The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-15 00:00:00

at best, but a regard for the outward semblance of integ-
rity. (Cheers.) On these grounds he (Lord Lennox) should
vote against the motion of his hon. friend.
Mr. COBDEN remembered that about nine years ago he
brought forward a motion in that house, on which he had
bestowed more than usual trouble and attention, and which
time and experience had since proved to have been founded
in sound and true policy. He remembered that the right
hon. the member for Wiltshire, who was then in the Cabi-
net, and the colleague of older and shrewder heads, was
put forward to answer that speech, which was accompanied
by some memorable circumstances. Now the right hon.
gentleman was a little older, but he had hardly gained
much wisdom from experience—(laughter)—for he had
done precisely the same office now that he did then for
older and more sagacious colleagues. He had now taken
up the defence of a question which had been as completely
established by reason and argument as free trade had been'
in 1844—(cheers)—and he ventured to predict that the
right hon. gentleman would live to make as manly a disa-
vowal, after he bad seen by experience the results of the
ballot, of the opinions he had expressed that night.
(Laughter and cheers.) This question, he (Mr. Cobden)
repeated, had been settled by reason and argument ; and if
they were discussing the ballot simply as a question affect-
ing a body of men, all of whom rested upon a social equality,
there could not oven then be one argument or reason sug-
gested why it should not be adopted. (Hear, hear.) Hide
as they might—conceal it even from themselves, if they
could—the fact was that they opposed the ballot because
they ei.tered upon a discussion of it with a In idea that
it was the duty of somebody to know how somebody else
voted. (Cheers.) But if a body of men—if 500 individuals
were placed in one apartment, and they wished to know
honestly the opinion of the majority of those men ; if no
one had right or power, or pretension, to exercise any un-
due influence whatever, or any mastery over them,
except what he derived from argument and reason, they
would not find ono of those 500 men that could say why
the ballot should not_ be adopted. (Hear. hear.) The
right hon. gentleman had given them some arguments
with which he (Mr. Cobden) would now proceed to
deal. And in the first place he must correct the as-
sumption of the right hon. gentleman that any one who
had spoken before him had admitted that the ballot
would be totally inoperative to put down bribery. What
had been admitted by all its advocates was that it was per
as against intimidation, and that it was a very potent
obstacle to bribery. But the right hon. gentleman went
further, and said that bribery might be an increasing evil,
but that intimidation, owing to the operation of public
opinion, was decreasing with the lapse of time. He com-
pared the present period with 1833 ; and said that we had
very much improved upon the state of things then; for po-
pular opinion had to a certain extent put down intimida-
tion. He (Mr. Cobden) denied that. What had been done
was, that the counties, in a vast majority of cases, had so
far succumbed to intimidation, and had so far become sub-
servient to territorial interest, that they had ceased to
make any struggle for independence. (Cheers.) Talk of
intimidation having diminished ! Was it not the recog-
nised principle and etiquette in county canvassing, that it
was an insult to large proprietors to canvass their tenants
without first obtaining their permission ? (Cheers.) Would
anybody deny that ? Why, he had heard of one case, in
which there were two proprietors of rival pretensions,
where there was a quarrel, and some talk of a duel, in con-
sequence of their having poached upon each other's manor.
The counties; before the Reform Bill, were the strongholds
of liberal opinions in this country. There were members
fer counties who took their stand on that side of the house
in defence of all our old constitutional freedom, and it was
mainly county members that had carried the teform Bill
itself. (Cheers.) Why, then, had such a complete change
taken place They could scarcely now point to any county
where a contest, however hopeless, had been attempted on
liberal and reforming principles. (Hear, hear.) The
simple cause was, that they had given the proprietors such
power by the control of their tenants' votes, that the free-
holders, the ancient stronghold of popular rights, had been
swamped by a body of men, the most dependent and the
most subservient politicians they had in tne country.
(Cheers and murmurs.) They had had the experiment
tried. In South Northumberland, in North Northumber-
land, in Hertfordshire, in Herefordshire, and in West
Surrey, they had had contests ; and whether or not there
had been any diminution of intimidation, let the right
hon. member for Morpeth answer. (Cheers.) He would
call Sir George Grey into the witness-b [Th n.
ox. e ho
member then quoted a hustings' speech of Sir George, in
which he complained that the name of those who had ex-
ercised undue influence over their tenants, against him was
" Legion.l But it was the same on the other side. He
found in a local paper this statement :—" Lord Ossulston
and Lord Lovaine address the people from the windows of
the White Swan." (A laugh.) Lord Ossulston, speaking
of the Beaumont and other influence in South Northum-
berland, said—" Mr. Liddell went up to one of the polling
places, where he sat with the patience of Job, for
three hours, hearing vote after vote recorded against him.
