The 'Puritan' Democracy of Thomas Hill Green by Alberto de Sanctis

Author:Alberto de Sanctis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Puritanism, Puritan, Green, political philosophy, evangelicalism, religion, religious dissent, anti-formalism, democracy, German idealism, positive freedom, negative freedom, political obligation, liberalism, Cromwell, Aristotle, empiricism, faith, politics, radicalism, anglicanism, electoral reform, reformism, Gladstone, Disraeli, war, citizenship, obedience, state intervention, teleology, reason, general will, self-realization, self-realisation, property
ISBN: 9781845406936
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2016
Published: 2016-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

10. Electoral Corruption

The Liberals won the 1880 election and Gladstone returned to power. Contrary to all expectations, the Conservative brewer Hall won in Green’s constituency of Oxford. Harcourt’s failure to secure re-election, despite a seemingly greater reserve of potential votes than his opponent, immediately aroused the suspicions of the North Ward Liberal Association. With the Association’s support, Green instigated a petition calling for an inquiry into the election. The court declared the election void and Hall not duly elected on account of bribery by his agents. After this, the Commission of Enquiry, a separate body, was established. It found however that the Liberals too had resorted to corrupt electoral practices. The main culprit was deemed to be Buckell, President of the North Ward Liberal Association. [213]

Buckell resigned from his post following the inquiry. A dismayed Green was quick to speak out in his defence. As an Oxford Times journalist reported, Green “spoke advisedly, when he said that but for their Chairman’s indefatigable exertions the evidence for the petition would never have been got up; the petition would not have been successful; Mr. Hall would not have been unseated; they would not have had the Commission of Enquiry, and if they had not had that, so far as human foresight can go, the system of corruption in Oxford might have gone unchecked for ever.” [214]

Green argued that the proposal for an anti-corruption law could also be traced back to the Enquiry which Buckell himself had helped bring about. The only criticism which Green felt should be levelled at the members of the Commission was that of not having sufficiently emphasised the different nature of Liberal and Conservative misdemeanours. As he pointed out, the Conservatives had been employing corrupt practices in Parliamentary and local elections since 1874. [215] In Buckell’s case, one of the accusations upheld against him was that of having purchased an excessive amount of rosettes. The other was of having employed potential voters in order to influence the outcome of the election. [216] While recognising the illegality of any practice which might lead to an excessive increase in electoral expenditure, Green nonetheless justified Buckell’s actions. [217] Green would have preferred to appeal to the working classes in terms of their self-respect, honour and intelligence and thus encourage them to free themselves from the twin temptations of money and drink. [218] However, as he acknowledged,

if all the electors had been what [the Liberals] wished them to be, there would be no occasion for doing more than that. But unhappily among their poorer brethren on the Liberal side there were many weak ones. [219]

As a result, Green felt that electoral propaganda could fulfil a very important role. It was well known that there were many voters in the North Ward with clear Liberal sympathies who, due to their straitened economic circumstances, were often tempted by attractive offers of temporary work from the Conservatives. Viewed from this perspective, Buckell’s actions had been forced upon him. [220]

Green stressed that he did not intend

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.