The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-29 00:00:00

THE BALLOT.

(From a letter to a Morning Paper.)
Does it remain yet a question, at this time of day, what
is the true theory of popular representation, according to
any doctrine of our so lauded constitution, and according
to the intention of the. Reform Bill ? Am I allowed to
assume it as the theory and intention, that the national
constituency shall freely and honestly vote according to
their judgment of measures and men ; that, instructed,
reasoned with, pleaded with, as much as they please, they
shall yet be determined in their choice by nothing but their
deliberate approbation ; and that every thing to the con-
trary
of this is, so far, treason against the national polity ?
If so, this most important function ought to be guarded
with every possible security for its faithful exercise. And
I need not ask you whether the present condition of the
exercise of what is pretended to be conferred as a right
and a privilege, imposing a most serious duty, be not a
flagrant mockery. With the venal it is a privileged occa-
sion of having their country to sell; with the dependent it
is a badge of slavery ; with those who are conscientious
as well as dependent, it is a painful trial of principle ; all
which abuses reached their last excess in the recent elec-
tion, and are now to have their result in the Legislature.
You will surmise that the expedient I have in view is no
other than, the ballot. And what other has any man sug-
g--<•ted, with even an appearance of plausibility ? Those
who are not against it unconditionally, and at all events,
are saying, " Let no first try everything else." What is
it that they have to try ? 14:-..,rs against bribery have no-
toriously been a dead letter. If an I,l'..ti7ce or two of con-
viction occur (as recently at Cambridge), it talks us by
surprise, as a thing we could not have reckoned on. In
cases where everybody knew that bribery had pervaded
every street of a town, with a pollution as gross as the stream
in its kennels, it has been found impossible to produce that
sort of precise and technical proof demanded by legal men,
and by members of Parliamentary Committees, some of
them, perchance, having reasons of their own for being punc-
tilious in the admissiOn of evidence. And by what mode of
jurisdiction can you contrive to take cognizance of intimida-
tion, practised by landlords, employers, wealthy customers,
clergymen, parish officers, the heads of public offices, and
corporation magnates—intimidation often conveyed through
hints and inuendos, perfectly intelligible to those who dare
not misunderstand them, but so slightly expressed that
they would seem to vanish into nothing when attempted to
be made the foundation of a criminal charge ?
Let us wait in the hope (something to this effect was
lately: said by Lord John •Russell)*of the. growth of a more
honourable and virtuous feeling, by which influential men
will become ashamed of such base practices. But how are
you to send them back to pass through a new school of mo-
rals ? And tell me, if you can, of any incipient symptom
of such a change. Which of them is at all ashamed of the
recent exploits in this line ? Is any one of them the worse
received in the rank of society to which he belongs ? Are
not their performances, if they have been successful, a sub-
ject of complacent and jocular reference in their select co-
teries ? It is there a good joke how they drove their cattle
to the hustings, while some of the Radical creatures
were internally grumbling, or even giving vent to their cha-
grin in impotent mutterings. And who is to teach and
exhort them to turn from their bad courses ? Will not
many of their spiritual instructors (if accounts be true)
have cause to be very lenient in their reprehensions? Even.
Lord John Russell himself was evidently very sceptical as
to any such progress to honour and honesty ; and, pressed
by the evidence that, instead of an abatement, there is an
aggravation of the evil, acknowledged that we may at last
be driven to the Ballot. As no other expedient in a tangi-
ble form is proposed from any quarter, we are left to the
alternative of resorting to this, or of surrendering the grand
palladium, as it has been• called, of our popular rights and
liberties to a malignant agency, which essentially vitiates,
and will not cease to vitiate, our Legislature and legislation.
Yes, this is the alternative. We are brought to the plain
question whether we be, as the constitutional doctrine pre-
tends, or be not, to have an actual faithful representation ?
If this be not an idle theoretical fancy, but a practicable
thing, to which we have a right that ought to be maintained,
we must maintain it by the means by which alone we can
maintain it. As being our sole resource, the expedient is
necessarily the right one, whatever evils of its own it may
involve. You deny the right itself, if you deny the right of
using the only effectual means for our possession of it.
You treat us with the ludicrous and spiteful absurdity of
first appointing an institution for the public welfare, essen-
tial, all-important, you proclaim, for good government, and
then telling us that, nevertheless, the only means for mak-
ing it effectual are worse than leaving it to be frustrated.
It is a capitally contrived machine, only it cannot be
worked so as to effect its purpose, without the applica-
tion of an implement that will make it scatter mis-
chief all around it. But better send it to the lumber-
room at once, if it cannot effect the good it is intended
for without a balance, or- over-balance, of damage from
the only mode of working by which it can effect that
good. Why continue working it in a manner which, while
it causes much greater damage another way, doei or not, but
very partially, effect the intended-good ? We do not deny
that evils of very considerable amount would attend the
Ballot, especially in the earlier stages of the practice : but
if we account them such that we must reject it, though we
have no other way of obtaining an approximation to the
faithful action of the representative principle, we plainly say
that we forego that pretended essential requisite to good
government, and submit to be misrepresented, to a great
and pernicious extent, in the Legislature. And so we must
sit down in helpless resignation, till the stars shall be more
auspicious ; till unprincipled wealth and arrogance shall
spontaneously cease to bribe and threaten, or our universal
constituency shall rise to such a pitch of virtue and courage
as to reject the offered purchase-money, and defy at every
hazard the menaced revenge. A goodly prospect ; and a
short interval for the exercise of our patience under a per-
verted legislation !—a legislation which may, meanwhile,
create for our posterity also abundant occasion for the ex-
ercise of their patience, in addition to that load of debt which
preceding Parliaments, convened under a imp sham of re-
presentation, have entailed on us and them.—l am, &c.
AN INDEPENDENT. ELECTOR.