The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-21 00:00:00

" OUDE AND NEPAUL.

" The temporising policy which we ventured to
predict as that likely to be adopted by Jung Baha-
door has been closely pursued by that Minister.
From all sides we hear that the Nepaulese army has
never moved to any great distance from Katmandoo,
and that Jung Bahadoor is negotiating. The Begum
it is said is in the Nepaul capital. The main body
of the rebels, is however, still on the borders, and
threatening the Bengal district of Tirhoot. Kelly's
column on the ;Gunduk has been moved to block
the passes, and Brigadier Horsford has gone from
Baraitch with two regiments to Toolseepore. We
know nothing of the internal state of Nepaul except
from sources of which we cannot implicitly trust the
accuracy, but if rumour is to be credited the mal-
content party, numerous in Nepaul, is making com-
mon cause with the enemies of England, and threat-
ening us with a hill warfare, which can afford no
very agreeable prospect to the guardians of our
deficient exchequer.
"MISCELLANEOUS AND LOCAL.

" Two remarkable trials have been brought to a
close. Lonee Sing, of Mitowle in Oude, has been
found guilty, not merely of rebellion, but of the
crime of surrendering to the cruelty of the Lucknow
Durbar the Christian fugitives, of whom it will be
recollected that Miss Orr was one. He has been
sentenced to transportation for life. The Nawaub
of Furruckabad, found guilty after the fact, of the
massacre of the Futtehghur garrison on the Ganges
—before and after the fact, of the execution of the
melancholy remnants of that massacre—has been
sentenced to death. As yet, however, we are not
aware that this sentence has been confirmed. The
latest political change that we have to notice is the
appointment of Mr. Barnes Peacock to be Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. This will
leave a new and lucrative piece of patronage in the
hands of Lord Stanley. E may be a question, how-
ever, whether it will be necessary in future to keep
up the office of legal adviser to the Supreme Govern-
ment now that India iS under the direct control of the
Crown. We have already noticed the approaching
departure of Sir R. Hamilton from Indore. It will
be seen that he has had a farewell address from the
last of the Holkars. Whilst the place of agent in
Central India is thus vacant, that of agent in Raj-
pootana is also on the eve of surrender by the pre-
sent incumbent, Col. G. Lawrence, who goes to
England on sick leave. Colonel Lawrence, it
is said, will be succeeded by Major Eden,
political agent at Jeypore. At Hyderabad, in
the Nizam's territory, an attempt has been
made against the life of Salar Jung, the
Prime Minister, and England's greatest friend.
Fortunately, the assassin was prevented from carry-
ing out his purpose, and wits killed by the guards
in the presence of our own resident, Col. Davidson.
An effort is being made here to do honour to the
64th and 78th Regiments on their return from
active service. The 78th is to go home, the 64th
proceeds to Kurrachee. It is proposed, before either
of the regiments leave these shores, to give them
such an entertainment as may leave upon them,
and upon the army, of which they are such glorious
representatives, a lasting impression of the gratitude
felt for their eminent services during the rebellion.
Another regiment has been added to the list of those
which have been ordered home. H.M.'s 29th is
ordered to Shergotty, to proceed thence to Calcutta
to embark. A portion of Capt. Bolton's battery
R.A., left Bombay on the 15th in the Vernon.
H.M.'s 86th, one wing of which is already here,
will embark shortly for England. Lord Elphin-
stone is still here, but Sir Henry Somerset and
Sir Hugh Rose are enjoying the cool breezes of
Mahabuleshwur. The retirement of Mr. Lowten
Jenkins, who held several appointments in •the
Supreme Court, has produced vacancies which have
been filled by Mr. George Taylor and Mr. Edward
Yardley, barristers-at-law, and Mr. A. Sangster,
solicitor."

•
COMMERCIAL. INTELLIGENCE.
REPORT , ON. THE STATE OF THE BOMBAY MARKET
FROM THE 12TH TO TIIE 25TH or MARCH.
The peninsular and Oriental Company's steamship Bom-
bay, with the English mails of the 18th of February on
board, reached us on the morning of the 12th inst., the day
on which the last overland steamer left Bombay. We have
received advices from England to the 26th of February by
electric telegraph from • Galle. The money-market is be-
coming easy, and money can be obtained on better terms
than before

IMPORTS.
Cotton Piece Goods—The market is quiet.
EXPORTS.

