The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The division last night on Mr. Grote's motion sufficiently
proves that the Ballot is advancing rapidly in public estima-
tion. The numbers were, 153 in favour of the motion, and
265 against it—leaving a majority of 112. Last s car the
numbers were 88 and 139. We have no doubt that the
friends of the Ballot mustered last year their whole strength ;
while many who last night voted against it, not seeing the
same necessity on the former occasion, were purposely absent.
in 1835 the numbers were, for Mr. Grote's motion, 144;
against it, 317 ; adverse majority, 173. Taking 1835 and
1837 as just points of comparison, we find that there has beet)
a positive increase of 9 in the minority, and a positive decrease
of 52 in the majority—i. e., a gain of 61. Mr. Grote's argu-
ments appear to us unanswerable. There can be no question
that every elector ought to be protected in the free exercise of
his vote; and there can, unfortunately, be as little question
she, from the dependent circumstances in which the great
body of electors in this country are placed, they are con-
troliCd in the exercise of their franchise. Threats of exelu-
sive dealing have been held out, intimidation has been
extensively resorted to, many electors Lave been induced by
intimidation to vote against their consciences, and many have
been punished for their conscientious discharge of their duty.
We will not waste words in arguing with such as deny that it
was intended that those to whom the franchise was communi-
cated ought to exercise it uncontrolled. But at present it is
notorious that voters arc controlled ; that in many cases they
view the franchise as a curse ; and that no means of affording
them protection in the exercise of their franchise but the Bal-
lot have eve,. been pointed out. The Report of the Bribery
and Intimidation Committee will afford, as Mr. Grote observed,
a plentiful harvest to all who wish to obtain evidence of the
exercise of undue influence over voters. If, then, it can be
shown that no means exist for protecting the voter but the
Ballot, and that the Ballot would be effectual for that object,
the necessity for resorting to it is established. As far, indeed.
as the protection of voters is concerned, we have never heard
any valid argument against the Ballot. That in small consti-
tuencies it might cover corruption has, we know, been con-
tended, and we can conceive the possibility of organizing a
system of bribery, where the constituency amounts only to
200 or 300, through an understanding with some individual in
the confidence of the majority, who seight bargain for receiv-
ing a stipulated sum only in case of a return; but that is only
an argument for remedying one of the most glaring defects of
the Ref.rm Bill, the suffering small constituencies to exist.
The example of clubs sufficiently proves that the higher ranks
have themselves no doubt of the efficacy of the Ballot for
the concealment of voters ; and it proves, moreover, that they
attach very little importance to the argument which many of
them use, that it produces falsehood. Do these reasoner!
mean to tell us that the thousands of members of the various
clubs of the metropolis, who are in the constant practice of
balloting, are more addicted to lying than their neighbours?
The members of the United Service Club, the Junior United
Service Club, the University Club, the Athenaeum, the Re-
form Club, the Travellers' Club, Brookes's, &c. &c., if
there is anything in the argument, ought to be excluded
from all decent society, as men in whom mendacious
habits have been generated. God forbid that we should
for one moment suppose, that, because a member of
any of these clubs seeks to vote in secret, that he is one whit
more mendacious than his neighbours ; but what an insult is it
to our understandings to pretend that what is so obviously ab-
surd when applied to gentlemen is inapplicable to the mass of
electors ? If an individual who has been blackballed by a
club so far deviates from the rules of propriety as to ask mem-
bers how they voted in his case, it is possible he may receive
en insincere answer; but who ever urged this as an argument
against the Ballot in clubs ? A man of firm character would
indeed in such a case answer, " Sir, you have no right to in-
quire how I voted ;" but in many cases this degree of firmness
is not to be counted on. But when the most is made of this
argument against the Ballot, from its leading to occasional in-
sincerity, what does it amount to? " Only this," as Mr. Grote
remarked, "that now men spoke truly and voted dishonestly ;
but under the Ballot men would speak falsely and vote honestly.