At last a single elector polled for him, and he rose and
publicly thanked the voter, 'to the surprise of all who
did not know that he was present. A short time after-
wards, one of the voters who had polled against Mr.
Liddell, came up to him, and taking him by the hand,
said, " I have been compelled to vote against you, but it
is a d—d bad business." (Laughter.) I have given you
the man's own language, for I think the profaneness of the
expression is redeemed by its honest sincerity. (Great
laughter.) Lord Lovaine also complained that the Green-
wich Hospital estate was canvassed by his opponent in
company with a Government commissioner, and that the
tenants had given their votes against him (Lord Lovaine),
although they were in his favour. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr.
Cobden) might call attention to the case of Hertford-
shire ; but in every case they would find the same ter-
rible intimidation practised. Indeed, the counties had
ceased to exist for all purposes of useful discussion
or manly contest. (Loud cheers and murmurs.) Well,
now, let them go to Ireland, where county contests had
been renewed. Had they seen any failing anywhere of
this horrible intimidation in Ireland, by the priests on one
side and the landlords on the other? (Hear.) Why ho
had begun at one time to cut extracts out of the papers
giving records of these cases, but he had thrown up the task
in sheer despair, for it was all intimidation and violence in
Ireland. (Cheers.) So much so, that the United Service
Gazette stated that 30,000 soldiers and police had been kept
actively employed throughout the late elections, and that
they had visited 182 polling places during the contest.
(Hear, hear.) Was that a state of things to be passed over
or to be remedied ? (Hear, hear.) The right hon. gentle-
man said they could not remedy it in Ireland unless they
passed such a measure as would protect the people both
from the priests and the landlords. But what did they
want to protect them against ? They wanted to protect
voters against any coercive influences that should compel
them to vote against their will. (Hear, hear.) He might
be told that the influence of the priests would be exercised
in a private manner—in a manner which, whatever it
might seem to them, they neither could, nor bad they a
right, to interfere with. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Cobden)
did not ask them to protect a man against a voluntary in-
fluence. He denied their right to prevent any man from
taking counsel from those whom he knew, or supposed to
be better able to advise him than he was to instruct him-
' self. (Hear.) Bat this he did say, place a man in such a
position that he might either follow or disobey, as he
pleased, the instructions of those who undertook to guide
him, whether they were landlords or priests. They
had had, however, on the previous night, an explosion
from the honourable member for Enniskillen (Mr.
Whiteside) from which it appeared that there were some
influences exerted by priests which were not volun-
tarily submitted to. 111: e (Mr. Cobden) had heard
of a Roman Catholic who had voted against the wishes
of his priest, and his seat in the chapel had been
torn up in consequence. Now that was a species of in-
timidation calculated to make a man vote against his
conscience; and so if they had the ballot it might protect
a man, to some extent, even against the influence of the
priests. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, he said, let them try
the ballot. (Cheers.) The right hon. gentleman told
them that it would be no remedy against bribery. He
stated that bribery would be carried on wholesale—that
one of your Parliamentary agents would go down to a town
and say to a number of people, " If you can return So-and-
so I will give you so much to divide amongst you ; but
unless he is returned you have nothing." Now his (Mr.
Cobden's) answer to that was, in the first instance, that
they did not intend to have any of these little manageable
boroughs. (Cheers.) It might be perfectly true of such
places as Wilton or Shoreham, for instance. But he would
put it to the house, could any Parliamentary agent go down
to such towns as Birmingham or Manchester, where there
were constituencies of 5,000, or 10,000, or 15,000 electors,
and buy them up wholesale? (Cheers.) With so large a
number to be represented, 26,000,000 persons to be repre-
sented by 658 members, they would have under the new
Reform Bill—unless it was to be a mere sham and pretence
—none but large constituencies ; and he would appeal to
the house whether it was possible to buy constituencies of
some 8,000 voters each? (Cheers.) It had raver been done
under the open system, and it would certainly not be dune
under the ballot. (Loud cheers.) The right hon. gentleman
had touched upon the ballot at the clubs, but he had not
been very happy in explaining why they wero indulged in
that luxury while the people wero not to have it. (Hear.)
