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lords , on account of the influence exercised over the election of those peers . There is also a curious fact mentioned in a citation from the State Tracts , viz . that it was customary in the borough of jL ymington , in Hampshire , to elect by ballot , which method , ' says the writer quoted by Burgh , I know to be of great advantage where it is made use of . It prevents animosity and distaste , and very much assists that freedom which ought to be in
elections . No man in this way need fear the disobliging of his landlord , customer , or benefactor . ' In such terms was the custom spoken of , while it existed . But we have said enough to remind the writer that the conviction of its utility is no novelty , no unheard of and desperate resort against the Tory oppressions of last year . It seems already , by the case of JLymington just referred to , to be known to our constitution , ( as the phrase goes ;) in practice we are already familiar with it , and the examples of France and America have closely associated it with the idea of
representative government . The writer commences his reply to the first of the three questions in which his view of the subject is comprised by a pretty large concession . * Will the Ballot be effectual to its purpose of protecting the voter from injury , and preventing candidates from bribing ? Will it put
an end to intimidation and corruption ? That such is its tendency cannot be denied . At first sight it looks as if it must with certainty produce the desired effect , and to the full extent . Perhaps even the closest inspection , the most practical consideration , may still leave it in possession of a portion of this virtue ; but there seems no reason to doubt that very material deductions must be made in accommodating ' the theory to the practice . '
The Ballot , then , is allowed to be efficient to some extent . The question becomes only one of degree . Within limits , how wide they may be we cannot say , the writer allows that it will answer the proposed end . It will remedy a portion of the evil , though not the whole . To his * first sight * the results seemed certain to its full extent . Let us examine , therefore , what
difference is made by the exercise of his national gift of ' second sight . ' He first takes the case of the agricultural tenant . The landlord , he says , will not allow him to vote , unless he is sure of his man ; unless he can € trust him in the dark . ' Very well . Then either the landlord is baffled , or the voter is for that time disfranchised . Either result is better than that which ensues in the present state of things . It is obviously better that the tenant should either vote according to his conviction , though against his profession , or not vote at all , than that he should vote against his conviction .
It must never be forgotten , that , to obtain votes in conformity with the convictions of the voters , is the object contemplated . This is the first point . The next best thing is , that a man under constraint should not vote at all . It is an evil that he cannot
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The Edinburgh Review and the Ballot 77
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No . 74 . G 2
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 77, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/5/
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