of elections. The same principle of selection has since been adhered to in later Acts, with additional securities for impartiality; and the committee has been finally reduced to five members. The evil was thus greatly diminished; but still the sinister influence of party was not wholly overcome. In the nomination of election committees, one party or the other has necessarily had a majority of one; and though these tribunals have since been more able and judicial, their constitution and proceedings have too often exposed them to imputations of political bias.

Distribution

Such being the vices and defects of the electoral system, what were their results upon the House of of places and Commons? Representatives holding their seats pensions. by a general system of corruption, could scarcely fail to be themselves corrupt. What they had bought, they were but too ready to sell. And how glittering the prizes offered as the price of their services! Peerages, baronetcies, and other titles of honor; patronage and court favor for the rich, places, pensions, and bribes for the needy. All that the government had to bestow, they could command. The rapid increase of honors attests the liberality with which political services were rewarded; while contemporary memoirs and correspondence disclose the arts, by which many a peerage has been won.

2

From the period of the Revolution, places and pensions Restrained by have been regarded as the price of political deParliament. pendence; and it has since been the steady policy of Parliament to restrain the number of placemen, entitled to sit in the House of Commons. To William III. fell the task of first working out the difficult problem of a constitutional government; and amongst his expedients for controlling his Parliaments, was that of a multiplication of offices. The country party at once perceived the danger with which

14 & 5 Vict. c. 58, and 11 & 12 Vict. c. 98; Report on Controverted Elec. tions, 1844, No. 373.

2 See supra, p. 224, 260.

their newly-bought liberties were threatened from this cause, and endeavored to avert it. In 1693, the Commons passed a bill to prohibit all members hereafter chosen from accepting any office under the Crown; but the Lords rejected it. In the following year it was renewed, and agreed to by both Houses; when the king refused his assent to it. Later in his reign, however, this principle of disqualification was com menced, the Commissioners of Revenue Boards being the first to whom it was applied.1 And at last, in 1700, i was enacted that after the accession of the House of Hanover, no person who has an office or place of profit under the king, or receives a pension from the Crown, shall be capable of serving as a member of the House of Commons." 2 This too stringent provision, however, was repealed,—before it came into operation, early in the reign of Anne. It was, indeed, incompatible with the working of constitutional government; and if practically enforced, would have brought Parliament into hopeless conflict with the executive.

66

Acts of Anne,

and II.

By the Act of Settlement of that reign, other restrictions were introduced, far better adapted to correct the evils of corrupt influence. The holder of every George I., new office created after the 25th of October, 1705, and every one enjoying a pension from the Crown, during pleasure, was incapacitated from sitting in Parliament; and members of the House of Commons accepting any old office from the Crown, were obliged to vacate their seats, though capable of reëlection.1 It was the object of this latter provision to submit the acceptance of office by a representative, to the approval of his constituents; a principle which, notwithstanding several attempts to modify it, has since been resolutely maintained by the legislature. Restrictions were also imposed upon the multiplication of commissioners.5

14 & 8 Will. & Mary, c. 21 (Stamps); 11 & 12 Will. III. c. 2 (Excise) 2 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, s. 3.

8 4 Anne, c. 8, s. 25.

4 4 Aune, c. 8.

56 Anne, c. 7

Secret Pensions.

At the commencement of the following reign, incapacity was extended to pensioners for terms of years;1 but as many pensions were then secretly granted, the law could not be put in force. In the reign of George II. several attempts were made to enforce it; but they all miscarried. Lord Halifax, in debating one of these bills, said that secret pensions were the worst form of bribery: "A bribe is given for a particular job; a pension is a constant, continual bribe." Early in the reign of George III. Mr. Rose Fuller. who had been a stanch Whig, bought off by a secret pension of 500l. which he enjoyed for many years. The cause of his apostasy was not discovered till after his death.4

The Place

was

Still the policy of restricting the number of offices capable of being held by members of the House of ComBill of 1742. mons, was steadily pursued. In 1742 the Place Bill, which had been thrice rejected by the Commons, and twice by the Lords, at length received the Royal assent. It was stated in a Lords' protest, that two hundred appointments were then distributed amongst the members of the House of Commons. This Act added many offices to the list of disqualifications, but chiefly those of clerks and other subordinate officers of the public departments.