It was said that in clubs they dare not vote openly ; but
really if any improper person were proposed for the only
club in London to which he (Mr. Cobden) belonged, he
should not hesitate to vote against him to-morrow. (Hear,
hear.) It might be very inconvenient no doubt to vote
openly ; but were they to shield themselves against this
slight inconvenience when they would not allow the same
privilege to the masses? (Hear, hear.) Nor was the prac-
tice confined to the clubs. The East India Company voted
by ballot, and he did not find any provision in the new
bill to prevent them from continuing to do so. Twenty
years ago the magistrates for Devonshire adopted it in
elections fur their chairman, and those of East Sussex in
the election of a chief constable. The noble lord opposite
said that the ballot would destroy the national character.
Did that apply to these magistrates? (Hear, hear.) But
he found in a Breconshire newspaper an account of an
archery meeting, and in that too he found a ballot for
members. In fact, there was no country in the world in
which the ballot was so much used. The right hon. gen-
tleman seemed to think that the secret voting was intended
to be compulsory ; but when the bill passed a voter might,
if he pleased, cover his hat with the name of his favourite
candidate, or shout it at the top of his voice. All they
contemplated was such a provision as should enable every-
body to vote without anybody else knowing how he voted.
(Cheers.) Those who chose to be canvassers, or open and
above-board partisans, might do so ; but the number of
those who took an open, and prominent, and noisy part in
these public discussions and contests was a very small
fraction indeed. (Hear, hear.) The right hon. gentleman
said that the ballot was not popular in America. He
could state, from some little acquaintance with America,
that any politician there who proposed to abolish the ballot
in any state in which it prevailed, would be considered as
little better than a political madman. (Hear, hear.) It
was the cardinal article of their political faith ; and there
never had been an instance of a state which had adopted the
ballot having departed from it, but the tendency had been
constantly the other way. (Hear, hoar.) At the present
moment there were not more than one or two, and those
slave states— Virginia was one—whore the ballot was not
tolerated. (Cheers.) Much had been said about the cor-
ruption of the last election. That was patent to the world,
and they all admitted it. It was not merely bribery and
corruption in the ordinary sense of the word that they had
to deal with ; the great blot and disgrace of our electoral
system was the blackguardism and bullying that prevailed
at those contests. At Oldham it was stated by Mr. Fox's
chairman that his supporters would not have been able to
vote at all, had they not crept down by-roads to the poll ;
and some actually went to Manchester and returned by
another train that it might not be observed that they were
going to vote. At Blackburn there was not merely open
violence on the day of election, but for days and weeks
afterwards the blackguardism was kept up, people were
carried off, and all sorts of violence were committed. In
one case a gun was fired, and two shots were lodged in the
face of an individual. Was that an English, was it a desir-

that had occurred on
great
able state of things for this country ? Could we find it in
any other country ? He ventured to say that the scenes
witnessed at Blackburn only during the last election sur-
passed
eat-
-1 hope from the ballot was that it would change the character
o troinuagthrocouitttyh allo
A
of our elections—put an end to brass bands, flags, and ban-
ners—and abate the nuisance of drinking and open
houses. (Cheers.) With the vote by ballot people might
poll as quietly as they wont to church on Sundays, as was,
in fact, done both in America and England in almost all
cases of voting by ballot. (Hear, hear.) These evils being
acknowledged what other remedy was there but the ballot?
The right hon. gentleman should remember that he did
not speak in the name of a united Cabinet, at least one
of his colleagues was as hearty for the ballot as he (Mr.
Cobden) was. The Attorney-General, the Solicitor-Gene-
ral, and the Judge-Advocate were all prepared to vote for
it. (Hear, hear.) So were a majority of the ordinary
supporters of the Government ; and if the Opposition
benches had remained as thin as they were about nine
o'clock, the question would very soon have been settled.
(Cheers.) Hence the question became a very serious one
for the Government to consider. It was the question of
all others in which the electoral body took the deepest in-
terest. (Hear, hear.) Let the Government analyse their
own supporters, and they would find that almost every
representative of a large and powerful constituency voted
in favour of the ballot. (Cheers.) If the Government
were prepared and determined to resist the ballot, what
other remedy had they for these evils? Committees
were appointed, and commissioners sent forth into the
country, and inquiries made into that which eveg one
well understood ; but they wanted the remedy. Every-
thins- would be tried except the real remedy, as in the case
of the Dorn-law agitation. There was a remedy, which
had been recommended by the profoundest thinkers of
the age, for evils that were acknowledged to exist.
