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Untitled Article
impressing their own opinions on other cltsseft , it will be * een , % k * t if any sort of despotic control were justifiable , it would be superfluous for any good purpose . The propensity of mankind is not to make choice of an individual for a desirable office on account of hit
bare merits , of his mere aptness to discharge its functions , estimated by their own independent understandings ; but it is , even in a pernfcious degree > to give him their suffrages oti account of the opinion entertained of him , and the favour manifested towards him , by those whom they wish to please , and whose judgment they have been accustomed to
respect . ' —p . 269—271 . Chap 5 , on Elections , distributes the subject into , 1 . the process of taking votes ; 2 . the conduct of a candidate ( canvassing expositions of opinion , and pledges ) ; 3 . popular excitement . Votes should be taken in the manner most consistent with th * convenience of the electors and of the public . The distance of the elector ' s residence from the polling place used , in some cases , to
operate as a disfranchiseinent , and in many more to open a wide door for corruption ; while it necessarily occasioned large expenditure . The abatement of this nuisance , to a considerable extent * is one of the great blessings of the Reform Act . * But the most important question is that of secret or open voting ; and much as has been written on this subject , Mr . Bailey ' s remarks will still ensure and reward attention . The difference of a
popular election from the cases in which open voting is needful ; the inutility of laws against corruption and intimidation ; the preponderance inevitably given to the sinister interest by publicity , the balance of evils which it is so easy to strike , both politically and morally , are the chief points insisted on . Warming with his
subject , the author denounces the motives of the opposition which continues to be offered to the freedom of the electoral function . The great opposition to secret voting does not , however , ariM from the consideration of its being unmanly or un-English , or leading to insincerity and deception , but from a deeper source—from a feeling wiijah many , who entertain it perhaps would not avow even to them selves , although others make no scruple of publicly declaring it . The ikigher clauses fear to com nut the election of legislators to the genuine * enti * menu of the people . They have bo long exercised a power over the community by means of the brute force of rank and riches applied to
the hopes and fears of those below them , that they have accustomed themselves to regard it as a salutary , and even necessary , control . II lias relieved them too from a great part of the trouble of being intelligent * active , and virtuous . They have found it much easier to arrive at tht office of legislator by throwing away a few thousand pounds for a saai , or ejecting a few miserable tenants as a terror to the rest , than by winning attention through their virtues , or commanding esteem by tbeir superior intelligence and well-directed activity . To men accustomed to domineer over the wills of their fellow-creatures * it is intolerably irkaojn # to be reduced to the necessity of appealing to their understanding ** Havipg been obliged to concede , nevertheless , a mor * pppulat tytttqp . ef
Untitled Article
The Rationale of Political R * pr * $ mtoti&n . 441
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/47/
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