The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 12, 1858.

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By order of the Board, ; • ..,
.WILLIAM WAiLTON, Secretary.

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Dairy, Granby-street, Hampstead-road, N.W.

LORD C. RUSSELL ON THE BALLOT.

We have been requested to publish the, following
letters :--

" Offices of the Society for Promoting the Adop-
tion of the Vote by Ballot, 5, Guildhall-
chambers, Basinghall-street, London, E.C.,
Nov. 3.

"My Lord,—A friend has sent me a Bedford
paper containing a report of a lecture delivered at
Woburn, by Mr. White, on ' The Morality of Secret
Voting.' At this lecture your lordship presided, and
not content with filling the ordinary duties of a
chairman, you supplemented the lecturer's Observa-
tions with some of your own, in which you reite-
rated the expression that all secrecy is a sham,'
and endorsed the lecturer's first principle, ' that all
secrecy is of the nature of deceit.' I wish to recal to
your mind what occurred at the City of London
election : that at a public meeting you endeavoured
to remove the difficulty caused by your brother's
(Lord J. Russell) opposition to the ballot by asking
what reason there was to suppose that he was so
strongly opposed to the ballot, and by stating that
when in Parliament you yourself had always•voted
for the ballet. • _

" I will make no secret of my conviction that all
that was said and done to induce the friends of the
ballot in the City of London to believe that Lord J.
Russell might be induced to reconsider his opinions
and support the ballot, including Lord John's pro-
mise to reconsider tixtr, question with reference to
the evidence of the successful working of the ballot
in Victoria was a sham,' if not in the nature of
deceit.' I say this, and am prepared to justify it by
reference to what took place in the House of Com-
mon's after your brother's election was secure.
" As at the public meeting before referred to, you
made political capital of the intention of some
members of the Ballot Society, including myself, to
vote for Lord J. Russell, I think I have a fair right
to ask you whether, when you voted for the ballot,
as you say you always did when in Parliament, you
considered it a measure in the nature of deceit,'
and a sham.
" You eadorse Mr. White's dogma that all sec-
recy is of the nature of deceit.' I wish you would
kindly answer me the following questions :
" A Teacher whom. I
.presume you respect said
'that in almsgiving the right hand should not know
what the left hand Moth.' ' That in fasting we
should not appear unto men to fast.' Is this secrecy
in the nature of deceit ? _ _

it in the ' nature of deceit' to seal a letter
when you send it through the post?
"Is it legalising deceit to prevent by law the
publication of income tax returns ?
"Is the secret writing the protection of which
our newspaper writers enjoy, and of which Mr.
Sidney Herbert would deprive them, a ' sham ?'
" Is the secret voting at clubs a sham and in the
nature of deceit ?
" Is the secret voting which naval and military
officers exercise at courts martial, and which is ex-
plained in the paper enclosed, ' a sham ?'
" Awaiting the favour of a reply to these ques-
tions,—l have the honour to be,
" Your most obedient servant,
" EDWARD C. WHITEHURST,
" Vice-Chairman of the Ballot Society.
"The Right Hon. C. J. Fox Russell."

" Woburn, Nov. 4.
My dear sir,—l little thought that a few re-
marks of mine made to some of my neighbours and
fellow-townsmen at a meeting of their Literary and
Scientific Institution would have procured me the
honour of a communication from the vice-president
of the Ballot Society. Had I only known you in
that capacity I might have been content to have
informed yon that you were in error, and so have
left you ; but I have too sincere a respect for your
earnestness in the cause of the ballot, and too agree-
able a remembrance of the last City election to allow
me to take any other course than to answer you
fully. I must begin by saying that I have not
seen (or rather have not read) any report of
the meeting you have alluded to, nor have I
the paper by me at present. I did not go beyond
the ordinary duties of chairman of our meet-
ings in supplementing any remarks of my own. I
stated, on being called on unexpectedly to take the
chair, that I did so with pleasure, as (they knew)
it gave the right of reply. I did not endorse Mr.
White's first principle, that all secrecy is of the
nature of deceit. What I said was (of course I
don't attempt the precise words), If Mr. White's
first principle be true, then all the rest follows, but
the French have a proverb that it is only the first
step that costs, and I wish you my younger friends,
to remember this and be aware of small beginnings.
Nothing is easier than for a man to lay down a
proposition with a firm voice and confident air and
then proceed to build upon it. I don't say that the
lecturer has done this, because I want you to take
the proposition home with you and to think for your-
selves.' I then added, my objection to secret voting
is that all secrecy is a sham.' Of course, as Mr.
White had been lecturing on secrecy in public mat-
ters, any supplementary remarks of mine could not
have had reference to secrecy in private matters,
which makes it unnecessary for me to reply to
those questions of yours which are of that category.
The income tax is unfortunately of a public cha-
racter. lam in the habit of hearing it denounced
as inquisitorial and think its secrecy a sham. You
have asked me whether, when I voted in Parlia-
ment for the ballot, I considered it as a measure of
the nature of deceit' and a ' sham.' I should have re-
plied to the vice-president of the Ballot Society that
it is more than 20 years since I voted, and have
called upon him to withdraw his imputation ; but
I will tell you, sir, that I did not consider the
ballot of the nature of deceit, but I always did
think and did say that the question was an exagge-
rated one. And now with respect to the 6 sham'
which you have charged me of having been guilty
of at the last City election, in my endeavour to re-
move the difficulty caused by my brother's objec-
tion to the ballot, I am positive that ti, facts were
these :—You will remember that at the meeting at
the City of London Tavern Lord John said he would
not support the ballot, giving as a reason that while
the franchise was so restricted it was but right and
fair that those who had it not should at least have
the knowledge of how those who possessed it used
it. Remarking on this I said, " After all, is Lord
John Russell so much opposed to the ballot as some
people think ? How stands the case ? He says
the franchise is so limited that the unfranchised
should at least have the satisfaction of knowing
how the enfranchised vote ; but Lord John is for
an extension of the franchise from £lO to £5, and
it must be evident that as thefe is an increase in
the franchise there must be a diminution of his ob-
jection to the ballot." This seems to be a logical in-
ference, but I used it to cover my brother's opposi-
tion to the ballot by his advocacy of an extension
of the franchise. I went on to say that I had
always supported the ballot; but you cannot for a
moment think that could have been guilty of the
preposterous folly of urging what I had done 20
years before as an index of what Lord John was
likely to do for the future. I used it in this manner—l
said I had voted for the ballot, if the electors made
it a sine qua non they would place themselves in
the ridiculous dilemma of having to prefer me to
my brother. These are the only references I made
to the ballot at the City election, except claiming
the vote of some of the electors from their con-
fidence in you. You have now my reply, but as
you have also charged my brother of having been
guilty of sham as to the ballot, I beg to say that I
am confident the charge is as groundless in his case
as it was in mine.—l remain, dear, sir, very faith-
fully yours, 6' CHARLES J. F. RUSSELL.
" 6 E. C. Whitchurst, Esq."