Would they give Bentham and Grote a trial? (Cheers.)
If not, why not? (Hear, hear.) The matter had been
discussed there more than twenty years ; on no ques-
tion had argument and reason been so triumphant.
At least the Government might try the experiment for the
sake of the country and for their own sakes. (Hear, hear.)
He would suggest this. The seats for a very large borough
were likely soon to be vacant by the decision of a commit-
tee of that house. (Hear, hear.) Why not propose that
the ballot should be tried in the election for that great
borough? He would not have it first tried in a small
pocket borough with 200 or 300 electors ; that would not
be a fair experiment. (Hear.) Were they afraid of the
mischief that could be done by venturing to have a solitary
election on the principle adopted in all their clubs, in the
India-house, and in social meetings—a system of voting
which was carried on successfully and with increased
favour in America, Belgium, Switzerland, and France ?
(Hear, hear.) Were Ministers resolved, in spite of the
world's experience, of classical authority, and of all the
recommendations of the system, not to give it a trial ?
Then what did they drive the country to? Must there be
a ballot league, as there had been an anti-corn-law league?
(Cheers.) He thought they had grown wiser. He had
been encouraged, by the success of the budget, especially
of its key-stone, the succession tax—(cheers)—to hope that
the time had come when questions like this would be
fairly decided by argument—that at any rate, the Legisla-
ture would consent to try an experiment, without compel-
ling the country to resort to associations and agitation.
(Hear, hear.) He would suggest another experiment.
Pass an act to make the ballot permissive. (Hear, hear.)
He had such faith in the principle that he would offer the
most handsome terms. Le them pass an act which should
enable any constituency that chose to adopt the (ballot, to
try the experiment ; and having come to that decision,
that they should, on notifying the same to the Home Se-
cretary, elect their members by ballot during that Parlia-
ment, retaining the power to return again to open voting if
they did not like the ballot. (Hear, hoar.) That met the
argument that the people did not want the ballot. Once
for all, as they were threatened with a Reform Bill, for a
Reform Bill without the Ballot was a threat—(hear, hear)
—he said most emphatically he would rather have no ex-
tension of the franchise, he would rather not run the risk
of spreading the virus of this corruption, and the horrors
of this intimidation among another stratum of society ;
he would rather they remained as they were than
subject another and a more dependent class of the
people to the same corrupting and debasing influences as
the present electoral body suffered from. (Hear, hear.)
He therefore entreated the Government, if they were not
prepared to grant a Reform Bill with the ballot, to postpone
it, and let the country have the ballot alone. (Cheers.)

Sir R. PEEL and the Lord-Advocate rose together, but
the latter gave way in deference to what appeared to be
the wish of the house. The hon. baronet said, that last
year he gave to a similar proposal to that now made by the
hon. member (Mr. H. Berkeley) his silent, but not less
earnestly-felt, adhesion. Since the time of Mr. Grote to
the present day able and powerful arguments had been
adduced in support of the present measure. He brought to
the same view of the subject the hearty advocacy of an
honest heart, and that was sure to meet with the sympa-
ties of some of those whom he addressed. He had advo-
cated the ballot, not from a hasty conclusion, nor was he
actuated either by a love of reform or a desire of upsetting
the institutions of the country, but from considerations of
what it appeared to him, with his limited experience of
judging, was calculated to promote the liberty and inde-
pendence of the people of this country. (Cheers.) It
seemed to him that the ballot was a means of promoting
purity of principle, and freedom of election. He believed,
in his own mind, that, as the greatest possible publicity
ought always to accompany the political action of a con-
stitutional Government, so, on the other hand, the greatest
possible secrecy ought always to accompany the sovereign
expression of public opinion in the exercise of the elective
franchise. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Therefore it was
that he thought this measure, which would tend to elevate
the public mind, and render it independent of political
animosity, and unbiassed by the heat of political passions,
ought to meet with the regard of that house. Out of doors
the balance of political, opinion already indisputably in-
clined to this free and honourable system ; and as the
balance of public opinion inclined that way, ho firmly
believed that, sooner or later, the sense of the majority of
that house must also equally incline to it. (Hear, hear.)
