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

PRESTON AND LANCASTER RAILWAY.
Lord STANLEY presented petitions in favour of the
Preston and Lancaster Railway.
DEPTFORD AND GREENWICH RAILWAY.
Mr. TOOKE presented a petition against the Deptford
and G:e enwich Railway Bill.
PANCRAS PAVING BILL.
Mr. TOOKE presented a petition against the Pancras
Paving and Lighting Bill, and complaining that the Stand-
ing Orders had not been complied with.
STAFFORD AND AVON NAVIGATION.
On the motion of Sir E. WILNIOT, leave was given to
bring in a Bill to amend several Acts relating to the naviga-
tion of the rivers Stafford and Avon.
COMMERCIAL RAILWAY.
Mr. PATTISON presented a petition from Aldgate Ward
against the Commercial Railway Bill.
Lord JAMES STUART presented two petitions in favour
of the Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Ayr Railway Bill.
On the motion of Lord RUSSELL, the Cranfield (Bed-
ford) Enclosure Bill was read a third time and passed.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE presented a petition against the
Westminster Bridge and Greenwich Railway Bill.
Mr. CLAY presented a petition against the Commercial
Railway Extension Bill.
On the motion of Mr. DUNLOP, the Glasgow, Paisley,
and Ayr Railway Bill, was read a second time..
Mr. WARBURTON presented a petition from an indivi-
dual named Thomas Green, stating that he had been induced,
for the payment of ten shillings, tosign his name as a subscri-
ber to the lists presented to that House ,by the Westminster
Bridge and Deptford Railway Company. He further'itated
that he was no shareholder, and had paid no deposit upon the
shares which stood in his name. As the Bill had been read a
second time that night before he (Mr. W.) came in, he
would now move that the petition- lie upon the table, and in
the meantime he would make further inquiries into the matter.
Sir G. CLERK presented a petition in favour of the Gran-
town Pier Bill.

grounds on which I found that recommendation. I will not
at the present moment trouble the House with the details of
the measure--(Hear)—but I will very shortly lay before it the
general terms of the Bill which I propose fur your adoption,
confident as I am that there is no insurmountable difficulty in
the way of its complete execution. The object of this mea-
sure is to provide the means of making the process of Vote by
Ballot so clear that any voter in the community, however un-
educated, shall be able to understand it distinctly, and by
which, at the same Cute, his vote will be kept secret.
Though. I am perfectly prepared to enter into these explana-
tions of detail, when the convenient season shall arrive, I
think it best to omit them for the present. Sir, if I eere
discussing the comparative advantage of open or secret suf-
frage, considered simply and exclusively as modes of voting,
I should be enabled :to prove to you that the Ballot, consi-
dered on this ground alone, presents the clearest title to your
ereference. It disengages you altogether from that disorderly
tumult and vexatious obstruction a hicii is inseparably con-
nected with the pronunciation of a candidate's name at the
hustings, and with the continuous proclieiiation of the varying
state of the poll. It secures to you the inestimable advan.
mice of quiet, gentleness, method, and propriety from the
beginning to the end of the ceremony of polling. But, Sir,
I do not rest my proposition exclusively on this narrower
ground. My main purpose is, to procure free, sincere,
and independent voting—to get the sense of the commu-
nity fairly and freely taken. I desire, above all things,
to• protect the individual voter against seduction or coer-
cion from without, in the exercise of his franchise. I de-
sire to guard the nation at large against fraud and spuri-
ous returns, in collecting the aggregate sentiments of the
electoral body. Your present system shamefully fails as to
both these important points : I contend that you will attain
iieithev of them without adopting the Ballot. At the first
statement, Sir, of the object which I aim at, it should seem
that I ought to have every man in the community heartily
conspiring with me fur the attainment of it, at least everysin-
core politician, whether he he Whig, Tory, or Radical; for
how can any man repudiate the principle of general freedom
of votes, without assuming to himself a despotism little less
monstrous than that of the ancient Inquisition in matters of
religion? What more will any man venture to demand, ex-
cept that he shall be allowed full liberty of expressing his
own opinion in his own vote ; and is I.e not bound, as an es-
sentialecondition of his own freedom in this respect, to accord
the4ike to every other elector whatever ? Besides, Sir, apart
from such considerations of individual arrogance, look at the
matter in a public point of view, and see whether the same
principle is not forced upon us by reasonings the most evident
that can be imagined. What is the public object for the
, •accomplishmeet of which elections are instituted in England,
as well as in every other country where they are known ?
