Principles of western civilisation

APPENDIX 507

question of whether it is desirable to introduce legislation to check the abuses which still remain has been considered by your Committee. On the one hand, it is forcibly urged that the Act of Parliament which makes criminal all bribery occurring in the case of officers of Government Departments and Public Bodies has produced advantageous results ; and that many persons who allow themselves to be parties to an */egal transaction, would shrink with fear from the same transaction when made criminal, On the other hand, several difficulties present themselves in the way of effective legislation. In the first place, it is never safe for criminal legislation to advance very far beyond the public conscience, and it is doubtful how far that conscience is yet enlightened on the matter; in the next place, it would be a matter of difficulty to define the offences with adequate breadth without including acts of an innocent or trivial character; and, lastly, occurs the consideration that the transactions aimed at are very often secret, and that it would be difficult to obtain confirmatory evidence, and unsafe to convict on a single unconfirmed oath.

13. If legislation is to be attempted, it appears to your Committee that it should render criminal the payment, the receipt, the offering, and the solicitation of any corrupt payment ; and also the giving of any invoice or other document calculated to enable the recipient to commit a fraud upon his principal, and that it is expedient that such legislation should be initiated by your Chamber or supported by a petition by them.

t4. Your Committee submit that the question of the desirability of legislation should be fully and immediately considered by the Chamber, and that if an affarmative conclusion be arrived at, the matter should be remitted to a Committee for the preparation of a suitable Bill, with such assistance as they may think proper to inyite.

15. But meanwhile, and independently of legislation, it appears to your Committee that much may be done if only the community will rouse themselves to the task. Your Committee make, with this view, the following suggestions :—

16. The more frequent enforcement of the civil rights of the principal; and they are advised that these rights may be thus stated :—

(a) A master or principal may recover from his servant or agent everything which has been received by him by way of secret commissions in the course of his service or agency; and if the accounts have been settled between the principal and his agent, and it can be shown in a single instance that the accounts are tainted with