It was possible that the motion might not be adopted that
night, but its success was a mere matter of time • and it
must be a source of considerable gratification to him and
others Who had faith in their political convictions and
looked forward to the accomplishment of their political views
—it must, he said, be a source of considerable gratification to
them to remark on each succeeding occasion on which the
measure was submitted to the house, the rapidly diminish-
ing numbers of the majority by which it was resisted.
This was a cl-ar proof to him, and to everybody else who
had got any sense—(laughter)—of the progress which it was
making in the public mind. The hon. member for the
' West Riding had truly said that the representatives of the
great towns were all in favour of the ballot. Let hon.
members go to any of the large towns where was a great
concentration of population, like Birmingham, for instance
- -and see if that was not the fact. He would venture to
say that he only echoed the feelings of thousands out of
doors when he repeated that the public looked forward to
vote by ballot as a measure which would ultimately remove
the stumbling-block of political iniquity. He appealed to
the house if ever there was a more fitting opportunity than
the present, or one in which there was greater probability
of success, for submitting a measure like that of vote by
ballot to the House of Commons, after the gross scenes of
bribery and intimidation which had unhappily prevailed
at the last general election. He did not mean to apologise
for anybody in that home ; that he must say that it was
most unfair and ungenerous to endeavour to throw all the
blame of those proceedings on the friends and supporters
of the Derby Administration. The real fact was that both
parties were equally to blame. Taking the first 13 seats
which were declared vacant on account of bribery and cor-
ruption, he found that six of those were occupied by what
I were called Liberals, and seven by Derbyites—a tolerable
equal division he thought. Now, the ballot would strike
this evil at its root, and therefore it was that he was in-
' alined to give it his support. If they asked him for a proof
I of the evil which rendered the ballot necessary, he should not
take the case of poor working artisans in the dockyards, whom
the noble lord the member for London proposed to crush, but

he would take the cases of Hull and HaiwiCh and of Clitheroe
and Tavistock. He did not know who was proprietor of the
borough of Tavistock; but this he knew, that if the noble
lord the member for London disfranchised the dockyard
artisans and left unscathed the electors of Ta,vistock, he
would be guilty of conduct which ought certainly to meet
with the reprobation of that house. (Hear, hear.) But he
would go farther, and ask them to come with him to the
" Fountain," at Canterbury, and see what passed there.
He would go further, and remind them of the case of
Thomas Morris of the " Waggon and Horses," and of the
reasonable quantity of beer which he had orders to distri-
bute among the electors of Blackburn. Didn't these cases
call for political action? (Hear, hear.) Well, the ballot
would strike these evils at the root, and therefore he for
one would give his hearty and cordial assent to it.
But he was anxious from the position which he acci-
dentally held, that he should be perfectly understood in
regard to the support which he gave to the ballot. He did
not want to see it affect—and he did not believe that it
would affect—the legitimate influence of property. He
believed that there were many hon. gentlemen on that
(the Opposition) side of the house who were inclined to
oppose the ballot because they thought it would not only
interfere with, but absolutely annihilate, the legitimate
influence of property ; but he was persuaded that they were
quite mistaken on that point ; and he knew this, that if
they could prove to him that it would have that effect, he
should be as earnestly opposed to it as he was now vigorously
endeavouring to support it. (Hear, hear.) But he repeated
that he did not think that it would in any way affect the
legitimate influence of property. He regretted to say there
were certain hon. members in that house, and among
others the hon. members for the West Riding and Man-
chester, who frequently threw stones at the legitimate in-
fluence of property. (Mr. Cobden—No.) He could prove
it as regarded the hon. member for the West Riding, at all
events ; for be (Sir R. Peel) well remembered that when
the case of Bridgnorth was under discussion in that house
a few weeks ago, that hon. member mentioned the ease of
Mr. Whitmore, and said here was a case for the ballot. Now,
the influence of Mr. Whitmore, which the hon. member
had condemned, was evidently founded upon the affections
of those among whom he resided ; and, if Mr. Whitmore
ha:d not exercised that influence—an influence which was
the result of that sense of responsibility which his property
had entailed—he (Sir R. Peel) could only say he was but
little qualified for the situation he occupied. Therefore
it was that he wished to maintain the legitimate influence
of property ; and that he did not wish to throw a stone at
its influence. He knew that the ballot must pass, for he
considered it inevitable. Its supporters might be beaten
on the present occasion • but next year, or in three or four
years, it must pass. P(Hear, hear.) Of course, there
might, as there were, after all, great political changes, be
a great convulsion in the country afterwards, but that
convulsion would subside—eels; and quiet would succeed
—and the political influence of property once more assume
its proper tone. (Hear, hear.) The people of this country
were far too sharp and acute not to discern the wide differ-
ence which existed between the permanent advantages
they derived from the legitimate influence of property and
the questionable results which followed the noise and tur-
bulence of the mob. Hon. members, therefore, need not
at all fear that the ballot would destroy the legitimate in-
fluence of property. At the name time, he maintained
that secrecy of voting meant freedom of voting. In this
country they had had few opportunities of testing that
assertion, but ho begged to call the attention of the house
to a case which occurred in Spain only the other day, and
to another which had lately taken place in Tuscany, which
would show the value of the ballot in despotic countries.
