sea waves. The latter interpretation is rendered more probable by the fact that Briareus is frequently called a marine deity, and is sometimes said to have been a son of
Pontus and Gaia.BRIBERY, as a public offence, may be defined as the administration of a bribe or reward, that it may be a motive in the performance of functions for which the proper motive ought to be a conscientious sense of duty. When this is superseded by the sordid impulses created by the bribe, a person is said to bo corrupted, and thus corruption is a term sometimes held equivalent to bribery. The offence -maybe divided into two great classes, the one characteristic of despotisms, where a person invested with power is induced by payment to use it unjustly ; the other, which is an unfortunate characteristic of constitutional govern ments, where power is obtained by purchasing the suffrages of those who can impart it. The former offence is in every sense the more odious and formidable, and indeed it may be said, that until a country has outgrown it, there is no room for the existence of elective bribery, since the nations among which justice is habitually sold appear to be far below the capacity of possessing constitutional rights.
When Samuel in his old age challenges a rigid scrutiny of his conduct, he says, " Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken ? or whom have I defrauded ] whom have I oppressed I or of whose hands have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith." And Amos, when denouncing the condition of the Israelites under Jeroboam, says, " They afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right." It is a natural propensity, removable only by civilization or some powerful counteracting influence, to feel that every element of power is to be employed as much as possible for the owner s own behoof, and that its benefits should be con ferred not on those who best deserve them, but on those who will pay most for them. Hence judicial corruption is an inveterate vice of imperfect civilization. It is so deeply seated among Oriental races, that the attempts by controlling authority to eradicate it have been often futile. It has been the main impediment to the employment of natives in the British Eastern empire, since no external appearance of respectability, or apparent systematic routine of "business, can be relied on as securities that the whole organization is not Contaminated by systematic bribery. It is difficult to get the Oriental mind to understand how it is reasonable to expect the temptation of a bribe to be resisted. In the Russian empire this Oriental character istic has had another conflict with the demands of a higher civilization. The organization of the Government requires that the empire should be honestly served by its official men, but their morality is of the humblest Oriental standard, and force will not change it. In no country,- perhaps, has the offence been visited with more dire chastisement where it has been discovered, yet by the concurring testimony of all who are acquainted with Russian society, not only the official departments, but the courts of law are still influenced by systematic bribery. There is, perhaps, no other crime on which the force of law, if unaided by public opinion and morals, can have so little influence ; for in other crimes, such as violence or fraud, there is generally some person immediately injured by the act, who can give his aid in the detection of the offender, but in the perpetration of the offence of bribery all the immediate parties obtain what they desire, and are satisfied.
The purification of the bench from judicial bribery has been gradual in most of the European countries. In France it received an impulse in the 1 Gth century from the high-minded chancellor L Hopital. In England judicial corruption acquired a painful, but perhaps a wholesome renown, from the fate of the illustrious Bacon. In Scotland for some years after the Revolution the bench was not without a suspicion of interested partiality ; but during the present century, at least, there has been in all parts of the empire a perfect reliance on its purity. The same may be said of the higher class of ministerial officers. There is no doubt that in the period from the Revolution to the end of Queen Anne s reign, when a speaker of the House of Commons was expelled for bribery, and the great Marl- borough could not clear his character from pecuniary dis honesty, there was much corruption in the highest official quarters. The level of the offence of official bribery has gradually descended, until it has become an extremely rare thing for the humbler officers connected with the revenue to be charged with it. It has had a more lingering exist ence with those who, because their power is more of a constitutional than an official character, have been deemed less responsible to the public. During Walpole s adminis tration there is no doubt that members of Parliament were paid in cash for votes; and the memorable saying, that every man has his price, has been preserved as a charac teristic indication of his method of government.
One of the forms in which administrative corruption is most difficult of eradication is the appointment to office. It is sometimes maintained that the purity which charac terizes the administration of justice is here unattainable, because in giving a judgment there is but one form in which it can be justly given, but when an office has to be filled many people may be equally fitted for it, and personal motives must influence a choice. It very rarely happens, however, that direct bribery is supposed to influence such appointments.
It does not appear that bribery was conspicuous in England until, in the early part of the 18th century, constituencies had thrown off the feudal dependence which lingered among them ; and, indeed, it is often said, that bribery is essentially the defect of a free people, since it is the sale of that which is taken from others withoxit payment. It is alluded to by Fielding and Smollett, and had become conspicuous in the days of Hogarth, who represents it in its double shape of demoralization ; one picture shows a reckless expenditure of money among pro fligate expectants, whose demoralization is a systematic source of profit to them, while another presents us with the impoverished father of a family urged against his con science to relieve the misery of his wife and children by the sale of his vote.
In England electoral bribery has been the subject of much legislation, which culminated in the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act of 1854 (17 and 18 Viet. c. 102). By this Act the following persons shall be deemed guilty of bribery, and shall be punishable accordingly:—
1. Every person who shall directly or indirectly, by him self or by any other person on his behalf,- give, lend, etc., or offer, promise, or promise to procure, &c., any money or valuable consideration to or for any voter or any other person in order to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting, or shall corruptly do any such act on account of such voter having voted or refrained from voting at any election.
2. Every person who shall similarly give or procure or promise, &c., any office, place, or employment to or for any voter or other person in order to induce him to vote, &c.
3. Every person who shall make any gift, loan, promise, &c., as aforesaid to any person to induce such person to procure the return of any person to serve in Parliament or the vote of any voter.
4. Every person who shall, in consequence of such gift, procure or engage, promise or endeavour to procure the return of any person or the vote of any voter.
