the altar, have been left free from attack, but a licentious and destroying spirit has gone forth." The New York Annual Register says further: "that even the tomb was not held sacred from the rancorous hostility which distinguished the Presidential election of 1828." In New York the Irish emigrants are about 40,000 in number. One of these Irishmen told Captain Marryatt that he had voted seven times in the different wards during the same election. His countrymen are sufficiently numerous to carry the election at New York, which has greater influence than any other state in determining the election of the President. The tide of emigration flows on steadily, and the descendants and connections of the Irish emigrants, and other members of the church of Rome, are rapidly acquiring immense political influence in America. The New York election, in 1838, (ten years afterwards) is thus mentioned by one of the whig papers. Some of the wards threw from four to six hundred more votes than there were known to be resident in them. Double voting was practised to the greatest extent. The whole spirit of the naturalization laws was defied, and an utter mockery was made of the sacred right of suffrage. What party is likely to be most guilty of these things may be judged from the fact that the loco-foco party resist every proposition for a registry law, or any other law, that will give the people a fair, and honest, and constitutional system of voting." So writes the whig-democratic editor of his brethren the loco-focos, or ultra democrats. But notwithstanding these nefarious proceedings the whigdemocrats gained the election. Was it by abstaining from the base and corrupt arts of their opponents? Was it by the triumph of that higher principle and immaculate purity, which some suppose is to be found in perfection only in that trans-Atlantic land of liberty,

where democracy reigns with its triple crown of annual elections, universal suffrage, and the ballot, over a free, and a sovereign people? By no means. An influential whig, in his exultation at the success of his own party on this occasion, told Captain Marryatt, "We beat them, sir, literally with their own weapons. We bought over all their bludgeon men, at so many dollars per head, and the very sticks intended to be used to keep us from the poll were employed upon the heads of the loco-focos." Here we find the art of governing mankind reduced to its primitive and rude simplicity, by the old summary method of an outward appeal to the understanding of a wrong-headed opponent. But surely such realities must disappoint the fond hopes of those who have pictured America as a land of liberty, where dollars never could be employed to corrupt the integrity of the patriotic voter, nor bludgeons be used to break-his independence. Thus it is that

"Distance lends enchantment to the view,"

pure

and the illusions of fancy are dispelled by the lessons of experience.

In England, elections are happily confined to the choice of members of parliament, and all the legislative enactments, which have been employed to prevent bribery and treating, have not hitherto been sufficient to eradicate the unconstitutional abuses of this popular right, and their demoralizing influence. The disclosures which have taken place during the last session of parliament, regarding the bribery and corruption which occurred at the general election in 1841, ought to make us blush for our national character. In this respect, truly, we have no right to find fault with the Americans. How can we see clearly the mote in our brother's eye, when there is such a beam in our own

H

eye? But it is gratifying to observe that both the government and the leading members of the house of commons have more earnestly striven to grapple with these flagrant abuses, and, if possible, to destroy themn. May they be successful-that purity of election may be restored according to the theory of our glorious constitution, which many have set aside in practice; for the root of the evil is not in the constitution, neither will it be cured by any violation of the constitution. Bribery and corruption, and bludgeon men, are employed in America, where there are short parliaments, the ballot, and universal suffrage. And what has the extension of the franchise done for us in this country? It may have diminished the amount of each particular bribe, but the number of bribes it has increased. Corruption and immorality, instead of being concentrated, have been diffused. Thus, whether the electors be many or few, whether they be in England or in America, whether they live under a monarchy or a democracy, bribery and corruption are found to prevail. What does this prove, but that the evil has its source and centre not merely in the political constitution of either country, but in the moral constitution of man? And as one of the greatest and best of the German reformers said, he found the old Adam was too strong for young Melancthon, so here the old Adam will be too strong for the most zealous political reformers. They may discourage and check the evil by such preventive means as they are now adopting, but purity of election can never be attained until the motives and actions of candidates, and canvassers, and electors, shall become more pure. Men must renounce the jesuitical maxim, that the end justifies the means they must do away with the false distinction between their moral conscience and their political conscience-they must scorn to do, collectively

in committees, and secretly by the agency of others, what, as honest upright men, they would refuse to do in their own persons, and what they would blush to confess before their country.

The duration of the exciting scenes of elections has been very beneficially limited to one or two days; and, although they give opportunity for the display of much vice and folly, they do not endanger the peace of the country. Having treated the subject gravely, a short extract, in a lighter strain, from the Pickwick Papers, will recal to mind the principal arts and abuses of electioneering, which, most deservedly, come under the lash of the satirist. "The stable-yard exhibited unequivocal symptoms of the glory and strength of the Eatanswill blues. There was a regular army of blue flags, some with one handle, and some with two, exhibiting appropriate devices, in golden characters, four feet high, and stout in proportion. There was a grand band of trumpets, bassoons, and drums, marshalled four abreast, and earning their money, if ever men did, especially the drum-beaters, who were very muscular. There were bodies of constables, with blue staves, twenty committee men with blue scarfs, and a mob of voters, with blue cockades. There were electors on horseback, and electors a-foot. There was an open carriage-and-four for the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, and there were four carriages and pair for his friends and supporters; and the flags were rustling, and the band was playing, and the twenty committee men were squabbling, and the mob were shouting, and the horses were backing, and the post-boys perspiring, and every body, and every thing then and there assembled, was for the special use, behoof, honour, and renown, of the Honourable Samuel Slumkey of Slumkey, Hall, one of the candidates for the representation of the borough of Eatanswill,

in the commons' house of parliament of the United Kingdom.

"Is every thing ready?" said the Hon. Samuel Slumkey to Mr. Perker.

"Every thing, my dear sir," was the little man's reply.

Nothing has been omitted, I hope ?" said the Hon. Samuel Slumkey.

Nothing has been left undone, my dear sir, nothing whatever. There are twenty washed men at the streetdoor for you to shake hands with, and six children in arms that you are to pat on the head, and inquire the age of; be particular about the children, my dear sir— it has always a great effect, that sort of thing."

"I'll take care," said the Hon. Samuel Slumkey. "And, perhaps, my dear sir," said the cautious little man, "perhaps, if you could-I don't mean to say it's indispensable, but if you could manage to kiss one of 'em, it would produce a very great impression on the crowd."

"Would'nt it have as good an effect if the proposer or seconder did that?" said the Hon. Samuel Slumkey. "Why I am afraid it wouldn't," replied the agent; "if it were done by yourself, my dear sir, I think it would make you very popular."

"Very well," said the Hon. Samuel Slumkey, with a resigned air," then it must be done-that's all."

During the whole time of the polling the town was in a perpetual fever of excitement. Every thing was conducted on the most liberal and delightful scale. Exciseable articles were remarkably cheap at all the public-houses; and spring vans paraded the streets, for the accommodation of voters who were seized with any temporary dizziness in the head- -an epidemic which prevailed among the electors, during the contest, to a most alarming extent, and under the influence of