I.
Without noticing unexpected qualities now and then, and remembering
them, many are needlessly discouraged in purposes of improvement. The
two Bramwells, the judge and his brother Frederick, were both men of
great parts. This narrative relates to the Judge, who could do mischief
at will--and did it. It was Baron Bramwell who protected the bribers of
Berwick. It is to judges of his political proclivities, to whom bribers
look still for countenance. Young men of to-day enjoy advantages unknown
to their forefathers, and the new generation are mostly ignorant how
their good fortune, which Liberalism brought them, came to them--and
they make no inquiry. Not only have they no pride in sustaining the
political traditions of their family, but their base ambition is to give
the influence of the position they have attained to that party who
put every impediment in the way of their ever emerging from social and
industrial obscurity--a condition from which they did not deserve to be
rescued.
Political reformers used to complain of bribery at elections, by which a
few wealthy political adventurers tempted the baser sort of citizens to
sell the liberties of the nation to them. Tories, by the law of their
being, seek authority by which the majority of them intend the control
of public affairs for their own advantage. They supply money for
corruption, intending to refund themselves by place and profit when the
resources of the State come under their manipulation. Even judges
of their party accord them legal security in their political
nefariousness.
When the Liberals of Newcastle-on-Tyne claimed that Parliament should
terminate electoral bribery, Lord John Russell said the law was already
against it, and that the Newcastle applicants to the House of Commons
should put bribery down at their own door, meaning in Berwick-on-Tweed,
notorious for it Lord John had never tried to do this, or he would not
have advised the attempt His counsel at the time seemed reasonable, and
what came of it was shown in a petition from the Northern Reform Union,
sent to Parliament (1859), which set forth as follows:--
That the petitioners were members of a society named "The Northern
Reform Union," which was instituted for the purpose of obtaining a
further Reform of the Representation of the People of these Realms in
Parliament, and for the purpose of vindicating that purity and freedom
of election which is essential to a true representative system. Amongst
other steps with a view to these purposes, the said petitioners were
induced to institute inquiries into certain corrupt practices, alleged
to have taken place in the election of a member for the town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed.
The result of these inquiries was, that the petitioners were induced,
as a matter of public duty, to prosecute certain electors of the town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed for the offence of offering bribes at the election
aforesaid. The prosecution was instituted under the provision of the Act
of 1854, known as "The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act," when one or
more of the persons upon whom writs were served in accordance with the
provisions of the Act, made affidavit that to the best of their belief,
Mr. Richard Bagnall Reed, the secretary of the Northern Reform Union
and the nominal prosecutor in these cases, was not of ability to pay the
costs of suit in case of nonsuit, and applied through their counsel
to Sir G. W. Bramwell, one of the Barons of Her Majesty's Court of
Exchequer, to make order that security should be lodged for payment
of the costs in these actions if proceeded with. A report of the
particulars of this application was published in a newspaper printed at
Newcasde under the title of the _Northern Daily Express_, which report
is verbatim, as follows:--
"London, _December_ 16, 1859.
"Actions have been commenced, at the suit of Mr. R. B. Reed, the
secretary of the Northern Reform Union, against several persons
suspected of bribery at the last Berwick election. The actions are
founded on the 5th Section of 'The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act,
1854,' which provides that 'any one who shall be guilty of using any
undue influence at any Parliamentary election shall not only be guilty
of a misdemeanour, but shall also be liable to forfeit the sum of fifty
pounds to any person who shall sue for the same, together with full
costs of suit.'
"An application was made at chambers before the Hon. Mr. Baron B ram
well, on the part of the defendants in the above actions, for an order
that the plaintiff should give security for costs.
"Mr. Chitty appeared in support of the application.
"Mr. Rutherford appeared on behalf of the secretary of the Northern
Reform Union to oppose the granting of the order.
"Mr. Chitty founded his application on an affidavit, which stated
that Mr. Reed was not the real plaintiff in the action; he was only
instigated by the Northern Reform Union, who were the real plaintiffs.
A copy of the _Northern Daily Express_ was annexed as an exhibit to the
affidavit, and a passage was read from it relating to the proceedings of
the Northern Reform Union. Mr. Chitty cited cases to prove that where a
plaintiff in an action was for the benefit of third parties, he is bound
to give security for costs; and he endeavoured to show that in the event
of the action being decided in the defendant's favour, it would be in
vain to look to the plaintiff for costs.
