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Untitled Article
The knowledge of the exact numbers wanted , and the certainty that each vote , when purchased , will prove good , facilitates in a considerable degree this most infamous and execrable crime . * * * * The other evil which has not been extirpated by the reform preeents much greater difficulties . It is by no means in itself of so crying a nature as the corruption which debases the morals of the people , but it defeats the whole purposes of the elective franchise . We refer , of course , to the influence exercised over voters by those upon whom they are in some degree dependent ; as by landlords over
their tenants , or customers over tradesmen . We have said that there were two particulars in which the new system might be said to have given greater scope to bribery and to influence than they had before ; and one of these , relating to bribery , has been explained . The other relates to influence through the extension of the franchise to leaseholders , but more especially through the provision forced upon
the Ministers by the House of Commons , for giving votes to tenantsat-will . The avowed object of the Tories in this was to increase the direct influence of the landed interest , giving , as it were , so many votes to each landowner ; for unless it did so , the landed interest
gained nothing by the change . Those statesmen , then , of all others , cannot be heard to contend that the tenantry , and especially the tenants-at-will , are free , and exercise the right of voting without any control ; for that right was given them by those statesmen , in order that it might be exercised at the will of their landlords . '
In addition to these we have an appalling description , but perfectly within limits , warranted by the facts of the proceedings at the late election , which show the ' people ' s rights to have been most grossly outraged , and the result , however satisfactory may be the character of the candidates returned , to be far short of a representative system . He then states the question as follows , on which we join issue with him .
* Now we believe no man will venture deliberately to deny , that if such practices continue , —whether the violent outrages upon the law in Ireland , or the more dangerous and more subtle violations of all right which in England elude the law , or break it more effectually , because more securely , than if they openly evaded it—they will become so utterly intolerable , so inconsistent with even the shadow of a free choice , that a remedy must be administered ; and that the only question will be , whether or not the remedy which may be propounded , is likely to be effectual , in case it should be attended with evils which we ought not to encounter unless sure of success . We are aware
that in these words we have described the Ballot . * Were the Ballot unattended with mischief , there is no doubt that the continuance and spreading of the oppressions we have been describing , would fully justify , nay would demand a resort to it , even if its efficacy was more than questionable , * because the evil
complained of has become so crying , that we should be justified in trying * a remedy , if there was even a chance of cure , provided it could do no harm . But if it is attended with mischief , the question comes to be most important , what chance it affords of producing the good
Untitled Article
74 The Edinburgh Review and the Ballot .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 74, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/2/
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