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    ^ T.SJ B jD iEAIQffi ft. [frp. 854 Satob...

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    PROSPECTS OF THE BALLOT. . The Ballot is...

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    SOUTHAMPTONIANA. Southampton- is, at pre...

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    The Garotte And The Gallows. X/Ife And P...

    BTfnadT for Trim . " We liare servants inour household who are perfect strangers to us , and not strange to the ' cousin' that comes in at night , unbeknown' if possible . We have a church that offers no Tooni for the unrespeetable classes—nofc much use , therefore , is the pastor to those lost sheep , either for guidance , support , or consolation . We have

    whole districts of which our legislators and rulers know nothing—our fences and Fagins everything . " We have prisons , with official Jebbs to hinder reform , and chaplains to teach hypocrisy . We have London Scoundrels and . British Judges to proclaim war to the knife—or rather war f o the gallows—with that race made hostile . And then we wonder

    that there are criminals in the Iand , or that the gar otter has rather a hankering , —no , not to hang the London Scoundrel , but only to make him pay the reckoning for his bad manners .. Really , the balance of cruelty , wantonness , and folly is not on the side of the felon .

    ^ T.Sj B Jd Ieaiqffi Ft. [Frp. 854 Satob...

    ^ T . SJ B jD iEAIQffi ft . [ frp . 854 Satobbaj ,

    Prospects Of The Ballot. . The Ballot Is...

    PROSPECTS OF THE BALLOT . . The Ballot is decidedly a rising question . It has already lived down many objections , although it is as yet -untried in England . Just as its traditional opponents have been casting the old slur upon its efficacy , the " Bed Jacket comes from the Antipodes and reports that it has satisfied all classes of politicians in the AiUstralian and , Tasmanian colonies . Mr . Bebleexet has contributed several admirable letters to this winter ' s discussion , and Sir-Abtehtb . Elto ^ t has published a no less admirable pamphlet . We confess to feeling some interest in the political progress of Sir . A TtTHiTB Eetoit . He is sineere , bold , vigorous . He is practical and studious . He has contrived to write forty pages of very sound and readable argument on so well-worn a subject as the "Ballot . *

    He calls it a Conservative measure . But he probably knows that Conservatism is only the pretence of the Conservative party . The typical Liberal is far Jess inclined to experiment than the typical Tory . The Liberal principle is , to provide safety-valves and other securities ; the Tory principle is to see what pressure the engine will bear , without bursting . Sir Akthur , therefore , appeals to a principle which does not exist among the Tory order , when he treats the Ballot as a " Conservative '' measure . Catholic

    Emancipation , the Reform Bill , the Repeal of the CornJaws , were Conservative measures ; but the sense in which the Ballot is Conservatism is not that winch would satisfy the country party . It would conserve the institutions of the State , but not the bribery , intimidation , and obnoxious influence by which the interests of the State are sacrificed to the selfishness of a class .

    We , however , as Conservatives , accept Sir Aa . TH . xrii Ei / pon ' s description of the Ballot . We thmk his statement so useful , that it deserves the widest possible circulation , and shall , therefore , notice its more prominent points . He starts with the opinion that any further ; concession of the suffrage without the protection of the Ballot would be fallacious and injurious . Without the Ballot , indeed , we have mo means of testing the itimate results of the

    leg Reform Bill . We have never yet had a Parliament which represented th © principles or the sentiments even of the narrow constituent body . We cannot say of what colour a majority would pe , returned at a general election , entirely iree from unconstitutional influences . We have , then , a House of Commons created by a machinery which has never been free to ^ o ^ vy ji ^ oiitj ] le _ iiite £ ference of the landed A Ji ^ w * L ? V Cons < ™ t ™ e Measvrer BySir Arthur . H . Elton , Bart . Rldgway .

    or moneyed aristocracy . ? 3 Go obtain a House of Commons , elected in the true spirit of the Constitution , a system of secret voting is indispensable , ; but it is formidabl y democratic , would throw enormous power into the hands of demagogues , demoralize the political habits of the people , and prove , mechanically , a total failure . Such is the Alpha and such of the

    the Om ^ dissentients alphabet , for neither Whigs nor Tories pretend to reconcile the inconsistency of a mechanical failure producing a moral revolution . If votes cannot be secret , the system called secret voting cannot be dangerous ; but facts are against the objectors . We have mentioned the report of the Red Jacket . Sir Aethub , Elton and

