The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Count Pozzo di Borgo, the well-known Rus-
sian Ambassador, after proceeding to see his
master at St. Petersburgh, which he had not,
we believe, visited since the peace of 1815,—
after traversing, on his return to Paris, the two
great Courts and several of the smaller Courts of
Germany, and giving them an impulse which
some say was for good and some for evil (but
on the nature of which we adhere to our former
circumstantial statement),—has at length favoured
England with his presence. The arrival of such
a diplomatic stranger, coming from such a quar-
ter, and reaching this country at such a crisis.
has naturally excited a great deal of political
speculation, both east and west of Temple-bar.
The Stock Exchange (as will be seen by our
City article) has put forth its feelers, to ascertain
whether war or peace is to cross the course of
events before next settling-day. Some of our
city augurs—having more faith in this uncertain
indication of coming embarrassments than in the
flight of birds, or in any of the other ancient omens
—have begun to discount the result of a perilous
negotiation. The Conservatives, both commercial
and aristocratic, on looking at the Count, who
had no ordinary business here, while his master
has already two Ambassadors in London, see
Mars in the ascendant, and the rupture of our
French alliance as the prelude to a general war.
The variety of their conjectures, however, shows
that they have no confidence in their own astro-
logical horoscopes. Without at all alluding to
the real object of M. Pozzo di Borgo's mission.
we may without hesitation treat with ridicule
and contempt the design usually ascribed to the
Russo-Corsican Ambassador in his present
visit—namely, that of detaching our Govern-
ment from its alliance with France for the settle-
ment of Belgic affairs. This country is not the
land of intrigue or of propagandism,—either of a
Holy Alliance or of a Jacobin kind,—
and the English Cabinet is not the body
on which to try autocratical experiments.
Before M. di Borgo could induce the English
Administration to alter its course of foreign
policy, he must first convince the nation of its
error—for both he and his master are well aware
that by the Reform Bill the control of the
people over the management of the national in-
terests is so powerful, that no body of statesmen
could remain in office a single month if they
formed or broke alliances contrary to the dic-
tates of general opinion. The very idea of
combining with the continental despots to invade
France because France is constitutional—or of
separating from France to join these despots in
reversing the order of things in Belgium, be-
cause Belgic independence is the fruit of a revo-
lution,—is too preposterous ever to have beet)
entertained by the Czar, and therefore too ab-
surd to deserve serious exposure. Even were it
possible that the Emperor Nicholas could anti-
cipate a reaction in Great Britain against France.
at the very time that France was conducting her
foreign policy in perfect good faith, and re-
straining her national ambition at the call of
national honour, he could not be such a
simpleton as to imagine that his Corsican
envoy could bring about or accelerate the
change. English policy could not be altered by
a mere diplomatic intrigue ; and what more,
beyond intriguing, could be executed by M. di
Borgo than by an explanatory missive from St.
Petersburg!), with a comment by Prince Lieven
or Count :Matuscevic ? A constitutional Go-
vernment—above all, a reformed Government—
must manage its game of foreign as well as of do-
mestic policy openly, honestly, and fairly—
enetes stir la table; and no diplomatic juggler,
from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, must be
allowed to interfere with the cards or to pervert
the play. After writing the above remarks we
learn, from that demi-official authority the Court
Newsman, that nobody knows of AI. Pozzo di
Borgo's arrival ; but as our chief object was to
scout the foolish speculations afloat on Russian
policy, or Mary Alliance prospects, the arrival
or non-arrival of the Count does not affect the
value of our observations. Besides, our Paris
letters tell us that his Excellency had set out
from that capital on Saturday, so that the
rumours of his arrival, though premature, are
likely soon to be realized.—Times.
On reading over our article of Saturday on
the ballot, we find it necessary to correct a sen-
tence towards the end, in which, from the un-
heeded want of a single qualifying expression,
the passage appears to contradict the entire
sense of those which preceded and followed it.