And if it was of value there, it would surely be equally
valuable in a country like this. The Government of Bravo
murilk, was succeeded by that of General Roncali, who
soon showed that lie was anxious to continue the same
violent political course as his predecessor had done. He
dissolied the Cortes, and sent them back to the country.
So far all was easy. But then came the Senate. He
elected 45 senators at once, and what was the result?
There were four secretaries to be elected, who, by exercis-
ing coneide*ble authority in the Senate, held great politi-

cal influence, and having vote by ballot in the Senate, the
senators elected four individuals to those offices in oppo-
sition to the candidates proposed by the Government. It
was quite clear that if the Senate had not had the ballot
they would have been intimidated by the Government.
(Hear, hear.) The case which had occurred at Florence
was this : Prince Lichtenstein proposed, as a member of
some club or reunion, a member of the Windischgratz
family ; but as in Italy all Austrians were naturally enough
hated, the young member was blackballed. Prince Licht-
enstein was, of course, furious at this result. He called
out the military, occupied all the most important posts of
the city, and threatened to interfere with the public
amusements. He then called a meeting of the club, and
said, " Gentlemen, the ballot is all nonsense ; let us have
publicity of voting." The consequence was that, with the
sword hanging over the heads of the electors, the candidate
who was in the first instance blackballed was' unanimously
elected. (Laughter.) Now, these were
cases, and afforded striking proofs of theefficiencyciency of the
ballot. (Hear, hear.) He had heard the other night, with
the greatest possible surprise, the noble lord the member
for London say that her Majesty's Ministers were not going
to govern the country by checking the progress of demo-
cracy, but that they were going to make democracy Con-
servative. Now he confessed that to endeavour to make
democracy Conservative in a country where aristocratic
influence had had dominion for 160 years did appear to
him a monstrous proposition. (Laughter.) He remem-
bered some time ago having heard the ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer (Mr. Disraeli) toll the noble lord that he was a
subordinate of a subordinate. Now, he (Sir It. Peel)
begged to correct the right hon. gentleman. He assured
him that the noble lord was nothing whatever of the
kind. He had the distinguished authority of Lord Aber-
deen for stating—(laughter)—that he had no subordinates
at all. (Hear, hear.) Now, really, when the Prime
Minister of the country stated that he had no subordinates,
he must have a very moderate estimate of his political
position. (Hear, hear.) The noble lord had the other
night also attacked the religious sympathies and in-
sulted the loyalty of the Roman Catholics of Ireland ;
and then the house was told that these were only his own
private opinions. And yet the noble lord was the leader of
the House of Commons. (Hear.) When questioned in that
house on the subject, what did he do? He quoted a very
sensible opinion of Lord Melbourne's, which he evidently
meant to throw in the teeth of Lord Aberdeen—(laughter)
—that if the members of the Government were only agreed
about the course which they pursued, it was of no conse-
quence whether they were all agreed with regard to the
grounds by whichthey arrived at that course. One would
think, from this, that the noble lord and the members of the
Government were all of the same opinion with regard to
public questions. He begged the house just to look at the
opinions of the Cabinet upon this very question of the
ballot. There was the right hon. gentleman the member
for SouthWark (Sir W. Molesworth)—the glorious Radical
of Southwark —(lrtughter) —who looked at the ballot as the
anchor of the salvation of this country ; and he (Sir It. Peel)
thought he was perfectly right. Then there was the right
hon. gentleman the member for Carlisle (Sir J. Graham),
who was then sitting with great complacency under the
gentle breezes which fanned the Admiralty flag. (Renewed
laughter.) That right hon. gentleman looked upon the
ballot as the Cape Horn of polities—as the Ultinuz Thule
of political navigation. (Continued laughter.) With re-
gard to those few hon. gentlemen whom the country re-
gretted to see so much separated from their legitimate con-
nexions—now that there was no longer any necessity for
their separation—he did not know how they were to vote.
