The National Register.
London, England, 1808-03-13 00:00:00

10?

ballot and enlistment for life, they voted that abolition :
When Mr. Perceval's Administration proposed on the
other hand, that they should vote this abolition to be
wrong, they voted it, on both points, to be wrong ac-
cordingly. On one of the most important subjects that
ever came before a Senate, Parliament has, in the course
of three years, three times altered its vote at the will of
three Administrations. It has come to decisions flatly
contradictory, according as it was directed by the persons
successively in power, at the moment when it was telling
us that on its decision respecting these very points, &-
Fended the salvation of the country, or, perhaps, of the
civili7ed world itself! Whatever theorN we may form with
regard to the cause of this levity and mutability, it will be
pretty difficult to frame a supposition that will create much
confidence in this mode of managing our affairs, at the
present trying and awful conjuncture.
These considerations, momentous as they are, no doubt
yield in importance to the magnitude of the objects con-
cerning which such various and contradictory decisions
have been unscrupulously passed. The ballot more deeply
affects the population and prosperity of the country, than
any thing else, the taxation excepted, in our political
condition. At the time when the late Administration abo-
lished it, the country seemed to feel a relief. This one
act appeared to atone for many of the breaches, and many
of the omissions of their duty of which they were shame-
fully guilty. The misery and discontent which its renewed
infliction has produced will not soon be redeemed.
No species of bituthen can be imposed upon a population
snore inconsistent with alt the principles of justice, of
policy, and of humanity, than the ballot. It is not a ne-
cessary, it is a gratuitous evil ; for the men might he ob-
tained by better expedients. It. is a burthen which falls
with the most outrageous and disgraceful inequality. It is
j burthen which is not only calculated to produce the most
exereci.sthig n.lsery, but to undermine virtue, and to
build immorality anti vi.:;; ii every corner of the land.
The principle of universal service, which by a ridiculous
fiction, is made the foundation of the law, involves
the most gross injustice and inequality, and impoliev.
According to this principle, you would condemn to the
function of a private soldier, the man who is earning 10001.
a year, and the man who is earning 20!. Where would be
the equality of this proceeding ? You would tale, you say,
the personal service of the one, and the personal service
of the other. glut the personal service of the one is worth
give hundred times the personal service of the other. The
inequality of the impost would, therefore, he shameful.
Nor mould the calamity to the individual be the sole mis-
chief of this proceeding. The loss to the nation would be
Lus”elkable. To devote the lives of the men, whose ta-
Luis and exertions were of the highest national utility, to
the function of a common soldier, would he the most gross
ishase that ever was conceived, of the most precious trea-
cly(' of the community. No prodigality, no waste of any
usher part of the national resources, could at all equal in
destructive consequences this fatal misapplication. So tho-
roughly viscious is the principle of personal service.
liy the rule of universal personal service the burthen of
the inequality would fall upon the classes above the loweit.
This class vvould be relieved unfairly at the expence of the
liigher classes. Now this is a species of mis-management,
of which history furnishes very few examples. The higher
classes hardly ever find it very difficult to prevent any
undue proportion of the public burthens from falling upon
them. An expedient accordingly is found in respect to the
ballot, which entirely changes this feature of the case, and
throws, as usual, the burthen of the inequality on the
ether side. The injustice, however, is not removed ; it is
srdir to °lir practie- the V ..rders who are
nersonal ser-
Ind all the
allowed to

MARCH IS.

classes ; those who are able to pay the fine, and those
who are not.
Those who are able to pay it are of all different degrees
of income, from 20,0001. or perhaps 50,000/. a year to 50/.
To levy the same pecuniary sum, for ally purpose of the
State, upon all those individuals indiscriminately, is st.ch
a hideous violation of that sacred principle of Go% ernmeiit
which commands the burthens of the community to he
borne by its members in exact proportion to their
that it shocks every principle of common sense and of Lai-
inanity. To the man of 20,000!. or 10,000!. a sear, the
payment of 201. tine for the ballot, is a matter of absolute
mdillerence. It never occasions bun a thought. it never
abridges him a single gratification. Contemplate its ope-
ration in eases of a deferent description. on malty a ta-
mily it is the severest calamity. It plunges them into
difficulties from which years suffice not to extricate; thee,.
How many does it throw into that species of despondeecv,
which puts an end to virtue and exertion ? and of an le-
dustrious and meritorious family, produces a hand of Oct.
and drunkards ! This is not an imaginary consequence.
Examine the annals of your work-houses. Trace to their
source the causes which fill them. You will tied that the
inauspicious ballot has much to answer for I It is the pa-
rent of misery and vice to a lamentable estent.
Another class of persons whom it alli.'cts is the class of
those, who, being unable to pay the tine, arc coin wiled to
furnish their personal services. This very circioust !tau
constitutes the most shocking and painful inequalit‘.
What possible comparison can exist between the paymt nt.
of a sum of money, by the man who C2ll afford it, and too
absolute slavery of the person of another, who is drazged
from his home, from his friends, from his beloved occepa-
tions; and, by the fear of the lash, and of death, made io
wander over the face of the earth, and condemned to a
node of life which he may abhor! A man may be so at-
tached to the scenes in which he is engaged, and the friends
by whom he is surrounded. that millions, if he had dam,
he would willingly resign, rather than be torn from the ob-
jects of his affection. How cruel the circumstance, when
tie observes his neighbour exempted, because he possese's
201. and hires If s acrificed because he wants at ! Is
thing- so likely to create in the poor that envy, that hatred,
of the advantages of the rich, which lays the foundation of
the worst convulsions in society ; :qui which, if it evil
becomes general in any community, is quickly attended by
the most deplorable constainences ? Even among the nen-
' viduals on whom the hard necessity of personal service
falls, the inequality is immense and flagitious. One man
' may be the support of an aged father and mother, and a
family of helpless brothers and sisters ; or he may hielself
be the father of a happy family, who are plunwel into
misery, and brought up as vagabonds by nis absent ,
Another man, whose means of earning are small, wheeat
local or personal attachments are feeble, may feel sea, ce!y
any reluctance, or sustain any injury by following tl:e man-
date of the ballot. To many a young man, and these are
the most valuable of their kind, the stroke of the bal'ea
would be the extinction of the fondest hopes, the prec
of the highest utility. flow ofton doe 4 it haprel in this
highly civilised, free, and opulent nation, that nun Iron
the very lowest situations in life, ascend to stations of the
utmost dignity and importance, to !hell. on 11 great entoh.-
ment, and that of their country. Had they, in the entr4oce
of life, been dragged by the ballot into the ranks of the.
army, they would have lived and died as common ohi.ers.
The experience of almost every man will supply him with
examples; we may cite two of present notoriety—Mr.
Alderman Shaw and Mr. George Host, whose career the
calamity of the ballot, in early life, would have probahls
rendered very different. Let us cite another instance e./‘f
infinitely more dignity and importance. Kichard !irk,
wright was originally a poor mechanic. Ile invented tt.o,e
spinning machines, which have given the manufactures ef
his country such a decided advantage over those of thew bole
world. Had this mast, iu the looming of lift, Ileum struck

milv, a!•cordling to oar practice, the lower orders who
inaile the viMiu:s of it. lOur rule is, to allow personal
vices to . 4.-4 "<4l. filr...a sum of money ; and all
ine(roA 1
90-• .. ,:- .ta ' and leases, are allowed
la * ' 1
A.;+le,. ,
~..i
11,
ff..\N‘
let,
:ijco 1. are divided into
.ii
1 'il
1,
,(•.t.:, 1 .
,