On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    The moral cowardice of the Ballot , as a protection to the poor , is on an exact par with the " cowardice " of a woman who refuses combat with the male bully who invites it . I ought to apologise for allowing my attention to be so long "

    diverted from the cabinet , of which your Lordship is the coryphoeus , to the vicarious sophistry by which it is defended . To the Ballot , however , 1 attach a primary importance ; first , because I do not scruple to say that the stability of a reform administration will be contingent on its adoption ; and secondly , because the result of the division of March the 7 th establishes

    best of all the fact that you are behind the spirit of the bulk of reformers even in the House . The number of Reformers who voted and paired off on Mr Grote ' s motion was 227 . f Of these , my Lord , 158 voted or paired for the measufe , and 69 against it , —the majority among Reformers being little short of three to one in favour of the Ballot ! In the above list of 69 I find the names of twelve

    Ministers and their subalterns , and ten doubtful Reformers , whom I should have classed as Tories but that I feel bound to subscribe to the authority of the accurate Spectator , which designates them as doubtful ;' and I therefore give you the benefit of their votes . This leaves only 45 independent Whigs voting against the Ballot .

    In addition to the 158 who voted for the Ballot on the late occasion , there are no less than 28 who have voted for the Ballot on former occasions , but were absent on this ; so that the aggregate number of Reformers in the House who have recorded their votes for the Ballot is 186 , being above a majority of the largest number of supporters you have in this Parliament ever numbered in defence of a Ministerial question . Take , for instance , the

    division on the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill of last February ; your strength was 322 , of which the absolute majority is only 162 . Thus , my Lord , it is proved that you are opposing the Ballot , not merely against the sense of the country , but against the sense of Reformers , as expressed by their representatives in a Peel Parliament ! I do not hesitate to say , that in the whole of your policy there is nothing so perverse , nothing so perilous as this

    the system of asking promises at all , and therefore of course will prevent that violation of truth , which , however palliated , every good man laments . No man will continue to persevere in any course which does not realize his end . Now the very charge of falsehood from the Ballot implies , that the voter will vote against the candidate he has promised to vote for , so that the candidate who ha * asked for most promises will fail to gain his election ; therefore , in whatever degree mendacity exists , in the same degree will asking promises be found to be useless . And thus , I feel convinced that though the system of asking promises may be begun at first , it will be speedily discontinued when it is found to be of no avail . f I have omitted from this estimate the votes / or the Ballot of two Conservatively Sir G . Sinclair and Mr Hardy .

    Untitled Article

    Hints to the Home Secretary . 261

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1837, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1831/page/6/