It is, surely, to collect the sense of the people. Al-
low me to read;to you a few words out of Mr. Burke's
" Thoughts east the Causes of the present Discontents,"
s(page 304) : 1.1 It •is material to us to be repro-`
seated really testi Aorta fide, and not in forms, andlypes,
end shadows, and fictions of law. The right of elec-
tion was not established merely as a matter of form, to satisfy
some method and rule of technical reasoning ; it was not a
principle which might substitute a Titus or a Mmvius, a John
Doe or a Richard Roe, in the place of a man specially chosen ;
not a principle which was just as well satisfied with one man
as another. It is a right, the effect of which is to give to the
people that man and that man only whom by their voices ac-
tually and not constructively given, they declare that they
know, esteem, love and trust. This right is a matter within
their own power of judging, and feeling ; not an ens rationis
or creature of law ; nor can those devices by which anything
else is substituted in place of such an actual choice, answer in
the least degree the end of representation." Now, Sir, take
the right of election as it is here described in the forcible lan •
guage of Mr. Burke, and let me ask, how can you give
effect to that right, if the votes of electors be not fairly and
feely taken ? How can you find out "that man and that
~,an only whom the people know, esteem, love and trust," if the
mode of election be such as to deter electors from telling you
their real minds ? Let me not be accused, Sir, of t rifling with your
time'when I presume thus emphatically to remind you that free
agency is the very soul of voting. However little such a propo-
sition may be controverted in words, verbal assent is far from
being all that is required. You find freedom of election re-
cognised in the law books as the normal state of the Constitu-
tion ; nay, you find it not only formally announced, but loudly
extolled as the bulwark of English political liberty. But,
Sir, the more forcibly we are touched with the solemnity of
these declarations of right, the more we are delighted with
the picture as we find it exhibited in books of authority,
the stricter ought to be our watch that the reality as it exists
corresponds with so pleasing a description. Now let us look
fur a moment into the world without, and examine whether
elections are really free, as our lawyers have directed and as
our forefathers have promised and vowed that they should be ?
Let any man examine candidly, and he will see that no two
things can be more diametrically opposed than the profession
and the reality. The pretence is freedom of election—the
reality wide-spread coercion and servitude. In profession, de-
pendence of the voter is unknown; in practice, it prevails at
all times and everywhere. Listen to the panegyric of Black-
stone, and you will be beguiled into the belief that every
man's vote is his own vote, the outward manifestation of a
free and living conscience within him.— ( Hear, hear, hear.)
Descend into the committee-room, or accompany the can-
vassers in their progress at an election, and you will find that
it is not modes of persuasion, but modes of compulsion or
seduction, which they rack Weir ingenuity to discover.
First, the method of acting upon an elector's fears; next, that
of acting upon his hopes ; last of all, that of acting on his
heart and understanding. These, Sir, are the tactics of elec-
tioneering genius—they, are the varieties of that which is
commonly known by the plausible name of influence. The
wide extent of this unrighteous interference, and its encroach-
ment on the freedom of the elective franchise, was so forcibly
described in a speech delivered last year by the highest
authority—the present Prime Minister of England—that I
shall beg permission to borrow from that speech a few sen-
tences of no ordinary moment. It is thus that Lord Melbourne
expressed himself last year:—" The great disease of society,
the great impediment to quiet government, the great evil of
the day, the greatest prevailing abuse at present is, that every
one thinks he has a tight to employ his influence over another ;,
each practises it, and each exclaims against its practice in a
third person. The landlord enforces it on his tenant, the
customer over his tradesman—they force conscience, and they
drive persons against their will to the poll, to vote contrary
to their own wishes. I say, then, that upon whatever side
this influence is exercised, it is a cruel tyranny and a gross
injustice. I say that it is a great evil : it is one too prevailing
in a greater degree in this than in any other country; and in
no other country but this, where there is a popular form of
government does it prevail." Sir, these are memorable
words, and I am enabled to cite not only the authority of Lord
Melbourne to my present purpose, but also that of Lord
Brougham : and I cite both these distinguished authorities
with the greater confidence, in proof of the actual sate of the
fact, because I know that both of them are unfavourable to the
remedy which I recommend. In an article in the Edinburgh
Review for January, 1833, universally understood to have been
written by that Learned Lurd, and written, I may add, in direct
hostility to the Ballot, the extent of intimidation at elections is
described in language which it is impossible to surpass ; the
coercion resorted to at the first election after the Reform Act,
then just terminated, is depicted in the most revolting colours.
