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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 109.: Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections [4] 25 JUNE, 1868 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

109.: Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections [4] 25 JUNE, 1868 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868 [1850]

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The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868, ed. John M. Robson and Bruce L. Kinzer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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109.

Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections [4]

25 JUNE, 1868

PD, 3rd ser., Vol. 192, cols. 2180–1. Reported in The Times, 26 June, p. 9, from which the response is taken. For the Bill, see No. 89. Mill spoke in Committee on Clause 5: “From and after the next Dissolution of Parliament a Petition complaining of an undue Return or undue Election of a Member to serve in Parliament for a County or Borough may be presented to the Court of Common Pleas by any One or more” of certain designated people. Edward Henry John Crauford (1816–87), M.P. for Ayr, had moved an amendment to replace “Court of Common Pleas” by “House of Commons”

(col. 2173).

mr. j. stuart mill said, that, in the course of the rather severe criticisms which had been made upon the Bill, it seemed to have been forgotten that, whatever might be its defects, it provided one of the most important remedies for bribery and corruption—a local investigation. (Hear, hear.) His own opinion was that the worst plan which involved such an investigation would be better than the best plan without it. But if there were a local investigation the jurisdiction must be altered; and the question was whether a tribunal should be constituted composed of one of the Judges of the land as proposed in the Government plan, or of a Judge sitting with a jury as suggested by the right honourable Gentleman the Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Bouverie)?1 However that might be he was anxious to impress on the House that any such tribunal would be only fit to be a tribunal of appeal, and that it would be necessary to have besides a tribunal of investigation. The best plan, therefore, to adopt, seemed to him that of which he had given Notice, and which he had drawn up with the assistance of Mr. Serjeant Pulling,2 providing that the Revising Barrister, an officer conversant with elections, and having a considerable acquaintance with the locality, should be the person to hold the investigation in the first instance. The investigation should take place before the return of the writ, and there should be a scrutiny. They must endeavour to put an end to excessive expenditure; and he thought the expense of the preliminary investigation should be borne by the public, either out of the borough rate or be charged on the Consolidated Fund. If the Amendment were pressed to a division he should vote for the provision in the Bill as against the Amendment.

[The amendment failed (col. 2189).]

[1 ]Edward Pleydell Bouverie (1818–89), Speech on the Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill (21 May, 1868), PD, 3rd ser., Vol. 192, cols. 682–5.

[2 ]Alexander Pulling (1813–95), legal author, municipal reformer, an active member of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science.