Cotton—The market is perceptibly exhibiting greater
activity, •Broach and Oomerawuttee especially being.. in
(rood demand.
Tonnage—Tlie rates of freights are steady, being £1 17s.
6d. to £2 per ton to London, and £1 12s. 6d, to £1 15s. 6d.
to Liverpool.
Exchange—The rates have declined again. We quote
credits at 28. lid., and documents at 2s lid. at six months'
sight. On Calcutta, 974 r.; and on China 212 r. per 100
dollars, at GO days' sight,

VOTE. BY BALLOT.

- ♦

On Monday evening a large and enthusiastic
public meeting, in connection with the Society for
Promoting the Adoption of Vote by Ballot, was held
at the Wellington Hall, Dover, E. C. Whitehurst,
Esq., vice-chairman of the society, and a gentleman
named Hayes, from Australia, attended to repre•
sent the society. E. R. Rice, Esq., formerly mem-
ber for the borough, had been invited to preside,
bet owing to his being absent from home in a
distant part of the country, was unable to attend;
and Mr. Bernal Osborne, M.P., and Mr. Knatchbull
Hugessen, M.P., were also prevented by their
engagements from being present. John Briggs,
Esq., was called to the chair, and opened the meet-
ing with a few appropriate remarks.
Mr. WHITEHURST rose, and in his opening re-
marks, asked the question, What do we want the
ballot for ? Well, he would answer that question
in one short sentence—to bring back the House of
Commons to its original state, and to make it fulfil
its original intentions, viz., the representation of
the common people in that house. (Applause.) In
spite of aristocratic notions, his idea of the House
of Commons was a house in which the great majo-
rity of the middle and working classes, who are not
connected with the aristocracy of birth, the aristo-
cracy of property, or the aristocracy of money, were
fairly represented. (Applause.) The original inten-
tion and the original condition of the House of
Commons was one in which the representative
body was composed entirely and exclusively of
the representatives of the class to which he
had just alluded. When our forefathers set to work
to make a House of Commons, which should be
separate and distinct from the House of Lords, they
never went about accomplishing the representation
of different interests, which for two mortal hours
the Chancellor of the Exchequer laboured in that
House to impress upon Parliament was their inten-
tion the House of Commons should be; but what
they did was, they took the counties of England,
and the more important towns of England, and
they gave them the privilege of returning members
to Parliament, and the great body of the house-
holders had the privilege of exercising the fran-
chise. Therefore when Mr. Bright proposed that
every municipal burgess shall have the right of
sending members to Parliament, he is proposing no
"revolutionary" scheme, as was sought to be made
out by a few gentlemen in that town the other
day ; but he was proposing the old municipal fran-
chise, and the right of voting for the burgesses of
the boroughs. Our forefathers never dreamt that
young noblemen should make the House of Com-
mons the stepping stone to the House of Lords—
they never dreamt that the • House of Commons
should be a sort of club for the younger members
of the aristocracy to delight themselves in—(a
laugh)—but they said in the 'good old Saxon
phraseology, we comic and you to send good and
sound burgesses to Parliament. And when Mr.
Bright expressed a wish to the effect that he
should like to see the representatives of the
people as firmly seated in the House of Com-
mons as the Queen was seated upon her throne, he
was only setting forth the principle upon which
that house was originally based, and wishing to
bring back things to their original purpose and
intention. (Hear, hear.) Alluding to intimida-
tion at elections, he said that one of the earliest
statutes which regulated the right of representing
the people in the House of Commons, provided
that no great or powerful man should by threats or
malice, hinder any to make free elections. Our
forefathers did not think about the Ballot as a
means of voting, and for want of this secret the
freedom of election had been greatly impaired in
this country. The whole state of things was
changed; the House of Commons was no longer a
body summoned by the king for the mere purpose
of voting money and supplies for carrying on the
government of the country; but it had become the
centre of all political power, and to obtain a seat in
it is to have a great share in carrying on the go-
vernment of these, important realms. Who could
wonder, then, that the obtaining of such a seat was
an object of ambition to which the great and power-
ful directed their energies ; and that they should
succeed in making it, not the House of Commons
of the masses of the whole people, but the represen-
tative body of the aristocracy of land, money and
rank. Now that was what we complained of, and
what we desired to see remedied, which could only
be effected by the Ballot. As it at present exists,
no man of the middle classes, who had obtained a
seat in that house, unless he were a man of such
transcendent talent as Mr. Bright, or As Mr.

