DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 12) terms. Shortly after this Walpole deprived Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, of his commission in the Guards because he opposed him in the House of Commons. It was not until the end of the last century, when public opinion began to form, that this system of bribery showed signs of abating. We may say, however, that it only received its death-blow in 1872, when the Ballot Act was passed, which enables every elector to vote according to his conscience regardless of intimidation ; and that it was finally despatched by the Corrupt Practices Act of Sir Henry James, which limits the expenditure of candidates. I need not tell you how immeasurably the country has gained by candidates being precluded from spending large sums, which demoralised the public, generally found their way into unworthy hands, and impo- verished the candidates themselves, who, in order to recoup their expenditure, resorted to Jobbery at the cost of the taxpayers at large. In 1885 political public opinion reached the acme of its expression in the enlarged franchise and the redistribution of political power which was then effected. I have dilated at some length on the slow growth of our political freedom, as the expansion of parliamentary privilege and power, and of the re- sponsibilities of members to their constituents, has been largely concerned in moulding political pub-