"Mr. Baron Bramwell hereupon made the following extraordinary remark:
'This Northern Reform Union is a purity society. It consists of
patriots, and surely these gentlemen will only be too eager to give
any security that may be desired, if it were merely to show their
high-mindedness and integrity.'
"Mr. Rutherford said that his Lordship, on looking into the case, would
find that the application now made was a vexatious proceeding to throw
obstacles in the way of the plaintiff. Mr. Reed was the secretary of the
Union, and the proper person to sue. The Union must sue in the name of
some one, and who so proper as their secretary? The authorities that
had been cited on the other side did not touch the case, because the
plaintiff was suing for penalties, which, if recovered, would be for his
own benefit. It mattered not at whose instigation he was suing. He was
suing for a penalty, which the Act of Parliament gave him the right to
sue for.
"Mr. Baron Bramwell: 'What is the plaintiffs position? Is he a man of
substance?'
"Mr. Rutherford: 'He is, I am told, a gentleman of a respectable
position. But that is not the question; it appears clearly from the
authorities that in penal actions the courts have refused to order
security, even in cases where the common informer was a person of great
poverty. In one case Mr. Justice Bayley says, "Many _qui tam_ actions
have been brought by men who were worth nothing, but there is no
instance of their being compelled to give security for costs. It might
happen that the penalties had been incurred, but their recovery would be
defeated by requiring such a security."'
"Mr. Baron Bramwell here observed: 'There is great force in that Men of
property are not likely to trouble themselves about such things. I think
I cannot make the order. Cannot some agreement be come to between the
parties? Mr. Chitty, will you name any other member of the Union to
be substituted as plaintiff instead of Mr. Reed? Some one must be
plaintiff; and the same argument you have used against Mr. Reed would
apply to any one else.'
"A long discussion here ensued.
"Mr. Rutherford said he could not, without the consent of his clients,
agree to substitute another person as plaintiff. The Act would become a
dead letter if the judges allowed obstacles to be thrown in the way of
carrying it out. There was no ground at all for this application, and
if his Lordship granted it, it was impossible to conceive under what
circumstances a similar application would be refused.
"Mr. Chitty insisted that his clients would not be able to recover their
costs if the action were decided in their favour. It was a very hard
thing to be compelled to defend an action at the suit of invisible
personages. His Lordship had said that 'purity principles were all very
fine.'
"Mr. Baron Bramwell: 'No doubt they are. It is very easy to go about
professing integrity. To commence actions against people for penalties
when the plaintiff cannot pay the costs, is a cheap way of becoming
a patriot--cheap and, I think, nasty. I find that the Act gives me
a discretion. The affidavits made by the defendants have not been
answered. I shall make the order.'
"The order was made accordingly.
"The petitioners were informed and believed that the report quoted was
substantially and literally correct. It was reprinted and commented upon
by various other journals, and no attempt to question its accuracy was
made, either on the part of the learned judge or of any other person.
"The petitioners were persuaded that the language asserted to have been
used by the learned judge on this occasion cannot be deemed by, nor
appear to Parliament either befitting the station of him who used it,
or just towards the suitors in this prosecution, who were taking legal
steps, under a sense of public duty, to put a stop to practices which
tend to corrupt the source of all law.
"The petitioners submitted that the order made on this occasion is
contrary to all precedent, and inconsistent with the intention and
enactments of the said Corrupt Practices Act, which by Section 13
expressly limits the obligation on the plaintiff to find security for
costs to those cases only where he may seek to recover, by order of the
judge, the costs of prosecution for offences against the Act.
"The petitioners urged that they did not deserve to have their motives
and characters thus questioned and sneered away, nor did they think that
such language as that imputed to Baron Bramwell can tend to add to that
respect for the law and those who administer it which the petitioners
trusted may never be lost amongst Englishmen.
"On the contrary, such language appeared to the petitioners calculated
to cause the people to believe that a complicity with such practices
exists amongst the administrators of the law; subversive at once of
justice and of the representative portion of the Legislature.
"The petitioners, therefore, prayed the honourable House of Commons to
take such steps as might appear to it most fitting, to bring the matter
under the notice of Her Majesty and her advisers in such a mode as may
prevent a repetition of the same."
