The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS•

The United States papers, which we received
last night bringing accounts frbm New York to
the 25th alt., from Washington to the 2211, from
Virginia to the 22d, and from South Carolina
to the 16th, continue to increase in interest, as
the season approaches in which the Carolinians
must yield on the question of the tariff, or the
general Government must employ the federal
troops to compel obedience to its decrees.
Meanwhile the precipitate conduct of the refrac-
tory state seems to be blamed by the great body
of the Union, and hut feebly excused by such
of its members as have to complain of the same
grievances, and are disposed to assert the same
riets. The Legialature of Virginia have taken
into consideration the various documents which
relate to the peace' of the confederacy, and the
dispute between the genera' Government and
the state of South Carolina,—namely, the
President's recent proclamation, and the acts
of the Carolinian Convention. On these a
committee has drawn up a report, embodying re-
solutiona in which the tariff is condemned,—
sonata cif the principles of the President's procla-
mation protested against,-4he relation between
individual states and the general Union explained
—and the cause of South Carolina declared
good, though the war is deprecated, and the
precipitant-at of the South Carolinians censured.
At New York (a state with opposite interests,
and actuated with different sentiments on the
tariff question), the people have assumed a
more decided and more warlike tone. At a
great meeting held in the capital of that section
of the Confederacy, it was agreed to address the
President of the United Sates, to express an
entire concurrence in the principles of his pro-
clamation, and consequently in his resolution to
employ force to compel submission, should South
Carolina persist in her present rebellion. The
same sentiments have been expressed by the
North-eastern and New England members in the
Congress at Washington—and there can be no
doubt that the majority of the Legislature,
whose alleged injustice has driven South Caro-
lina to defy the general Government, will grant
their ready and zealous consent to measures of
invasion and coercion. It would probably have
manifested more discretion, and would• have
tended more to promote conciliation, had Mr.
Adams and the other members from the New
England States been silent on the question of
war, till their votes or their declarations had beet
required by a warlike crisis. They are supposed
to be interested parties. It was to protect their
manufactures and to encourage their industry
that the obnoxious tariff was imposed, and their
interference therefore may be regarded by South
Carolina as an evidence that no justice can be
obtained from a Government which they incite
to action. That preparations are making by the
President for following up his proclamation by
arms. there can be no question. A sufficient mi-
litary force, happily for the long-continued peace
in the United States, and the absence of any ex•
ternal cause of annoyance or alarm, it may be dif-
ficult immediately to collect. The whole regular
army of the Union does not exceed. 5,000 men ;
and the southern states which border on South
Carolina may be averse to send their militia on
such a service. We hear of 19 companies on
the frontier of Carolina,L.--a force totally in-
adequate for any formidable military demon-
stration. The time, however, draws near in
which decisive measures must be taken, as the
Carolinians have declared their intention to re-
fuse custom-house duties after the Ist of Fe-
bruary. Neither the feeling of hostility ex
pressed in the northern states—nor the equivo-
cal diaaeprobation of the southern—nor tla
proclamati: n of the President —nor the pre
parations for invasion, seem to have produced
any change in the resolution of the Carolinians,
if we may judge from the inaugural address o'
their new Governor, General Hayne, to the Le-
gislature of that state. He declares that his
fellow-citizens will resist the tariff to the last,
and that if an attempt he made to enforce it
by arms, they will regard the compact with the
other states as destroyed, and declare their in-
lependence. He d- ells with much energy 01
the injustice and unconstitutional violence which
it involves, and he commanded the enthusiastic
applause of the Assembly by throwing down the
gauntlet of defiance to the general Government.
Who could believe that the following senti-
ments were uttered by the masters of slaves ?
" South Carolina cannot be drawn from the proud
eminence which she occupies, but by her own
hands ** *. Some of us may not survive the
present contest, but if we are true to our duty,
our example will he a rich legacy to those who
succeed us, which in itself is a remuneration for
a life of generous devotion to the public good.
It will be sufficient glory for us, when we shal
have left the busy scenes of this earth, to have
inscribed on our tombs,—' Here lies the man
who sacrificed his life in a magnanimous effort
to renovate and redeem the constitution, and to
restore the liberties of his coma ry." The whole
of this address displays a similar determination
of purpose, and a similar unconsciousness that
more than the half of the population are bonds-
men in the most cruel and degraded state ot.op-
presSion. The President has prudently ordered
the proposed modifications of the tariff to he
taken into consideration immediately, and ,to
proceed simultaneously with preparations for
war. The reductions of which it is su-ceptible
may satisfy the Carolinians, and thus di'charge
harmlessly into the earth, from the gathering
cloud, the thunderbolt which threatened with a
fatal shock the greatest republican confede-
racy which ever existed in ancient or modern
times.— Times.

