The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-14 00:00:00

THE POLICE BILL.

C aptain SCOBELL asked the Secretary of State for the
Hoc ne Department, w'aether a return (ordered to be laid
on the hble of tl:e house, about three months ago) of the
nut über, cost, of the mike force in each city and
bor .ugh in Eng' I and Wales, will be so renderei, and
be :in the hands c: members previous to the second reading
of the Polic,z Lll_ being moved.
Lord PALMERSTON promised that the return should
be forthcoming before the second reading.
Mr. M. GIBSON thought. there would be little chance
of carrying the bill this sei3ion, but, at the same time, he
Ella( )uld be glad to know when it was proposed to take the
sc and reading. He also wished to know when the noble
for d intended to bring in his promised bill to give the rate-
payers of counties a control over the expenditure.
Lord PALMERSTON observed that as to fixing the day
whet I the second reading would come on, that must depend,
of co urse, upon the progress of the other business of tL•
house, which was of a more pressing nature, and after the
expe:rienee of last night it was impossible to say when many
bills before the house would be brought on. But it un-
do nbt,edly was his intention to ask the house to pass the
P, )11.00 Bill into a law; he should be ready to hear any ob-
th je.ons that might be made to any particular parts of the
and those objections should receive his best attention.
With regard to the other measure, such a bill was pre-
pared, and whenever he saw a chance of bringing it in he
sitould avail himself. of it.

THE BALLOT.
Mr. Serjeant SHEE presented petitions in favour of the
. .

Mr. H. VERNON- prez,ented a similar petition from
Truro. _

Mr. H. BERKELEY presentei a petition to the same
effect from Chatham.

Mr. COBDEN presented a petition from Carno.rvon for
the ballot, and one from Bodmin praying that there may
be no extension of the franchise without the ballot.

