Bribery, as a system affecting all social relations, is best exemplified among oriental nations and in Russia. It forms a serious difficulty for government in the latter country. In Great Britain, although the system of commissions and promotion-money has been carried to great lengths, it cannot be said that there is any general corruption in either private or public life. Formerly, however, and especially during the 18th century, parliamentary corruption was a serious abuse. Developed in the reign of Charles II., when king and ministers and opposition alike received bribes from Louis XIV., it was reduced to a system by Sir Robert Walpole, in whose day the votes of electors were regularly bought, and often those of members of parliament. Indirect considerations also, though not always expressed in money, seriously prejudiced appointments to the public service and the administration of justice. In all these matters, however, there is now something approaching to purity. Statutes were passed in 1729, 1809, 1842, and 1854. The committees of parliament never did justice to the petitions against returns obtained by bribery and other corrupt practices; and accordingly in 1868 the jurisdiction in such cases was given to the judges of the Superior Courts with the best results. The Ballot Act tended further to starve out the coarser forms of bribery, because of the uncertainty whether the money produced any result. Convictions of agents of good standing, and severe sentences upon them, and the wholesale disfranchisement of constituencies proved to be specially corrupt, had a wholesome influence in the same direction. The heaviest blow, however, directed against bribery was Sir Henry James's Corrupt Practices Act of 1883, the most important part of which limits the legal expenditure of the candidate and his agents to a certain sum calculated on the number of electors, and visits with heavy penalties any authorised expenditure beyond this limit, or any unauthorised expenditure of any description; and this altogether irrespective of the purpose for which the expenditure was incurred. Bribery may be committed before, during, or after the election, if the payment can be connected with the election. Bribery may consist of a promise to give refreshment, to pay travelling expenses, to procure an office, to supply money for any of these purposes, or indeed to give or offer any valuable consideration for the purpose of corrupting the mind of the elector. Loans and large charitable payments, the employment of electors, even giving a holiday to workmen without deducting wages, may, in certain circumstances, amount to bribery. If it appears that the candidate or any of his agents have been guilty of bribery, or that bribery (though not traced to any one) has taken place on a large scale, the election is void, and the persons guilty may be punished by imprisonment or fine, electoral incapacity, and incapacity to be elected to parliament or any public office. The imprisonment is limited to one year, and the fine to £200. The civil incapacity lasts for seven years. If bribery is brought home to the knowledge of the candidate, he may be declared incapable of ever representing the particular constituency; and bribery by agents will exclude the candidate from that constituency for seven years.
BRIBERY IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.—By the Corrupt Practices (Municipal Elections) Act, 1884, the offence of bribery in England is put on the same footing as in parliamentary elections. This does not apply to municipal elections in Scotland, but the common law applies to these and all other elections, such as those of parochial boards.
BRIBERY OF CUSTOM-HOUSE AND EXCISE OFFICERS.—By the Customs Consolidation Act, the 16 and 17 Vict. chap. 107, sect. 262, every person who shall give or offer any bribe, or make any collusive agreement with any officer of Customs or Excise, or other person employed for the prevention of smuggling, in order to induce him to neglect his duty, shall forfeit the sum of £200. A former act, passed in 1827, still in force, specially enacts in the case of the Excise, that persons in such service taking money or reward, or entering into any collusive agreement contrary to their duty, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of £500, and be incapable of serving the crown in any office or employment; and any person giving or offering money or reward to Excise officers, in order to corrupt and prevail upon them, shall forfeit the like sum of £500, but simply and without any further penalty of disqualification.
BRIBERY OF JUDGES.—There is no statute in England against bribery of judges, but the punishment inflicted on Lord Bacon—viz. fine of £40,000, imprisonment during the king's pleasure, incapacity to be employed, and exclusion from parliament—shows how the offence is regarded. The same severity is traceable in the cases of Lord Middlesex, Lord Macclesfield, Lord Melville, and to some extent in that of Lord Westbury. This offence in the old Scots law was called Barratry (q.v.).