Besides corrupt practices, certain other acts are forbidden under the name of illegal practices; but the provisions relating to them are mainly designed to restrain the expense of elections, and will be described under that head. The essential distinction between the two practices is much like that which lawyers were formerly in the habit of drawing in the case of crimes between _malum prohibitum_ and _malum in se_. A corrupt practice involves moral turpitude, and it is necessary to prove a corrupt intent.[225:4] A gift to a voter, for example, is not bribery unless it is made for the purpose of influencing his vote; but an illegal practice is simply an act forbidden by statute, and as such--in the case, for instance, of a payment of expenses above the maximum fixed by law--is illegal without regard to the motive with which it is done. For this reason a corrupt practice cannot be excused,[226:1] while the election court may grant relief from the consequences of an illegal practice where it is trivial in itself, and was committed without the connivance of the candidate who took all reasonable means to prevent it; or where, although the direct act of the candidate or his election agent, it arose from inadvertence, accidental miscalculation, or other reasonable cause; or, finally, where a failure to make a return of expenses has been due to illness. [Sidenote: Practices Tending to Lower the Tone of Elections.] Some acts which, without involving great expense, tend to lower the tone of elections, are treated as illegal practices, and forbidden by statute. Such are the use for committee rooms[226:2] of premises where liquor is sold, and the furnishing of voters with cockades, ribbons, or other marks of distinction,[226:3] a proceeding which is believed to engender broils. [Sidenote: Restraint of Expenditure.] Other acts apparently harmless are prohibited in order to prevent extravagance. The most curious example of this is the provision forbidding the use of hired carriages to take voters to the polls.[226:4] Such a rule may seem unnecessary; but before the Act of 1883, by which it was enacted, thousands of pounds were said to have been spent in certain cases for the conveyance of electors. The Act does not forbid the use of carriages, but only of hired ones; and the result is that the private carriages and motor cars of wealthy partisans, sometimes blazoned with ancient armorial bearings, are placed at the disposal of the candidate. In fact in estimating the chances of an election one constantly hears that the Conservative has the advantage of a larger number of carriages. [Sidenote: Authorised Expenses.] [Sidenote: Employment.]