Now men were hypocrites to their country : in future, if the
Ballot were adopted, they would be only hypocrites to those inti-
midators who tried to suborn them." The great majority of those
who oppose the Ballot are not, we are aware, actuated by
the grounds which they profess. The real motive is the per-
suasion that persons of property ought to command the suf-
frages of electors, and that electors should have no more inde-
pendent action than the figures in a puppet-show. We need
hardly, however, observe, that the electors themselves will
never be reconciled to be moved like puppets by others ; that
their feelings must always revolt at the idea of voting for men
whom they do not conscientiously believe to be the fittest repre-
sentatives ; and that it is quite impossible they can much longer
submit to the intimidation to which they are now exposed. In
many places an election is dreaded as an insupportable evil.
The mother of a family dreads the entrance of a canvasser
into the house, knowing by sad experience that whether
her husband votes for A or B, or refuses to vote, he
will suffer in his purse. Why should any class of men
be called on to make heavy sacrifices, to violate their
consciences, and to expose their families to privations,
perhaps to ruin ? Mr. Hodges told the House that "it
was impossible longer to shut their ears to the cry which
arose from all parts of the country for the Ballot as the means
of protecting the elector, and fairly representing the opinions
of the nation." This is a matter that truly comes home to
men's business and bosoms. We admire, therefore, the pru-

dence of Lord Howick in leaving an opening for a change of
opinion. " At present," said his Lordship, " he was not con-
vinced of the necessity of the measure, but he did not say
what hereafter might be his views." His Lordship may de-
pend on it, the electors, whatever differences of opinion they
may have on other points, have none on this, and that they
will contrive to make their convictions reach the minds of their
representatives. Ilis Lordship expressed himself "thoroughly
convinced that the evil of intimidation could not go un-
checked ; that with respect to all parties the abuse of influ-
ence is the crying evil of the present day—that it must be
put down, and he hoped and trusted it would be put
down." But how was it to be put down? " By the
good sense of the people !" Well might the House
exclaim " Oh !" It was about as much to the purpose as if he
bad said—thieving is the crying crime of the day—it must be
put down by the honesty of the people. Those who are
robbed are willing enough to put down thieving. But are the
robbers? Doesß.'s good sense expose him the less to the
intimidation of the purse-proud tyrannical A. ? This is down-
right trifling. The conviction that intimidation is really the
crying sin of the day, and must be put down, and that no
other means than the Ballot can be devised for putting it
down, has, we know, made many converts to that mode of
stating, and must every day make more. We ourselves know
of many who were once hostile to the Ballot, who have been
so shocked by the violence offered to the consciences of voters,
and the many dreadful consequences which follow open voting
in a country like this, in which men in dependent circum-
stances can he reached in so many ways that they have become
satisfied of the absolute necessity of the Ballot. Among those
whose opinions have been thus changed we may mention an
individual influentially connected with this journal, whose dis-
inclination to secret voting led him once to oppose the Ballot,
but who became satisfied that it was the only means by which
the protection of the voter could be secured. We may men-
tion as a sort of postscript to Mr. Grote's motion, that of Mr.
Hardy for leave to bring in a Bill to prevent bribery, &c. at
elections. The Learned Gentleman ridiculed the Ballot as a
preventive of these abuses. Mr. O'Connell said he would
support every proposition of this sort ; but he supposed the
Hon. Member for Bradford was making by his speech the
amende to those among whom he sat for the vote he had given
not five minutes before. This retort excited general merri-
ment in the House at the expense of the Member for Brad-
ford, who, it seems, voted in the minority with Mr. Grote in
favour of the Ballot. Leave was ultimately given to bring in
the Bill, after some good-natured suggestions from Mr. Hume
and Mr. Roebuck, that a clause should be introduced against
paying " head-money."—Morning Chronicle.
Mr. Gleste last night preached his annual political sermon
on the subject of vote by Ballot, Mr. Hodges, one of the
Members for Kent, seconded the Hon. Mover's powerful en-
deavours to produce somnolency among an unwilling audience.
It is not to be supposed that we can follow, step by step, the
arguments adduced on this, as on former occasions, by the
Member for the city of London. They have long ago been
seriously discussed and triumphantly refuted; and if the Hors.
