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The question of voting by Ballot is one which involves so many considerations , largely affecting the freedom , the happiness , and the prospects of the community , that , notwithstanding the discussions which took place concerning it at the late elections , and those with which the newspaper press has since teemed , we deem
no apology necessary , for devoting to it a few of our pages ; it must soon come under the consideration of parliament , and as the views of Ministers are presumed substantially to coincide with those put forth in the concluding article of the just published number of the Edinburgh Review , we shall express our opinions in the form of strictures on that article .
The writer fully admits the existence , to an enormous extent , of undue influence , bribery , and intimidation . He does not attempt to deny or to qualify this fact , which is , unhappily , ' as notorious as the sun at noon day . He merely says that they existed previously to the passing of the Reform Bill , and that they continue to exist . But this concession shows that the efficiency of that measure was much more limited than many of its supporters expected . It shows the urgent necessity of a supplementary measure to supply what it has left imperfect . Many joined in the cry for reform chiefly from a strong sense of the demoralizing influence , of the "" old system upon the community . They regarded the subject rather as religious and moral than as political . All such must be sorely disappointed ; nor can those
whose minds took a more comprehensive view , and who saw the connexion between national institutions and national character , be better satisfied . In two particulars it is allowed by the reviewer that the effect of the Reform Bill has been to increase the evils of the old system . We shall state these particulars in his own words .
* It is beyond all question clear , that the late elections have exhibited instances of bribery among the freemen on a scale that would have done credit to the worst days of the old system . And this is the place to mention one of the two particulars , wherein we have said that the reform has somewhat increased the evil . The registry gives
each party a pretty accurate view of the state of the poll beforehand . All the voters are known , and a tolerable estimate can be formed how the case is likely to stand on the vote . The candidate sees that there are a thousand respectable householders , whom no bribe can reach . Of these he finds he shall have four hundred , and his
adversary five ; and that a hundred may be undecided , or may not vote at all . But he likewise sees that three hundred freemen are registered , and of these there may be two hundred whom money will procure . If he can buy the whole , or nearly the whole of these , and obtain his half of the better sort who won ' t take bribes , the election is secure .
? Edinburgh Review , No . 112 . Art . 10 .
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73
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THE EDINBURGH REVIEW AND THE BALLOT *
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No . 74 , <*
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 73, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/1/
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