Here are distinguished testimonies, such as can neither be
denied nor eluded, respecting the actual state of the electoral
world. Be it remarked, too, that they demonstrate this im-
portant fact—that intimidation of voters has become more
notorious since the passing of the Reform Act. But, Sir, I
may dispense with the necessity of quoting individual testi-
monies in proof of such a conclusion, for the Reports of
Committees of this House afford materials more than
sufficient for the most insatiable appetite. I pass over
those Committees which yotehave named for the purpose of
investigating the proceedings of particular boroughs, though
these are neither few in number nor insignificant in
their results. I confine myself to the Report of the Coin-
inittee appointed generally on bribery and intimidation at elec-
tions ; and I
scruple not to affirm that the evidence taken be-
fore that Committee fully bears out the worst statements that
have ever beer, made respecting the extent of undue interfe-
rence in elections. A large number of respectable witnesses
C•om all parts of the kingdom were examined before that Com-
mittee, and the facts set forth by them illustrate the working
of evil influence over electors in all its shapes and varieties.
Follow the series of evidences in this volume, Sir, and you
will see that wherever any man possesses the means of inflic-
fief; injury upon another, or withholding benefit from him, the
power is made subservient to electioneering purposes. It is
thus that landlords deal with their tenants, customers with
their tradesmen, employers of labour with their labourers, and
in like manner every class of persons whose social position
gives them a grain of ability to oblige or annoy their neigh-
bours. Sometimes these influences are put forth more openly,
sometimes more covertly, as the case may be ; but in substance
the intimidation is always the same—" Vote as I desire, or it wid
be worse for you if you do not." lii Ireland, from which country
many of the witnesses examined before the Intimidation Com
niittee were taken, the distemper is the same in kind, but of
exaggerated malignity ; the coercion over electors is more ter- •
rific and undisguised ; and the condition of the poorer class
of electors under these circumstances is depicted by more than
one instance as little less than pitiable. You will not wonder,
Sir, that in such a state of feeling and with such an absence of
protection, every species of fraud and wrong is committed on
the aggregate result of elective franchise. It stands proved,
that numbers of electors arc constrained to vote in opposition
to their real sentiments—that many others suffer loss and
in-
jury, because they will not submit to this means of escaping it.
It is proved, moreover, that many electors are deterred from
voting at all, while no inconsiderable portion of qualified 17-
sons consider their franchise as an inconvenience, and decline
to put themselves on the register; and it is well worth your
attention, Sir, that this is an evil not in course of diminution,
but in course of increase—of marked and rapid increase. The
threats of expulsion of tenants, 'realised in the awful sentence,
hoc, mea sunt, veteres migrate coloni—the resolutions of exclu-
sive dealing—are more rife and more violent than ever. If we
only advert to the recent election in the county of Longford,
we shall find an extremity of terrorism and a fierceness of
menace almost without parallel. As to exclusive dealing, the
leading organs of Tory principles are found preaching it syste-
matically and universally. In Blackwood's Magazine, and in
the Quarterly Review, exclusive dealing has been insisted onus
a matter of strict political obligation : the maxim which they,
appear to enforce is, without reserve, whoso will not vote as we
bid shall be unto us as a stranger and a sojourner. In some
towns, so great'has been the anxiety to secere the theeeniqh•-•
going operation of th 9 principle of exclusive dealing, that lists
of. tradesmen voters on one side or on the other have bean
printed and circulated for the use of intimidators—lists of
tradesmen to be patronleed or avoided. I hold in my hand, Sir,
a printed list of this kind, printed by some zealous Conserva-
tives of the town of Cambridge after the last election! It is
entitled, " An Alphabetical List of the Cambridge Tracippmen

who supported the Conservative Candidate at the last Election,
which took place on the 7th and Bth days of January, 1835.