Cobden, would be listened to. 'What did such a
man find ? He (the speaker) had witnessed
in the House of Commons that man, sent
by the largest constituencies—men of the
middle classes, shrewd, sound, honest men—men
much sounder politicians than those of higher birth,
don't obtain a hearing—the Speaker does not see
them. As an instance of the way in which such
men were treated by the aristocratic members of
the house, Mr. Whitohurst said that shortly after
the election of the present Parliament about two
years ago, a noble lord, lately a member of the
Derby Government, and who represented a city in
the south of England, but whom he should better
describe if he said that he represented his ducal
father--(a laugh)—approached the door of the
House of Commons, and inquired of an officer, who
was then speaking ? The doorkeeper named a
gentleman who was known to them as Mr. Ayrton,
the useful member for the Tower Hamlets, who was
sent to the house by the free and unbought votes
of some 10,000 electors, while the noble lord pro.
fessed to represent not more than 700 or 800 elec-
tors in a cathedral city. " Mr. Ayrton is addressing
the house, my lord," was the doorkeeper's answer.
" Oh," replied his lordship, " another snob. Upon
my word it is dreadful to think of the number of
snobs who are in tue house now. I think we shall
be obliged to give up the Government of the country
to them, and we shall then see what they can do
without us." He (the speaker), for one, should be
very happy to accept the responsibility of these
" snobs' —(laughter)—and if they retired, and were
to let the majority of the representatives of the
people enter the house and take their places, he
had no doubt that they would carry on the Go-
vernment quite as well, if not better, than they
did. Having alluded to this aristocratic monopoly,
and asked who could wonder, when all the influence
of wealth and unfair dependance were brought to
bear at the last election, and also within a few
days ago, that men should grow up with their hearts
one way and their votes another way, and be called
liars before God and man, he next showed them
how this monopoly affected their representation, and
gave an instance in the question of church-rates.
The principality of Wales, he said, sent from its
boroughs and counties, 32. members to Parliament.
According to the last census the proportion of
Churchmen to Dissenters was one of the former to
two of the latter. Well, if the people were fairly
represented, they would have thought that the 32
members were in the same proportion, viz., two
Dissenters and one Churchman. This was not the
case, for in the division on the Church-rate Bill,
12 of those 32 members voted for the Bill,ll voted
against it, and the remaining nine did not vote at
all. Take the question of the ballot. He believed
there was no question which was regarded, not only
amongst its enemies, but amongst its supporters,
with so much loathing as the ballot ; and if its
merits were to be brought before the house to-mor-
row night, he would venture to say that as soon as
Mr. Berkeley had risen to speak upon it, the
house would begin to talk and to groan, and
there would be cries of " Divide, divide,"
and all the other hellish noises, if he might so
use the expression, that a major:ty of more
lungs than brains could raise against it. Any
man; therefore, who desired to speak upon this
'question was completely dumbf'oundered, and there
wuld be a probability, in such a case, of the question
going to a division, with only a speech on one side,
and perhaps not an answer to that one. But the
ballot reckened some of the most able men among
its supporters. Take Sir James Graham ; he came
from the North of England, and was as shrewd a
man as one would find in or out of the House of
Commons. He had told them that no one question
met with so favourable a reception, and made such
progress in his own constituency, and out of it, as
the question of the ballot. (Hear, hear.) What
did Mr. Bright say about it? Why that in all the
great public meetings he had addressed, since last
September, on the subject of reform, there was not
one question that demanded so much unanimity and
support as the question of the ballot. (Cheers.)
Now, he (the speaker) would, with their permission,
call himself as a witness. He had spent four or five
years in advocating this question, and he had spoken
to public meetings in all p South of England, to
arts of England, from
Penzance, in the extreme
Newcastle, in the North and he could corroborate
that the feeling was sirong arid unanimous in
favour of the ballot. This being the' case, he drew
from it three conclusion, the first one was, that the
House of Commons on this question of the ballot, as
well as on other questions, did not really represent
the people of this country ; secondly, that the ballot
is not un-English, forlie could not believe that any.
thing which was so desired by the people was un-
English—(hear, hear)—and, thirdly, that the great
laughter.)
r.) candidates
i I efo; a
lunatic
iocf
asylum.
them,
e (Cheers hoped,
de
lnotau
freedombal-
lot
o f
election,something theyand
ourall instincts wanted , theydi.ov
drove
ua wanted
the ballot as the means of securing that free.
side he
omof
election. (Hear, hear.) On the opposite e
had encountered two very distinguished persons,
one, a Mr. John Stuart Mill—and he was said to
tha the
be a very great philosopher-110 declared
ballot was wanted 30 years ago, but. it was not

