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
£500 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 £3000, adding a promise to build 600 tons of shipping in
the town. A second (a Mr. Rumbold) was willing to give every freeman
£35; 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 £3000 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 most acceptable of all the candidates to Mr. Roberts, the returning
officer. Roberts had himself been a member of the Christian Club, but
had quarrelled with it, and on the day of the election, as Rumbold's
voters came up, he administered to each of them the oath against