The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-23 00:00:00

THE SOCIETY for PROMOTING the
ADOPTION of the BALLOT.
TO THE ELECTORS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
The determination of the Ministry to appeal to the country
induces us to address you on the question whether a real
national representation can be obtained under our present
system of elections, and the effects of our defective represen-
tative system on the administration of public affairs. It has
been well said that " We reformed our electoral system, and
we did what was much needed ; but going rather fiercely to
work, we limited most injuriously our range of choice for able
men to fill the administrative departments of the State, and
we shut the doors of the House of Commons upon all young
men of ability, except those of high birth, great wealth, or
extreme opinions—in other words, a change professedlydemo-
cratie has thrown us more completely, in practice, into the
hands of the aristocracy ; and no Venetian oligarchy was ever
more exclusive than our present caste of State-governors."
Why is this ? Because the Sovereign can only select her re-
sponsible advi-ers out of a few great families, who form the
governing classes of this country ; for no Ministry, not chosen
from these classes, could " obtain the necessary majority in
the House of Commons." The result of this state of things is
thus described by the leading journal of the day :—" The
Ministers of the Crown, who undertake the government of
this empire, are not a bit wiser or better men than thousands
of all other ranks of the Queen's subjects, except here and
there where a man of genius rises amongst them, as he may
from any other class." " Our generals have turned out worse
than useless ; our Ministers something more than incap able ;
every public department has been crushed into hopeless imbe-
cility by the weight of unbending routine and worthless forma-
lities, and on no one occasion that we are aware of has the
right man been selected to fill the right place." The energy,
ability, and industry of the people of this .country have
raised it to the highest rank among the nations of the earth,
but the incapacity and want of foresight of our Ministers,
have lowered us in the scale of nations, and brought con-
tempt on Representative Government. The same class of
men who maint tin the supremacy of this country in arts and
sciences, trade, and manufactures, could, without doubt,
furnish rulers able to maintain the supremacy of our arms
and our national honour, but such men are rarely, if ever,
cafled on to undertake the Government. The Ministers of the
Crown, the commanders of our fleets and armies, and the
chiefs of the branches of civil and military administration,
are chosen, not for merit or ability, but from " influence,"
because they belong to " powerful families," who can make
or destroy a Ministry by giving or withholding Parliamentary
support. These families monopolise place and power : not
content with the exclusive possession of the House of Lords,
they aim at, and to a great extent succeed in, monopolising
the People's House of Parliament, and exclude, as much as
possible, from any share in the Government, all men not con-
nected with their own class. The source and strength of the
Parliamentary power of the oligarchy is the control the law
permits them to exercise over the votes of the Electors
throughout the kingdom ; by which large numbers of Eng-
lishmen become so much voting-power at the disposal of the
wealthy and powerful. By the different influences which, as
landlords, customers, and in other countless forms, they
have over the electors, whose dependence is multifariously
diversified, the governing factions, Whig and Tory, secure,
with few exceptions, the whole of the county members, ald
a majority of the borough members for Eneland, Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales ; the members of Parliament, who
really sit by free and popular election, being an insig-
nificant minority. This makes the oligarchy omnipotent
in Parliament : and though they may struggle for
the mastery over each other, and differ on points of
speculative policy, they are united and irresistible on all
points affecting their monopoly of Government ; while the
people suffer both the evil of being misrepresented by those
they have not chosen, and the evil of being forced into a pre-
tended choice. The remedy for these evils is such a Reform of
Parliament as will destroy the power the Governing Classes
now have in the House of Commons, which makes an inde-
pendent and popular Ministry impossible. An extension of
the Suffrage alone will not do this. The lowering of the fran-
chise, and the consequent admission of a greater number of
dependent Electors, would only strengthen and increase the
power which possessors of undue influences now have in re-
turning Members to Parliament. Complete and Universal
Freedom of Election alone will obtain for us a House of Com-
mons who will support a Ministry in which ability and merit,
laid not influence, will be the qualification for civil or military
place and power. The only means of obtaining thisyreedom
is to establish the vote by Ballot.
We gladly adopt the IJllowing remarks from the pen of an
able journalist :—" We may call upon the constituencies till
doomsday to correct their elections, without our calling being
sensibly attended to, unless we shield and fortify the :consti-
tuencies with the Ballot. Men will make great sacrifices out
of a p itriotic spirit ; but few will cobsent to ruin themselves
for patriotism's sake. We have a right to expect much from
constituencies ; but we must not expect too much. We have
no right to call upon them to sacrifice position and prospects,
to see their business destroyed, their credit broken, their
familiessruined, for the good of the public; yet such things
have and do result continually from the honesty and courage
of men who dare to vindicate their principles and refuse to
vote for partisans of their customers. We claim for honesty
the protection of the Ballot. We claim for every man whom
the law has enfranchised, freedom from the dictation of those
who possess the power of injury ; for experience has shown
that men who have such power are not slow to use it when
their wishes are crossed."
Around this point we would concentrate the popular
energies at the coming election, confident as we are that with-
out the ballot no measure of reform will prove efficient, and
that with it any measure will be a real step in advance
gained, from which further progress will prove easy, and
further necessary reforms will inevitably follow.
We therefore counsel you to use every exertion at the
coming election to secure the ballot being made the law of the
land, by the Parliament now to be sleeted. Require of every
candidate who seeks your suffrages, that he pledge himself to
vote for the annual motion for the ballot, and that ho will
use his influence with any Ministry he may support to induce
hem to make the ballot a Government measure.
Fellow-countrymen,iin appealing for your co-operation and
aid, we would again reseectfully but earnestly remind you of
the importance of an energetic movement iu favour of the
ballot at the present juncture. Now, if ever, should the con-
stituencies and the people put forth the constitutional power
with which they are invested in a struggle for free and pro-
tected voting.
Signed by order of the Executive Committee on behalf of
the Society.

