The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-24 00:00:00

(From the Sheffield Argus, July 24.)
The Ballot Society have issued an "Analysis of the Divi-
sion on the Ballot, June 8, 1858." The ayes were 197, eight
mere than in the preceding year. Noes, 296; Pairs, 44 ;
absent friends, 16—F. B. Beamish, Cork city ; J. Esmonde,
Waterford county ; J. Fergus, Fifeshire • S. Greer (illness
in family); Sir H. Keating (ill); Major Knox, Dungannon ;
Sir R. Levinge, Westmeath; T. Mitchell, Bridport ; S r
R. Peel (family affliction); Colonel Pinney; Sir John Pot-
ter, Manchester; W. Price, Gloucester (ill); A. Smith,
Truro • A. W. Young, Yarmouth (shut out). Absent oppo-
nents,' 56; Liberals absent, 32 ; absent Conservatives, 8.
The number for the ballot, including pairs and tellers, was
221. The number against, 318. The number of members of
the present house favourable to the ballot is 247. Our
readers will thus see that the question is making progress
every year.
Tuere voted in the majority 86 Whigs, Peelites, and Libe-
rals, and 232 Conservatives. Lord Stanley continues
neutral.
In the Parliament el.ected in 1847, the ballot was brought
yearly before the House of Commons by Mr. Henry Berke-
ley, the numbers voting being as follows :-1848, ayes 86,
noes 81 ; 1849, ayes 85, noes 136; 1850, ayes 121, noes 176;
1851, ayes 87, noes 50; 1852, ayes 144, noes 246. Shortly
after the general election of 1852 the Ballot Society was
established. The committee have sedulously attended to
securing the presence, at the yearly divisions, of members
favourable to the measure; and the result of their labours is
an increase in the number of Mr. Berkeley's supporters, on
each division in the last and present Parliaments. The fol-
lowing are among the numbers :—For 1856, ayes 156, noes
196; 1857, ayes 219, noes 287; 1858, ayes 222, noes 319.
This gratifying result has arisen from the labours of the
society, the personal exertions, gratuitously given, of mem-
bers of the executive committee, and a systematic course of
(1) parliamentary, (2) electoral, and (3) educational agi-
tation.

1. The views of every member are ascertained inmediately
on His election. , Ifupposed to the ballot, a condensed library
of evidence and reasoning .on the question , is placed is his
hands. By cireulars,• and the labours of members of the
society, who are also members of Parliament, the attendance
of the pledged supporteri of the ballot is secured at_divisions.
The course taken by every member on the questiOts is brought
before his constituents and. the public.

2. Whenever a vacancy occurs in the representation, the
constituency is visited, and the question of the ballet agi-
tated by deputations, lectiircs, and the distribution of tracts.
An extensive correspondence is kept up with electors in all
districts, informing them upon matters connected with the
progress of the cause, and engaging their personalco-opera-
tion in discussing the question with opponents, in distribut-
ing tracts, procuring petitions, and soliciting the votes in
Parliament of their local members.
3. The boroughs and counties are visited by deputations of
the society, and meetings held in favour of the ballot, which
the electors are specially invited to attend. Tracts on the
question are circulated amongst the electors and other inha-
bitants; in all 500,000 tracts have been distributed by the
, society.
The society, in their report for 1858, just issued, say :
, " Our aim is to leave,no one destitute of the means of per-
ceiving bow injurious open voting and its results are tothim-
self and the community. To the influence by which it is sup-
ported we oppose the power of reason and the claims-of jus-
tice, and we meet by facts the sophisms by which open vot-
ing is defended. Further and increasingly strenuous
exertions are necessary to set the seal of final success upon
the past. The ground we have gained demands and inspirits
to redoubled effort. The ballot is not gained, but it has pro-
gressed. We are daily gaining the co-operation of men of
wealth, intelligence, and influence, who are fast swelling
our ranks. The ballot, thanks to the parliaments and
people of our Australian colonies, is, with the assent of the
Queen, on the advice of her ministers, an established insti-
tution in the British dominions. The work must be carried
on. There must be more meetings, more tracts, more con-
ferences, more agitation. Every borough and every county
which has not yet been must be visited. Every constituency
whose representatives have not hitherto supported Mr. Ber-
keley's motion for the ballot, must be invited to memorialise
its members to vote for the ballot. We are approaching the
sixth year of our struggle. We ask of you to replenish our
pecuniary means for sustaining it—we appeal to you to
create confidence in our cause, and dismay in its opponents,
by enabling us to carry on our work with increased activity
and spirit. We ask you not only to subscribe yourselves,
but to invite your friends and neighbours to join us. We
are confident we shall not ask in vain."

