The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-31 00:00:00

THE BALLOT IN AUSTRALI.I.

Mr. Wm. Cooper, of the National Bank of Aus-

tralia, Melbourne, has addressed to Mr. CoVer.,
M.P., the following interesting letter on the
" working of the ballot" in the colony of Victoria :
Nov. 15, 1859.
Dear Sir,---Among the newspapers which have
just a-rived by the mail from England, I have read
with interest a report of your speech at the 'tech-
,
I dale banquet; and though a personal stranger to
you, I feel inclined to address you these few lines
in corroboration of the sentiments you expressed in
favour of the ballot, especially as I did not observe
that you instanced this colony as a country in which
it had been thoroughly successful. I am aware
that the person who was chiefly instrumental in
introducing the system of secret voting here,
William Nicholson, was under your notice
whilst on a visit to England some time ago,
yet as all the elections under our new Consti-
tution (inaugurated three years ago), have taken
place since that time, I thought it might not be un-
interesting to you to know how the system has
been found to work in actual practice.
ith hardly a single exception, all the elections
(say over 100 in number at the least) have taken
place with an entire absence of disorder, drunken-
ness, intimidation, or known or even alleged bribery,
though in a large number of cases party spirit ran
very high. In all the elections which have come
under my personal observation, such was the com•
plete contrast to the scenes enacted in England,
that a stranger coming into the town would never
hare known that a hotly contested election was
going on. except perhaps by the posters on the dead
walls. Out of them all I can only recall one in-
stance in which intimidation was practised, and one
case of " treating" on a very small scale ; the latter
offence sufficed to unseat the only member of the
Victorian Parliament who has yet been unseated.
So far from there being any disposition to return
to the old method of open voting, almost all those
who opposed the introduction of the ballot, now
acknowledge its advantages, and amongst them is
the then Premier, whose Cabinet was beat a on the
question and who resigned in consequence.
No imputation of tampering with the voting
papers in any way has yet occurred. so that one of
the flimsy and plausible objections of Sydney Smith
is practically refuted. The returning officers are
ehn,pn from men of the highest standing and honor,
and only in one instance has there ever been any
suspicion of partiality or unfairness on their part,
and in that instance it was only a question of two
or three votes,:which in no way influencedthe elec-
tion.

As I think it is very probable that you may have
made yourself acquainted with the the precise way
in which the voting is here conducted. I will not
enter into details in the matter; I will merely con-
clude by saying that though always a believer in
the ballot I never saw, till I witnessed its opera-
tion here, how flimsy and groundless are all the
objections of its enemies. As a point of Reform I
should be more glad to see it carried in Britain
than any other, but I know that it will be most
keenly contested by the " Upper ten thousand" and
therefore I wish that its advocates may be iu pos-
session of every argument which can be brought to
bear; and as one fact is worth six arguments, I
have taken the liberty to trouble you with a few—
hoping that if they are atall fresh to you they may
prove of some little use,—l remain, your sincere
admirer, WM. COOPER.
Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P.

CAPTURE OF A SILIP WITH 888 SLAVE.
B P H.M.S. PLUTO.

We have received the following letter from the
relatives of the writer. It is addressed to h's
mother, and will be read with great interest
H.M.S. Pluto, at Sea, Nov. 30, 1859.

" We left Mazemba on Friday last, and stood out
for a cruise. We are now about 200 miles off the
land, and yesterday and the day before we chased
a Yankee brigantine—but this morning—what do
you think P—we have actually taken the notable
Orion, with 888 slaves on board. Only fancy, after
the Yankees have sent her to New York, and she
has been let go, and now the Yankees have taken
her into the Conga and detained her, and the Triton
had her in tow, that we should take her with very
little trouble ! It was a glorious sight. I shall
never forget it. We saw her at daylight, about
eight or ten miles off, and steamed after her, coming
up to her in about an hour. Well, we did not hoist
our colours till we were close to her, and. then she
sent up the stars and stripes—then we steamed
round her, and our captain hailed to know what
ship it was—the fellow sung out Orion,' and that
he was going to New York ; so our captain said he
would board her, and as he was stepping out of the
boat to go on board they hauled down their colours,
tore them in half, and hove them overboard. Our
men then gave three cheers, which was answered
by the liberated slaves in a manner that we shall
all remember as long as we live. She is a splendid
prize. This is a great loss to the slave-dealers, as
they feel the loss of slaves more than ships, and this
makes 2,080 taken in less than two months."
From previous letters it appears that this no-
torious Orion was captured in April last by H.M.S.
Triton. She then nailed the American flag to her
mast, and refused to surrender; but was afterwards
taken possesssion of by the American cruisers and
conveyed to New York.