The persons whose names are preceded by an asterisk divided
their votes in favour of one of the Radical Members." The
list is most accurately classified and subdivided, according to
the various trades of the voters ; there are no less than 76
different trades enumerated, amongst which the voters named,
being 441 in number, are distributed ; and I shall only add
that I am informed the list has been but too rigidly and ex-
clusively adhered to in apportioning the custom of 'Members
of the various Colleges in the University. I am sorry that
I am unable to mention the name of the printer by whom the
list was put in type ; but I do not find the name of the printer
specified any where. At the close of the list I find the follow-
ing paragraph :—" When we observe the diabolical spirit with
which the Church of our forefathers and the glorious Consti-
tution of our country is assailed, and see that our enemies are
banded together to raze them to the dust, we think that the
present list of the supporters of Church sod Sta:e principles
in the town of Cambridge is not altogether uncalled fur. We
believe that many whose names do not appear in this list have
deserted the ranks of our opponents and joined ours; but as
their opinions are not upon record, we do not think ourselves
justified in making them public at present, although, in a short
time, we hope to have the pleasure of doing so, as the time
cannot be far distant when the reckless imbeciles, who changed
their theoretical motto of peace, retrenchment, and reform, to
the practical one of place, pension, and plunder, who now goad
with tyrannic cruelty our starving countrymen, must yield to
make way for better and more honest men. An election will
then take place, and our friends shall have a new, and, we
doubt not, a much amended list of the Conservative tradesmen
of this borough, as speedily as possible after the poll is taken ;
the result of which we fear not, as truth must triumph, justice
must prevail." I make no remark, Sir, upon the style of this
composition, emanating as it does frotn a soil so pre-eminently
classical ; I shall merely observe that it proclaims and insti-
gates nothing less than &deliberate conspiracy against the free-
dom of the elective franchise, and I believe that the Right Hon.
Gentleman who represents Cambridge has been told, as well
as I have, of the use which has been made of the list in that
town—at least his supporters know it and feel it to their cost.
I cite it as one amongst many evidences to prove that the
practice of exclusive dealing, as a means of perverting the
suffrages of voters, is working itself mere and more into the
habits of wealthy and powerful men, and tends to become more
and inure the established resource of those who can employ it
with effect. Sir, I think it impossible that any man who will
candidly weigh these evidences--I may say, any man who will
take the trouble to recollect his own experience and observa-
tion—will rise and state that elections as now conducted are
free and pure, or that they are at all likely to become so for
the future. It cannot be superfluous, therefore, either to re-
mind you of the magnitude of the evil, or to suggest new
precautions for eradicating it. Now, Sir, the one and only
pee Caution which. my humble ingenuity can discover is the
Ballot ; and I declare with perfect sincerity that I am ready
to lay it aside if any other a.ode, equally effectual for attain-
ing freedom and purity of election, can be pointed out to me.
But I listen in vain fur any such hint—out of the infinite
number of Gentlemen who oppose the Ballot, not one can
disprove the existence of the evil complained of, not one will
condescend to start the idea of any alternative remedy.—
( Hear, hear.) What, then, remains fur mo, except to cling
to my own proposition with increased tenacity, and to enforce
it again and again on the House and on the public ? Surely,
Sir, the House will not so far abdicate the greatest of all func-
tions, as to tolerate and connive at the continuance of those
monstrous enormities in our electoral system, which have now
become matters of such disgraceful notoriety. He who allows
oppression shares the crime, and we shall lacked show that
freedom of election has become vile aiid wosililess in our eyes,
if we reject every proposition calculated to rescue it from those
iniquitous practices by which it is now subverted. The mea-
sure which I propose to you will accomplish this end with
perfect certainty ; I say it confidently, with perfect certainty.
Make the suffrage secret, and yod at once make it free, be-
yom.d all possibility of disappointment. The snares by which
electoral independence is beset, the menaces by which it is
overborne and prostrated, will all be effectually defeated by a
system of secret suffrage. The Ballot will be an Act of
Emancipation for all dependent voters; it will protect them
against every variety of the many-headed principle of intimi-
dation, whether arising from a persecuting superior, from the
artificial force of a combination for exclusive dealing, or from
the violent hostility of an excited neighbourhood. My
scheme of protection is equal and universal, for all classes in
society, and for all shades of opinion in politics. I wish to
guarantee free and unembarrassed voting to every elector, be
his politics what they may; and I am very sure that there is
no other way of accomplishing this except by means of the
Ballot. To secure perfect freedom of election, by a method
so simple and an innovation so moderate as that of vote by
Ballot, is surely an experiment well worth trying. And can
there be any expedient more gentle and harmless in its work.
