BR BUY AND CORRUPTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 26, 31 January 1881, Page 4

BR BUY AND CORRUPTION.

{Nineteen'h Century,") Public opinion has nevt-r heen very Wrongly fxpr-pserf against bribery end ■corruptior. I< h PBUB-Vc'ory, however, 'o nr>tr> «f Nt !*>My •» rhmgp f<* ♦he hotter s tins io have uikt-n place, end the public appear to be somewhat shocked and scandalised at the recent fevelatiODs of election petitions and Boyal Commissions, This is a good omen for purity of election : for, though more Btringeni regulations can be adopted and enforced against bribery with very happy results, the sheet anchor of our hope must always be that tho publio conscience will awake to tlie faot that bribery, and corruption are in tbemsplves wicked end iniquitous, thoi. they ore eminently demoralising and debasing, and that their existence destroys to a very large extent the representative cbericfcer. of our form of Government. When Shis timo arrives, bribery, instead of being thought a rather good joke, as is often the case—- this opinion being greatly strengthened by the publicity of the proceedings of the Commissioners—would be considered a disgrace; and if punishment went band in hand with tbia disgrace, those tainted with it would Boon sink to the level of ordinary malefactors. Once deprived of its artificial halo, and looked upou with proper aversion, bribery would soon lose iis charm, and would ba relegated to the hands of the class leso cleanly — morally if not physically speakiop — and would then be doomed. We raay all have our own Utopian ideas on the question of how to cause bribery and corruption tocease; but it is useless to proposn or discuss any scheme with this object which cannot; without icfinite difficulty be adopted, or which would be opposed to tLe feelings of tbe majority under the existing conditions of life and opinion. I have endeavored to confine myself to suggestions which I believe to be easily practised, and which might be adopted without involving any violent changes. They aion at allotting punishment where punishment is due, and at preventing the escape of the criminal. Whether, until public opinion pronounces strongly on fhe subject, they i ■would be remedies and not merely checks, it is bard to say; but, short ot the real remedy — a wholesome and radical change in public feeling — these proposals, if adopted, ought, as I have endeavored to show, to fulfil their purpose and effect corruption to an appreciable degree. It may be Baid that the different decisions and judments of the election judges are buoys which mark the shoals Bnd quicksands of bribery, aud permit of their avoidance by those who sail down the stream. But, if proper laws were passed aud enforced, and if more dangerous obstructions were placed in tbe stream so tbat tbe bark striking on them were certain to founder, and not be able to push ofi aguin Bcathless, then, though it might not prevent all attempts at Sailing, the increased difficulties nud dangers of navigation would deter many fiom at- ' tempting e> risky un-deriakiog. So inefficient ure the existirg laws, and so feeble is their enforcement, that purity can hardly be recommended as c specific for victory; it may ease the ! conscience and save the pocket, bufc it | will hardly pain the seat. The revels- I tions of the Royal Commissions lately sitting are chiefly rematkable and startling in the conclusion forced upon ! us, that tbere esi9t numbers of men, j and men in high position — men, too, who would be insulted if they were not deai^nated as honest and honorable, but who have no compunction in buying votes, in tempting others to betray tbeir trust, and in paying them eitber to lie or to violate their consciences. Theee disclosures ere an eloquent testimony to tbe frightful apathy of the public conscience at present on the question of Bribery and Corruption,