Gentleman must need.; erect the same sort of post from year
to year, we, for our parts, leave him to the exclusive privilege
of knocking Isis head against it. We really cannot waste our
time in refuting such arguments as those last night urged
by Mr. Grote, as, for instance, that if the question were
between tyranny on the side of the landlord and duplicity
on the side of the voter, duplicity was preferable to
tyranny. And again, that not secret, but open, voting was
the sure way of making hypocrites ! The Flon. Mem-
ber further urged, that if small constituencies were
liable to corrupt influence under secret voting, that was a
good reason for enlarging the constituency, but not for with-
holding the Ballot Our readers will probably think this suf.
ficiently amusing, but Mr. Grote was pleased to be more face-
tious still. He solemnly assured the House that the voter's
right was in his own bosom, and should be exercised by his
own free will ; whereupon Mr. O'Connell, by preconcerted
understanding-, it is to be presumed, exclaimed " Hear, hear ;"
and the gravity of the House could hold out no longer, for the
" death's-head and cross bones" were present to the mind of
every one, as the indication of free voting, in the O'Connell-
ite sense of the term. A; we have above intimated, this sort
of senatorial wisdom is not of a character to justify any
lengthened remark from us. A like opinion was evidently en-
tertained by the Conservative Members. judging from the dis-
dainful silence which, almost to a man, they maintained dur-
ing last night's debate. Indeed, they had but little opportu-
nity of thrusting in a word, so ludicrously zealous were the
Ministers and their supporters in quarrelling among them-
selves, combating each other's argument, and co-operating
ith singular effect fur the destruction of the compact, coa-
lition, or whatsoever else the Whig--Radical union may be
called. Mr. Poulter, a Radical, expressed his horror of the
Ballot ; Mr. Hall, a Radical, having a sheep's eye to Maryle-
bone, expressed his admiration of the said Ballot ; Mr. El-
phinstone, who, about to retire from the representation of
Ilastings, has recommended Mr. Hollond, for no reason, that
we are aware of, but that he has beef up in a balloon, advo-
cated secret voting on the patriotic ground that no man ought
to divulge what it is his interest to conceal. Mr. Vernon
Smith, a member of the Government, opposed vote by ballot
for the very sufficient reason that the registration contests
would put the matter of political partisanship beyond doubt ;
and also, that if this obstacle could be overcome, and the
Ballot rendered effective, the now salutary influence of public
opinion would be stifled and destroyed. To this Mr. Bernal, a
decided Ministerialist, replied, that members were bound to defer
to a majority of the lower orders of their constituency ; " for,"
said the Hon. Gentleman, with more, perhaps, of bonhonanie
than of sagacity, "if there is a large part of the con-

stituency of the country who wish to make this experiment,
why not let them try it ?" This odd reasoning brought up a
Cabinet Minister, Lord Howick, who, judging .from his
speech, indulged a hope of reconciling the diffsrencee among
his adherents. His Lordship was, for the present, against the
Ballot. He agreed with Mr. Vernon Smith that it would
tend to stifle public opinion. He also agreed with Lord Mel-
bourne that the real evil of the country was party feeling,
which, if we mistake not, Lord Juhn Russell and many other
eminent Whigs have pronounced to be almost synonymous
ith public opinion. The Noble Lord added, with amiable
candour, that all parties had bribed and intimidated alike, and
that unless the Whigs and Radicals, as well as the Conserva-
tives, consented to mend their manners, to the Ballot
we must of necessity come 1 Mr. Charles Buller suc-
ceeded Lord Howick, and reproached the Noble Lord
and his colleagues with the fact that corruption had in-
creased since the paseing of the Reform Bill, that
counties and cities were now as bad as the shcdules A
and B of former times, and that intimidation was the child of
the Reform Bill. Lest, however, Lord Howick should ut-
terly despair at this announcement from one of his systematic
supporters, the Member fur Liskeard threw in the consolatory
assurance that the aristocracy of this country—the order by
which Lord Grey is solemnly pledged to stand or fall—might
hold power for a considerable time, f they would consent to
govern under the protecting influence of the democracy. This
speech made the confusion worse confounded. Mr, Super-
ficial Rice rose to answer it. He denied that corruption had
increased since the Reform Bill, or that intimidation was the
child of that Reform Bill, and appealing to Mr. Joseph
Miller, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that, as
in a particular country (we wonder O'Connell did not
exclaim England) there was no adultery because all the
women were in common, so before the passing of the Re-
form Bill corruption was so general that no place could
be particularly charged with it. The Right lion. Gentle-
man added—and his long Parliamentary experience entitles
his opinion to attention—that there is no mode of attaining
moral results by legislative means. All this entertaining mat-
ter was wound up by Mr. Grote (not at first sight a very
amusing person) in triumphant style. He knew that he had
Lord Howick on the hip, and Mr. Rice in an Irish stew, and
he upbraided them both with the altered tone which they had
thought it convenient to adopt, and particularly taunted them
with making it a question of time and not of principle. With
most laughable indignation Mr. Rice rose and declared that
he had not " jumped Jim Crow," and Lord Howick as empha-
tically asseverated that he had not " wheeled about ;" so that
both these Ministers being, as all the Ministers are, " honour-
able men," must be believed consistent, though they have eaten
their words with as much disrelish and as many wry faces as
Pistol exhibited when he ate his leek.— Times.