While we have pen in hand, we may just correct an erro-
neous impression which we have found prevailing in some
quarters respecting the lecturers of the society. These gen-
tlemen's labours are all gratuitous. Mr. Whitehurst, the
respected vice-chairman, in particular, far from being a paid
agent, is an entirely independent man, i.e. independent of
any hire or pay. lie has subscribed largely to the move-
ment, and, though dependent on his profession, has given
up a great deal of his valuable time to promote the cause of
the ballot. We have found many friends who imagine that
he gets £5 or £lO per address, but this we know is an entire
mistake, and an injustice to his disinterested attachment to,
and exertions on behalf of, the movement. Of course there
is no reflection on a man who is paid, like Mr. Gough and
others—yet people, as our readers are aware, give consider-
ably less attention to paid lecturers, however able, and
attach more regard to what comes from a voluntary advo-
cate. Mr. Whitehurst was induced, we believe, to take up
the ballot question on account of having contested Bothnia
at the general election of 1852, and having failed for want of
the ballot. The result of that contest opened his eyes to the
fact which all discover as they get acquaintance with the
political arena—that men who have not the money or the
disposition to bribe, or to pay lawyers for turning the screw,
and who are not backed by local influence, cannot become
members of Parliament, for want of the ballot, though pos-
Fessed of every requisite for the office.

