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    g ^ lrosl ^ fbl ? Him ; "We "Lave servants In our household who are perfect strangers to us , aajd not strange to the ' cousin * that comes in at night , ' unbeknown' if possible . "We have a church that offers no room for the unresjectable classes—nob 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 Xebbs to hinder reform , and chaplains to teach hypocrisy . We have London Scoundrels and British Judges to proclaim war to tile knife—or rather war to the gallows—with tnat race made hostile . And then we wonder that there axe criminals in the land , or that tne garotter 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 .

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    PROSPECTS OE THE BALLOT . Tjff 3 Ballot is decidedly a rising question . It Las 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 Australian and Tasmanian colonies . Mr .

    Bubkeley has contributed several admirable letters to this winter's discussion , and Sir Axihttb , Elion has published a no less admirable pamphlet . "We confess , to feeling some interest in the p-olitical progress of Sir Abthlxje Em on . He is sincere , 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 th-e pretence of the Conservative- party . The typical Liberal is far less inclined to experiment than the typical Tory . The Liberal principle is , to provide safety-valves and otter securities ; the Tory principle is to see what pressure the engine will "bear , without bursting . Sir Abthub , 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 Corn-laws , were Conservative measures ; but the sense in which the Ballot is Conservatism is not that which would satisfy the country party . It wjould 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 Arthur Emoh's description of the Ballot . We think hia statement so useful , that it deserves the widest possible circulation , and shall , therefore , notice its more prominent points . He Btarts 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 no means of testing the

    legitimate results of the Reform Bill . We have never yet had a Parliament which represented the principles or the sentiments even of the narrow constituent body . We caunot say of what colour a majority would be , returned at a general election , entirely Iree trom unconstitutional influences . We nave , then , a House of Commons created by a machinery which , has never been freo to work without the interference of the landed

    or moneyed aristocracy . To obtaan a House of Commons , elected in the true spirit of the Constitution , a system of secret voting is indispensable ; but it is formidably democratic , would throw enormous poorer into the hands of demagogues , demoralize tie political habits of the people , and prove , mechanically , a total failure . Suck is the Alpha and such

    the Omega of the dissentients alphabet , ior 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 Arthur Elton and

    Mr . Bebkeuby show that in Holland , in . Sardinia , and in our Australian colonies , the Ballot has proved perfectly successful . If in certain states 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 expo . se your degradation . If your position be independent , then 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 independence by Ms corruption , and render your unsought suffrage of no effect ,

    because he 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 , aud 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 Arthur IEi / ton very cogently shows , the failure of the ballot on the

    morrow of a military usurpation can have 310 application to > England . Prance has a puppet legislature;—that is no reason why we should abolish the two Houses . The objections against the Ballot 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 .

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    SCKJTHAMPTONIANA . 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 Fwzroy baronial honours , an ancient and a proud place ,

    which ia now challenged to return a fit and proper representative to Parliament . Erom 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 typo you might imagine that never since tho brave Hoka / jius hold tho bridgo did public spirit burn more vividly than now in

    Southampton . Every tenth male adult is a committee maa . " WechjelznV' " Andbjews , " "Burt . EE , " are more conspicuous than the appellations of the streets , the ghost of the candidature of . " Edwin James" blushing in red ink under Butlbb's blue . Why ? What is Southampton doing ? Electing the parliamentary successor of Sir Alexajcdeb Cockbubn , who has tripped up' the Southampton ladder to the Chief Justiceship of the Common IPleas . 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 Southamptonians are neither public-spirited nor patriotic , and care no more for polities than for the sea-sickneas 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 , tbat they send WEauELiN" into Parliament that he

    may support the Bank Charter Act , or Butleb that he may obtain , a certain raiLway bill , or Andrews 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 partizans of Mr . Wequemn upon the procedure of Mr . Andbews's agents . They say that the coach-building interest is kept in view . This ia 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 Hjbnbt Butieb , 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 60001 . ' . That sum of money , however , easily goes . Let one of the three candidates b © 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 . Anjdbews knows the value of public life , Mr . We queue * understands how useful a seat in Parliament will be next sesBkm to the Bank of England , Sir Henry BurLEit ia perfectly aware that there arc expenses which cannot bo avoided .

    Say , O Lanicester ! for thou knowest , what were tho words of Pa ^ mers'ion when the names of Akdbews and Weguei , in were mentioned as candidates for Southainptoii , wca CocKBUiiN promoted ? Ho said , says Lan .-kesteh , that Weguelin was fib and proper ,

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    * Th ** te a ° Conservative rfe < istire 7 By Sir Arthur H . Elton , Bart Ridgway . J

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    14 THB kE AMJi B * [ No . B& 4 % ,: 8 atub&j& ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2174/page/14/