The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-23 00:00:00

ti the
andoo country
ngt
rl oyr
voiut
Ist t
the very men who hailed its birth as the dawn of
at'
f 00 y °n
should be
title of its concentrated purity and wisdom -
Tierahoinr•rolergsiOlfaati°n—wl
it fr?in the
filched or altered, now are as eager to tear
his greateD
statute-book as they were to place it there origloa._Y_;
Only five autumns have passed since t
revolutiono if
production of human wisdom—this ina,gnificent
by the " .
nation of liberal policy, was presented . „
ministers to the enraptured people—blossomnia has
already 1.10,.
richer promise than Aaron's rod—and
The oin. +(I
fallen into " the scar and yellow leaf." was
ions wand that, wielded by a liberal ministry,
re
exorcise the foul spirit of corrup be ation and bribery eleit
re
of the representation, is now discovered to oder
juggler's imposture. Molesworth spurns it;
Weldel
tramples upon it ; Hume derides it; alld
heteselves.
uses it as a rod to flog reform ministers t
We recollect the time when at least a score cisPle,n,lo
f GreY'
reputations were carved out of the popularity ei
Reform Act. It gave glory to the name 0
itino
lustre to the title of Brougham and Vaux, rePnL of
to the house of Russel, eclat to the borine Seinu..hea
Althorp, and immortalised several other distingu its
specimens of patriotic Whiggery, besides castinggvihn
fainter radiance upon dozens of the Whigl.ings'_tarit
all took care to announce to the world the porktrnpo'
fact that they had a finger at least in the great itt
3
which was to make &gland, indeed, beyond
she ever was before—" the envy of surroundng? the
tions and the admiration of the world. Ales' ent
great statute which Lord Chancellor Brouehain
° but
in
down upon his knees, not metaphorically, , de'
reality, to implore the Lords to pass, is alreatiY4t,
Glared to be not worth the paper on which it is ,'OO,
ten, by the very party that used to impute to the they
servatives an intention of repealing it if ever ,: ,e in
should come again into power. Truly we "Itte
strange times. The very palladium of Radical yell
is attacked by the Radicals themselves, and
n why
prevented from being subverted and utterly -n re,
latcd by their Conservative opponents, who all
not
solved, if possible, that the Destructives 81! To
even be allowed to destroy their own wc)neieg
hear the Radical leaders rail against this Act neel;
some time past, and clamour vociferously for its re_r the
ought to operate as a warning and useful lesson 0'
the
people of England, how they allow themselves f°r d
future to be led by such " blind guides," for bl'n
posts must they have been, upon their own slicvvii to
when they threatened the country with a revolutin re,
carry a measure which they now almost threaten awill
volution to repeal. We imagine, however, theYeielo.
not be able to get up for the purpose another 'ewer,
dramatic exhibition of 150,000 Brummagem bar° ale
men, assembled on Newhall-hill, such as that a1311:00
ling scene" of which Lord Chancellor Broug
rds,
raised the curtain to intimidate the House of which
The Reform Act was the " cloak of charity" 'nonce
covered a multitude of Whig sins. Being !tea
stripped of that, the Whig Ministers must be nflithe
and destitute indeed ! But what are we to say °I the
political sagacity of the Molesworths, the Leaders' de'
Wakleys, and Humes, who over and over again the
scribed it, when in progress through Parliament, °vs'
deluded people as one of the greatest political "bC°ol,le
that a Liberal Ministry could give, or a grateful Pe bee
receive ? If they wrongly describe the Bill now woe
they say that it has rendered the state of the represdr
tation worse and more corrupt than ever, they are ibe
ceiving the people again ; and if they rightly des ions
it, they condemn themselves as the most egregise,
simpletons that ever led a credulous people into a firing
mire and called it a paradise ! We remember hesti;
one of those radical leaders who now heaps upo,ll
Reform Act the most unqualified abuse, telling tnertist
pulace at a public meeting in Lincoln's Inn-fields' ecr
" if the bill passed, the working classes
would nol°11:'
have to labour 12 or 16 hours a-day, and scarcely .e 9
'lO
r,,,
a subsistence by their toil, but that, on the colley
the bill would so improve their condition that trs
would have to work but four, or, at most, six b.°l etf
and have all the comforts and many of the luxuries by
life !" That orator improved his own conditinnif.
