The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-20 00:00:00

THE BALLOT.

Mr. BERKELEY rose, on the op p asition benches,
and amid much laughter, to move fo r leave to bring
in a bill to cause the votes of the e' lectors of Great
Rritain and Ireland to be taken by • way of ballot.
The hon. member said that he had frequ r atly brought be-
fore the house the same motion, and in rain ; and he be•
lieved that on the present occasion the r emit would be the
same. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) H e had endeavoured
to discharge his duty previously in rega rd to this question,
but he never rose to address the ho use in regard to it
when he believed the discussion if the ballot was
more essential, in consequence d the bill brought
forward by the noble lord the Foreign Secretary. Having
alluded to recent elections to show the increase of bribery
and consequent corruption amongst th le electors, he con-
tended that the arguments in fav, air of the ballot
had never been refuted. Lon I John Russell,
Sir James Graham, Mr. Walpole,
.Sir 'George Grey, Mr.
Sotheron Estcourt, and other disti nl ;wished and able
debaters had argued against the adopti on of the ballot. He
had gone through " Hansard's Debt de s," and read the
speeches of those statesmen, and he (Ike.] ,ared, on his con-
science—(hear, hear, and laughter) —that they did
not contain a single solid argument :against the ballot.
He arose from the perusal of these ape ee hes with the pain-
ful conviction that they were disinge mous, and that they
did not really embody their sincere op inions on the subject.
He regarded them in the same light as he did that able
lawyer Sir F. Kelly, who, when defen 'ding a client accused
of poisoning a woman by prussic acid 1,, contended that the
woman was poisoned in consequen c e of the number of
apples she had eaten, which genies ratedrated the poison in
question. In all the arguments on Ch e part of his oppo-
nents, special pleading was apparent; and it should be
borne in mind that these opponents: were remarkable for
their ability as debaters, and dexterii y in availing them-
selves of any mistake or weakness of argument on the part
of hon. members, so that when they ha d failed to make out
s case against the ballot, it might b. justly inferred no
such case could be established. He had frequently an-
swered the objections urged against theloallot, and there was
no novelty in the nature of the objection s advanced. What
was the most common exception ? V flay, that the ballot
was un-English. But was it not a fact that, with the ex-
ception of Parliamentary and municipal elections, the ballot
was the mode resorted to in selecting persons to fill
popular offices. He complained al!so that he had
been subjected to gross misrepresentation, and de-
nied that he wished to introduce the American system
of voting at Parliamentary elections.. The only form of
voting byballot which he tnought applicable to England was
that which prevailed in Australia. He maintained that the
want of the ballot in this country not only led to corruption
of electors, but
ey prevented
w ewere
thousandst9nantenants
offr owmealrtehgiystering landlords
or
voting, because if
they could not act in opposition to the wishes of these
landlords, and if they were small tradesmen ruin would re-
sult from their to exercise of the franchise.
(Hear, hear, and No, no.) The hon. member cited the au-
thority of the late Lord Macaulay, to show the evils of
nomination boroughs and the benefits that would accrue from
the adoption of the ballot. He next referred to the opera-
tion of the ballot iu Australia, where it was stated that
it
had effected a most beneficial and bloodless revolution.
(Hear, heart) The bon, member then proceeded to ridicule

the argu.ments used to establish the proposition that, though
the ballot might have been successful in Australia, it was
unsuited to this country.

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

LONDON GAZETTE-(THIS EVENINet.)

DOWNING-STREET, MARCH 19.

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Edward Shep-
herd Creasy, Esq., to be Chief Justice of the Island of Cey-
lon.

Her Majesty has also been pleased to appoint Thomas C.
Harvey, Esq. (Surveyor-General and Civil Engineer), to
be a Member of the 'Executive Council of the Bahama
Islands.

WAR-OFFICE, PALL-MALL, MARCIE 20.
Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to accept the re-
signation of the Commission held by Captain Edward
Kitchen in the Artillery Company of London.
COMMISSIONS SIGNED BY THE QUEEN.
Ist Somerset Regiment of Militia—Richard Winsloe, Gent.,
to be Quartermaster, from the Ist of October, 1859, a new
appointment, made under a recent regulation.
2d Somerset Regiment of Militia—Michael Brown, Gent.,
to be Quartermaster, from the 29th day of October, 1859,
a new appointment made under a recent regulation.