The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-12 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12.

WE have so freouently expressed what we know to
be the prevailing conviction of the necessity for the
Ballot as an element in any project of parliamentary
reform, that the reiteration of that belief might poe-
aibly seem needless. if the Tories had not compelled
us to return to the subject. Every lima:Mid
man who is open to the force of reason or the claim
of justice has long ago been converted to the doctrine
of untontnelled and tin-intimidated voting; and the
vast majority of the electoral body who are now
exposed to the insolent supervision of landlords or the
impertinent interference of cudomers are, of course,
all instinctively ranged upon the eame side. TM
question as one of argument was earned long age,
among the people at large. It would clearly be waste
of time to address a further word of that sort, thee*.
fore, loan assenting public. We are not, however,
going to do so. But there is an inner range of obstacles
to be overcome after the outer and broader counter-
scarp of prejudiee has been surmounted; and it is
against this,--defended as it is by the picked men of
oligerchy,--tleut it becomes our present duty to direct
our aim.
The eshinet are, doubtless, at this moment con-
sidering the terms in which they chill propose their
forthcoming Reform hill. In detail the questions are
infinitely numemue which may and must arise
regarding such a measure. But mainly the point to
be %titled is—are the people of these kingdoms to be
insured once and for ever the reality of representa-
tive power, or are they, under some new and better-
fitting guise, to be still paraded, for the must part, as
mutionent in a pantomime? This, we say cm-
phatieully, is the main question now at issue. is
the businese of parliamentary elections to be
in future an affair of the people's own? Or is it
to 114• still whet it generally is now,—s mere
trial of strength between families or sets of families
in • county, or a trial of depth between single or
subscription purses in a borough? Are the electors
to be pawns in the interminutele chess-playing of
aristocratic party ; or are they to be recognised as
intellipmt and independent men, engaged in no
rambling speulution, but hilly and earnestly giving
their free euttrages for 1% hut they believe to be best
for themselieee, their children, and their fellows?
lu this rallied and paramount consideration, it
may us well be conks-veil frankly,—for it cannot
decently be demied,—that the Ballot outweighs in
value every local, personal, or clues question. We
do not desire in any degree to depreciate unfairly
the importance of topographical re-adjustment of
the scale of political distribution. Neither are
we by any means in the mood to under-rate the
policy of comprehending whole sections and cir-
cles of laborious and loyal tax-payers within the
limits of the constitution, of whom few or none are
at present to lee found there. Still further be it
front tee to mho the tory cry which come liberals
are at times inclined to rupee, that any propo-
sition ought to be rejected that dues not contain
all that we could wish—an obvious trap, lubricated
by the landlords, to prevent if possible any extension
ul the franchise until after the next dissolution, when
they desperately dream of recovering their bread-tax
ascendancy. The people have grown too wise and wary
to be gulled by sueli maneeuvres 144 thew. Their policy
has ever been the policy of instalments when only
instalments could be had. If they arc not strong
enough to wring ten shillings in the pound out of
their hereditary debtor, they are not such simpletons
as to relosc the acceptance of five which he offers ;
the inure especially it they have reason to know that
possession of the five will strengthen them fur the
pursuit of the other fifteen.
Nevertheless. we are bound to say that in our esti-
mate
of the purpose of the government it will make
all the difference whether The Ballot he or be not in-
cluded in their promised hill. Household suffrage tested
by rat inow mild be a positive go sl achieved event hough
it came alone. But LAMel111:11 A% II nit the seem ity fur
its free and peaceful exercise, we should receive it as
a naked sword, to be used on the first opportunity
for the recovery of the scabbard wrongfully with-
held, aid without which its possession must always
be a source of danger to the wearer. If the privy
council of aristocracy who are now consulting, with
closed doors, what it is prudent for their order to
yield next year, in order to avert popular discontent
and pepular resentment—if they shall eventually
decide un offering us the weapon without the sheath
then we shall conclude that they cherish a certain
delusive hope that we want a toy for sake of the
Mule and the rattle, and that once we get it we shall
go to sleep contentedly, and never put its edge to the
test. That there are among our rulers many of your
very knowing politicians, who think and mutter
diplomatically in this vein, we have reason to believe;
—and it is quite possible that their sagacious counsels
may prevail.
But, on the contrary, we are not without hope that
the few minds of the masculine gender. who for evil
or goodgovern the rest of theircolleugues in every party
—we do cherish the hope that these men may sec in
time the importance in point of policy, the obliga-
tion in point of duty, of making the projected elec-
toral scheme. as fur as it goes, complete. They
surely ought by this tiow to have learned that every
half concession to national sentiment is utterly abor-
tive as a ground whereon to stand for resisting the
rest. The first tariff of Sir ROHERT PEEL'S govern-
ment, in ISILt. served only to stimulate the efforts of
the Anti-corn-law League; and their second tariff, in
10-15, was the immediate precursor of the final rush
before which the doors of free-trade were finally
thrown open. These of the political monopolists
who really entertain the Austrian notion that the
whole tide of democratic progress may be rolled
back, and that it requires only a few firm hands at
the head of affairs to do it, are intelligible
and consistent enough. Be they mad or be they
bad men, they have a reason to give for the.
inhuman faith that is in them, and must be!
judged accordingly; but there is something
effahly more unworthy and intolerable—the infs.!
tuation, namely, of men who, having been quietly
and civilly driven halfway down stairs, have the
inconceivable coxcombry to take up their stand on
the landing. and, with idiotic gravity, set about
establishing themselves permanently there, to the
manifest hindrance of all who require and have a
right to paw that way.
From their own class the hostility to any measure
of reform will naturally be inveterate and keen.
Nothing of this will be softened by cutting down the
bill to such meagreproportions as that the
people will accept without gratitude or enthusiasm.
Perhaps for their own sakes the whigs would have
done better not to have yielded the principle of
further extension of the suffrage at all, if they want
the courage or the common sense to make it a mea-
sure that will win at once the support of the nation.
But most assuredly they will find out their error
when too late. if they listen to any advice that leads
them to omit the Ballot.

Tar. ancient myth tells us that Athens suffered 11
the extremity of woe, when it was announced that
fourteen of the flower of her youth were to be ;
shipped off annually as a bloody tribute to the Nlino-
taur. Night and day were the altars of the gods
surrounded with suppliants, crushed with the
weight of sacritioes, that some remission of the ter- I
rible tax might be obtained. The gods sent them a
deliverer in the shape of THESEYS, and tile grateful
Athenians reverenced their saviour as a demigod.
He has been rendered immortal in statues, his name
clings to the temples. which are the miracles of an-
cient art, and his praise was sung by the late poste-
rite of those whom he had preserved.
Who will save London ? What Anglo-Saxon hero 1,
will come forward to deliver the foremost city of all
the world from a plague which, catimatea numeri-
cally, is as destructive as forty Minotaur-A rolled into
one? It is a terrible and lamentable, and withal a
disgraceful fact, that in the City of London proper y
so called—that very small portion, namely, of a map
of London lying north of the Thames, which is gene-
rally marked off by a thick line to denote the boun-
den,* et the ancient city—in that spot not lees than