The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-31 00:00:00

THE miLAs ELECTIONS.

TO TUE TDITue or TIE 'stares.
Cts%,—The a...heists ist and hearty support
you have seer even to theorise of Italian union and
Leh- embassy induces me to lay before you an
aces. ,rut .4 those faces connected with the electoral
pr.. s leap o • f the inqeetant city which have fallen
under my per...nal observation. As I Lave the
g0..l estrus t..p 1601141 P acciesiet.
a.. • - Milan, I was enabled through their kind-
• -te obtain an insight into the whole of their
hest otilyupen the slay of eke-
elec. e-asl prsessoings,
toe. Is if iii .lu.ring the week which pnveded it.
T s• e:ty .1 divided into the electoral
our slivi.iens, each of which has a popula-
t,„ . f :Ps.oup inhabitants. The second- toi-
le., • a monies the largest number of electors,
a:s :Doug to LEGG ; awl the fourth college the
it s is me her, amounting to 1,180 ; each college
re: env deputy, or as we should say, one
parks/neut. In order to pewees the right of
a citizen of Milan must be Zi year. of age, he
Ds.•
.. le• able to read and write, ho must tiny either
Induceett Induce or upwards of direct taxation, or rent to
tie amount of 500 francs per IliallUal fur the dwe-
llse; or apartments in which he live& If air is a
barrister, solicitor, banker, curt:, physician, or
seemlier of any liberal profession, or it he Lae ob-
tatted a degree at a collegiate establishment, or
that .4 artist at the Academy .4 Fine Arts, he
Pm. .see% on account of such a poeition the right
of eAlrage without regard to money. qualification.
During the week which precedea the day of elec-
tion (Sunday, the 27th) nes tines were held in the
Titri•ele colleges for the purpose of considering Whet
CPI. 'islatett should be brought forward. The dif-
fers :.t political partioa—viz., that of the minis-
terialixte that of tl:e moderate opposition, and that
of tie ashamed party, or party in favour of imme-
diately pushing matters to extremities on the
Roe an DWI Venetian questions—each held their
different met-time% in which they .li.etee.e4
mid 'selected their various candidates. A preei-
siert and .. eretary were chosen, who regulated
e.eeluet of the meeting*, and in this.., which
followed the fire one, the proceeding% were opened
by reading a summary of what had been &scummed
sael arranges' in the previous meeting. Every elec-
tor linel the right of entering into the dircussion,
after sletuaieling the president's pernsiaision, which
was :woo/Atli to esteh one in his turn, according
to its respeest. Although the dinette/don was often
aid osated, and the interest manifested considerable, I
never witnessed meetings carried OD in is more
oreriyawllseu g manner. Thusbeforetheday of
election tame, acn party had nelected its candi-
date. and dilly announced them to the public by
plac..nle affixed to different places throughout the
eats. The candidates held themselves very much,
if lost quite, aloof from all these proceeding's. Not
only were they not called upon to acidness meetings
pub!ielv and answer situations (a very reasonable
preceealing in election matters), but they were also
happily spared that irksome task of visiting from
house to Louise to solicit votes, which so often
places bulb candidate and electors in unworthy po-
sitions, and leads to great abuses and corruption.
On the day of election the voting places (or sections
as they are called), uf which each college contains
three, four, or DTP, were opened (non 9 a.m. to
4 p.m. The proceedings commenced by the electors,
present selecting a president and other authorities
to preside over the voting, and to see that every.
thsiog took place in conformity with the electoral
laws .4 the Italian kingdom. At the end of the
hall or chamber in which the voting was carried on
was placed a long table, in the middle of which,
fretting the president's hair, stood the ballot-box.
On one Aisle, and rather behind this table,
was a smaller one, to which each elector
retired to write upon hie voting paper the name of
the candidate he voted for. A small timelier of
the National Guard mounted guard outside each
voting plate, anal, within, a pecion appointed by the
autheritini demanded of every one who enteresl the
paper which showed that he was an elector. This
piper was handed by each elector (at the moment
of voting) to the president, who in return heeded
lint a paper duly prepared and stamped by the
municipal authorities, upon which the elector wrote,
at the side table I barn already menti ed, the
name of the candidate he voted for. The elector
thee folded up this paper and handed it to the
president, who then placed it in the ballot-box.
