The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-10 00:00:00

2i111;

iaONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1849.

On Thursday, the 24th of May, the all-important
question of the Ballot will be again submitted to
the consideration of the Commons by the Hon. Gen -
tleman the representative of the city of Bristol. As
the day is fast approaching, we would bring the
matter conspicuously to the recollection of all the
honest Radical Reformers in the House, and would
most earnestly commend them to be in readiness for
the occasion. The eminent necessity of their attend-
ance during that sitting cannot by any possibility be
exaggerated. Unless they recognise this fact they
have altogether failed to appreciate the value and
efficacy of the Ballot. It is out of the question to
suppose that any sincere promoter of the cause of our
national advancement can perceive the real advan-
tages flowing from the Ballot, and yet be in the
smallest particular guilty of remissness in its ad-
vocacy.

Is it imagined that the endeavour to push the
Ballot through Parliament must inevitably prove
futile because of the strength of the opposition so
long raised against it by the aristocratic influences in
the Legislature ? Is it maintained that all exertion
is useless because of the fewness of those who are
seriously solicitous to substitute the urn for the
polling-booths ? Away with such preposterous
pusillanimity while we have on record the achieve-
ments of a handful of gallant Reformers in defiance of
an apparently overwhelming host of adversaries !
Remember how CHARLES VILLIERS was derided on
the commencement of his labours for the abolition of
the Corn-laws ! Remember how DANIEL O'CON-
NELL was laughed to scorn at the period of the
Clare election ! And yet Protection was, after
all, abolished ! and the Catholics were ultimately
emancipated ! If the motion for the adoption of the
system of secret voting has been again and again re-
jected, the motion for the removal of the import du-
ties on foreign corn and provisions was, time after
time, negatived by appalling majorities. And yet
the taxes levied upon our importations of grain have
been dissipated into thin air, and the policy recom-
mended by ADAM SMITH has been constitutionally
rendered the policy of the Government. Even the
navigation-laws are yielding to the force of reiterated
assaults, and the impassive Lords remain deaf to the
impassioned adjurations of STANLEY. Nothiug can
resist the rational demands of the people
so long as those demands are made
rationally through the medium of the representa-
tives. This should of itself be sufficient to impress
the minds of our Legislators with a sense of their
awful responsibilities. It should be enough to con-
vince them that they have been elected by their
respective constituencies for some nobler end than
that of dawdling over Committees, or sauntering down
to an entertaining discussion, or devouring devilled
bones at BELLAMY'S, or getting themselves dubbed
M.P. just as any coxcomb of letters was wont to
purchase degrees in the once venal universities in the
north of Scotland. Of all the exertions in behalf
of reform there is not one so honourable, both
to the representatives and to the represented, as
that made in behalf of the Ballot. And
why ? Simply because it is intended and calculated
to place both the one and the other in a higher and
more unimpeachable position. It is said, until the
very repetition of the objection has become nauseous,
that the system ol' the Ballot is un-English, that its
enforcement would inevitably lower the moral stature
of those possessed of the elective franchise. To this
we would at once briefly and bluntly respond, that
the electors of England are the best conservators of
their own dignity—that all they ask is the privilege
of employing themselves what is employed every day
by their representatives in their clubs and
other gentlemac nly establishments. We would
inquire, inoreov er, in return, which of the
two proceedings is the more " honourable?" To
declare for this candidate or that candidate, according
to the bent of yo ur political sympathies, by writing
his name on a slip of paper, and dropping that slip of
paper into the urn of election ?—or to gratify a
personal grudgf, by stabbing the reputation of an
acquaintance in the dark, as is done any time a new
candidate is IA a.ck-balled in the fashionable club-
houses of the W est end? And yet the former is all