Mr. BERKELEY, in rising to bring forward his motion
in favour of the ballot, said he did so unelated by transept
enecess and undismayed by usual defeat, for he was equally
persuaded that the measure was one required by justice
and expediency, and one which the house would never
agree to until compelled by necesseity. He justified his
.couduct by the pertinacity of Lord J. Russell in respect to
the claims of the Jews, which were certainly not stronger
than those of the Christian electors of this country to pro-
tection. The case of an elector was surely as strong- as that
of the Jew; but the simple question to decide was, should
the elector elect ? Now on this point nothing could go
beyond the reasoning and argument of Mr. Grote, and those
who followed Viet gentleman in the advocacy of the ballot
had only to contend with the ghosts of the arguments
which he had demolished. (Hear, and a laugh.) One of
the last spectres which had appeared was the theory that
the elective franchise was a trust to the electors, to
be used for the benefit of the non-electors, and that
the voting must be open in order that the non-elec-
tors might be made acquainted with the manner in
which the duty was discharged. A more delusive theory,
.or one more dangerous in practice, could not be advanced;
for it was ono which assuredly encouraged intimidation.
'The elective franchise was a right, and not a trust; but, if
a trust, he contended the elector could not discharge his
duty under a system of open voting. But he denied that
open voting fixed the responsibility of the voter and on
this point he again quoted the authority of Mr. Grote. To
s how the danger of this theory, he would refer the house to
u ,hat were called the Parliamentary blue, but which ought
tee be called the Parliamentary black books—the accurnu-
latlon of the committees who had sat on the proceedings
at the lost election—he meant thil Cork election. At that
elecelon Mr. Murphy, Mr.. Fagan, and Colonel Chatterton
were the candidates. Murphy and Fagan were Liberals
and Eoinau Catholics; Colonel Chatterton a Conservative
and Protestant. It was in evidence before the committee
that the Roman Cetholic priests took a warm interest in
Murphy and Fagan, and addressed their congregation after
Divine sorvice, having evidently studied in the Russell
school—th et school in white' the Secretary at War had
tal:en his de‘gree. (A. laugh.) " You Ka, boys," said these
priests, " tiya the elective franchise is given to the electors
in trust for y on, the non-electors; and, uoys, all those who
vote for Chatterton are guilty of a breach of trust. Now a
breach of trust is a sin, and you are perfectly warranted in
preventing the electors from going to the poll to commit
that sin." (A laugh. j Well, the non-electors took the hint,
and did prevent the electors from going to the poll ;
but he would admit that the violence which took place
did not arise from the recommendation of the Roman
Catholic priests; and he wags bound to suppose that such
violence did not meet with the+ approval of the noble lord
the member for London. (A laugh) The violence arose
from the dangerous doctrine proolulgated by the priests
and by the noble lord ; for the non-electors, acting as they
were desired, watched the polling•booths to see how their
trustees voted—(a laugh)—and when they found them vote
" sinfully" they chalked their backs—(a laugh)—and when
out of the reach of the military nearly stoned them to
death. (More laughter.) To prove the accuracy of this
description he need only refer to the speech of Colonel
Chatterton at the dinner given to Mr. Isaac Butt,
the member for Youghal. (Hear.) Speaking of the Cork
election the gallant colonel observed, that, although his
profession had compelled him to witness many scenes of
bleed, he had never been more horrified than at the scenes
enacted at that election. He described the appearance of
the wounded " trustees" as most sickening, and nothing
could be more constitutional than the language of the
gallant colonel when ho asked whether men would re-
cord their votes through such murderous scenes of
blood? but be (Mr. Berkeley) confessed astonishment
at the concluding sentence of the gallant colonel's ad-
dress. After his description of all this bloodshed it
might have been supposed that some alteration in the
mode of voting would have been suggested ; but
the concluding words of the gallant colonel were,
simply, " Attend to the registry." (Laughter.) Attend to
the registry ! when the effect of the system was to doom
the electors to the martyrdom of St. Stephan, and to have
their brains knocked out. (Laughter.) The gallant colo-
nel said his heart and soul were bound up in the Conserva-
tive cause ; and it was well known that the protection of
the voter was a brand of heresy in the Conservative creed.
The bruised and battered electors of Cork, then, must
turn to the Liberal members for Cork if they desired a
sincere advocacy of the ballot, and he trusted he should
have the assistance of the senior member for that city on
this occasion. Two principles he (Mr. Berkeley) contended.
d not be ur-
for ; first, that the vote of the electors h
chased by mosey; and, secondly,
f Oat
the reit
ashlmou.ld nTootp be
pre-
placed within the.control of a p o
vent the elector from being troddenoratniobayofthethpaurchhalalsoetr,
or the peer, let him have the
to the voter
which had never failed to give securitypr
ently been exchanged
where-
ever it had beenatlepted. In proof, it was only necessary
to state that open' voting
frequ for open. (Hear,
had
for seeeet votings-but never secret voting_
hear.) 'Americatheil been cited as an instance of the failure
of the ballot; best the result of correspondence with able
America, and with a society which enrolled
amongst in
eagst its names that of Mr. George Grote, showed the
direct contrary." In America the ballot was in force in 29
states out (of 31. It was instituted in Massachusetts in
1631, remained" in force to this day, and election dis-
turbances were unknown there. It was in force in
Connecticut, in Pennsylvania, New York, Louisiana, and
Kentucky ; and whereas, in the two latter states, before
the adoption of the ballot, in 1830, the fighting and ge-
neral disturbance rivalled our own election scenes at Black-
burn; Clitheroe, Six-mile-bridge, and Cork, the elections
were now conducted in the most peaceable manner. But
the ballot had worked equally well in Switzerland, Hol-
land, and Belgium. Yes, in Switzerland the ballot had
been found to work well; in Belgium, as he had himself
lately proved, it was
,equally successful ; and France af-
forded a third instance of its advantages, although it was
once the fashion to declare that it had been weighed in the
balance and found wanting, because, under it, the present
Emperor had been elected to power. For need he recall to
the recollection of the house that, at the time of the coup
d'etat, the nano of 'Napoleon was hold in about I:ar Marshal
s much
reverence in this country as the name of 1
Haynau, of woblai-flogging memory. (Laughter, and cries
of " hear, hear..")' Why, the time was when my Lord Pal-
merston himself was almost hunted about the country like
a mad fox, because he was deemed not to be eaesmuch op-
posed to the bead of the French nation as the rest of his
colleagues. (Renewed laughter, and cries of "hear.") Nor
could he forget that. Lord Panmure, then a Secretary of
State under a Wig Government, actually declared, that
although he bad lirsys auPPortted, tilt 1;44103 11° Q 91114 911
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