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Show RICHARD GRANT WHITE thinks we are growing worse, expecially in political corruption. Let's look at that virtuous past he so admires. In 1768, Oxford, Eng., [England] being entitled to two members of parliament, the municipal officers offered to sell the two places for £5,070 The speaker of the house learning of the matter, imprisoned the mayor and ten aldermen, but these officials actually concluded the trade while in Newgate, the purchasers being the Duke of Marlboro' and the Earl of Abingdon, who named their men. Then the clerk stole the records, leaving no evidence against the mayor and aldermen, who escaped with a speaker's reprimand. |