iig than that which I present to you? It trenches upon no
man's rights; it alters no man's proper position: it creates
no new privilege, it inflicts no disfranchisement or degrada-
tion. When the amount of existing evil is so great and so se-
rious, it would be well worth your while to purchase an ef-
ficient remedy, even at the cost of strict prohibitions and
severe penalties. But the remedy which I propose involves
neither vexatious prohibitions, nor a single grain of penalty.--
( Hear, hear.) Ido not ask you to enact sharper laws against
bribery and intimidation, but I show you the means of pre-
venting them. The Ballot affords the fullest measure of relief,
by its own self-acing operation, without the uncertainties of
legal process, and without the bitterness of punishment.
You have made several valuable improvements of late in the
mode of conducting the poll, in the time which it is allowed
to last, and in the subdivision of polling districts, all tend-
ing to make the process of voting more convenient and less
toilsome. This is very well, but is it not a far more pressing
necessity that you should study the means of making the
process of voting free and pure ? If it be useful, as assuredly
it is, to provide that the voter shall not be required to travel
more than a certain number of miles to the poll, is it not
much more essential that lie should be emancipated from all
constraint, and preserved from all intimidation when he arrives
there? Unless this be done, you may carry the detail arrange-
ments of voting to what degree of perfection you please, still
the result will be untrue and unfaithful : you will not reach
that which is the only ultimate purpose oT every elective sys-
tem--that which was the great promise and watchword of the
Reform Acts—the clear expression of the confidence of the
people. There arc some Gentlemen who tell us that they
are averse to any theoretical or organic reforms, but that they
burn with zeal for the removal of all proved abuses. Let
such persons, Sir, peruse the Report of the Intimidation
Committee, and I promise them that they will find therein
an ample harvest of proved abuses--a harvest rank and pining
for the sickle. Are not the evils of open voting completely
practical and fearfully manifest ? And shall the remedy
against such evils be dismissed as an idle and irrelevant pro-
position, not bearing upon the actual state of society ?
( Hear, hear.) Sir, I say that we ought to be thankful
if there be an impiovement in the mode of voting within our
reach, calculated to remove one-tenth part of these mighty
mischiefs. lam prepared to prove that the Ballot will go
far to abate the whole of the mischiefs, and therefore that
it is among the most practical of all practical measures.—
( Hear, hear.) For whence is it that election abuses in all
their grossness and variety, at least three parts out of four,
take their origin ? It is from some' species of force or con-
straint put upon the will of the voter ; from the struggles of
extrsneous tyranny to grasp his vote, without the smallest re-
ference to his own consent or inward preference.—(Loud
cheers.) Now, will any man tell me that such attempts at
compulsion can possibly be continued, when you shall have
adopted the vote by Ballot ? Will any man tell me that the
menaces and the violence now employed against the open voter
will still remain in fashion as a mode of attack against the se-
cret voter ? Sir, Ido not hesitate to say that the supposition
is inconceivable. A man voting secretly is out of the reach of
all assailants ; he is master of his own conduct, let the inti-
midator bsstir himself as he may ; no individual consequence,
good or bad, can be made to attach to the way in which his
vote is given. Intimidation against electors will cease, be-
cause it will become entirely useless--because it will conduce
to no man's profit or power. I need not remind the House
that the surest mode of warfare against crime is to, disap-
point the criminal of his expected booty. Now, Sir, if Gen-
tlemen will lay to heart the multiplied enormities detailed in
the report of the Intimidation Committee, and will recollect
at Or same time that the large majority of them will be alto-
gether banished by secret voting, I confidently affirm that
they must agree with me in calling the Ballot a measure not
only of extensive benefit, but even of urgent necessity. It
is not upon any light prejudice—not upon any partial or
fanciful objections—that they ought to turn away so healing
a remedy from their lips. But what are those objections
against the Ballot which outweigh its direct and indisputable
benefits, and which induce Gentlemen rather to perpetuate the
vast catalogue of evils which stare them in the face, titan recur
to the infallible corrective of secret voting ? Some objectors
seem to turn with horror from the task of reasoning on the
subject ; they talk as if the very mention of secresy were an in-
supportable dishonour. It may be convenient to hold such
language, when the object is to decry the Ballot ; but I shall
never believe the any one of the declaimers against the Ballot
entertains a real belief that secresy is dishonourable. Why ?
