The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-11-29 00:00:00

eorroponbenct.

THE LATE MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

To the Editor qf the Dorset County lizprese and
A gricultural Gazette.
SIR,—

At the risk of running counter to your somewhat
strong Liberal susoeptibilities—which I fancy I have
discovered in your well-written Journal—will you
allow me to say • word or two as to the proceedings
and the result of the recent election of two Council-
lers into the body corporate of this good old town
of Dorchester' Whether or not the issue of the con-
test is altogether satisfactory to you, I am unable to
say; but, for kiyself, I am one of those who feel
much regret and disappointment at the result; and
I have no hesitation in saying so—very plainly and
unreservedly. The successful candidates may be
very good men, but two of the defeated aspirants
would have been, in my judgment, much better; and
diverse weighty reasons might be urged in support
of this view, which perhaps may be more readily
imagined than safely described. But I may say,
generally, that respectability and weight of charac•
ter are an admitted necessity in the constitution of
so important a body as a Town COWICiI, and care
should always be taken to maintain these quali-
ties up to their proper standard. The known
respect for, and firm adhesion to, the venerated in-
stitutions of our country Mould always have their
proper weight, independently of all the other ele-
ments of fitness for the office. Now, with all res-
pect for my Radical and Dissenting brethren, I do
decidedly object to hand over the public affairs of
this borough to their absolute control—and that is
the very undesirable state of things with which we
seem to be threatened, if, indeed, it have not come
upon us already. In common with many others I
am no less surprised than disappointed by the result
of the poll; but that result may be partly amounted
for by the existence of a certain degree of apathy on
the part of many Liberal Conservatives, and a too
easy indulgence in the belief that that large and re-
spectable class would certainly be represented by one
of the candidates, should the Dissenters succeed in
sending up one more of their number to the Council
Board. Such, however, proved not to be the case,
and a persevering and vigorous canvass—" a long
pull, and a strong pall, and spoil altogether"— pre-
vailed, very naturally, over supineness and mis-
placed confidence. But it is to the unexpected and
extraordinary nature of the mode of taking the poll,
which the new Mayor, Mr. Matthew Devenish,
went out of his way to adopt, that this
result of the election is pre-eminently due. The
mode of voting was secret; there were no
means of knowing at any period of the day bow
the poll stood ; and the chances of the two most
eligible candidates were—unknown to them—
gradually fading away under the joint influence of
the inertness of their friends and the remarkable
activity of their opponents. A departure from the
established custom of twenty-four years—loudly
condemned throghout the day by burgesses of all
parties—without any previous public intimation that
so unusual and so objectionable a course was about
to be adopted—was of course determined epos kw
some settled purpose—that purpose being, there is no
doubt, to favour that class of the electors to which
the Mayor himself belongs, and which tactics
resulted in the successful accomplishment of that
purpose. It is said these proceedings were legal;
but custom was outraged, and the constituency
taken by surprise, whereby the most just and
honourable claims of individuals were, as it was
designed, wholly defeated. The mode of voting
was essentially that of the ballot—a method involv-
ing a very great question, and upon which opinions
run very strong on both sides. But members of Par-
liament are not yet elected by ballot, and probably
will not be for a long time to come; and it is, I
think, open to strong animadversion that this system
should have been pursued in an election analogous
to that of • member of Parliament. Are we in Dor-
chester favourable to the ballot or not The Mayor
has not condescended to ask the question, but rushes
into its adoption for the first time during

the last quarter of a century, without taking
the opinion of the electors, and without their
knowledge. As to the merit,' of secret voting, indeed,
as they are regarded here, they would appear to be
ignored by the very party who have profited by it;
iILICO the leaders of that party were, diming dte poll•
leg, loud in their condemnation of this nu-English
and most obnoxious mode of proceeding. But I
am far from saying that the rerulg of the poll wil
hereafter display a coneislenty of principle, mock to
be admired, on the part of three gentlemen. Am the
case stands at present, it would seem that Mr. De-
venish has very cleverly contrived to do his party a
service in spite of themselves; but I for one cannot
congratulate Mr. Deveniali on a very happy inaugu-
ration of his year of office—one of his earliest acts
being, as it appears to me, a most ill-advised and
capricious exercise of authority.

I UR, SIR,