The part of the article alluded to is that in
which Ireland is mentioned as a scene wherein
the establishment of the ballot would produce
with certainty the best results, in relieving the
honest portion of the inhabitants from the fac-
tious tyranny which now afflicts them. The
phrase by which this statement ought to have
been limited was, " provided that the ballot pre-
sents to us any solid means of secrecy or pro-
tection." The succeeding sentence, where, even
with regard to Ireland, we acknowledged our fear
that all such hope would be chimerical, will show
what our actual meaning was, and that the contra-
diction was less in substance than in words. On a
dispassionate view of this question, it must be ad-
mitted thatthe leading objections are not cumula-
tive but disjunctive—that is to say, they resolve
themselvesinto its usefulness, if the secrecy aimed
at by its advocates he unattainable, or its evil con-
sequences, if the attempt at secrecy be suc-
cessful. It cannot he argued against on both
these allegations at once. Our own opinion
remains unaltered, that the classes for whose
benefit the ballot is professedly designed, would
receive no protection from it, or in so small a
proportion, and under such peculiar circum-
stances, as to constitute a very slender induce-
ment towards the adoption of an elementary
change in the whole of our system of election.
As for the poor man, he has no secrets from the
members of his little circle. His own family
and his gossipping companions of the ale-house
will inevitably, from the habits of free commu-
nication throughout that order of our country-
nen, he familiar with his purposes and his acts ;
and this, whether a canvass takes place or net,
before the day of polling. But there will never
fail to he a canvass. A seat in Parliament is an
object of too
grave ambition, of too intense de-
a:ire, the cause of each candidate is an occasion
of sympathy and eagerness with too great num-
bers of active individuals in every district, to
render it at all presumable that the custom
of canvassing the voters will ever be laid aside
or suspended. Then, if canvassing be general,
—nay, if, even without canvassing, public meet-
ings in the interest of each candidate for a seat
be continued—and .Heaven forbid they should
ever be dropped in this country !—we say that
with regard to the great bulk of the electors
(which is a broad enough ground for legislative
proceed:rigs everywhere), it becomes morally
impossible that their suffrages should he un-
known to either friends or enemies. Among

the upper classes of voters, such as tenants of
considerable farms, and soforth, there is no
doubt that persons may be found not incapable
of keeping their own secret in ordinary matters,
when inclined to do so ; but in election cases is
such concealment likely ? A man who intends
bowl fide to vote for his landlord is not im-
mediately under consideration at present.
He, of course, will make the natural use
A his complaisance or preference, and-take care
to lose no merit in the landlord's eye. He,
on the other hand, who has no conscientious
:cruple about promising and breaking his word,
and who never therefore can be inspired with a
true and self-denying sense of honour, will, in
nine cases out of ten, betray the vote he gives
to the party or the friends of the party whom he
serves by it ; and what then is our " secrecy"
food for ? We have received, as usual, many
letters on this subject, and our object being
truth, we publish all of those which are adverse
•0 our own views that we can find room for.
That of Mr. Tempest is by far too long. " .his-
titia" misrepresents us by asserting that we at-
tributed the notoriety of every man's vote in
America to his " independence." We have as
yet said no such thing. Although there be
undoubtedly less dependence of one citizen upon
another in North America than in England, we
are more disposed to rest the disregard of se-
crecy upon the violence and impetuosity of party
spirit, which we suspect would here, as well as
in the United States, supersede many prudent
calculations.--Times.

The country papers teem with articles in fa-
vour of the ballot, and with comments on the
reprehensible and unfortunate declarations of
Mr. Stanley—that /ice and the Cabinet would
oppose all plans for the further improvement of
the representative system. A more unjustifiable
or inopportune public statement could not have
been made by a responsible public servant or
Minister. The time chosen was most unhappy,
for the county elections had not then taken place,
and the effect, therefore, of the division of
counties, and the inundation of the "tenants
without zoill," could not have been ascertained.
The Right Honourable Gentleman did not and
could not know the " working of the Bill " in
Scotland and Ireland. Moreover, all sensible
and liberal men are at a loss to imagine the cui
bona of the declaration. The opening results
of the borough and city elections, and the pro-
bable triumph of liberal opinions in the counties,
had signally illustrated the wisdom of the Ministe-
rial measures of Parliamentary Reform, and placed
the Ministry on exalted ground and security. The
Reformers expected that their joint efforts had at
length freed the Cabinet from the thraldom of
the oligarchy, and placed it independent of the
worst intentions of the adverse Peers. The
country saw with hope and exultation that
Lord Grey would now be able to use the
means afforded by the Reform Bills for the ends
of good government—that he would now have
the power and the will to go on with the amend-
ment of the representation, and wholly to extirpate
those scandalous and disgraceful imperfections
which—in bribery, intimidation, corruption, and
military interference in elections—have disgraced
a Christian and enlightened nation. The wrongs
and oppressions of Warwick, Stamford, Newark,
and the smaller constituencies, it was expected,
would now be redressed. But forth comes the
Secretary for Ireland, and issues his Ukase—
that he and his colleagues will " stand still."
