The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-26 00:00:00

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With respect to the mode of voting, the great ques-
tion was—whether it should be by ballot or by
open voting.—(Cries of " Ballot, ballot.")—A Re-
solution respecting the ballot would be submitted to
them, but he would not conceal from them that in
his opinion the advocates of the ballot attributed
greater effect to it than it was capable of accom-
plishing. In the first place, it was absolutely ne-
cessary to make a distinction between the people
voting by ballot and Members of Parliament voting
by ballot; for if the latter were to employ it, it
would prove a great evil to the country, as was
proved in the case of the French Chambers, where,
when an open display was made in favour of the
Ministers, only seven sheaved themselves, but when
it came to the ballot there were no less than forty-
nine ; the great evil, therefore, would be, that it
would dissolve the responsibility which the repre-
sentative owed to his constituents. But with re-
spect to the people having the ballot, he was the
uncompromising advocate of it, for it would be of
advantage to them in two ways—it would protect
them from what had taken place in the Duke of
Newcastle's boroughs, of which they had heard so
much, and it would protect them from the power
of what might be called the Mobocracy as well as
the Aristocracy—a very necessary protection, when
they found that there was danger of such men as Sir
H. Parnell and Sir J. Newport being unseated in
Ireland, because they differed on the question of
the Union from Mr. O'Connell, and when they
also found Mr. O'Connell boasting that he could re-
turn seven County Members. Now he meant to say
that if a man was us virtuous, as disinterested, and
as perfect in principle (as he might, perhaps, have a
suspicion that Mr. O'Connell was just the contrary
ofall this), such a power as that boasted of was one
which ought to fall to the share of no individual
whatever.—(Hear, hear.) In a letter written by a
gentleman from Preston, it was observed, "The brave
fellows of Preston have done without •the bal-
lot; but the rich shopkeepers say that they must
have the ballot to protect them ;" and this also
was of a piece to show that the ballot at elections
would he of service to all classes of society. The
third point to which he had alluded was the ar-
rangements to be made for receiving the votes, and
for conducting the elections; and this was of an
importance only second to that of the ballot itself.
Two very recent instances might be of service to
show how very inefficient and bad the present sys-
tem was. Let them look at what took place at the
late election for a Coroner for Middlesex: the peo-
ple were induced to waste their time day after day
at Clerkenwell Green, and the greatest difficulties
prevailed in giving votes; he himself had to wait an
hour and a half before he could deliver his ; in ad-
dition to this, there was a great outlay of cash for
hackney coaches to-bring up the voters, and in other
ways ; he would also refer them to the City election
which was going on at that very time ; and who
was there, after taking a survey of that, that should
ray that it was a judicious way of carrying on an
election ? It might, perhaps, last for seven or eight
days,and the greatest tumult would prevail during the
whole of that time; besides which, not only the candi-
dates themselves, but half a dozen friends on either
side were stuck on the hustings to shout, " Thank
ye for Alderman Shaw !" " Thank ye for Alder-
man Waithman," and, of course, to take particular
note which way each man voted.—(Laughter and
cheers.) The Mode that he would submit would
be, that all elections should commence and termi-
nate on the same day. Take London, for instance,
in which there were wards ; he veould have the
inhabitants of each ward vote in their own district,
by which means it might aii be accomplished in one
day ; he would let no out-voters be brought to the
poll ; and he would have the whole take place by
ballot.—(Cheers.) He happened to be in Phila-
delphia, the population of which was larger than
that of Liverpool, at the period of an election for
a governor of that particular state : but though the
excitement was very great, arid was kept up by the
newspapers in the usual way, there were not above
half a dozen voters collected at any one time in any
one place ; and from what did this arise ? why, that
the vote was taken by ballot, and there was univer-
sal suffrage in the city.—(Loud cheers.) He con-
cluded by moving the first resolution.
Mr. RICHARD TAYLOR seconded the motion. He
was glad that at almost all the groat meetings that
had taken place on this subject the ballot had been
made a principal feature. It was said, indeed, that
the ballot would lower morality ; but he was per-
suaded it would have the contrary effect.
The resolution was then put and carried unani-
mously, as were all the others.
1)r. BOWRING—He had a resolution to propose to
them on the principle of the ballot. That principle
contained in it the principle of the general emanci-
pation of the mind; and if he were asked whether
he would take universal suffrage without the ballot,
or a much less diffused system of suffrage with the
ballot, he would certainly choose the latter. Thus
much he could tell them—that the effect of the late
debauchery that had taken place at Liverpool, under
the name of an election, had been, that seven had
-become inmates of lunatic asylums, and three had
died from sheer drunkenness, in consequence of the