The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 18, 1865

Ballot would. not put an end to bribery, he contends
that it would destroy its marketable value, since
few woulid care to give £lO or £2O for a vote, when
they could not be certain whether or no it was
given in the way they wanted. Besides the open
opposition of threatening landlords or employers,
there are a great many cases in which a man who
did not fear immediate expulsion or discharge
might be placed in a very awkward though less
serious difficulty. The members of a club are
not afraid of personal loss or of family
trouble if they give an open vote for or
against a new member, but they wish to avoid the li
awkwardness, the bad grace, and all the inconve-
niences attending the public profession as to their
belief that so-and-so would not be an eligible mem-
ber. Nobody pretends that such a regard for the
little courtesies and amenities of social life is neces-
sarily "un-English" or " unmanly," yet our politi-
cians insist on exposing other men to the unpleasant
little test which they shrink from themselves.

The adversaries of the Ballot again urge that the
secresy would not be long kept, for that the vote
usually publishes itself. But, as our author very
happily reminds them, the telling must come from
the voter himself. The Americans, he says, con-
stantly declare how they have voted, and so do the
Parisians, who, indeed, canvass each other, but no one
has heard of money passing between them in the
matter. The ballot, he urges, is in fact eminently
Conservative, " because secret voting enables every
one to vote contrary to any and all evil influences,
be they from money, aristocratic rank, or mob dic-
tation." It would be found, he adds, protective of
the rights of property ; and asks what is meant by
the argument, or rather assertion, that it would
sooner or later destroy them ? Cannot the consti-

tution, he asks, be used as contemplated by its
founders ? or, were the " rights of property to in-
fluence the votes of the constituencies" at first con-
sidered as a necessary and indispensable part of it ?
There is one very convincing proof of the impor-
tance of some immediate change in the manner
of any elections, and that is the very great number
of qualified electors who never exercise their
privilege. Imperfect and unequal as the present
system of representation is it does not have a fair
trial, and while our Reformers are constantly urging
the injustice of excluding so many from the fran-
chise, a large proportion of those who might vote
will not. Men may shrink from voting directly
against their convictions while they cannot afford
to offend influential connection. They may scorn
to take bribes, but they dare not for the sake of
their families make an open profession of disregard-
ing their landlord's opinion. It is very often
those who are best qualified to use a vote,
those who have sufficient intelligence and political
knowledge to form a decided opinion on public
affairs, and sufficient conscientiousness to act up to
it, who are perforce absent from the hustings, and
whose votes are left ungiven. It is as necessary to set

this large and important class free to exercise their
privilege as it is to admit those now excluded from
its possession. Yet so long as the present system is
maintained we shall have the same mortifying re-

suit, and learn from a comparison of the electors
and the votes that a great number of our constitu-

elides are not even partially represented.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(RETJTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

ITALY.
TURIN, APRIL 18.

The Committee of the Senate on the bill for the
unification of the laws had rejected the proposal to
abolish capital punishment, but has amended the
penal code by reducing to nine the number of crimes
punishable by death.