The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-25 00:00:00

BZER 1101:886.-By Mr. P. MILES, fr. mCI edd.r, id
imerietehire, for the obeli ion of homers to beer hooter.

forthraetPipsilect-124 1
preying for the adoption of vote by ballet as a protection le'
Von By BALLOT.—By Mr. H. BERKELEY, hook 7.180
inhabitants of Bri.tol, and from 3,000 inhabitants of Ctulvis,
/17. J. WILLIAMS, II petitions from litneheater, and vs..
noes places in Cheshire,aod a petition from Cardin',' Waal '
by Mr. Fowler, complaining that he had been turned out et
Isis house for bevies voted against his landlord at a lats:
oorrelcotiuopnt ;
plirscr.tioPes. Paßt Yre
airt
so mei
eCestirodnig m
electors.

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COUNTS EXPENDIVIIRI.—By Mr. HENRY, from the I.
habitant* of the township of Barton-on-Irwil,, in Luxe-
shire, praying for the establishment of a board to ming
county ezpmdittue.

ROYAL ASSENT.

The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (Sir A. Mind)
summoned the house to the House of Peers, to wham ty
royal assent given by commission to several bills ; for width
see Lards' report.
RETURN OF MR. T. DUNCOMBE TO HIS PAL
LIAMENTARY DUTIES.
This hon. member took his seat this evening for the bog
time since his long end severe illness. The hon. gmtlswan
still appears exceedingly unwell, awl is evidently laboarki
under the effects of some disease of the chest.