We observe that the country Papers, with
hardly an exception, are warm advocates of the
ballot. In the Caledonian Mercury of Monday
last, there is in particular a long and able article,
combating the writer in the k dinburgh Review,
and expoing the inconsistency of his arguments
in a very masterly manner. The ballot, as the
Caledonian Mercury observes, $.4 cannot be at
once both secret and open ; and it is rather too
much to conclude, from an incompatible hypo-
thesis, that the evils of both methods, and the
good of neither would flow from the adoption."
But as we have more than once observed, the
real grounds of dislike to ballot are not hrougnt
forward in the article in the Edinburgh Review.
We alluded yesterday to an article in an Even
ing Contemporary (the Globe), in which it is
maintained that all that the writer in the Edin-
burgh Review has assumed to be an evil, is a
positive good, and that it is proper that the rich
should possess the power, of compelling those
dependent on 010 to vote against their con-
sciences. But lest we shoUld be accused of doing
inju,tice to our contemporary, who certainly has
taken the bull by the horns, we shall here insert
his argument at length :
" It wag never proposed, by those who introduced and
advocated the plan of Reform which has been adopted, ,o
dptioy alto6e,htr the ialutate of the more okultnt

best instructed classes of society, -and to give the whole
DOWer of the State to those who happen to form the nu-
merical majority of the electoral bodies. If they had done
so, their scheme would have been (and this all honest
and plain-speaking advocates of the ballot will allow)
altogether inconsistent with the existence of our mixed
Constitution, and would have been the introduction of
a democracy wry clumsily constituted. If it were once
taken for granted that the present voters should exer-
cise their franchise free from the influence which is exer-
cised over them by the opinion of their neighbours and
friends, what possible reason could there he for con-
tinuing the right of returning a Member to Parliament to
the voters in the insignificant towns containing from two
to four thousand inhabitants, which now possess it. To
continue to the voters of these places, and of many
(-c ireely larger ones) which return two Metnbers etch,
the right of sending Members to Parliament, and to shroud
the voters from public opinion by the ballot, would snake
the Reformed P.rliament appear, instead of a practical
g”od, one of the rankest of absurdities. The ballot would
be in itself a great ch Inge, hut it would make a necessity
for still welter changes—and this we believe to be its re-
comm ndation to some of its friends.
" The ballot must he considered in connexion with the
whole form of our mixed constitution—a constitution of
King, Lords, and Commons—under whicr (though some
ble men have proved it cannot exist, and, of course,
never has existed), this country enjoyed during mint
generations an unusual share of internal peace, happiness.
and as-cu' ity. Such a constitution cannot exist except by
the influence which the several orders in the State exercise
over one another—an influence. it must be observed, which
is reciprocally exercised. Who doubts that the Peers,
itaiividually as well as collectively, are influ need by the
expression of the opinions and feelings s.f their neiglibeurs
and of the people at large ? Who doubts that it would he
a just subject of complaint if they shrouded their vote-
and proceedings in secrecy. and that the chances of har-
mony in the State would be very much diminished if all
that was known of their proceedings and individual opi-
nions should he the adoption or rejection of a measure sent
up from the Comm, ns?