Places in the

By these measures the excessive multiplication of offices had been restrained; but in the reign of George reign of Geo. III. their number was still very considerable; and they were used, almost without disguise,

III.

as

the means of obtaining parliamentary support. Horace Walpole has preserved a good example of the unblushing manner, in which bargains were made for the votes of members,

11 Geo. I. c. 56.

2 No less than six bills were passed by the Commons, and rejected by the Lords; Parl. Hist. viii. 789; ibid. ix. 369; ibid. xi. 510; ibid. xii. 591.

3 Parl. Hist. xi. 522.

4 Almon's Corr. ii. 8; Rockingham Mem. i. 79, n.

5 15 Geo. II. c. 22.

6 Lords' Protest, 1741; Parl. Hist. xii. 2.

in exchange for offices. Mr. Grenville wrote him a letter, proposing to appoint his nephew, Lord Orford, to the rangership of St. James's and Hyde Parks. He said, "If he does choose it, I doubt not of his and his friend Boone's hearty assistance, and believe I shall see you, too, much oftener in the House of Commons. This is offering you a bribe, but 'tis such a one as one honest good-natured man may, without offence, offer to another." As Walpole did not receive this communication with much warmth, and declined any participation in the bargain, payments due to him on account of his patentoffices in the Exchequer, were stopped at the Treasury, for several months.1

Lord Rock

1782.

The Whig statesmen of this period, who were striving to reduce the influence of the Crown, were keenly alive to the means of corruption which a multi- ingham's Act plicity of places still afforded. "The great number of offices," said Lord Rockingham, "of more or less emolument, which are now tenable by parties sitting in Parliament, really operate like prizes in a lottery. An interested man purchases a seat, upon the same principle as a person buys a lottery-ticket. The value of the ticket depends upon the quantum of prizes in the wheel." 2 It was to remove this evil, even more than for the sake of pecuniary saving, that Mr. Burke, in 1780, proposed to abolish thirtynine offices held by members of the House of Commons, and eleven held by peers. And by Lord Rockingham's Act for the regulation of the Civil List expenditure in 1782, several offices connected with the government and royal household were suppressed, which had generally been held by members of Parliament; and secret pensions were discontinued.'

In 1793, the Parliament of Ireland adopted the principles of the English act of Anne, and disqualified the offices in Ireholders of all offices under the Crown or Lord- land.

1 Nov. 21st, 1762; Walpole's Mem. i. 213–216.

2 Rockingham Mem. ii. 399.

22 Geo. III. c. 82, Wraxall's Mem. iii. 44. 50, 54. See also supra, 211

Lieutenant, created after that time. On the union with Ireland, all the disqualifications for the Irish Parliament, were extended to the Parliament of the United Kingdom; and several new disqualifications were created, in reference to other Irish offices.1

Further dis

tions.

The general scheme of official disfranchisement was now complete but the jealousy of Parliament was still qualifica- shown by the disqualification of new officers appointed by Acts of Parliament. So constant has been this policy, that upwards of one hundred statutes, still in force, contain clauses of disqualification; and many similar statutes have been passed, which have since expired, or have been repealed.2

The result of this vigilant jealousy, has been a great reduction of the number of placemen sitting in the House of Commons. In the first Parliament of George I. there had been two hundred and seventy-one members holding offices, pensions, and sinecures. In the first Parliament of George II. there were two hundred and fifty-seven; in the first Parliament of George IV. there were but eighty-nine, exclusive of officers in the army and navy. The number of placemen sitting in the House of Commons, has been further reduced by the abolition and consolidation of offices; and in 1833 there were only sixty members holding civil offices and pensions, exclusive of eighty-three holding naval and military commissions.*

Judicial offi

The policy of disqualification has been maintained to the present time. The English judges had been excers disquali- cluded from the House of Commons, by the law of Parliament. In the interests of justice, as well as on grounds of constitutional policy, this exclusion was extended to their brethren of the Scottish bench, in the

fied.

1 41 Geo. III. c. 52.

2 Author's Pamphlet on the Consolidation of the Election Laws, 1850. 8 Report on Returns made by Members, 1822 (542); 1823 (569); Hansard, 3d Ser., ji 1118, n.

4 Report on Members in Office, 1833, No. 671.