But there was one bon. gentleman upon whose vote he could
with certainty rely, and that was the hon. and gallant cap-
tain, the eccentric member for Middlesex—(loud laughter)
—the hon. and gallant captain, the eccentric member for
Middlesex, would, he believed, with the most unrestricted
confidence, vote with him in favour of the ballot, and, as the
minds of the public were at present running upon the hos-
tile attitude assumed by Russia towards Turkey, he might
perhaps, in the lobby, be able to establish an " entente
cordiale" with the hon. and gallant gentleman on that in-
teresting and important subject. He felt it incumbent
upon him, although occuping a humble position in the
house, to ask the house to consider the present inefficiency
of the system of electoral legislation, and to note the evils
which had for the last 20 years been making such rapid
strides, and which, in his opinion, the ballot could only
curtail. The house would probably recollect that in the
Parliament of 1844 there were eight cases of conviction for
bribery and treating; in the Parliament of 1847 there were
14 similar eases; but, after the last general election, out of
the 16 seats which were attacked by petition, three only
had not been lost, and 13 hon. gentlemen were almost at
once found, by their agents, guilty of bribery. There had
been, since, a great many cases in which the sitting mem-
bers had also been disqualified on account of bribery by
their agents, but he did not know their exact number ;
but, whatever it might be, it was evident that the evil was
on the increase. There was the borough of Aylesbury,
which had on two occasions been convicted of bribery, but
he could not say whether or not the purity of the borough
had been improved since her Majesty's Solicitor-General
had been connected with it. (Laughter.) Let the house
consider the case of the Wigton Burghs. At the late gene-
ral election Sir J. M`Taggart polled 140 votes, and Mr.
Caird polled 139. Mr. Caird petitioned, but was unable
to withstand the Earl of Stair and 11 lawyers staring at
him. (Loud laughter.) In addition to that he was unable
to bear the expenses of a scrutiny, and it seemed to him a
great proof of the inefficiency of the electoral legislation that
the expense of a scrutiny should be permitted to deprive an
hon. gentleman of a seat who might—he would not say that
he was—have been fairly entitled to it. Blackburn and Chat-
ham had both been found guilty of bribery, but since the
act called "Sir Robert Peel's Act," for regulating the consti-
tution of election committees, only St. Albans and Sudbury
had been disfranchised. There was now a chance of urging
upon Parliament the adoption of the ballot, and he would
ask all those hon. members who were dissatisfied with the
present system to rally round that popular standard ; and,
if any hon. members were waverhing or halting between
the two opinions, he would venture to ask them to con-
cider the inefficiency of the present electoral system, both
as regarded the corrupt practices and the intimidation
prevalent at elections, and as regarded the expenses of
prosecuting a petition before a committee ; but, above all,
to consider the demoralisation which resulted from that
corruption and intimidation, and, weighing well these
considerations, to figure to themselves what would be the
best course to adopt for the purpose of improving the
public mind. (Hear, hoar.) He would ask the house to
weigh well these considerations, and he felt convinced
that many hon. members would be inclined to sanction
the measure, as one which, while it acted as a check upon
corruption and intimidation, would not attack the legiti-
mate influence bestowed by the possession of property.
It was a measure, he believed, which, from encouraging
independence of conscience and freedom of opinion, must
tend to promote the interests of all classes of the commu-
nity. But, whether the measure should be successful, or
whether it should be thrown out, the time had passed for
meeting a proposal for the introduction of the ballot with
sneers and illiterate taunts, for the matter had created in-
quiry, and the more its principles had been clearly and
fairly put forward, the more favourable had been the
opinion formed of the views which it advocated. He
would therefore ask Parliament to endeavour, by investi-
gation and. inquiry into the present system of electoral
legislation, and into the methods for correction of its
abuses, to recognise the adoption of the ballot as the
safest guarantee for final and complete success. (Cheers.)