He. confounds the powers of the servants of
the Crown, and usurps the authority and prero-
gative of the representatives of the people ; be
does not vouchsafe to wait the meeting of the
first Reformed House of Commons—to feel the
pulse of an assembly about to meet under
extraordinary and untried circumstances, but, hke
a Pope's Bull to a conclave of Cardinals, he—
the Right Honourable E. G. Stanley—fulmi-
nates his maledictions against the great majority
of the electors of the United Kingdom, and
says, " I have given you exactly the measure of
Reform which is good for your constitutions;
you must rest contented ; you shall have no
more." This young legislator fails to discern,
that in his doctrine of " a final measure," he is
building his castle on the old sandy foundation.
We last year cited M. Turgot's admirable illus-
tration of " Foundation," as applied to the po-
litical science of Legislation. The " stand
still" doctrine has been the rock on which all
Governments have hitherto struck and foam-
tiered. The puny and disdainful defenders of
all political rottenness ever pronounced them-
selves the sworn advocates of " things as they
are," and represented the benefits of "no
changes" as more than equivalent to the continu-
ance of notorious and growing abuses. This
young man seems to have travelled in North
America for no purpose but to glean absurd pre-
judices and nonsensical misrepresentation, for
the purpose of retailing as proofs of the benefits
of aristocracies and the evils of Republicanism.
" We will not have short Parliaments, or Vote
by Ballot," exclaims the Irish Secretary, while
the people echo their loud and just demands for
both those desired political blessings. We ex-
tract some able remarks, in the Birmingham
Journal, on the subject of Mr. Stanley's errors
and last indiscretions—sentiments pobably shared
by the great and active-minded Midland District
in which that paper circulates :

. .
" The political hopes of the country have been
grievously blighted by the insolent, wrong-headed, and
aristocratic declarations of the Right Honourable E. G.
Stanley, who, on his nomination as a Candidate for the
representation of the Northern Division of the County of
Lancaster, stated that it was the determination of himself
and Lot d Grey's Cabinet 4 to resist any further change in
the representative system'—that they would oppose a li-
mitation of the duration of Parliaments, and the vote by
ballot ! The Irish Secretary also declared that it was the
will of himself and his Majesty's Ministers to resist any
etfott fa- an extension of Parliamentary Reform,' accom-
panied by the following exquisite personal opinion :—' I
c nsider that the Reform in its machinery is complete.'
Since the memorable declaration of the Duke of Welling-
ton, in 1830, that the defunct representative system was
perfect and should not be amended, no public mon has
more grossly insulted or wounded public opinion than this
Irish Secretary; but the resolves of the Right Ho•
nourable and juvenile Cabinet Minister will be as
speedily and completely rendered futile as were the
military councils and mandates of his Grace the Duke
of Wellington. If Lord Grey had the resolution and
decision of the Duke of Wellington, he would cashier
the Irish Secretory; for sure we are that Mr. Stanley
is the natural leader of the Serviles. A stagnant
Government is the great desideratum of Servileism ;
progressive political improvement is the polar star of the
Reformers. We bad always understood that the oath and
honour of a Cabinet and Privy Counsellor of the King of
England imposed secrecy and fidelity on British Ministers.
Policy, at least, might have restrained this irruption of
the Toryism of the Irish Secretary until he had tested the
r to t
superiorstowards
spirit arid will of the first Reformed [louse of Commons.