Because their actual proceedings prove the contrary. Is there
a man living who feels dishonoured while voting by Ballot in
his club, or in any private association of which he may be a
member ? On the contrary, the practice of secret voting is
invariable among the most honourable men of the land—
among men of all classes in society and of all political parties
—among Noble Lords and Centlemen in the fashionable
clubs, as well as artisans in their unions, and labourers in their
benefit societies. In every private association, without ex-
ception, the Ballot is adopted as the only sure. method of sin-
cere, independent, unembarrassed expression of opinion. What
better proof can you have that there is nothing in the practice
which conflicts with the moral feelings of any man? What
batter proof can you have that the effects of the Ballot are
not only uniform and unerring, but also clearly understood and
familiar to all classes of the population ? lam fully justified,
Sir, in asserting, on the authority of these extensive analogies,
that the Ballot is an expedient known and proved by the full-
est actual trial. That so far from being novel and un-English,
as some persons have most preposterously alleged, it ie upto.
riaibly conformable to English practice and Enzlisli manners,
and that in advocating the extension of it to a new case, to
which it has never yet been Applied, 1 am only treading in the
beaten path of sontsd and practical legislation_ole4r*Leo....
I ant only demanding an ascertained remed for the correctione
ief ascertained evils. I knew, Sirs that there are many objec-
tions specie on various kromids against the Ballot ; but is there
any QUO of the objectors who disputes the fact, that the Ballot
will infallibly bring about fair and free election ?„--(llear.)
Well, then, if this be the indisputable truth, that the Ballot
will procure freedom of election, I
contend that my case is
proved ; for, in an inquiry relatin-
g simply to the best mode of
taking votes, whatever best conduces to the main purpose of
election it incontestably right to be chosen. No, Sir, the oh-

-

• nisi}T-1-
jectors against the Ballot do not Imn niasi o
break ground upon this the material moit7tif-ntheireii&; ;Key
put aside freedom of election, as if it tvilisif4fOts,sauinasosilless
consideration, and they attack my proposition on the plea of
certain collatersd consequences, which, if they could even be
shown to be just and probable, would .Vet be iotalty foreien to
the essential mei its of the case in hand.—( Hear.) For xamples
there is no groulal of reproach more forcibly insisted noon
against the Ballot, than its alleged tendency to multiply
false promises and false declarations. We are told that the
voter will promise to vote fur one man, and then afterwards
vote for another ; we are told again, that after having given
his vote under fasour of secrecy, lie will declare that he has
voted in a way contrary to the real fact. Now, Sir, thus
much is unquestionably true, that while speech is free,
false promises and false declarations may be uttered, if
individuals choose it, and that on a matter known only to
himself; a man may speak falsely, without being detected.
What then? Is it intended that there shall he no matters
whatever discussed privately and confidentialiy because false
statements may be made respecting them, the falsehood re-
mailing undiscovered ? Arc we to have no such thing as
scaled correspondence by the post because a man may state
one thing in writing to one person, while he communicates the
direct contrary by word of mouth to another? The secresy
of the post opens a door to falsehood, just in the same way as
the secresy of the ballot ; but if I were to name any one act
of despotic Governments which excites peculiar abhorrence, it
is the breaking the seal of private letters, and the violation of
confidential epistolary intercouse between man and man. And
what then, I pray you, ss.ould be thought of the impudence of
any private individual who should claim the right to unseal
his neighbour's correspondence, under pretence of taking
security that no untrue assertions should be made to hint alit the contents of it? Such a claim, Sir, would he
scouted as fiat-10c impudence—but in what respect, let me ask,
is the pretension less impudent when applied to voting at else-'
lions ? When a man says, " I have a right to know how my
neighbour votes, and if lie is allowed to vote secretly he may
deceive me ; therefore, in order that I may not be deceived,
coo (the Legislature) must compel him to vote openly."