THE SPANISH TARIFF.
Mr. BANKES begged to renew the quo otiose be had peg
on a former evening—whether the Board of Trade lewd
prepare and lay en the table the new Spanish tariff in the
same shape as the tariff was prepared last vela ; and abb.
they articles which were prohibited under the present tut
were also prohibited under the former one. •
Mr. LABOUCHERE said that the hon. gentleman.%
probably aware that the papers in question were in the de.
panainst, not of the Beard of Trade, but of the Torso.,
office. They were copies of the Spanish tariff transmitted
by the British consul at Madrid to the Secretary for For*.
Affairs. Ile was anxious that the papers should be too.•
dated in the shape in which the hot. gentleman dentate'
see them; but it must be remembered that this tariff Si.
eluded 285 articles, some cf them of a very minute sal
unimportant character. It the hon. gentleman wruld he
content with the principal of them, the tariff should be pre-
pared in the form desired by the hon. gentleman, and. lay
on the table very shortly. (Hear, hear.) With regard%
the prohibited articles, in tt e new tariff many prohibitive'
that existed in the former one had been taken off, and sea
new ones, as far as be knew of, had been put on. (Hear.)
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.
Mr. COBDEN postponed his motion for establisbing •
system of international arbitration as a substitute for war ull
Tuesday the 12th June.
DUTY ON ADVERTISEMENTS.
Mr. EWART fixed his modal for the repeal of this slaty
fle, the same day.
NEW PARLIAMENTARY BOROUGH.
Mr. M'OREOOR fixed his motion for constituting the
parishes of Kensington, Chelsea, &c. a parliamentary W.
resegh for Thursday, the 14th of June.
VOTE BY BALLOT.
Mr. H. BERKELEY rose to propose his motion. Ha
said that in consequence of the resolution passed by the
house lost year, he had now the honour of presenting him.
self to ark leave to bring in • bill to give to the electors ot
England and Ireland the protection of the ballot in tiled. •
charge of their solemn and bounden duty to return fit n 4
proper persons to represent them in parliament. His no*
of motion of last year came on on the Bth of August, kg
much fuller house than was usual at that late period of eke •
union. There were present at that discussion, and at (km
division, 171 members besides the Speaker—(lear, hese)—.
and by a majority of that number the principle which had
been so long advocated by Mr. Orate and others was at
length affirmed. (Hear) He would wil'inely save the
time of the house, and, resting his case on the debate Mint
session, bring in his bill, leaving the discussion for the moat
reading. But he understood thin was not to be permitted,
and that he was to be met with opp mition in lien inr by that
who were the opponents of every great question of Wm.,
and who, he supposed, on this occasion would raise up the
sp ctres of those arguments which wi re destroyed last year
and parade them before the house as substantial and tido* •
reasons for refusing to carry out the resolution of the hams.
One argument on which the oppor.ents of this measure had
always founded their case—and it was an argument which
had been used b the right hon baronet the member be
Tamworth (Sir It. Peel), •he right hon. baronet the mead:.
for Ripon (Sir J. Graham), and wail sat year reeled uponby
he noble lord (Lord J. Russell)—was, that secret voting,.
hostile to the spirit sal the institutions and the constitution d
this country. This was a position he could not concede, eta-
less those who advanced it conceded to him that intimidation
I was by the constitution a recognised principle in our electoral •
system. (Hear, hear.) Intimidation in this country, he
was sorry to say, was inseparable from open voting—and ff
open voting was • glorious Institution, then intimidation
must 'he viewed as a valuable privilege. The elitism,
of 1842 had shown what was the use of what the electioneer. •
leg agents called " the screw." It was then s‘o an that at
the previeus general election the business of the-e agents
was to irepire into the private affairs of the electors—how
far they were involved and the extent of their liabilitiesends
the view of turning their misfortunes into the meal- s of cam
polling them to give dishonest votes. Thus he showed that
at every general election tens of thousands of electors in this
country were driven to the poll by the application of the
screw of the banker, the creditor, the landlord and the ea,
tomer, and that likewise tens of thousands steered • median
course by either refusing to vote or by previously refusing te
register. (Hear, hear ) When the electors were not free
'gents, what became of the theory of freedom of discussion
in consulting the opinions of public voters? To gin
the elector fair play under our present system, end to secure
that high privilege which was now little better than a mock-
I my, the house must place him beyond the power of intiraida.
Soo, for then, and then only, could free discussion awl*.
opinions of his fellow men have weight with the voter sad
govern his vote. (Hear, heor.) It was pretended
that if you gave the electors power to conceal their vote,
they would be unable to keep their own counsel ; but this
seemed to him to be preposterous, and contrarry le
common Knee. It was raid that the British ekeen
must talk, that it was not in his nature to keep a secret, that
the secret would be forthcoming, that the British lion .at
roar, although in ro roaring he might betray himself an am
(Loud laughter.) But, in attributing this excessive loqua-
city to the electors of this country, they seemed to fc
that there were hundreds of thousands of odd fellows, fo-
resters, and masons in England who could, and did, keep
the secrets of their charitable orders inviolate; and he be-
liever that hon. members, who were members at dabs,
were in the habit of keeping their recrete, The fen
observations he had now the honour to address to the home
had so far been particularly addressed to those hon. mem.m
who refused to concede this measure of reform in any chaps
whatever. He now prayed permission to address one weed
Ito those hoe. members who feared the ballot would be im
lefficacious without the extension of the suffrage. Now, them
was no hon. member of that house more willirg toexteedllte
suffrage than he war; but he was not prepared le
contend that, without the extension of the siadi
frage, the ballot would be utterly inefficacious. He
believed that any change of our electoral system must be
for the better, and that no prof could be given him of *.
'failure of the ballot in any country where the ballot had been
tried He could furnish the most striking instances of in
most triumphant success. (Hear.) It had been said that
the ballot was a failure in America. He utterly and mot
pointedly denied the fact. Nay, more, he asserted that it
had worked so gloriously in that country for the protection
of the dearest rights of mankind, that the eltive.holdise
states at this moment were seeking to abolish the ballot,
because they feared that under its benign inflame
the abolition of slavery would be effected. (Cheers.) A
paragraph to this effect was set forth in the petition he had
that evening presented from 7,000 inhabitants of the city
of Bristol ; and certainly a higher eulegium upon the 85k
lot coal 1 not by possibility be pronounced, for in Ateeriel
it acted as a secret shield against endless intimidation and for
the protection of those who sought to carry out the best die•
tates of humanity, the most glorious attributes of Christie.
nity. (Cheers.) The hones would remember that ie
the year 1830, under the influence of the Free.
Revolution, the Belgian constitution was fr med. The
qualification of voters then ranged differently in diffeesst
places. In 1848 the Belgians improved their elettond
system, and one universal qualification was subiritand
for the different qualifications which existed before.
That qualification amounted generally to 20 florin
paid in direct taxation, about U. 15'. 2d. in Englirk
currency. This raised the electoral body in Belgium frog
40.000 to 80,000 electors; sad such was the electoral sums
which was new acting admirably in that country. The
force of the argument of those who prognosticated that
there would be too much of a democratic principle infused,
if the qualification were lowered, had been fekified, foe
talent and respectability had been elected under the Bel•
elan system. Now, what did he deduce from this? He
deduced an argument to show that in one country under
the present electoral system vote by ballot was perfectly
applicable, because, be it observed, the number of the popu-
lation in proportion to the electoral body was much larger in
Belgium than in England. He humbly submitted this as a
practical illustration that the working of the ballot in Eng-
land might rival the working of the ballot in Belgium.
(Hear.) He had been much struck the other day with the
speech d livered by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, in
Lincolnshire, whereto he gave infialte praise to the re.
lationship existing between landlord and tenant in
that part•
f the country which he visited, and
which he sail did not depend upon • mere written
118teo• meet but upon mutual confi lance between the
parties. He (Mr. Berkeley) believed that the measure be
now proposed would tend to cement that good understand-
ing whisk ought to prevail between landlord and tensafj
and that it would improve the relationship between 511
Masses of twisty. Put your trust in the people and
will confide in you. (Loud cheers.) He believed thati It
would cause the rich to be more careful of the
interests of the poor; that it would have a tendene
to prevent absenteeism; that it would extend the
I nee of the suffrage, now most unco-stitutionalle
curtailed by the fear of giving a co: scientious vote, end
that it would cause the privileged orders of society to 56"
clamour to gain by merit that which they were now content
to win by gold, cr to constrain by force—political distinction.
Lastly, he believed it would have a strong tendency to sp-
riot that system of terrorism which was a foul blot on the
otherwise fair escutcheon of this great and free country.
(Loud cheese.)
Mr. J. WILLIAMS seconded the tsetse. He could
assure the house that the trading classes were suffering per-
secution under the existing electoral system. and that they
were compelled very often either to violate site it consciences or
to incur serious loss. He knew from ol). nation and expo-
rlenos of what these classes had to endure in the city of
Wesemineter and in Marylebnne, and in the whole of the
tropolitan borough*. He had himself held very strong