The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-27 00:00:00

ROXBURGIISHIRE.

LY RSFIIRF.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

A letter in this nay's 1 Ewes, bearing the sig-
nature of " An Englishman," touches on two
subjects ; the first of which has provoked long
and loud discussion throughout the country,
while the other is one of real and solid import-
ance. The first of these is the ballot question.
The second, that of the qualification required by
law from Members of the House of Commons.
The ballot has never been regarded by us as in
itself a desirable
Parliament.
The methodo of
ordinary
d in
ary
objection choosing
ns
it
is, in our opinion, of no inconsiderable weight
—namely, that it facilitates deception between
man and man, and destroys that open and fear.
less character which has heretofore adorned the
exercise of an Englishman's elective franchise.
It therefore appears to us most unfortunate, that
many landed proprietors and rich men of the
Conservative faction should have so employed
their influence as landlords or employers, as to
raise an outcry against the practice of oven
voting, because of the intimidation which tboy
attempted, and oftentimes successfully, over the
tenants on their estates, and the tradesmen to
whom they had given their custom. There
is no doubt that in thousands of cases, durs,
ing these last elections, the above two classes
of constituents, viz., tenants and tradespeople,
have been forced to vote for candidates whom.
they disapproved of, on pain of losing or impair-
ing that resource on which depended the sub-
sistence of their families. The effect of this
overbearing dictation threatens to be fatal to
those who have indulged it. The recommenda-
don of the ballot was previously confined to
speculative individuals, who looked at politics
abstractedly, and to adventurers whose object
was to use them selfishly. Both together
formed but a trifling portion of society, and
might have worked for ages without exciting the
people to any active effort. But the Conserva-
tive gentry have done the business of this ill-
assorted league of theorists and desperadoes for
them. They have raised, by their unjust and
unwise compulsion of voters to give their suf-
frages against their conscienees and judgment,
such a democratic outcry in favour of the ballot,
as may lead to the adoption of that unaccus-
tomed expedient, without affording time to reason
much upon its consequences. This, we say,
whenever it does occur, will be the handi-
work of the Tory chiefs themselves, as the
Reform Bill arose out of the Duke of 'Welling-
ton's blind and infatuated indiscretion. The
complaint then is, that the independence of
electors has been destroyed, that the landlords
have appropriated to themselves the votes of
their tenantry, and are, in fact, once more their
own constituents as much as formerly, when
through their menial servants they used to send
themselves to Parliament for their own nomina-
tion boroughs. Now what has been the first
cause of this offensive and unreflecting abuse ?
Principally, if not wholly, as relates to landlord
and tenant, the clause moved in the first Reform
Bill by the Marquis of Chandos, carried then
against Lord Grey's Government, and weakly,
as we think, introduced by Ministers into the
second Bill, when they were sure of a majority
against Lord Chandos, had his Lordship then
thought proper to repeat his experiment. Lord
Chandos, whose family estates in Buckingham-
shireand elsewhere are let mostly to tenants at
will, moved that such tenants paying .50/. rent
should vote for county Members. The re-
sult of such a rider upon the Bill, and
such an excrescence upon the sound prin-
ciple of election, was at once foreseen and
in no measured language denounced and repro-
bated by this journal. But the evil star pre-
vailed. The Tory Lord succeeded in his pur-
pose ; he created a vast army of voting vassals
throughout England, and he will be well and
justly chastised for it, if the ballot should be
insisted on by the country, and should destroy
that species of influence which operates by inti-
midation and the abuse of proprietary power.
But a question here arises which has not yet
been settled, so far as we can judge, by any of
those who clamour for the establishment of the
ballot—Will the ballot be a protection or nor,
and to what class of voters ? If the ballot
should at once, nay, at any future period, put a
total stop to the custom of canvassing electors,
this double good effect might of course be anti-
cipated—viz., I. That no inquiry being made
by the candidate as to a man's intentions, and
no disclosure by the constituent himself as to
the manner in which he had actually given his
vote, he might exercise the franchise with im-
punity. 2. That such a curtain being spread
before the balloting urn, bribery would be folly.
and would altogether cease. But is it possible for
any man to suppose that every gentleman seek-
ing a seat in Parliament, or the majority
or any
large proportion of candidates, could so far
rein in their natural impatience, as to forego the
halbeitpldheaarrt of such conciliatory process would
practice of soliciting votes, even though unable
to have the general assurance which publicity
furnishes under the present system, that the pro-
mises given would be honourably fulfilledih)bruyiznietahite:c
, manomtr
he
dasbti so
yu v
medium
ignoranthh iwhen
of
fagents
ao t
greath
enaturelector s
that no pains would be taken
as? to
tneluscgholialmnncsyteelillvefe
suffrages, such suffrages will not besolicited 1_
personal good will of the constituents,
le
to con-
not consist of the question, " May I hope for
the honour of your vote ?" Tile representative,
system of the United States has often been ap-
pealed to as a model for us in England, and the
ballot of that country quoted as the happiest of
her institutions ; but is there no canvass for
members of Congress there ? Why the whole
republic is a furnace previous to the elections.
ocitsnliroiiutaahggct
aeaihntitti
It is a matter of notoriety how every man professes
to vote ; there are the forms, indeed, under which
concealment might be practised; but substantially
no concealment exists. Of course, w ' • were one citizen
in another's gripe as here, there would (without a
great previous change of usage) be no protection
in the American ballot, because there is no real
privacy. To proceed, however, with the subject
of individual canvass of those orders of the
people who here are taught to cry out for the
ballot as their safeguard. The elector applied
to can give but three answers to the question.
He either says, " I will not vote for sou,"
which supposes him to be a man above all chance
of intimidation, and therefore one who looks
for no protection, or he says, " I will vote for
you," in which case, also, if he means to keep
his word, he stands just where he does at pre-
sent ; and if he designs to break his word, he
is void of principle, and merits no " protection."
The third answer is one of hesitation or neu-
trality, which satisfies no candidate, and would,
either with the ballot or without, be ver) seldom
resorted to. The ballot, therefore, wined nut, as
our correspondent says truly, be a security to
the honest man ; and to the false and de-
ceitful knave it ought not to be granted as 3