means of the bill, but his sansculotte followers receing
ed as its first fruits only the tender mercies of the %et'
poor-law, the ounce of cheese, the Bastille souPcdl
separation from wife and child. People of Ellg`cte,
will ye again trust to such leaders? Their own strain
meats convict them of unexampled knavery or art
folly.—illorning Herald.
col
Lord John Russell has declared himself in.rnti ef
to the Ballot, because he is of opinion that the father
an elector having given his vote on one side or the ° it
cannot be kept secret. Either secrecy is possible' °tie'
is not :ifit be not possible—if no man, howeveore
sirous he may be to keep his vote unknown, can se his
that object, of course, as Lord Nugent admits in the
able pamphlet which we noticed on Friday, last'
argument is at an end, there is no more to be allot
about it, and those who are most frindly to the ntei
must give it up as the means of attaining the end .t 600
have in view. But the supporters of this Psi pot
cannot pretend that mechanical contrivances inaYdis,
be resorted to which will effectually prevent the his
covcry of the side on which the elector has givell,ihe
suffrage, and conceding this they concede all. bie
question is—Can a man who wishes that has
" neighbour should not know which way he
voted at an election conceal the fact if be 's aiid
termined to do it ? Grant that to be possiliiicti 00'
we want no more. There are thousands anti "cif'
sands of persons possessing the franchise in rico
cumstances to render it a matter of no consequii,
to them whether the part they have take° the
contest be known to all the world ; but, °II hose
other hand, there are thousands and thousands wtheir
success in life may and does depend upon keeroine,„oo
vote secret, and what is required is, that such "der
of giving the suffrage shall be adopted as will, reoalP
it the fault of the possessors of it, and their fun't,-ores'
if the fact be known bey Ballot' jt
ond their own This mode, we confidently contend, is the to
is no answer to say that landlords will be toiled'
or
surmise which candidate their tenants have suPPlees
-
There are many ways by which conjectures, more coo'
probable, may be formed, but still they will only be,oill
jectures. Suppose, for instance, a 501. tenant'nts, for
has been heard by his landlord or by his neighbeurone of
some time previous to an election, speaking in fa 011
a particular candidate ; or suppose that, after the arty
has closed, lie expresses himself rejoicedthat one
tosay
has succeeded or the other been defeated, who 15.!'h 1.0
whether his vote by the Ballot has accorded wine hag
declared opinions, or whether, on the contrary,i,l oho
not thus endeavoured to blind the individoat'e has
might vindictively punish him for the vote n real
really given ? An elector under intoxication ca a.
' betray his own secret ; but even in that case it very
not be made a matter of certainty; and tile altect
circumstance that it is impossible to arrive at
ore thae
truth, and that suspicion can never be Ivor „oiler
suspicion, will cure the evil : those who haveetitt'er to
or influence will sec the folly of attempting e 1 him
control a voter before an election, or questionstheti"
after it. Thus, in due time we shall get rid of .tioo
ranny sin lel,
of coercion, and of the nuisance of solicit! the
' and canvassing ; and that system which appearo
outset likely to occasion duplicity and decept! Slid
the kl° 00
ere long, put an end to every thing of their e 5
voters will be allowed to go up to the
accord, and at perfect liberty to give theirsu to the
precisely as their consciences ma • dictate. voi'
Y lied to g
odium attached to the term " secrecy, app niethil/
sop-- Ir
ing at elections, it is sheer nonsense, or , presto
dea
worse—an endeavour to create an unfouo
resort he
poll of frog
dice out of a mere word, because they WI °. tiog tnt
the expedient have no better means of re 511,5 agiiiitbse
force of argument. Let those who inv.etiviii ootor,
secret voting show us, if they can, that. ,and the
[rodeo° ls
the means of putting an end to inti That oul
ruption by the mere effect of secrecy. t re eh
kill
point. We do not mean to deny tba g° b°
ould ti
be better satisfied if every man c so ,c 1
n trio' leg
and openly to the poll to tender his unboilg 151
has bee e a
biassed suffrage : that experiment 'a Cori
has notoriously failed. It has introduce .ilialoOn'lloto
the •
resist • nier
of vice and venality, menace and cnnl- .."9"
ll
what ridiculous absurdity it is to evils'
is (10
t ese- 4;ecte,ose
when it will demonstrably destroy b
i g t t"
because certain squeamish or design-.lk is, that afraidare
not like the word " secrecy." The tru;_text
who avail themselves of this flimsY P scent'
ill
of the good that " secrecy" will assure ;100
and they resist the Ballot because the)