Propriety
phr y
the Premier and his elders in (4-Eate—
ain mind, judgment, and years—might
have prevented the Irish Secretary from thus exposing the
intentions of his coadjutors. But Mr. Stanley cal ries his
errors in his countenance. He bas power unaccompanied
with discretion ; L ,
sound sense or
tphaetiepnteerreaflgection. His declara-
tion energy of character not tem-
peredwas an electioneering ruse—to win over the
tChcantseArivra:si Conservatives—to
w7uPld have restede.con \tenet withbal having
tion by
ruined his Government in Ireland, Without extending

hie evil genius to England. And what is the extra-
ordinary and benighted position of Mr. Stanley :—tha►
the British Cabinet, not the British Commons, arc the ar-
biters and legislators of political changes ! The Reform
Bills are, forsooth, a final measure ! Mr. Stanley declares
that there shall be no moucement. He, it seems, is to be
the great breakwater against the political waves of the
rolling ocean of public opinion. Like Canute, he impiously
and impoteirly exclaims—' thus far shalt thou go and no
farther !' Now let us test the rationale of the Irish Se-
cretary's senseless and childish declarations. A ruthless
faction had monopolised the electoral rights and privileges
of the people of Great Britain and Ireland. The loud and
menacing demands of an insulted and enlightened people
required restitution of those rights. Under most embar-
rassing and critical circumstances, Earl Grey was called
to the councils of the nation. A plan of Legislative Re-
form was hastily framed. It had to pass the ordeal of a
cabinet of mixed politicians—the majority of whom was
notoriously opposed to the searching and sweeping ex-
tent of the measure. The approval of the Monarch was
another critical necessity. It had then to be piloted
through the narrow straits of an unreformed House
of Common 4 ; and, lastly, to escape the clutches of
a hereditary Peerage. Unquestionably the Minis
terial measures were drawn up and variously altered, to
elude the dangers of this difficult political navigation. The
franchise was repeatedly modified, to suit existing exigen-
cies; the division of the counties was a sop to Cerberus ;
the non-disfranchisement of some boroughs,. and the en-
franchisement of other towns, had their several and justi-
fiable objects of temporary policy. Lastly, the influential
part of the people were unprepared for a more perfect re-
presentation ; prejudices would have opposed a numerical
and geometrical division of the country into electoral dis-
tricts and the extinction of class voting. Then came the
insidious and vassal clause of the Marquis of Chandos, on
the success of which Lord Althorp declared that the bal-
lot alone would provide an antidote. The people discern
in the shameful riots, intimidation, corruption, and mili-
tary interference attendant on the recent general election,
that the machinery of the Bill' is not perf,ct—that the
ballot may insure freedom and purity of election, and that
it has become a choice of evils. The Right Honourable
E. G. Stanley, a stripling legislator—the agitator of
Ireland—declares his will that no farther change
shall take place ! Mahomet requiring the moun
rain to come to him, did not equal the swollen
pride of the Irish Secretary. Mr. Stanley must
conduct himself very differently—much less arrogantly—
in the Ref Tined Parliament than he has been accustomed
to do before the departed beroughmongers. Men are re-
turned to the newly-elected House of Commons infinitely
his superiors in talent, principle, and political science.
We do not believe that Lord Grey's Cabinet has decided
as the Right Hon. Irish Secretary unquestionably desires.
Ministers cannot be so blind to the 'signs of the times,'
and the palpable demonstrations of public opinion. Lord
Grey is eminently distinguished for his discretion—a qua-
lity wanting in the Irish Secretary. If Mr. Stanley is to
continue in Lord Grey's Cabinet, he must be placed under
the control of a political strait waistcoat. In a political
sense, the abolition of one of our ancient punishments
may be regretted—namely, the shortening of the tongues
of indiscreet speakers."

We were among the first to denounce Mr.
Stanley's absurd and impolitic manifesto ; we
predicted its bad results on public opinion, and
we unhesitatingly assert that he has wrought
more injury against a Liberal Administration
than he can readily or soon remove. Mr.
Stanley is " a clever debater" of the race hereto-
fore called " Parliamentary Sharp-shooters." In
the times of Pitt, Burke, and Canning, Mr.
Stanley might have led the House of Com-
mons but the nation now looks out for legis-
lators ; and we much mistake if Mr. Stanley
does not lower his top-gallant whether his main-
mast will not go by the board. He will assur-
edly founder in the stormy ocean of a Reformed
House of Commons if he does not take in more
ballast. Unless he opens his eyes rather wider
to public opinion in Ireland and England, we
recommend Lord Grey to send him out as Go-
vernor-General to India. He may there rule
over Brahmins and Moguls with much more sa-
tisfaction to himself and with less necessity for
hurried legislation than he can expediently ride
his own country with a curb. If the impressive
events of the last four years in his own country
have not instructed Mr. Stanley that changes
are ultimately less when progressive, he is past
teaching and politically stupid, and past re-
generation.—Morning Chronicle.

The Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson has
addressed the electors of Dover, declining his
seat for that place, in favour of the representa-
tion of Manchester. The following paragraph
explains the grounds which determined his
choice :
" The selection made by the electors of Manchester of
one who is personally unknown to them, who never sought
their suffrages, or tendered to them his services, can be
attributed only to their desire to afford to their country-
men a testimony of their approbation of those great prin-
ciples of Government which I have, since my first entrance
into political life, humbly, but zealously, sought to advance.
But, above all, it is the fall justification of the course
which I have pursued, upon the great question of a
Liberal Commercial Policy, with which I have been,
and am identified. The capital of the manufacturing in-
dustry of the empire spontaneously selects as its represen-
tative one whose advocacy of those principles has exposed
him, for. years, to the vituperation and attacks of all who
are opposed to them ; one whom they have never ceased
to characterize as the enemy to those interests of which
Manchester is the centre."

We need not here repeat the arguments which
we have felt it our duty to urge from time to time
against the ruinous policy which is thus assumed
to be vindicated by the result of an election. That
the Right Hon. Gentleman should have made
such a use of his triumph is not surprising. His
cause requires every aid, direct and incidental,
which can be brought to bear upon it ; and
though we have no doubt that many of his
constituents would willingly disclaim the infe-
rence which he has drawn in favour of the free-
trade mania, from his position on the poll, the
boast was too tempting to be neglected under
his circumstances, and accordingly we find it
displayed with not a little exultation. In con-
sequence of his declining to sit for Dover, another
Ministerial candidate has offered himself for that
place, in the person of the Right Hon. Charles
Grant, President of the Board of Control. This
fact has been announced to the electors by Mr.
Thomson's committee, so that the Government
influence will be exerted for another of its pro-
minent members immediately. We have not
heard whether any contest is likely to ensue.
—Morning Herald.
The Whig Ministers have carried all their
measures, and yet the Whig Ministers appear to
be as weak, as divided, and as far from com-
manding public confidence as ever. They have
bullied the Throne and the Peerage ; they have
passed the Reform Bill ; they have virtually dis-
franchised the respectability of the country, by
giving an unfair predominance to those sections
and classes of the community which they thought
they could most easily influence ; they have
secured an ally in France on the easy terms
of sacrificing the interests of Britain, and
the two nations, by uniting their military and
naval puissance, have most heroically succeeded
in capturing Antwerp from the Dutch, the whole
civilized world looking on meanwhile with min-
gled wonder and contempt ; they have beaten
the Conservatives (they say so at least ; we are
not quite sure ; tune will show) at nine-tenths of
the mock elections under the mock Bill, and are
certain of tremendous majorities, and yet,
strange to say, they seem further than ever from
the great goal of their ambition, the efficient
government of the country. Whiggism has
been completely victorious, and Toryism utterly
annihilated, months ago, according to the Times
newspaper ; and yet that journal produces a

daily supply of heavy writing to prop the
weakness of the triumphant Whigs, and to guard
against the attacks of the dead Tories. Radicalism
too, we were duly told, received its deathblow
at the elections, and the 'Whigs were left at full
liberty to pursue that sublime policy which was
to regenerate the country. Yet these same
Whigs are understood to be in a state of dis-
tressing embarrassment and disunion upon the
most important questions connected with the
practical management of public affairs. How
happens all this ? Their policy is uniformly
anti-national, and this the country perceives ;
their system has been based upon selfishness and
fraud, and this all parties have detected ; they
have, consequently, no real support from any
influential portion of the community, and this
becomes more manifest every day. We will not
undertake to say that these men cannot govern
the moon, but we will tell them now, as we have
told them before, that they are utterly incom-
petent to govern the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. That they may do a con-
siderable quantity of mischief before public
indignation shall make retirement inevitable
we admit, but we deny that any conceivable
combination of circumstances can enable
them permanently to govern the country.