All these voting papers thus prepared by the muni-
cipal authorities were exactly similar in size and
esdettr. By means of them alone could the vote
bereeurdeal, Mr. I they were procurable only at the
Moment of the electors voting, from the ever leut of
the polling plate at which the elector thus recorded
lie vete. At heir cs'alock the voting ceased, and
the pressitleut of each section and his assistants
prase Awl to open the hallot-box, count the vote*,
awl wad the result to Use mayor or syndic.
I spent the whole day in visiting the various
✓etiug places in the city, and never have I wit-
easeed such perfect order and quiet in any public
proceeding. The college which *elected General
thahlini by an overwhelming majority, and
the secant cellage, where the contest was
so keen that neither candidate obtained the requi-
site legal majeri*y, presented alike the same grati-
fying spectacle of the moist perfectly free anal
orderly exercise of the right of suffrage. Nor from
any quarter have I heard of any accusation bought
by any party :against another of that corrupt and
Illegal influence which leaves but too frequently a
dc';. stain upset our English elections.
The general remit of the Milan elections has
been the triumph of that usederate party who will
sever cease to labour for the emancipation of
Ramie and Venice, but who sheire to carry out
that object by an active preparatiou which may en-
ab:a them Is. avail themselves of every cirtimeatance
fayssurable to their great and just enterprise, but
sot by ruching headlong and half-prepared juts.
war, contrary to the earnest desire of Europe and
to the Kearns interest of Italy.
Such, air, at this important moment has been
the worthy spectacle of order, moderation, and
freedom presentee' to Europe by the important
citv of Milan—that city of whose tor-
bulace and disorder the Austrian go-
ecrumeat complained so greatly—that city
whose contests in days now happily past
anointed in the constant attempts of a die:ou-
twits' people to throw off a foreign rule, and the
ceaerkee effort of a despotic govertinient to rivet
more firmly their betel yoke. What a contrast
between the Milan of eight year% ago, sullen and
plotting, gorged and half stilted by a garrison of
lo,oooforeign bayonets, and the Milan of yesterday,
flecking quietly alai happily to its voting halls, at
'Riede thent4 stood acme half dozen of Ler own na-
tio:ad guard, their hardest task that of keeping
their feet anti fingers warm in spite of the cold fog
which enshrouded the city ! What now becomes of
the reiterated exclamations I remember so well and
atioften to have heeral, -Milan always was and always
will be turbulent I" " Milan united to Piedmont
as part of an Italian kingdom '"
is Milan Newt member% to a parliament sitting at
Turin !—what nonsense you talk !" "The Mila-
nese and the Piedmoutese would be cutting each
oCiers' thread% before three months were out
The mingle.' union of firmness% moderation, and
wisdom displayed by the Italians in the colossal
work of national unity and regeneration, towards
which they have already done au much, pus falsified
the words of the prophets of evil, and affords a rich
hope that the work will be finally and fully column-
tuatol. But doubtless before that is the case,
before Rome is the capital of the Italian kingdom,
before Venice is freed from chains forged at Campo
Foredo by France's revolutionary general, and
riveted at Vienna by Europe's legitimist statesmen,
many a difficulty has to be overcome, ninny
a partial failure to be corrected, and many
a line of internal policy to be modified or with-
drawn. Bait it is precisely because of there
difficulties and dangers that England's states-
men awl England's people should unite
in employing the whole of England's mighty in-
fluence to support Italy's King and Italy's people
in carrying t...t the glorious work of their asthma'
unity aad independence, and in establishing the
order and the liberty of a free constitutional
monarchy, in the place of foreign rule and military
deapotism, the eorthy parents of tyranny and of
revolution.-1 am, 41c., T. W. PROBYN.
Hotel de la Ville, Milan, Jan. 28. 1