The LORD ADVOCATE would limit himself but to a
very few observations. He was opposed to the ballot, not
because of its democratic-tendency, his fears were alto-
gether in the other direction. (Oh, oh, and. cries of Hear,
hear.) He believed that there was that involved in the
ballot which was altogether antagonistic to the principle
of freedom of Government. (Loud cries of hear, hear.)
and he was quite sure it was more from caprice and
accident that the question of the ballot had become
identified with the creed of some of those who pro-
fessed liberal opinions in this country. (Hear, hear.) Ono
principle above all others ought to be made the policy of
our Government—that the influence of public and popular
opinion was the best or rather the only security for the
honest exercise of public duty. And on the contrary, he
felt convinced that the more they probed this question of
secret voting to the bottom, more and more it would be
found that it was not altogether so uncongenial to the
spirit of such Governments as those of Spain and Tuscany
as some gentlemen seemed to imagine. (Hear.) If it was
meant that the voter only heldhis vote for his own interest
and advantage, he (the Lord Advocate) had no argument
against the ballot., but if he had then no argument against
the ballot he could have no argument against bribery and
corruption. (Hear, hear.) But, on the other hand, if a
man held the franchise for the public good, if he bad a
duty to perform towards his country and its institutions,
he could not do so under the ballot. The error of hon.
gentlemen who supported it was here—they had an evil to
remedy, and they never looked into the intrinsic merits of
the remedy they proposed. (Hear.) The ballot would not
prevent bribery—it could not prevent intimidation—and
if it did not do so, it would tend to increase it and the
other evils attendant upon our system. Let them intrc-
duce the ballot, and they would unloose those tics by
means of which the general healthfulness of our consitution
had been preserved, and which had made this house the
best exemplification of the representative system that the
world had ever seen. (Loud cries of " hear, hear.") Much
had been said about the use of the ballot in America, but
the hon. member for the West Riding knew very well that
practically there( was no such thing as secret voting in
that country. He believed that the ballot was a wea-
pon taken from the armoury of arbitrary power.
Freedom and. publicity of action were the life-blood of our
constitution. They circulated from the lowest to the
highest, and once their course was obstructed there might
remain the empty skeleton of the constitution, but it was
beyond all power to resuscitate the spirit of a nation once
it was departed. (Hear, hear.) Let them deal with the
question as they might • but this should. be remembered,
they never could succeed. in making an honest man of a
knave ; let not matters be so arranged, then, as to make it
impossible to distinguish between them. (Hear.)
Mr. BRIGHT viewed with satisfaction the increased
earnestness which had been evinced by the members of the
Treasury bench with respect to this motion, because he
gathered from it that they intended either to concede the
question, or to buckle on their armour and contend against
it. Ho admitted, as the measure was now proposed by the
hon. member for Bristol, that the responsibility laid upon
the supporters of the ballot of showing that there was a
case, and that the remedy which they proposed was appli-
cable to it. The general arguments by which they were
met might be comprised under three heads—either the
evil complained of was not so great as they charged it to
to be, or the ballot would not cure it, or, if it did, the
cure would be as bad as the disease. (Hear.) Ho had gone
with some care into the figures to which the hon. baronet
the member for Tamworth had referred, and he found that
during the present session there had been 16 members of
the house unseated for bribery alone, 4 for treating alone,
7 for bribery and treating combined, 1 for an illegal en-
gagement to pay money, and 2 for intimidation and riot—
making altogether 30 members who had been unseated for
occurrences which they believed the application of the
ballot would very much tend to remove, if it did not re-
move them altogether. At every general election since the
Reform Bill there had been an immense number of peti-
tions presented against tho returns. In 1833 there were
33 petitions ; in 1835, 30 ; in 1838, 60; in 1841, 43 ; in
1847, 40; and in 1853, 76. Where there had been
more than one petition for a borough he had reckoned
them only as one. In all, there had been 315 peti-
tions during those six general elections, or an average of
not loss than 47. It needed, he was sure, no argument
to show that the house stood in a position of con-
siderable humiliation before the public and the world
on account of those proceedings, and it was difficult to say
whether the members of the constituencies had most lost
character. (Hear.)
There were boroughs completely'un-
der the control of a patron, like that of Stamford, and
others with a large number of electors under the control
of the Government, like that of Chatham. There were
large cities even, such as Westminster, in which a great
number of electors constantly and. notoriously abstained
from going to the poll on account of the extreme preSsure
which was put upon them by persons to wilora they were
i under some obligation. (Hear.) Ireland was, perhaps,