wanted now. He might be a very great philoso-
pher, but when this gentleman had spent 30 years
of his life in the old India House, in Leadenhall,
where the light' of day came in but little, they
could not wonder that his ideas should have become
rather bedimmed. Another distinguished person,
because he is an opponent, writes from the Times
newspaper office, and says that the ballot was
wanted 20 years ago, but it was not wanted now
Now, let them glance at facts; if the ballot was
wanted, ifothere was this undue interference with
the rights and consciences of the people, they
should find some traces of it. He then read, as an
instance of undue influence, an advertisement
hich had appeared in the Maidstone Gazette,
from which it appeared that a clergyman owning
some land in Kent, had stipulated that his tenants
should vote on the same side as he (the landlord)
did, observing that " landlords and tenants ought
always to vote on the same side." Now this gentle-
man was a clergyman of the Church of England,
who is set over people to instruct them in an
matters of morality and duty ; he had told them---
he did know whether he laid any claim to Apostolic
succession or not—(a laugh)—but he had told them
that landlord and tenant always voted on the same
side. Now allow him (the speaker) to propose to
case of conscience ;—let him suppose that this
clergyman, being a member of the Church of
England, was one of those whe liked church-rates;
let him suppose that his tenant farmer was one, like
the speaker, who did not like church rates, and
thought them opposed to religious freedom and
took away the rights of conscience. If the land-
lord and tenant voted on the same side, which of
them was to sacrifice his conscience to the other,
because it was very certain that both of them could
not vote the same way without a breach of con-
scientious duty ? But the ballot would do away
with all this sort of thing, and every man would be
enabled to vote according to his conscience. The
speaker then alluded to the way in which elections
were carried on in many parts of England ; where
employers brought down their men in omnibuses
or other vehicles and compelled them to vote for,
the candidate whom they supported, under pain 01
being discharged at the end of the week from their
employ. He also alluded to the influence which,
under the present corrupt system, solicitors for
" consideration" would use, by putting on the
"screw" in certain quarters; and concluded by
urging the meeting to adopt the ballot as the only
means of preventing corruption and intimidation.
The speaker resumed his seat amid loud cheers.
Mr. HAYESafterwards addressed the meeting,
alluding to the satisfactory adoption of the ballot in
the colonies of Australia, and explaining its work-
ing there, in which he was considerably assisted by
a large coloured diagram representing the manner
of voting.
The Rev. T. B. W. BRIGGS propOsed a resolution
approving of the ballot as a means of voting, and s 5
a remedy for our present corrupt system with
regard to elections, as follows :—" That this meet"
ing desires to record its conviction that no Reform
bill will be complete and satisfactory unless it
includes vote by ballot."
' Mr. WILSON (a working man) seconded the
resolution; which having been put to the meeting'
was carried unanimously.
A vote of thanks having been accorded to the
chairman, the meeting, which had been conducted
with the greatest order and unanimity, separated.