ew, though most
necessary, precedent of punishing a constituency for habitual and
inveterate corruption. It may be called the first fruits of Mr.
Grenville's act. At the end of the same year in which that statute had
been passed, a select committee had sat to try the merits of a petition
which complained of an undue return for the borough of New Shoreham. And
its report brought to light an organized system of corruption, which
there was too much reason to fear was but a specimen of that which
prevailed in many other boroughs as yet undetected. It appeared from the
report, founded as it was on the evidence and confession of many of the
persons inculpated, that a society had long existed in New Shoreham,
entitled the Christian Club, which, under this specious name, was
instituted, as they frankly acknowledged, for the express purpose of
getting as much money as possible at every election from the candidates
they brought in. The members of the club were under an oath and bond of
L500 not to divulge the secrets of the club, and to be bound by the
majority. On every election, a committee of five persons was nominated
by the club to treat with the candidates for as much money as they could
get. And, in pursuance of this system, when, on the death of Sir Stephen
Cornish, one of the members for the borough, five candidates offered
themselves to supply the vacancy, this committee of five opened
negotiations with them all. The offers of the rival purchasers were
liberal enough. One (General Smith) proposed to buy the entire club in
the lump for L3000, adding a promise to build 600 tons of shipping in
the town. A second (a Mr. Rumbold) was willing to give every freeman
L35; and his offer was accepted by the committee, who, however,
cautioned him that no freeman was entitled to the money who was not a
member of the Christian Club. He willingly agreed to this limitation of
his expenditure, and both he and the club regarded the matter as
settled. He paid every freeman who belonged to the club his stipulated
bribe, and on the polling day they tendered eighty-seven votes in his
favor, the entire constituency being something under one hundred and
fifty. The general, finding his L3000 declined, did not go to the poll;
but a Mr. Purling and Mr. James did, the latter polling only four votes,
the former only thirty-seven. What bribe Mr. Purling had given was never
revealed; but by some means or other he had contrived to render himself
the mo