Mr. Grote, in a speech most lucid and logical in its argu-
ments, last night brought forward his motion in the House of
Commons for the adoption of the Ballot in the exercise of the
elective franchise. Few motions have ever been introduced
into any deliberative assembly with greater ability and power
of reasoning than was evinced by the lion. Mover on this oc-
casion ; and even if he were less powerfully sustained than he
was by subsequent speakers—if he had not a single voice raised
in his support—he might confidently defy the collected inge-
nuity of his opponents, were the whole House of Commons ar-
rayed against him, to controvert the case which he made out
in favour of secret voting. The question, no doubt, is one
which has already been so thoroughly discussed, that little or
nothing new remained to be advanced; but Mr. Grote, taking
up seriatim the arguments urged against the Ballot, and exa-
mining them in their several bearings, demonstrated their incon-
sistency, fallacy, and absurdity, so concisely and cogently, that
it is impossible for any impartial mind to withhold assent from
his conclusions. It would be an injustice to Mr. Grote to give
an extract from his speech, for its argument is so ably sus-
tained throughout, that it can be appreciated only by an atten-
tive perusal of the whole. He demonstrated that secret voting
would conduce to quiet and good order at elections ; that
though the free exercise of the franchise was universally ad-
mitted to be the avowed intention of the Constitution; yet,
under the existing system, the free choice was little more than
a pretence or an exception, while compulsion was the reality
and the rule. To avoid this compulsion many persons forbear
registering their votes, lest they might be forced to exercise
them against their conscience. Mr. Grote next quoted
Lords Melbourne and Brougham as witnesses of the in-
famous practices which are employed to coerce the elec-
tors, and also Blackwood's Magazine and the Quarterly
Review, which shamelessly inculcate the influencing of the
voters by exclusive dealing, not as a justifiable expedient,
but as a great moral duty, and asked how it was possible
after the multiplied enormities revealed in the Report of the
Intimidation Committee, that any man sincerely desirous of
giving freedom and protection to the exercise of the elective
franchise, could conscientiously refuse a concurrence in the
proposition for the adoption of the Ballot. Mr. Grote was
peculiarly successful in exposing the hypocrisy and baseness of
those who affect to oppose the Ballot on the ground of its lead-
ing to false promises on the part of the electors, who might
engage to vote one way, and, under cover of the Ballot,
break their word and vote the contrary. Better, said he, to
break a promise unduly exacted by an individual, than be-
tray a right affecting the most sacred interests of the
country ; boldly acknowledging at the same time that if
he were called upon to choose between successful false-
hood and successful tyranny, much as he abhorred the
former he should prefer it to the latter as the less of two
evils. The Ballot would create no new hypocrites, as those
only who now vote contrary to their conscience would,
under its protection, be enabled to vote contrary to illegiti-
mate dictation ; and the uncertainty of securing a vote by
a bribe, and the impossibility of marking the independent elec-
tor as a victim for persecution, would lead to the speedy aban-
donment of such unjust and atrocious practices. Mr. Grote
was heard throughout, and by an unusually full House upon
such a question, with the utmost attention, and sat down,
after speaking for nearly an hour and a half, amid loud and
repeated cheers—cheers most amply deserved, not only on ac-
count of the general ability of the speech, but of the consis-
tency of its author, and of his determined perseverance, in
spite of every discouragement and opposition, in bringing for-
ward a question of such vast importance to the rights and good
government of the people. The arguments used upon the
the other side of the question were of the most futile, vain, and
reasonless description, as all arguments must prove which arc
contrary to truth, justice, and right. The exhibition of talent
thrown away which would have shone in the advocacy of
a better cause—of ingenious sophistry which might have
been better applied—and of antiquated prejudice in support
of innumerable proved iniquities—was only shorn of its me-
lancholy opposition to just right and sound principle by the
evident fact that the opponents of the Ballot felt their discom-
fiture, and though speaking and voting against the measure,
did so more faintly than upon any previous occasion. Lord
Howick was scarcely ever heard to less advantage than last
night ; and the same observation is applicable to all the other.