Now, Sir, who shall deny that this is a claim monstrous and
unjustifiable on the:face of it ?—(Hear, hear.) First prove
to me, I say, that you have any right to know your neighbour's
vote, before you claim to be invested with the power of look-
ing over his elbow in order to discover it ? I contend that
you have no right to know it at all, against his will and con-
sent--not the shadow nor pretence of a right ;he may disc
close it to you Hite pleases, but you must take your chance of
his giving you false information, on a matter where he is fully
entitled to withhold information altogether. You would
have no right whatever to fish out your neighbour's vote
against his wish, even if your motive were nothing
worse than an innocent curiosity ; bow much less right have
you to do so, when your motive is one of malignity and op-
psession ?__when you try to penetrate the secret of his vote,
for the direct purpose of inflicting evil upon him, if he will not
alter it at your bidding ?—W hen you are seekine to accomplish
the double mischief of defrauding your country
of an honest vote
and of turning the revelations of the voter to his ruin ? This, Sir,
is the real purport of the complaints wide]] you hear so loudly
put forth against the mendacity of the Ballot—the outcry
which is raised against it on the ground that it affords encou-
ragement to lying. What are such complaints except the
murmurs of disappointed tyranny, raised by those who are
trying to extort confessions from a voter, with the express
view of turning those confessions against him, and making
them the evidence for visiting hint with ejectment, or dis-
missal, or loss of custom ? Persecutors, Sir, of every class,
may well be angry with the Ballot—for it frustrates their mis-
chievous purposes—it enables the voter to do his duty to his
country, it ithonn baring his bosom to the assault of private
malice—mid they fad their account in denouncing the means
of escape from wrongful persecution as if it were an encou-
ragement to wrongful deceit. Ido not stand here, Sir, as
the defender of falsehood ; but I will not shrink
from saying, nevertheless, that if I am reduced to choose
b. tween the two evils—successful tyranny on the one side,
and the success of falsehood, as a defence against tyranny
on the other—l still not shrink from saying that the last
is by far the least evil of the two. And is not
this, Sir, the real alternative ? Is it not the alterna-
tive to which mankind are always reduced, Whenever the
spirit of persecution, religious or political, has poisoned the
hearts of the superior classes? The annals of past history
present hut too copious records of religious persecution, and
what has been the uniform result? Some few resolute and
heroic spirits have endured martyrdom rather than submit,
even in appearrnce, to a creed which their conscience repu-
diated; but the greater number of the persecuted sect has
evaded the tyranny of the oppressor by rendering outward
homage to the worship thrust upon them by force, while they
reserved their own sincere and conscientious devotion to be
offered in secret. Such has been the history of all persecuted
sects—of the early Christians under the Pagan Emperors of
Rome—of Protestants under Catholic persecution, as well as .
of Catholics under Protestant persecution—of Protestant
Dissenters in England and Scotland, when the Church of
England sought to put them down—of every religious sect,
without exception, which has been proscribed by the abuse of
sovereign authority. Now, Sir, is there any historian so
bigoted as to revile these oppressed men for carrying on
their own worship secretly, when they were prevepted by
violence from following it openly ? Is it an unpardon-
able sin, when, under the pressure of penalties, they com-
bine outward conformity with secret.dissent ?—( Hear.) Sir,
I venture to say that there is no man of common generosity
who will so treat it—there is no one whose wrath will not turn
against the persecutor rather than against the man who is com-
pelled to dissemble in order to escape persecution. Now, Sir,
substitute the political for the religious conscience, and sou
have the precise case of the dependant elector voting by ballot
—you have the precise case of the tenant, who, to avoid eject-
ment and ruin, professes acquiescence in the unjust dictates of
his landlord, while he avails himself of the ballot to vote
agreeably to his own real sentiments. Secrecy, Sir, is the
refuge °Nile weak against the strong ; and we are fortunate
indeed when the injustice of the strops, admits of being
effectually defeated by secrecy, as it doea ha the case of
voting. Deny to the menaced voter the refuge of secrecy,
and what is the consequence ? You secure the triumph of
injustice—you strengthen the force of the political perse-
cutor, for the worst of all purposes—you impart to him the
hundred eyes of Argus, combined with the hundred arms of
Briareus. No, Sir, this is neither genuine morality nor en-
larged wisdom. Abolish persecution and injustice how and
when you can ; the sooner tho better : but until you have
done so, do not close up the only door by which the sufferer can
escape them. Sir, when Gentlemen attack me on the ground
tharthe Ballot has a tendency to cause false declarations or
false promises, I might well rest my case in reply on the
argument which I have just stated. I might well defend
myself by saying that such falsehood is the least of two evils,
where there is only an alternative of evils to choose out of.
