Punished for Bribery.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4236, 29 July 1882, Page 1

Punished for Bribery.

-When Mir Nobswortb contested' the borough of Bottenham, his words to Mr Chucks, his solicitor were: Chucks, blow the expense ; I mean to get in." Chucks was a respectable, prudent man : " Things are no longer now as they Used to be, Mr Nobsworth, he said. " I remember the, time when voters in this town were reckoned at so much a head, like cattle; but bribery is no longer safe. I would rather not try'anything* in that way." " But the other side are going to spend heaps of money." replied Nobsworth. . " I know fur certain, that they wout't • stick at thousands." "Then we can petition against your opponent's return." 'Yes, and get the borough disfranchised. Nice and popular I shall be after that!"

Mr Chuckß rubbed. his <head. It was certain that if Mr Nobs worth 'caused Eottenham to be disfranchised, his popularity there would wane like the moon in the morning. It also would be a very disagreeable thing for solicitors and other respectable.persbns who made money out of elections. Mr Chuck stood in a dilemma. If Mr Nobsworth-were bent on bribery, and if he—Chucks—refused to help him in this illicit operation, he would loose Mr Nobsworth a3 a client. He would loose all tke profits of conduct' ing his electoral campaign for. him.. He would loose the agency of his estates ; and Mr Nobsworth was a parvanu who had just bought Nobby Hall, and was scattering money about the country with a lavish hand, like a sower who expects a good crop to come up from his yellow grain.

" To tell you the truth, Mr jobsworth," said the puzzled lawyer, " I wish Parliament had put down bribery with a strong -band. Some men were convicted a few years ago, and the Lord Chief Justice, let them off with a-light sentence, saying he would punish the next offenders more seferely." But he ought to hare punished the first offenders if he meant us to believe him. By his ill-timed leniency he has left us all doubtful as to how we should act in a case like that with which I am concerned. I.knqw,;that bribery goes on extensively, and what is worse, sly bribery i which-makes the giret' ;and receiver ashamed. I don't half like it, Mr Nobsworth —indeed J don't." " Well, but I want to get into Parliament/'/said Nobsworth, "and since the other side are.spending money, I don't see why I shouldn't." " You are quite, sure that the other side are spending money ?" "Quite sure," responded Nobsworth, who in this told an untruth, for he knew nothing for certain on the subject. But then he wanted to be able to put M.P. after his name. ,;; :

So Mr Chucks bribed. He 'did it cautiously and craftily, not being able to ascertain how much the other side were spendiDg, for he was afraid to. make too open inquiries, and had to rely on the - information which Jobsworth and the latter's friends gave him. .A, candid ate ** always has friends who assert the other side are spending freely, and as Mr Chucks found that^ rotes were as dear as they had ever been in old days, he con* ceived there must be somo truth in the rumor. He did not' relish his job at all, however, for though he had no positive principles about the dishonesty of buying people's votes, he was a man who disliked to be out of x harmony with the highest tone of public morals, whatever it might happen to be. So he was Very,careful not to compromise himself. He disbursed several thousands of pounds, and got his client elected by a large majority.' - Then the joyoua Nobs worth'slapped him on the back, and cried :—" Well done Chucks I think we've done 'em this time." Mr Chucks would rather nbt have been complimented. He felt that he tad-noth-ing to be proud of. The other side were already talking of a petition. " Luckily,"