The treason of the Reform Bill seems to have
done its worst in disfranchising property and in-
telligence, and preventing the sense of the
country from being fairly represented in its
Parliament. But is the Parliament, therefore,
Whig ? Certainly not. Perhaps we shall be
sufficiently exact for the purposes of general
reasoning if we regard the new House of Com-
mons as one-third Conservative, one-third Whig,
and one-third free from the tramels of party,
hut having a bias towards Radicalism ; and, we
ask, with such a House how can the Whigs get
on ? They must lean either to the Conserva-
tives or to the Destructives, or they will be in
the Slough of Despond upon every great ques-
tion. Ifthey should adopt Conservative principles,
which would be their best and wisest course, they
would doubtless secure the honest support of the
great Conservative party; but, judging from their
past conduct, we cannot believe that they will
have either principle or wisdom enough to do
this ; and in such a case they must make up
their minds to lose their mob popularity, and to
be scoffed at by the Unionists as Tories in dis-
guise. If, on the other hand, they should lean
to the Destructives, the Conservatives would be
instantly joined by ail the honest men of the old
Whig school, and by not a few of the new no-
party Members, who would not be willing to see
the country ruined for the mere purpose of keep-
ing a selfish faction in power. Then would
come on the struggle between the constitutional
and the revolutionist principles, the one sustained
by all the virtue and intelligence of the com-
munity, and the other supported by a des-
perate mob, led on by a few profligate Whig
aristocrats, the Whartons and Bolingbrokes
of the day. We will not insult our coun-
trymen by stating in words the necessary
result of such a conflict. From what we know
of the vacillating unsteady character of the men,
and the awkwardness of their position, we should
not wonder if they attempted a third course,
that of being Conservative and Destructive by
turns, according to the exigence of the moment,
in the hope of keeping both parties at bay, and
so floating on as long as they can from one
quarter-day to another. But we do not think it
possible for this plan to succeed, for so many
interests would be placed in continual jeopardy
by such a line of conduct, and so much general
distress would be induced by the jeopardy of
those interests, that all parties would soon be
glad to unite against the practical nuisance of
such a Government. Half measures and con-
flicting principles will not now be tolerated.
French aggression must be arrested, and
old alliances preserved, or Europe will bp
plunged in war. Ireland must be saved or lost
to the empire by a plain and intelligible course
of decisive policy. The West Indies must be
tranquillized or abandoned to some rival Power.
The Bank Charter question, the East India
question, the Currency question, the Church Re-
form question, and the financial system generally,'
must now be fairly met, and the thousands of re-
spectable families whose very means of subsistence
are connected with those questions must know
whether they may pursue their avocations in
safety, or whether they are liable to sudden ruin
from some hasty tricky resolution of a desperate
gambling Ministry. We wish Ministers success
in their attempts to settle subjects of such
magnitude and delicacy with the assistance
of a Reformed Parliament, the wisdom of the
Pblitical Unions, the occasional suggestions
of Talleyrand and O'Connell, and the added
illumination of those bright lights of the new
representative system, Messrs. Gully and Cob-
lieu. The elections are over, and the Conser
vatives have well performed their duty by send-
ing into Parliament, in defiance of the Bill, a
firm and compact phalanx of patriots, who will
either arrest the progress of revolution, or record
their protests against it as a memento for better
times. It only remains that all those interests
ilencionor dr
gti haalenlyizpuiriniogistcer
eti
neces-
sary' nt-i
eoilrl
oNiV3fha
1.1.1
ihaacmoa
itai knownsrrny,ileas toeo
rusbk
d
means of self-defence. Good men must
associate when bad men conspire. The country
cannot always be deceived, but must wake at last
to a distinct perception of that species of govern-
ment which is absolutely indispensable to the
protection of its vast and complex interests.—
Morning Post.