This remarkable petition, which may be read in the records of the House,
bore the signatures of the following persons:--
Thomas Doubleday,
James Eadie,
James Watson,
James Hay,
Jos. Cowen, jun.,
Robert Sutherland,
Thomas Gregson,
Thomas Allen,
Jos. Barlow,
Thomas Spotswood, jun.,
John Emerson,
Robert Ramsay,
William Douglas,
James Reed, and thirty-three others.
The character of Baron Bramwells remarks--the impediments he must
well know he was putting in the way of any prosecution for bribery in
Berwick; the words by which he sought to intimidate the prosecutors
by holding them up to public ridicule--the language of the petition
appropriately characterised. Baron Bramwell could not be ignorant of
the great expense which had been incurred in taking legal proceedings
against the persons accused of bribery and in collecting evidence long
after the time when the acts of bribery occurred. Such evidence is
expensive to collect at the time, and much costlier at a later stage.
After obtaining witnesses it was necessary to protect them from being
spirited away at the time of the trial--no uncommon occurrence in these
cases. Many hundreds of pounds must have been spent before the case
reached the stage when Baron Bramwell was appealed to by the accused to
put obstacles in the way of the charges against them being tried. The
penalties recoverable under the Act would not have covered a tenth part
of these costs. Those who appealed to Baron Bramwell for protection knew
perfectly well, as all Durham and Northumberland knew, that any costs
they might be able to claim against Mr. Reed would be met. Baron
Bramwell, by the remarks he uttered and the order he made, aided and
abetted the bribery, and protected those who committed it. The Baron's
observation that "men of property would not be likely to trouble
themselves" to put the Act in force against electoral corruption, was
true and significant. The "men of property" were they who profited
by it; and if any man of property had justice and patriotic spirit
sufficient to prosecute bribers, he was certain to incur annoyance and
loss, and subject himself to offensive comments such as Baron Bramwell
made. It was the duty of a judge, to whom the Act gave discretion, to
use it in favour of public purity, and not to favour public corruption.
Though no other judge behaved so flagrantly ill as Baron Bramwell, there
were few who could be trusted to render justice to Reformers.
The Tory judge, Baron Bramwell, sneered away all chance of a just
verdict, and Mr. Joseph Cowens noble effort to vindicate electoral
purity cost him L2,000 and whatever obloquy and derision the venomous
tongue of the judge could heap upon him.
Let men beware of principles which render corruption congenial--and let
them honour the memory of those who made heroic sacrifices for electoral
integrity.
*****
It is happily exceptional when political partisanship perverts the sense
of justice in a judge. Sometimes the sense of truth, characteristic of
Liberalism (for it is not worth while being a Liberal unless it implies
the ascendency of truth) is perverted by political exigency or obscured
by excitement. An instance of this occurred where it was little
expected.
II.
Mr. J. Humffreys Parry drew up the legal part of my defence at
Gloucester in 1842. He was then a young law student, living in lodgings
at (what was then) No. 5, Gray's Inn Road, near Theobalds' Road. His
grandfather was editor of the Cambro-Briton, and one of the founders, in
1820, of the Cymmrodorion Society. But we knew nothing of this. We only
knew young Humffreys as a stalwart, energetic platform speaker. Radical,
bold, and impetuous, but so manifestly sincere, that it atoned for
his somewhat gaseous style of speaking. Like O'Connell, he acquired
eventually two styles. Parry's legal style became Demosthenic in
its terseness. For the research and care he took to prepare my legal
defences, he ought, even at that stage of his career, to have received
twenty guineas, but for it he received nothing, nor asked for anything.
When he became Mr. Serjeant Parry he abandoned his platform style
altogether, for one of uncoloured vigour, which gave him ascendency
at the Bar. Had he lived a few years longer than he did he would have
become one of our judges. His son--known as Judge Parry--was shot by a
suitor, while presiding at a Manchester court, but not shot fatally. He
is still known with distinction as a judge, as an author, and dramatic
critic. Thus three generations of Parrys have been notable.
Years ago propagandists of new opinion were often assisted by Mr. Robert
Mackay, author of a powerful work on the "Progress of the Intellect." A
silent, unobtrusive man, Mr. Mackay would be seen at times at meetings
or lectures, but never taking any public part He seemed to shrink back
when addressed, and was as reserved as an affrighted man. In his quiet
way, of his own initiative, he took much trouble to promote the opening
of the National Gallery on Sundays, and went personally to men of note
in law, science, and art, to solicit their signatures to a memorial in
favour of opening public treasures on Sundays for the refinement of the
poor, that being the only day when they had a leisure hour to see them.