He reflected, as he rubbed his thin hands By his fireside—" Luckily they cannot Brove anything.' 9 ■ Bat in this he was mistaken. When ■he other side set seriously to work, all Hie elaborate precautions which poor Mr K/hucks had taken to hide his misconduct ■rere brushed away like bo many cob- ■ A Boore of base knaves who had pes■tered him for money were prepared to leome forward and say that he had bribed ■them. Mr Chucks had to prepare his Idefence, and he did so gallantly, for he ■was not going to let himself be convicted without a tussle. Bat what could he do against the inquisition of Judges and Commissioners P First, Mr Nobswortb was unseated in the usual way ; then Parliament appointed a commission to inquire into the corruption alleged to prevail extensively at Rottenham. This brought out all the secrets of Mr Chucks office, including his papers, memoranda, and letters—for he had to" give up every- ; thing for inspection, and then he had to sit in court day after day, with a despairing countenance and a wretched soul, whilst whole strings of corrupt persons gave evidence against him. Finally Mr Chucks was committed to be tried for bribery, and was convicted by a jury. The Judge said to him in a grave voice: . "Joseph Chucks, I will postpone passing sentence. You will hare to surrender at Westminster on a day which will be appointed." His lordship called him " Joseph Chucks," as if he were addressing an ordinary criminal, and this was very bitter to Mr Chucks, who, as a respect* able solicitor, was accustomed to the most courteous formulas of speech. However, the Judge had not spoken angrily, and this gave Mr Chucks some comfort. He remembered the delinquents who had been let off cheaply by the late Lord Chief Justice, and whose light sentenced had been the main cause of his getting into this trouble. Jobsworth, who was always slapping him on the back, exclaimed: " Never mind Chucks; you'll get off with a fine, and I'll pay it." " I wish we hadn't bribed, Mr Nobsworth," answered the conscience-sfcricken solicitor. "You see we shall have got the borough disfranchised after all." "Well, that's rather your fault," answered Nobs worth, brazenly, " Why on earth didn't you take better precau^ tions?" This reproach was rather too much to bear, and Mr Chucks shambled away, feeling that the saddest, most humiliating part of the whole fearful affair was to have got into hi; scrape for such a person as this Nobsworth. ; The day came when Mr Chucks had to ! surrender at Westminster. He arrived | in court clothed in black and with new; gloves, the picture of honeet, and, indeed, venerable respectability, for he had white hair. Ev.en the Judge looked pityingly on him as he cleared his throat and began to deliver the sentence of the law in wellclipped phrases. His Lordship was very sorry, he said; he quite understood the temptation?* '4-$" at an example must be made, ";You, Chuoks, will be im» prisoned ae. Ac ordinary misdemeanor for nine months.'' It was as if the ground had suddenly craekod under Chucks's feet and admitted him headlong into a cellar. He walked quite stupidly when a tipstaff touched him on the shoulder and led him out. There was a cab waiting in Palace«yard, and the most eminent lawyer in Rottenham was invited to step in, whilst the conductor said breezily to driver, "To Newgate." That night Mr Chucks lay down in a stone cell, Bft. by 7ft., after having refused with a sob, to partake of a supper of brown bread and gruel, which was offered to him. He wa« almost heart-broken. He could not understand it. He kept rubbing his eyes to see whether he was not dreaming, and whether it was really him, Mr Chucks whom the rough warder addressed when i he said, through a trap at the door, " Now j then youj. fifteen, its time to let down your 'ammock, look sharp." Next day Mr Chucks was taken down to the gaol of his county in a third class carriage, by an early morning train. He was spared the indignity of handcuffs, and the civility of the wardersfwho accom- - panied him gave him a faint hope that the Governor of the gaol, who was & friend of his, would treat him kindly. But the Governor.;had no power to'" treat him kindly, otherwise, than in words. He said:—" I am very sorry Mr Chocks, but you must undergo the common rule. It is very painful to me, as you may imagine." It was far more painful to poor Chucks, „ though. He was made to take a warm 'bath in the presence of a warder, he was shaved, and his hair was cut into bristles. Then he wag told to dress himself in a suit of buff prison clothes, of coarse material and to clap on his head a cap with a long peak furnished with two eyeholes : " Now, move along sharp there to cell 27," cried the warder; "and you'll find another hofficer who'll tell you the rules." Mr Chucks dried his hair as he went with a pocket-handkerchief—his only towel. He had some Australian beef for his dinner that day, with two or three potatoes in their skins ; in the evening some gruel. He was obliged to wash up his mess-tin for himself, and a warder instructed him as to how he must sweep up all his crumbs into a corner of the cell with a hand-broom:—" I'll bring yer a pail of water and a scrubbin' brush to-morrer mornin'," added the officer, "andyer'll jast give yer cell a good swab down—we likes to be clean here." At night the warder brought.in a plank bed; J* During your first month you'l

have to sleep on boards three times a week, them's the new rules; however, perhaps the Doctor'll certify yer for a" 'ammock if yer ask him." So the eminent lawyer, who had not been able to sleep at all in Newgate, passed another sleepless night on the. hard planka, which made it impossible for him to assume a comfortable posture. He felt cold too, and his teeth chattered, for he had no other covering but a thin counterpane. The next morning he was led into the Chaplain's study, and received a short, but not unkind, lecture from the reverend gentleman, who exhorted him to bear his punishment with fortitude, nnd handed him a bible, r prayer book, and hymn book. Presently thf Schoolmaster came to Mr Chucks's cell, inquired whether he could read and write, and lent him a volume of the Leisure Hour for his recreation. The prisoner bad already been: told that he could write one letter to hia family, but would not be allowed to write another for three months; and he was cautioned against discoursing on politics or the news of the day in his epistle. This prohibition was purely unnecessary. Mr Chucks wrote to his wife and children such a letter as may be conceived. Soon after this he rested his head upon his arms and burst outcrying. He could not help it. The warder, hearing the the noise, opened the door and looked in : "It's no use taking on like that, twenty seven," he said, with rough sympathy. "If I were jou I'd do a little work. You ain't sentenced to hard labor, but yo»'d find a little oakum-picking occupy yer mind."

The advice was valuable in its way. The lawyer was not used to idleness; and lonely brooding would have made him ill. So to calm his spirits he sat on a hard stool from that day and picked oakum. The days passed as if they were crawling on all fours. One day was so like another, that there was nothing to mark the flight of time. There were the days when soup was served for dinner, and those when there was? Australian beef; but that was all the difl irence. Sundays brought no relief, for it was not relief to sit idily on the stool reading the Leisure Hour, instead of picking oakum. Perhaps the happiest moment in all the week to poor Mr Chucks was on Saturdays, when he put on a clean shirt and socks. Somehow he bore it all; and three months passed. One day he was sharply called from his cell and made to run down a passage at the double trot. A visitor had come to see him. He was introduced into a sort of iron cage, and in another cage opposite, separated from his own by a gangway, where a warder sat, he saw Mr Nobsworth—Nobsworth, rosy and well shaven, with a warm overcoat and new dogskins on his hands: " Well, this is too bad," was the honest gentleman's involuntary exclamation, as he beheld the shrunken form of the aged lawyer, whose teeth chattered from the cold. " Ton my soul, Chucks, I shouldn't have known you. I hope a—they make you pretty comfortable?"

Chucks bad no command over his voice; he felt so degraded in the presence of this man for whose sake he had come to infamy. So Mr Nobsworth went on, bluffly, like a man who wants to be pleasant and consoling : " We shall none of us think any the worse of you for this, Chucks. I know plenty of people who will be quite ready to shake hands with you. 1 was dining with one of the Judges last week, and we talked your case over. I told him what a

respectable man you were. . . . ." " Oh, take me away," moaned poor Mr Chucks to his warder ; and he trudged back to his bare cell, all trembling. He was a lawyer ; all his life he had talked of the justice of the land; but now what could he think of justice which flung him amopg criminals and left Nobsworth at large and dining with Judges P—Truth.