F. HENRY F. BERKELEY,
Chairman of the Council.
T. PERRONET THOMPSON,
Chairman of the Executive Committee.
WILLIAM WICKHAM,
Honorary Secretary.
Offices : 5, Guildhall-chambers, London, and
12, Newall's-buildings, Manchester.
March 10, 1557

A N APPEAL from the United
IS. LEAGUE to the ElectorsNON-
ofthe

Kingdom.
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN!
The approaching dissolution of Parliament will again enable
you to exercise that electoral power which in justice belongs
to us all, but which you alone are permitted to enjoy.
One of the reasons assigned for this insulting and degrad-
ing exclusion of our class from political authority is, that the
franchise which you possess is held in trust for us ; hence the
appeal now made to you.
None aro more deeply interested in the struggle about to
take place than we are, and it is, therefore, of the utmost
importance that the issue should bo taken upon some broad
and well-defined political principle, and, not upon the mere
personal pretensions of rival patrician statesmen. Our busi-
ness is not with these men, who are merely your instruments ;
it is with you, the Electors, to whom the law has entrusted
our liberty and our rights, that we have to deal, and whom
we are entitled to call to account.
Our case is one of peculiar hardship, and pre-eminently de-
mands your gravest consideration.
We live under a political constitution, the theory of which
is that all power springs from the people ; that representa-
tion should precede taxation, and that no law shall be made
binding upon the Subject which has not received the sanction
of the Commons of England.
'How well this sounds to the ear 1 how deceitful it is to the
heart, facts will attest.
Fellow-countrymen—You Electors number about one mil-
lion of persons. We, the voteless, are Over Four Millions 1
Who, then, constitute the commonality of England? Are
the Four Millions comprised in the term I
Electors! pause and ask yourselves who and what are
these Four Million of your fellow-subjects upon whose behalf
this appeal is made.
They aro your countrymen—your neighbours ; they culti-
vate the soil—ply the shuttle—plough the main; they exca-
vate the rocks and the mines ; their toil and skill, combined
with the capital, enterprise, intelligence, and liberality of
their employers, have created the gigantic Docks of our ports,
the large Factories and Warehouses of our towns and cities,
the Ships in our harbours, and the Railways that intersect
the country. They arc that nobler rmy of Laboure
industry the resources of the Emp have a by w
their pre-
sent marvellous development.
Such, Electors, are the men who constitute the Five Mil
lions of Outcasts from our political system—known to the
State only as the payers of Taxes, and the drudges of our
social life !
ELECTORS ! say, ought this to be
ELECTORS ! We appeal against this state of things in a
spirit of proper indignation ; but, at the same time, with a
feeling of reliance upon your justice and patriotism. It in
your power to alter the Constitution of the House of Com-
mons by the return of men pledged to do justice to the unre-
presented masses ; men who will not ally themselves with
either of the dominant factions who in turns hays the exclu-
sive managemen, of the affairs of the nation.
The oligarchic.' composition of the Executive Government
is a crying scandal, and one against which the commercial
constituencies ought to protest ; the working classes are en-
tirely excluded from Parliamentary Representation, and the
commercial classes stand in a somewhat similar relation to
the Executive authority. Thus the two great classes whose
interests are so obviously identical are treated with indignity
and injustice.
It is impossible to reflect upon the disgraceful incapacity
displayed by titled and privileged authorities during the re-
cent war without experiencing sensations of dread for the
future of our country, should the responsible offices f the
State continue to be distributed amongst the favoured pa-
tricians. It is for you, Electors, to look to this ; remember-
ing, at the same time, that the thousands of the gallant men
who were slaughtered on the Crimean soil by the cold indif-
ference and unaccountable incapacity of the connexions of
" noble families," were taken from the ranks of the voteless
millions who now appeal to you for justice.
ELECTORS ! you are the primary authority to which
these interesting matters are about to be referred ; the cha-
racter of the next Parliament depends upon your conduct ;
he Nor.-71cctors have, therefore, the clearest right to remind
you of
eiethe.:stpiy haveoiensibilityin ywhoiculri
decision,
You you, and of the
deep interest
the
ur ue
sptti uo rnes
fl tFho Cr
chi , but
dt yDoou.
You are not called on to decide merely upon the conduct
determineloifavaeMtionistry
.tors
will he justified in holding you accoun a
dfotih °ON) e°ln.e.sEulletes
in
referencet he gr etat
theC are •
mestie Policy for the new Parliamentt;
The demands of the Non-Elecctoj,s4ni
A FULL, FAIR, AND PrIn,,TE countrySENT A-
TION IN TIIE COMMONS HOUSE OF PARMA-

MENT ;
THE PROTECTION OF THE BALLOT; and
SHORTER PARLIAMENTS,
as the only means for effecting the other reforms necessary.
By order of the Committee.
WILLIAM TAYLOR, Chairman.
THOMAS CLARK, Secretary.
Committee-room " Winsistg Castle, " 152, High tiolhoru.