The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-07 00:00:00

THE REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.

/The report of the Committee on Registration has been
laid on the table of the House of Commons. The legisla-
tion of 1867 rendered a thorough reform of the registra-
tion system necessary, and the report has dealt with the
intricate subject in a clear and comprehensive manner.
The committee consider it important that the original list
of voters should be as complete as possible, and it is pro-
posed that a registrar should be substituted for the over-
seers in the duty of preparing the list. This will be
in accordance with the Scotch system of the " valuation
assessor," the results of which have been most satisfactory.
The registrar is to be assisted in the preparation of his
lists by the rate collectors and the letter carriers, it having
been ascertained that these latter can render important
services. The committee propose to throw back the date
of the qualification for voters to the 31st of May, and the
last day for the payment of rates for the purpose of
registration would be the 25th of June. All claims
and objections are to be sent in to the registrar
within a month after the publication of the
first list of voters, and it is proposed to change
the present system with respect to objections. It is sug
gested that every notice of objection should state speci-
fically the ground upon which the vote is objected to, in
order to avoicj the loss of time and other inconveniences
that are now experienced. As soon after the 31st of July
as possible the registrar is to publish the claims and ob-
jections in the same manner as the original list, and the
task of eliminating those that are worthless will then
commence. Another month will be taken by the
registrar and his assistants to inquire into the character
of the objections. It is proposed that the
registrar himself shall have power to fill the office of
claimant or objector, but his notices of objection must be
served like the rest, and anyone would have the same
right of objection to his additions as to the other names
in the list. At the end of August the list of claims and
objections revised by the registrar will be published. This
list, as the former are, will be published in each street.
The registrar's decisions are not to be legally conclusive,
but it is expected they will be for the most
part final. Anyone who wishes to contest the
decision of the registrar is to serve a notice
upon him to that effect. A final list will be published for
those who are to attend at the revising court and defend
their votes. It is believed that this th roug.l investiga-
tion by the registrar will have prepared the way so far
that the revising court will only have to deal with seriously
disputed facts or law. As a security against frivolous
objections, the objector is to give some privtl fac4
evidence of the nature of his objection before the voter
is called upon to defend his vote. On the whole,
the plan of the committee seems to be as per-
fect as any change in a defective system is likely to
be ; and the chief point insisted on is important, namely,
that the accuracy of the register should not depend on
litigation, but on its careful preparation by a public officer.
The committee give it as their opinion that a " complete
and perfect plan of registration can only be looked for in a
reformed system of local government."

Galignani confirms the intelligence we published
some days back that Mazzini had definitively lel Zurich for
England. He expresses his intention not to return until the
Garibaldian party aro resolved upon a general rising.

A declaration exempting British subjects in Den-
mark, and Danish subjects in Great Britain, from forced
loans, and compulsory military service was published on
Tuesday. It was signed on the 14th of June. The subjects of
either country which have become naturalised in the other
do not come under this protection.

LONG HAIR AND SHORT.—Our primitive ances-
tors, the Britons, and like them the Gauls, allowed their
hair to grow undisturbed. It often reached below the
waist, and men like Caractacus must have looked curi-
osities. Conquered by the Romans, the Gauls and Bri-
tons were ignominiously clipped. In his enumeration of
the Gallic tribes led into captivity by Caesar, Lucian speaks
of the Liguses "now shorn, but erewhile possessed of an
abundant flow of hair." Those of the Gauls who ob-
tained their liberation hastened to let their hair grow
again ; in order the more to mark the importance they
attached to flowing locks, they took to shaving their
slaves. It is thus that Ausonius speaks of four young
boys and four young girls, all shorn, as being a customary
present to a rich Gaul on his wedding-day. At the be-
ginning of the fifth century Pbaramond established his
kingdom in the province which thenceforth took the name
of France. The Gauls were reduced to a state of bondage,
and the conquerors laid ruthless scissors upon their vic-
tims' polls. From this time it became a generally understood
thing all over Europe that long hair was the exclusive
appanage of the great and noble. Not only serfs, but free
peasants and burgesses, were forbidden to go about other-
wise than cropped. The glebe slaves on a nobleman's
estate were even (during the fifth, sixth, and seventh cen-
turies) shorn altogether; and it is from this 'custom that
the practice of saluting by taking off the hat arose. Tho
act of uncovering the head amounted to saying, " See, sir,
I am your servant; 1 have no hair."—Dickens's "All the
Year Round."

DurrviLLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re •
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion Quotations on application 'to Messrs. Dunville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-bvildings,Strand, London, W,C.—[Ad
verilsenient.