" The influence so exercised on both sides may be, and
generally is, very distinct from gross intimidation. Now
anti then a violent Radical throws a stone at a Lord Lon-
donderry, and is deservedly s-nt to the House of Correc-
tion. Now and then a violent Peer indulg-s in a threat
azainst a Radical tenant, and is deservedly mulcted in the
loss of his whole political influence in the State. If a
man of principle and intellig nee in any station in life vote
according to his opinions, however opposite they may bt.
to his immediate sup, rifles, the chances are infinitely small
that be will be injured by reason of his conduct, and the
chances are still decre-ising every day. The cases where
influenee is most commonly exercised is where teen,
struggling to supply their daily wants, and having
nit opinions, or no strong opinions on politics, follow in
tirdinary times the opinions or supposed opinions of those
who are somewhat superior to them in station, and from
whom they receive or expect to receive benefits. The in-
ffience so exercised is not felt to be immoral by those who
lmost unconsciously exercise it, nor is it felt to be galline
by those over whom it is exercised. It is shaken off
whenever the feelings of the nation are excited on any
great question which becomes palpable to the understand.
lugs of the voters, and in ordinary times it is quite as
well that men who may be so easily led should be some-
what biassed in favour of the established Constitution
(which may be expected to have a greater number of ad-
herents among the rich than the poor), as that they should
vent any momentary and ill-considered animosity in the
oalloting-box.
" The first question which a man who considers the
propriety of introducing now the vote by ballot should ask
himself, is, whether lie wishes to preserve the present form
of our Constitution or to introduce a Republic? It he adhere
to the Constitution, he may further consider whether the
aegree of influence now exercise,: by the Peers, or rather by
ill persons of property and intelligence, over the poorer and
more numerous bodies of voters, is too great, consistenly
with the preservation of the Constitution, and even pro-
p rty itself, from invasion ; or, if that question be doubt-
tul, whether that degree of it.ff tence is so great as to pre
vent the formation of an efficient House of Comm ns
Let them look at the last elections."

We yesterday observed, in reference to the
)bove article, that no reflecting person would
vish to destroy the influence of the more opulent
Ind best-instructed classes of society over others ;
and that it was confessedly one of the great
idvantages of Reform, that it would strengthen
he inducements of the richer and more instruct-
.,(l classes of the community to act in such a
1-ay as should obtain for them influence
tver their more humble neighbours. The rich
.an alone aff ,rd to dedicate themselves to public
ifFairs ; and the rich must, of necessity, be cho-
sen to watch over the interests of the commit-
ity. We believe there is hardly an instance of
man in affluent circumstances, acting in such
a way as to merit the good opinion of his neigh-
bours, who does not succeed in gaining their
good opinion. It was well observed by an able
:vriter on the ballot, in the Westminster Review,
;hat when the rich were dependent on the
opinion of their inferiors, they would be fur-
nish«l with a strong motive for enabling them
to form an enlightened opinion. If, however,
,he power is left to landlords to intimidate
voters. and to compel them to do violence to their
',pinions, this is weakening the motive of the
rich man to endeavour to enlighten his poorer
neighbour, and to possess a legitimate influence
over him. We seldom, as Adam Smith ob-
-erves, have recourse to persuasion, so long as
Ne have compulsion in our power. The influ-
ence of the rich over their humbler neighbours
would be increased, instead of diminished
by the ballot ; because, the power of compulsion
being withdrawn, they would be obliged to
exert themselves to deserve popularity. The
influence of esteem would take the place of the
influence of fear. The landlord and magitrate,
who stood high in the esteem of their neigh-
bourhoods,. would not, surely, cease to possess
that esteem at the period of a general election.
If the ballot, therefore, would add to the in-
fluence of the rich, by furnishing them with the
most powerful of all motives for deserving it, all
the argument of our contemporary as to the
necessity of the exercise of influence falls to the
ground. During the late election we have seen
that intimidation has everywhere been had re-
course to, and in some districts to a degree
which has engendered the worst feelings between
landlords and tenants. The writer in the Ldin-
'burgh Review admits the evil to the fullest
extent, though our contemporary makes light
of the matter by observing, with a sneer, that
" now and then a violent Peer indulges in a
threat against a Radical tenant, and is deservedly
mulcted in the loss of his whole political influence
in the State." " Have not (says the writer in the
Caledonian Mercury) voters without number
been induced or compelled to act contrary to
their- own convictions, and to give their suffrages
against their conscience to men whose characters
they despised, and whose principles they de-
tested ? Wherever there was dependence, and.
want of protection, there free will
consequently,
was totally abrogated, and the elector transformed
into a mere tool in the hands of his patron of
his landlord." It is the feeling generated by
acts of oppression of this nature that has made
the demand for the k allot almost universal
throughout the country. We shall now proceed
to notice the arguments of our contemporary
somewhat more in detail :

Ist. "It was not intended that voters shout] exercise their
srancnise free from the influence exercised over them by the
()pinion of their neigl.bours and friends; otherwise, what
pos,ihle reason could there be for continuing the right at
ri.turning a Member to Parliament to the voters in the
insignificant towns containing trom two to four thousand
persons, which now possess it ?"
We have already said that the ballot would
not destroy, but add to the only influence which
ought to be possessed. But the right of voting
continued to these towns was not deemed a le-
vitiate consequence from the principles of the
Reform Bill, but was adopted as an inevitable