But I shall not content myself with this reply. I can repel
the attack still more effectually. Gentlemen tell me that the
Ballot makes hypocrites. I tell them that open voting makes
hypocrites—hypocrites at least as many in number, and
much worse in kind ; for what is an elector who votes against
his conscience except a hypocrite?—( Hear, hear.) And will
any man who has read the Report of the Intimidation Com-
mittee deny that such hypocrites are made by thousands
under the present system of open voting ?—( Hear, hear.)
Take the matter at the worst, the same elector who would be
a hypocrite under the Ballot, would also be a hypocrite under
the plan of open voting. lie now speaks truly, and votes
dishonestly ; under the Ballot he may speak falsely, but he
would vote honestly ; he now plays the hypocrite to his coun-
try, he would then cheat only the intimidator who had tried
to suborn him. I repeat it again, Sir, no new hypocrisy is
created under the Ballot—no additional falsehood whatever.
The falsehood which it introduces is far more pardonable and
less mischievous than that which it supplants. For if there
be any one claim paramount and indisputable, it is the claim
of the nation to require a sincere vote from every elector ;
under open voting, the intimidator defeats this claim ; under
the Ballot he may indeed try to defeat it, but he fails ; instead
Of causing a lie to be told to his country, he only causes a lie
to be told to himself. Whatever may be the tone of morality
current among those to whom free voting is bitter and dis-
tasteful, I shall not be afraid to declare that an insincere
speech made for the purpose of averting the unjust vengeance
of an intimidator is, at least, a smaller evil than an insincere
vote given by an elector to his country. But, Sir, I have taken
the comparison most unfairly to my own case. I have taken
the comparison as it would stand, if attempts to intimidate
continued to be as prevalent after the introduction of the Ballot
as they are now. It is time to ask, however, whether this
would be the fact ?—whether the attempts to intimidate would
still remain in fashion after the Ballot had rendered them abor-
tive, and destroyed all possibility of carrying them to a success-
ful issue ? I affirm that no such futile efforts will continue to
be made ; if common prudence be of any avail in governing
the actions of men, none such will continue. Fcr what man
will be insane enough to waste his fire on a mark out of sight
and out of reach. What man will commence the work of im-
potent intimidation, with the certainty not only of failure in his
object, but of aggravated bitterness On the part of those whom
he idly endeavours to overawe ?—( Hear.) It is not in nature,
Sir, that such things should be. When the process of intimi-
dation is forbidden to be consummated, it will no longer be
begun—the trade will be at an end—a landlord will no more
think of trying to coerce his tenant, than be now thinks of
coercing any neighbouring gentleman, when the Ballot shall
have rendered the vote of the one as independent as the vote
of' the other. Now, Sir, this is all that any man can desire;
for let intimidation be discontinued on the part of the superior,
and there will be no chance of insincerity on the part of the
dependant. Sir, in endeavouring to make good my proposi-
tion of this evening, I have brought before you chiefly the evil
of intimidation, the great and master evil by which the legiti-
mate purpose of elections is now subvei ted. But there is also
another mischief of considerable moment-.the mischief of
bribery. How will the Ballot affect bribery ? Sir, lam pre-
pared to show that the Ballot is the most powerful antidote
against bribery which it is in your power to administer. To
establish this conclusion, I would be quite content to take as
my evidence the feelings of any mercenary elector. Ido not
believe that there is a single voter, accustomed to take bribes
who will not feel that his market is struck from under him
when he is directed to vote in secret. His vote is at once re-
duced from a certainty to a contingency—a contingency of
which l oast by no ingenuity convey any evidence ; and this
is but a sorry piece of merchandise when its value comes to
be measured in money, Then, besides, the Ballot ensures
absolute ignorance of the state of the poll, from the begin-
ning to the end of it. The candidate neither knows how many
votes, he has got, now how many he will get ; and he has,
consequently, no means whatever of determining how ninny
voted must be bought in order to procure a majority. How
bribery is to be carried on at all, in the midst of such dark-
ness and uncertainty, I know •not--( Hear, hear, hear:)—
but sure I am, that it can not be carried on in the direct
and easy manner that it is now—it cannot be transacted be-
tween individual and individual, a certain sum down without