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Show BRIBERY IN PARLIAMENT. Danby did not exactly introduce the practice of bribing members, but was the minister who reduced it to a system. The direct bribery of members in hard cash lasted for about a century. Lord Rockingham who was the first Prime Minister who refused to bribe. His term of office was remarkably short. The price of a member's vote ranged, under George III, from L200 to L1,000. Mr. Grenville, in asking Lord Saye and Sele, by letter, for his support, enclosed a L200 note. Lord Saye wrote back, promising his vote, but returning the money. The tone of Lord Saye's letter is extremely courteous, with absolutely nothing in it of offended dignity. He merely observes that he has made it a rule never to accept presents of that sort. Mr. Grenville replies by complimenting him on his nice sense of honor. Tillotson had the courage to remonstrate with King William III, against this practice. The King took the lecture in good part, and told the Archbishop he was very sorry, but could not help himself. "There was no other way with those men." It was in that reign that Sir John Trevor, Speaker of the House of Commons, was found guilty of taking a bribe of 1,000 guineas to forward a private bill. He was ordered to move a vote of censure on himself from the chair. Next day he was to have moved his own expulsion from the House. He contrived, however, to be ill on the morrow, and the House good-naturedly accepted the excuse. Danby, who had become Duke of Leeds, was reported by a committee of the Commons to have accepted a gift of L5,000 under suspicious circumstances, and impeached accordingly. Luckily or unluckily for the Duke, the witness on whom the Commons counted instantly disappeared. The impeachment had to be dropped, but the Duke's reputation was gone. It is characteristic of the age that his Grace, nevertheless, remained President of the Council for some time longer. It was on this occasion, by the way, that the Duke told the Peers that amazing anecdote about himself and Mr. Sevile. The Duke as Treasurer, had once had a lucrative office in his gift. "Mr. Savile came to me and said, "I don't want the place myself, but tell everybody who asks you for it that I recommended him." "What Harry," I said, "Tell them all?" "Why, yes; because then whoever does get it will be sure to pay me." So I tell every one who came to me: "Sir, you are much beholden in this matter to Mr. Savile." "And the end was Harry got a handsome present." An equally good story belongs to this period. Under James II, a member was going to vote the wrong way. "Sir," significantly remarked a minister, "I think you have a place in the Customs?" "Yes," replies the honorable gentleman; "but my brother died yesterday, and left me L700 a year. So I don't care." - Cornhill. |