Among others, Mr. Mackay called on Mr. Serjeant Parry, who signed the
memorial. Later the Serjeant was a Parliamentary candidate for Finsbury.
Some super-fervid free Sunday advocate went to electoral meetings,
asking Mr. Parry whether he would vote for the opening of the National
Gallery. There are always "fool-friends" of progress, who are ever ready
to ruin it by their Pauline zeal of doing things in season and out of
season. It was well known to all concerned that he would vote for an
"Open Door" of art. But if the constituency knew it, it would cost him
the votes of most of the Puritan portion of the electors. Forgetful,
at the moment, of the incident that he had signed the memorial, the
candidate denied that he had. One morning when due in court, he had
hurriedly signed his name to some documents brought before him,
among them the memorial sent in by Mr. Mackay. Whereupon this modest,
retiring, shrinking, impalpable gentleman went into turbulent meetings,
vindictively parading the actual memorial to confront the candidate.
This proceeding cost Mr. Parry his election. It was a warning to
public men against signing a liberal document which might be needlessly
obtruded against them at a critical conjuncture. Thus the Sunday League
lost a Parliamentary defender, who, from persuasion of the righteousness
and rightfulness of its objects, would have stood by it The word of Mr.
Mackay would have been quite sufficient to vindicate the honour of the
League, had he waited till the election was over. But the unexpected
thing was to see Mr. Mackay--who had never spoken at a meeting
before--appearing at crowded and tumultuous assemblies, where a strong
and resolute man might have hesitated to present himself.
The answer of Mr. Serjeant Parry in question was given without
premeditation; it was evident to the audience that it was made under the
inspiration of an after-dinner speech, when robust barristers, in
those days, were liable to airiness or eccentricity of statement.
Being pursued vindictively, he became too indignant to give the obvious
explanation of the inadvertency of his denial of his signature.
III.
There are saints of the Church and saints of humanity; Lord Shaftesbury
was a saint of both churches. There are two kinds of Conservatives, as I
have elsewhere said.* One class seek power for personal aggrandisement;
another, and better class, covet it as a means of doing good. Lord
Shaftesbury belonged to this class. Through not making this distinction,
the whole Conservative body are made answerable for the actions of a
part Discrimination is as just in politics as in morals.
* "Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, Preacher and Political
Orator."
Lord Shaftesbury was a nobleman of two natures. In politics he would
withhold power from workmen. In humanity he would withhold nothing
from them which could do them good. In theology he knew no measure. Of
Professor Seeley's book, "Ecce Homo," he said it was "vomited from the
mouth of hell." Surely something ought to be pardoned to a writer who
made Satan sick. At an earlier day such language had handed the luckless
Professor over to Torquemada. Yet Lord Shaftesbury was so courteous,
tender, and friendly to Nonconformists, that he laid more foundation
stones of Dissenting chapels than any other peer or patron. Should
England one day be counted among extinct civilisations, and some
explorers arrive to excavate its ruins, they will come upon so many
stones deposited by Lord Shaftesbury and bearing his name, that report
will be made of the discovery of the king of the last dynasty. Whatever
contradictions biographers may have to record of the character of Lord
Shaftesbury, everything will be forgiven him in consideration of his
noble exertions on behalf of factory children. He sought to improve the
condition of women in mines and collieries. Public health,
emigration, ragged-schools, penny banks, drinking-fountains, and
model lodging-houses were subjects of his generous solicitude. Lord
Shaftesbury was one of the earliest of slum visitors. He was essentially
and exclusively a social reformer. He took no part in political
amelioration. He believed that working people only clamoured for
political enfranchisement because they were ill-used and uncomfortable.
He saw no further. Their desire for independence never occurred to
him. His sympathy with co-operators was on moral grounds. It was quite
unforeseen by any, and had little acceptance in his day, that he should
advise, that the agencies for planting Christianity among heathen
nations should include the secular missionary, who must precede the
Christian teacher to prepare the soil of the soul by social amelioration
before the seeds of Christianity could take root Like Faraday, Lord
Shaftesbury had a dual mind. Faraday reasoned like a Sandemanian on
questions of faith and like a philosopher on questions of science.
In like manner Lord Shaftesbury was a sectarian in piety and a
latitudinarian in humanity.