et Woburn, Nov. 5.

"My dear Sir,—l received by this day's post a
leading article from a newspaper under your hand
and seal. As it has probably emanated from you,
and has reference to the subject on which I re-
plied to you last night, I do not intend to read it,
trusting to your sense of justice to correct any
erroneous impressions it may convey. I find the
report in the Beds Nerettry professed to be merely
a condensation of Mr. White's lecture. It might
have occurred to you that the report of the chair-
man's remarks was probably an even greater con-
densation ; and so have saved you the trouble and
annoyance of writing on imperfect data.—l re-
main, dear sir, very faithfully yours,
" CHAS. J. F. RUSSELL.
" E. C. Whitehurst, Esq."

" Offices of the Society for Promoting the
Adoption of the Vote by Ballot, 5, Guild-
hall-chambers, Basinghall-street, London,
E.C., Nov. 6.
" My Lord,—ln reply to your letter I beg to say
I will take the best means of doing you justice
before the public, by sending to the press the cor-
respondence between us.
4' Your letter of the 4th does not, to my mind,
touch the questions stated by me. There is no sub-
stantial difference between your remark% as giyen

in your letter and the condensed but evidently
faithful report in.the Mercury.
" You expressed no dissent from Mr. White's
absurd proposition that " all secrecy is of the, na-
ture of deceit ;' and as I read your words, whether
in your letter or in the report, you gave it at least
an implied assent. Mr. White did not limit his
proposition to public matters, and therefore those
of my questions which relate to matters of a private
nature are not out of place. Those questions which
relate to court-martials and secret writing in news-
papers are clearly within the category of public
matters. The report in the Times of your speech
does not give the same colour as your letter to
your remarks about your supporting the ballot ; it
' reads, and was so understood by me and others at
the time, as an appeal to us to vote for Lord John
Russell, as your votes would- show, his
family were not opposed to the ballot, and a friend
, who took an active part in Lord John's committee
tells me you dwelt to him on the same fact of your,
supporting the ballot, and like me he understood
you to refer to it for the same purpose above men-
tioned. You refer to the length of time which has
elapsed since you voted for the ballot ; but let me
remind you that the alleged immorality of the ballot
was a stock argument'even before Mr. Grote intro-
duced the question in 1853 ; that all arguments on
both sides of that view ofthe question were exhausted
while you were voting for it, and that it is no new
discovery to which you can refer to justify your
change of opinion. I wish I could add that, am
satisfied with your explanation, and still more with
your defence of Lord John Russell, but I cannot ;
and with regard to the noble member for this city,
it would take much to make me believe in the since-
rity of his promise to reconsider the ballot question
when after his alleged reconsideration he only re-
peats the oft-refuted fallacies with which 20 years
ago he opposed the motions of Mr. Grote.—Acknow-
ledging the courteous tone of your letters, I am,
my lord, your faithful servant,
" EDWARD C. WHITEIIURST.
" The Right Hon. Lord C. J. F. Russell,
Woburn, Bedfordshire."

" Woburn, Nov. 8.

"Dear Sir,—l cannot seethat myremarks implied
my assent to Mr. White's dictum ; they seem to me
to have left the question an open one, to be decided
on by the audience at their leisure. Nay, not one of
my remarks to the lads present at the lecture bear
upon you. You assume that because my views have
changed on the subject of the ballot they must have
done so on the ground of its immorality, and the
lecture ; but for this assumption you have no autho-
rity whatever, unless you can find it in my having
presided: at a lecture on the morality of the ballot,
which turned out to be a lecture on its immorality.
I remain, dear sir, very faithfully, your_is
CHARLES J. F. RUSSELL.
" E. C. Whitehurst, Esq." •