    Mr . Bekkexey show that an Holland , in Sardinia , and in our Australian , colonies , the Ballot has proved perfectly successful . If in certain abates of America secrecy is not observed , that is the fault of the voters , not of the machinery . As to the extirpation of legitimate influences , no legitimate influences are sought to be destroyed ; only , under the Ballot , an elector must be persuaded , and not compelled . In the "United States it protects the holder of unpopular opinions against the

    fury of a factious mob , and in England it would protect the individual from the intimidation of his landlord , employer , or customer , place him beyond the reach of bribery , and render the franchise an honourable privilege instead of "being , as it often is now , a nuisance to its possessor . It is easy to declaim about an open , manly way of walking up to the polling-booth and avowing your opinions ; but to walk up to a booth and vote for a candidate notoriously against your will ,

    is not to avow your opinion , but to degrade yourself and expose your degradation . If your position be independent , their put your vote in the box , and . say , " I voted for the Radical member ;'\ but , do not force your less independent neighbour , with views as liberal as your own , to vote in the interest of a High Church customer , or allow the beggarly ' freeman ' at the corner to neutralize your iudependence by his corruption , and render your unbought suffrage of no effect ,

    becausehe has been paid five shillings for his own Secrecy , at the worst , is not so demoralizing as political cowardice , or as political cheating . Under the open system , half the country elections are forced , and a large number of the borough elections purchased . To remedy this scandal , which , is perpetuated in spite of all the preventive Acts that can be devised , let us have the Ballot . It may have failed in France ; but , as Sir Arthub Elton" very

    cogently shows , the failure of the ballot on the morrow of a military usurpation can have no application to England . Prance has a puppet legislature ;—that is no reason why we should abolish the two Houses . The objections against the Ballob are breaking down on all sides . There is really some chance that , if the Liberal party would now undertake a vigorous movement , this important reform might be brought within reach .

    Southamptoniana. Southampton- Is, At Pre...

    SOUTHAMPTONIANA . Southampton- is , at present , a cheering scene . Who believes in the political apathy of the English people ? Let him visit that large port , packet-station , county town , county , and railway terminus on Southampton water , source of the Fitzboy baronial honours , an ancient and a proud place , which ia now challenged to return a fit and proper representative to Parliament . From the cloud of placards on the walls you might believe that the city had been put up to auction . From the patriotic enunciations in colossal type you \ night imagine that never smce the brave Horatiub hold the bridge did public spirit bum more vividly than now in

    Southampton . Every tenth male a & ult is a committee man . " We € HJ 3 ! : lin , " " Andsews " " Builes , " are more conspicuous than the appellations of the streets , the ghost of the candidature of ¦ " Edwin James" blushing in red ink under Bur lbb's blue . Why ? "What is Southampton doing ? Jllecting the parliamentary successor of Sic Alexander Cockbubu , who has tripped up the Southampton ladder to the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas . Now , Southampton is an antique town which , ever since the year 1295 , has returned two members to

    Parliament . It is adorned with a mayoralty , with ten aldermen , and thirty councillors ; and it has a constituency of about two thousand four hundred electors . At the last general election , seventeen resident freemen still encumbered the lists , besides two hundred and fifty scot and lot electors . Shipmasters ,

    shipbuilders , and the persons in their employ , railway and port officials , hotel-keepers , and a multitude of people who nibble at the purses of travellers passing through , constitute the polite population . How is it that such a constituency is so intensely interested in political affairs , so public-spirited , so patriotic ?

    The truth is ( calumny might say ) , that the Southaraptonians are neither public-spirited nor patriotic , and care no more for politics than for the sea-sickness of the gentlemen who have left their hotels for India . The constituency is an estate , out of which each person makes what he can— -with the exception of a minority of simple persons , who " fancy , while they are voting , that they are acting under the direction of their conscience and in obedience to duty . Clearly , these people have no idea of the true purposes of an election—no notion , that they send WEauEiiN- into Parliament that he

    may support the Bank Charter Act , or Butleu that he may obtain a certain railway bill , . or Andbews that he may bring a larger business to his door . Of course , suggestions of this sort are merely malicious . We have been much irritated by the frightful imputations cast by certain anonymous partisans of Mr . WEGUEMir upon the procedure of Mr . Andbews ' s agents . They say that the coach-building interest is kept in view . This is mean . But , on the other

    hand , the impure satirists of the Weguelin claims hint that the Bank Director merely wishes to bargain with Southampton for a seat in Parliament in the interest of the Bank Charter Act . And these poisonous whisperers glance , also , at Sir Henby Butleu , and say , "Oh ! a railway affair . " All these insinuations , we know , are perfectly groundless . Bribery and intimidation are impossible under the new Act . Besides , the electors are Great Britons , proud of the franchise , conscious

    that they guard the palladium , <& c . The only tittle of evidence in support of the charge alluded to is , that the price of Southampton , is notoriously not far short of 5000 U That sum of money , however , easily goes . Let one of the three ^ candidates be elected , and , such is our confidence in the political purity of Englishmen , that we believe not a single case of bribery or treating , within the meaning of the Act , could be proved . Still Mr . Andkews knows the value of public life , Mr . Wegueliw understands how useful a

    seat m Parliament will be next session to the Bank of England , Sir Henry Butler is perfectly awaro that there are expenses which cannot be avoidod . Say , O Lankesteb ! for thou knowest , what were tho words of Palmebston when the names of Andbews and Weguelin wore mentioned aa candidates for Southampton , iuc 0 Cocjoukn promoted ? Ho Baid , aa-ys Liux-KESTJCit , that Wkqueli ]* was fit and ' proper ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03011857/page/14/