow, in what may be called legal expenses, or so unavoidable that your committee see no reason to question their legality; and that the balance was absorbed in defending the return of Mr. Raphael and Mr. Vigors before the committee appointed to investigate on the 21st of July, 1835.” In moving that this report and the evidence given should be printed, Mr. Colborne stated, that the committee had agreed unanimously in the conclusion at which they arrived, and that he had no doubt that the house would join in the same opinion, if the evidence were considered without any reference to party feeling. To a large party in the house, however, it appeared that the committee had overlooked some important branches of the inquiry, and that matter had come out in the evidence before the committee which rendered the whole transaction more deserving of animadversion. On the 21st of April Mr. Hardy again brought the subject forward, by moving a series of resolutions, which declared that in the transactions regarding this seat, a breach of privilege had been committed. The committee itself had found it proved, he said, that the £2,000 had been paid and received; and if the circumstances under which the payment and receipt were made did not constitute a breach of privilege, he had yet to learn what did. He entered at length into the transaction, and concluded by asserting that there could not be a grosser case in all its bearings. There had been a contract to sell a seat in parliament for £2,000. which money was to be appropriated in a corrupt manner in every respect. From the evidence respecting the Carlow club, and the £1,000 to be applied to county purposes, nothing could be clearer than this, that any tenant who fell into arrear of rent from want of prudence or honesty, had only to say to the club, “My landlord is against you: if you expect my vote, you must pay my arrears of rent.” What a system was this! If this were to pass unnoticed, who could object to the formation of Conservative clubs which would say to those shopkeepers, before whose doors the priests threatened the grass should grow, we will indemnify you. Better be without the reform-bill than see it leading to consequences like these. In former days they had to complain of boroughs being sold: now they had to complain of the sale of whole counties. Mr. O’Connell applauded the conduct of the members, of the committee: he would take this stand on their report. The agitator was defended by Lord Francis Egerton; not that he would wish to imitate his conduct in many respects, but he thought that he stood acquitted of pecuniary corruption: that charge was removed, and he did not feel inclined to go upon the minor questions arising out of the case, because he wished to be indulgent as well as just. The transaction did not meet with his approbation, but he looked upon it as part, at least, of the extensive system now carried on in Ireland; and however strongly he might deprecate that system, he doubted whether it would be just or expedient to bring the member for Dublin, or the other parties concerned in the transaction, within the resolutions of the house. He was not one of those who felt a desire to bring any man within the scope of a breach of their privileges. His own hands were as clean as those of most men; but if everything that he had done in violation of those privileges was to be brought against him, if a king’s evidence could be found in every instance, he scarcely knew whether he might not himself be brought under the grasp of a tribunal. Messrs. Warburton and Barneby also stood up in the defence of Mr. O’Connell. Lord John Russell likewise expressed his hostility to any further inquiry or proceeding: the report of the committee, he said, ought not to be touched, unless the house saw some very strong reasons to doubt the opinions, or to distrust the integrity, of the gentlemen who had given judgment. He moved as an amendment a series of resolutions which embodied the report verbatim, making them the resolutions of the house, instead of the opinions of the committee. This amendment, after Lord Stanley, Sir Robert Peel, and others had spoken in favour of the original motion, and other members had stood up in defence of Mr. O’Connell, was carried by a majority of two hundred and forty-three against one hundred and sixty-nine. Lord Stanley then brought the question still more to the point by moving, “That it appears to this house that there was between the contracting parties a distinct understanding, that, if any surplus should remain, after providing for the legal expenses of the election of Mr. Raphael, that surplus should be applied in the first place to the defraying of the expenses of the petition against the former elections, and in the next place to the funds of the Carlow Liberal Club: and such understanding calls for the notice of the house, as liable to serious abuse, as a dangerous precedent, and as tending to subvert the purity and freedom of election.” Lord John, in reply, said he would not enter into the matter of fact, or go into anything beyond the report of the committee; if the committee had agreed on these facts, and had thought them material, they would have been reported to the house.
Mr. O’Connell’s troubles, however, were not yet over. His return, with that of his colleague, Mr. Ruthven, for the city of Dublin at the last election had been petitioned against, and the petition had been referred to an election committee in the usual manner. This committee made their report on the 16th of May, when Messrs. O’Connell and Ruthven were declared not duly elected, and they were accordingly unseated. Their opponents at the election, Messrs. Hamilton and West, took their seats, after having been excluded from them for the whole of one session and the half of another: the committee being appointed in 1835, and not making their report before 1836. Mr. O’Connell appears to have expected the result of the inquiry, for he had provided himself with another seat by making one of his underlings accept the Chiltern Hundreds: he appeared during the session as the member for Kilkenny. Subsequently, Mr. O’Connell presented a petition from certain electors of Dublin, praying that Messrs. Hamilton and West should not be allowed to retain their seats, on the ground that they had been connected with bribery; but the report of the committee had stated that they were neither directly nor indirectly implicated in such practices, and after reading this report the house ordered the petition to be withdrawn. Mr. O’Connell maintained that the petition must be received, because the matter to which it referred had not come under the consideration of the committee; but the attorney-general declared his opinion that it was one which could not be received, and the speaker having given an opinion to the same effect, it was withdrawn accordingly.