On March 19th the House of Commons passed a bill disenfranchising the Freemen of Liverpool for bribery at the late election, but it did not pass the Lords. Liverpool had formerly an unenviable notoriety for this sort of thing, and it is said that in 1830, when Messrs. Denison and Ewart contested the borough after the death of Mr. Huskisson, it cost each of the candidates over £40,000! The _Times_ of February 26, 1834, in a leading article on this election, says-- "On this occasion, likewise, votes rose in price as the contest advanced, and towards its conclusion a single vote was sold for £80! Nearly every freeman who came to poll was bribed. The tickets given for enabling parties to claim payment from Mr. Denison's committee amounted to two thousand; and one of the witnesses having obtained these tickets, copied from them into a poll-book, against the name of each voter, the sum which had been paid him. The following is the analysis of the list of the other candidate, Mr. Ewart's voters, with their respective prices, as drawn up by his own law agent:-- 600 freemen received £10 and under. 462 " " between £10 " £20 209 " " " £20 " £30 24 " " " £30 " £40 7 " " " £40 " £50 1 " " £60 ---- 1303 "One circumstance which disgracefully distinguished the bribery practised on these two occasions, was the open, fearless, and shameless manner in which it was conducted. The respective parties advertised for supporters, and announced the price which they were ready to give for votes on the walls of their committee rooms. Tickets or tally-papers were openly distributed, which were as regularly paid. The ingenious conductors of the election had thus the merit of systemizing corruption--of making the sale of consciences a counting-house affair, with the proper assortment of promissory notes or poll-tickets and bags of gold, with cashiers, examiners, and controllers of account!