speakers upon his side of the question. Not one of them
could grapple either with the facts or arguments so ably ad-
duced by Mr. Grote, and supported and illustrated by Mr.
Hodges, Mr. Hall, Mr. Buller, and Dr. Lushington ; and
although the result of the debate was unfavourable to the friends
of the Ballot, we can nevertheless see, in the growing modera-
tion of the tone of its opponents, an evident certainty that the
day is not far distant when they will either surrender their
opposition voluntarily, or be compelled, for their own safety,
to have recourse to the very means of protection which the),
now spurn with so much aristocratic disdain.
The numbers upon the division were—
For Mr. Grotes's motion .. 153
Against it
Majority ll2
Upon the division last year the numbers were—
For the Ballot
Against it
Majority —6l
So that this year, although the majority has increased from 51
to 112, the minority has increased in almost an equal ratio—
distinctly proving that the question has not only largely gained
ground in the House of Commons, but that the question in
future to be debated is not a question of principle, but a ques-
tion of time. Subtracting, in fact, the votes of the Tories,
who mustered in great strength, from those which constituted
the fair strength of the opposing Administration, the motion
may be said to have had a splendid triumph in the addition of
no fewer than 63 Members to the 88 who had previously voted
for it. 'I he announcement of the numbers on both sides was
received with loud and long-continued cheering ; but more
strongly on the part of the advocates of the Ballot than on that
of it opponents. To-morrow we shall endeavour to furnish an
analysis of the division.—Morning Advertiser.

Lady Theodosia Rice and family are recovering
from an attack of measles at Mount-Trenchard, Ireland.
The election of Lord Rector of Aberdeen has ter-
minated in the election of Lord Lyndhurst.
We have accounts from St. Domingo to the 14th
January. An atrocious crime had been recently committed on
the south coast of that republic. A small vessel, having
several men on board, and bearing the Swedish flag, had ap-
peared at a short distance from Petit Trou, where several ves-
sels were at anchor. The men composing the crew, during
the night, boarded one of the vessels, pillaged it, and mas-
sacred all the people they found on board. Their cries were
distinctly heard, but no one ventured to their assistance, fear-
ing they should experience the same fate.
The Tories talk of trying to persuade Mr. Stirling
of Glasgow to come forward as a candidate for the represen-
tation of Greenock. If Mr. Stirling has a grain of sense
he will pray to be saved from his forward and foolish friends.

MAD SHEEP.-A dog, which there is dreat—ren:
son for supposing to be mad, recently got among a flock of
90 sheep, belonging to Mr. John Pring, of Cornish Farm, near
Taunton, and was seen to run after and biting several of them.
The symptoms of injury to the animals have been recently
unequivocal, and many of them proving to be mad. —Bath
Chr, aide.

--- •
Mr. I'Lti rPTfttE.—A correspondent who dates from
IZarnsgate calls upon Mr. Plumptre " to resign that seat
which he has obtained by deception or forfeited by apostacy."
He is bound by every feeling of honour and delicacy to relin-
quish the scat which he now usurpingly holds.—Kent Herald.
The new palace of Prince William of Prussia, the
King's son, was broken into by thieves, at Berlin, on the night
of the 23d of February, and robbed of some silver to the
amount of about ha. The burglers had calculated upon a
much larger booty, but were unable to force the strong boxes in
which it was contained. This occurrence is curious for its au-
dacity, for Berlin, in which it took place, is itself like a large
barrack, filled with soldiers, to say nothing of the police, who
swarm there. The Prince's palace, too, stands in the most
exposed part of the town, being opposite the academy, near
the opera, and within sight of the King's house and the ar-
senal. Every other door in that quarter has sentinels outside
it, and there could not be less than 20 or 30 of these armed
watchmen within call, when this occurrence took place.

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