THE BOILER EXPLOSION NEAR NOTTINGIIAM.—At
the inquest on the body of George Stevenson, who lost his
life by the explosion of a steam thrashing machine at Day-
brook, near Nottingham, on Friday last, it was stated in
evidence that the explosion resulted from the engineman,
Henry Sully, leaving tho machine without closing the
damper or easing the safety valve, thus causing the steam to
generate rapidly and to burst the boiler. Immediately after
the accident it was found that the corn stacks in the vicinity
of the engine were on fire, but the flames were suppressed
without much damage being done. Large pieces of metal from
the machine were driven to a distance of 200 yards, and a
flywheel was picked up 100 yards from the engine. The
inquest was adjourned to the 30th inst., as Sully, the engine-
' man, is at present suffering from severe injuries received at
the explosion.
TILE LATE REV. DR. Buss.—The sale of the
curious and extensive collection of books and manuscripts
of the late Dr. Bliss concluded on Saturday, at the Rooms
of Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, realising a total of
£6,281 16s. 6d. Among the manuscripts a short autograph
nate from Charles I. to his Queen produced £l4. A letter
from Sir Wm. Dugdale to the Earl of Clarendon sold for £6.
An extraordinary note from Lord Inchiquin to Charles 11.,
soliciting a reprieve for " a poor creature falsely accused of
increasing coyne, which, had itt been true, is hardly a
fault, when there is scarce any to be had," brought £5. A
letter from the Duke of Ormonde to Queen Catherine,
£4 10s., and another to the Earl of Anglesey, £4; and the
rest of the Ormonde correspondence, £BO 12s. 6d. A collec-
tion of 20 early charters, commencing with one from King
John to Beaulieu Abbey, £5O. Autograph poems by the
celebrated Parliamentary General, Sir Thomas Fairfax, con-
taining metrical versions of the Psalms, &c., £36 10e.
Horce B. Marice V irginis, with illuminations by a
Flemish artist, £l3 ss. Autograph unpublished poems of
N. Oldisworth, while student of Christchurch, and now in
the yeare 1644 transcribed for his wife, £lO. Psalteriurn
Davidis, written in the 12th century by an English scribe,
but wanting the beginning, £22. Psafterium Latine,
written in the 13th century by an English scribe, and curi-
ously adorned with the arms of noble families then existing
in England—the Nevilles, Warrens, Cliffords, &c., £3O. A
splendid manuscript of the Shah Nameb, of erdusi, £BO.
FISHERMEN'S STRIKE—EXCITING PURSUIT OF A
SMACK BY A STEAMER.—Our most public streets con-
tinue to be daily paced by groups of fishermen and boys,
about 200 of whom, we are informed, remain oat of employ-
ment on strike, in support of the rules of their own society,
and in opposition to the combination of the smackowners,
each society being firmly bent on breaking up the other.
One of the rules of the fishermen prohibits any vessel in
which they sail from carrying fish for any other
boat. This
it belongs to the same club as the carrying
.TI
rcuftleenthperesvmeanctkaovwensesresl
creagraairadgas mool.st aelopie.travrpaasciftowould
ifithshsimagal-tsrtmaaVeshoansebuopaorrad-
aarese as follows. :—Mr. George
traiaggree,aatuladsws.ouTlhdessatbejaelact_vhectssest
alfaw6d
share in the Victoria and
Pearce, having
the Humber. on Thursdaypara
wleoftbotri,s members bfaerrsthoef
Albert fishing smack, went on board himself as master, and
as e d
grounds. The fact of Mr.
which his copartners in the vessel
membersh the society,
Sellingu having
gt ar
ohcfue° ewairtlhy him
thetw° men
afternoon,and
Pearce's having engaged
a society
desired to conquer was highly displeasing to them, and
when she had proceeded some distance down the river they
despatched the steamer Olive after her to bring her back;
she overtook the Victoria and Albert about Paull—five miles
from Hull, but in lieu of towing her back was seen to com-
mit the strange mistake of towing her to the sea. Thin
was at half-past three. The owners, seeing they were
deceived by the Olive, consulted Mr. F. Ayre, solicitor,
who, on the ground, we understand, that Pearce
had not paid the whole of his purchase, and was
therefore not entitled to act as owner, obtained a warrant
from the borough police court, and the assistance of three
policemen (Nos. 28, 42, and 76), who proceeded with Mr.
Ayre and Mr. Macrow, in the Hotspur steam-tug, about
five o'clock, in pursuit of the fugitives; they went as far as
Killingholme, and until Grhnsby was in sight, but at eight
p.m., returned to Hull, without having seen the object of
their pursuit. Mr. Macrow, however, proceeded the same
evening by rail to Grimsby in pursuit of the vessel. The
escape of the Victoria and Albert appeared to give high glee
to the fishermen who remain on strike.—Hull Pacquet.
A CURIOUS OCCURRENCE.—A few weeks ago a
hen, at the farm of Westmill, Carse of Gowry—e hybrid.
between a Dorking and a Cochin-China fowl—having com-
menced " clucking," and showing no inclination to make
to herself a nest like others of her sisterhood, she was
watched, and found to spend a large portion of her time in
apast the cats in connection
with
possessedrsas a sort of nursery. More-
tbheer, room,ta
c,ha d which for ye&
over, it was also an ascertained fact that one of the latter had
at the time no felver than seven kittens there ; and how
" baudrons" could allow her family arrangements to be thus
interfered with by a " cluckin' hen" was a wonder to all the
cotter wives in the neighbourhood. But if their wonder was
great on that score, it was not lessened by the results of a
further investigation. On entering the room they found
chuckle sitting on the floor with two pretty little kittens
looking out beneath her wings, and a third coiled on her
back, and the enraptured foster-dana herself "cluck-
clucking,' to their great solace and enjoyment. The truth
la
is, the hen, disdaining the slow process of hatching,
of her
given battle to the eat, and, taking forcible Ps'es"°maootbreir's .
young ones, had lavished on them so much of
fondness, that they plaid about her all day
shelter beneath her outspread wings the lomngoam, moment any-
thing excited
charge ? for they required
thing excited their fears. But howfoaddidasshewenioluraisshrhraer.
their nec,ssities. la this matter s
the mother of the
tection, and her pickings must halve e
sbheaewneqdusitaemuctnhsulgedlik)oe
kittens eneered the
the reasoning faculty. At
.staatead,
tstictnuelks ing timidly to the
r°°Bl" when immediately the young
,f rthest 'corner, began,
pleased interest,
to
mew,eor a moment or two the hen in-
ones *would run ti
pportunity, walked off the barn-
, then, profiting
heYfilling her crop, came back, tand with a
ord, and, B'.l- her family again about her in an in-
k ' drew
vP:riahly stood and vtiiiieeewroed the scene with
cat stank to the door with all possible speed.
rat this way she continued till the kittens began to shift for
themselves • but fortunately for chtu kie's maternal feelings,
s;acalut,ckw,hcilltenthe,
anot ier cat in the meantime had produced a litter of six,
H bleb she also took possession of in the same manner thee,
.troment they could see, and with the most motherly solici-
tude watched over them till they betook themselves to
mousing in the stackyard. The hen, we are happy to add,
after enjoying her conceit thus far, had the sense, like other
decent hens, to betake herself again to the more profi,ahle
0: c,:batinn of laying eggs as hforelime.-- Per thshil e
.1 dc r tiscr