We readily sacrifice the space which we in-
tended to have devoted to a discussion of the
objections to the ballot, for the purpose of point-
ing the attention of our readers to the speech of
Mr. Poulett Thomson, at Manchester, on
Thursday last—a speech fraught with eloquence
and truth, and, we hesitate not to add, the
most important which has been delivered by any
one connected with his Majesty's Government
for many months past. Mr. Poulett Thomson
is a stanch and thorough Reformer—he has
always been a Reformer in the largest sense
of the word--and what is more, he is now
what he was previously to the passing of the
Reform Bill. Ile was then an advocate for the
ballot, and he is an advocate for it still—he
does not conceive, as a representative of West-
minster, that his position, with regard to the
Ministry, forms an excuse for a change of prin-
ciple, but, onboldly avows that his
opinions
remain
thettra7,
unchanged,
and that he will
continue to advocate them with as much
zeal, but with a due regard to circumstances,
as he formerly did. 1-IPou one of the
great questions, says he, " connected with
the system of representation, I mean the
question of secret voting, I avow my,
self one of those who have supported the ballot
in my place in Parliament, even when the cause
of Reform was unfashionable. In that prin-
ciple I am unchanged ; but I am not prepared

to say, that unless a strong case is made out for
its immediate adoption, 1, for one, will waste
the time of the Legislature in endeavouring to
introduce that system of voting, because I be-
lieve that we have in our hands an instrument
for effecting greater and more beneficial changes ;
and Ido not say that I am not even prepared to
resist the principle, if brought forward without
necessity, and so as to interfere without greater
objects." No principle can be more sound than
that on which Mr. Poulett Thomson is pre-
pared to regulate his conduct with respect to
the ballot; for as in private life, the lesser evil,
and the greater good, are always chosen without
reference to any other principle than that of self-
interest, so in public, it is much more imperative
that the same rule should predominate. The
question of the ballot—confident as we are that
it must, and anxious as we are that it should,
become part and parcel of the law of the land—
is not unquestionably so pressing in point of
time as many others of a more practical nature ;
but we must state, at the same time, that the
evidence in favour of the adoption of secret
voting has now become perfectly cumulative, and
that we know of no addition to the Reform
Act, save and excepting " that Parliaments
should be triennial," which would inspire so
much confidence in the people, or give so much
stability to the Government. To declare open
war against the ballot, as Mr. Stanley has rashly
and imprudently done, would be to sound the
death knell of the Adminstration. We do not
intend this observation for Mr. Poulett Thom-
son, who has not only no need of it, but, on
the contrary, goes quite as far as ourselves in
Reform speculation. The idea of the Reform
Act being a final measure, is with him, as with
us, a thing not to he spoken of by persons pre-
tending to common sense, much less by
those who either pretend to guide public
opinion, or are intrusted with the no less
weighty concern of conducting public affairs.
" Gentlemen," said he, " I know that much
misrepresentation has gone abroad about this
being a final measure, but that misrepresentation
I attribute merely to the watchful jealousy with
which public men are justly scrutinized. I know
not the meaning of the term final measure. I
know no bounds to the march of human im-
provement—l know of no limits which the course
of intelligence has to meet with—l know of no
power to send back the tide of civilization, or to
cause the springs of human improvement to Etig-
nate at their source. If human wants require a
change in any course of legislation, it will be
for human wisdom and human sagacity, assem-
bled,
as it ought to be, in the great council of
the nation, to proclaim those wants and those
wishes." This is sound philosophy—this is
looking at the state of the world as it ought to
be looked at. There is nothing stationary in it
—every thing is daily undergoing some change,
whether for the better or for the worse—every
effect is the cause of another change, and every
change the parent of something not pre-
viously dreamed of in the political and moral as
well as in the physical world. What nonsense
then to talk of the Reform Act being a final
measure ? What stupidity and ignorance to
dream for a moment that any thing that has
proceeded from mere mortal wisdom, shall in-
herit the properties of that which belongs only
to what is immortal ! In the course of his ad-
dress, Mr. Poulett Thomson adverted at length
to two topics of great interest, into which we
have not space to enter—the practical measures
of national improvement about to be brought
forward by his Majesty's Ministers, and his own
opinions on the subject of trade. The statement
respecting the former is most satisfactory—with
respect to the latter we shall only observe, that
the election of the flight Hon. Gentleman stamps
them with the seal of truth and wisdom. The
most intelligent portion of the people of Man-
chester have, in fact, declared by this step that
they are advocates of free trade principles, or,
in other words, of the removal of all restrictions
on commerce ; and who, alter they have appended
their seal to the doctrine, will venture to speak
out against it ?—Morning Advertiser.