The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-03 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The authorities connected with the War De-
partment having decided on making considerable
additions to the coast defences at Dover, by the ex-
tension of the line of fortifications and the rec,m-
struetion of several of the batteries, orders have
been received at Chatham for the 34th company of
Royal Engineers, under the command of Captain
G. 11. Gordon, to proceed from that garrison to
Dover to be employed on the contemplated works.
The company will be considerably augmented pre-
viously to its leaving Chatham by the selection of
several men from the detachments of Royal Engi-
neers now at head quarters.
DuriYg the, last few days several batches of
recruits have airived at the head-quarters of the
Chatham division of Royal Marine Light Infantry,
chiefly from the agricultural districts and the me-
tropolis, numbers of young men who have been
thrown out of work through the " strike" having
joined her Majesty service. The Chatham division
of Royal Marines is now unusually strong.

[ADVERTISEMENT.] - Mr. Benson, Ludgate-hill, has
Eby
published a now illustrated pamphlet on watches (free
by post for two stamps). It should be read by all who are
about buying a watch, as it contains prices and important
information as to—What watch to buy I where to buy it I
and how to use it I

THE CHANNEL FLEET IN Th."3.l<",
(From t e Times.) N .I].
In that terrible tornado which has strewn our
coasts with wrecks, which sent vessels to the bottom
even within the shelter of harbours, and which
tried to its very utmost the tremendous strength of
the largest ship in the world, there was a squadron
at sea on which the thoughts of Englishmen must
have rested with anxious solicitude. Our Channel
Fleet—the first defence of the nation—left the
waters of Queenstown just 48 hours before the
floyal Charter passed the same port on that ill-
fisted run which closed a successful voyage with
disaster and destruction. Four line of-battleships
and three heavy frigates stood bravely out into the
Atlantic as the tempest was impending, and what
was to be their fate? The vessels were of novel
construction and armament, utterly different from
those with which Nelson kept the seas; the crews
were but newly organised, and the approaching
storm was presently to burst with a fury almost
unparalleled.in thNe latitudes. How would these
ships behave ? How would modern seamanship
endure this drain upon its resources ? These are
questions to which a reply was given a day or two
ago—an eye-witness having told the public,
through our columns, all the history of the Channel
fleet in the gale.
It was on Saturday, the 22d ult., that the Hero,
the Trafalgar, the Algiers, and the Aboukir, accom-
pasied by the Mersey, the Emerald, and the Melpo-
mene, put to sea from Queenstown. Up to the after-
noon of Monday the squadron met with no remark-
able adventure, but about that time, just after the
crews had been exercised at gunnery practice,
heavy storm of hail and sleet began to set in.
Still there was no immediate indication of the tem-
pest at hand, and at sunset topsails were double-
reefed and courses reefed for the night, with no
particular character about the wind, except that
of extreme variability. As the morning broke on
Tuesday, the day of the storm, the Land's-end was
sighted, and the rain and the wind continued to
increase. About nine a.m. the advent of the gale was
no longer doubtful ; topgallantyards were sent on
deck and topgallantmasts strusk, and the signal
was given given from the flagship; " Form two columns;
form line of battle ; Admiral will endeavour to go to
Plymouth." To Plymouth, accordingly, the course
of the fleet was shaped, but so terrifically had the
wind increased that it became very question-
able whether the sternmost ships of the line could
possibly succeed in entering the Sound. Upon this
the Admiral determined to wear the fleet together,
stand off, and face the storm, a manoeuvre which,
under circumstances of great difficulty, was most
gallantly executed. The ships were close upon the
Eddystone Lighthouse, round which they "darted
like dolphins" under the tremendous pressure of the
gale, the Trafalgar stopping in the midst of the
storm to pick up a man who had fallen overboard.
The whole squadron now stood off the land, the
Mersey and Melpomene furling their sails, and tho
former vessel steaming along " like an ocean giant."
St ill the gale increased till about 3 p.m., when there
occurred that remarkable phenomenon by which
these rotatory tempests are characterised. The fleet
had got into the very centre of the storm, the " eye"
of the tornado, and, though film sea towered up and
broke in tremendous billows all around, the wind
suddenly ceased and the sun shone. When, however,
the signal had been given and obeyed for setting sail
again, the ships soon encountered the gale once
more—not, as before, from the S.E., but the N.W.,
and in greater force thon ever. It was now a per-
fect
hurricane; and for three hours the whole fury
of the tempest was poured upon the squadron.
:When it began at length to abate a little the four
line-of-battle ships and one of the frigates were still
in company and all doing well. The Mersey and the
Emerald had steamed into Plymouth, but the five
remaining vessels kept in open order throughout
that terrible night, wore in succession by night
signal at about 1 a.m., made the land at daylight,
formed line of battle, came grandly up Channel
under sail at the rate of 11 knots an hour, steamed
into Portland, and took up their anchorage without
the loss' of a sail, a spar, or a ropeyarn."
We cannot but express our most lively satisfac-
tion at the results which this narrative conveys.
It is evident enough that our ships and our seamen
still maintain their ancient character, and that
steam and gunnery, however prominent they may
appear, have not superseded those original elements
of excellence which gave the British navy its re-
nown. It is also plain from this event that seaman-
ship -is still an indispensable condition in nautical
efficiency. Mere soldiers or engineers could never
have carried the Channel Fleet through the tornado.
The aid of steam was occasionally called in, and, no
doubt, to good purpose, as when the Mersey put
forth her enormous strength in cleaving the billows
of the Chamiel, but it was professional skill which
kept the squadron harmless through those four-and-
twenty hours of peril. Steam, in fact, can never be
more than auxiliary, and for the obvious reason that
no vessel can carry fuel for more than a few days'
eraise. In times of war a squadron would be com-
pelled to reserve its coals for the actual period of an
engagement, and to rely, in the main, on its sails, or,
in other words, on its sailors. Manceurres during
action will be greatly facilitated, and probably, in-
deed, altogether changed, by the introduction of
steam power, but beyond such assistance on that and
other emergencies the new element will do but little.
To steam 30 or 40 days and without taking
in fresh supplies of fuel a vessel must be as big as
the Great Eastern ; in fact, it was that very con-
dition which first determined the dimensions of the
great ship. Ordinary vessels of war must either be
dependent upon fresh supplies week after week, or
they must rely upon their sails, as they did 40 years
ago.
Great as is the cost of our navy, not a sixpence
of the outlay will be grudged by the country if a
corresponding return is found in the efficiency of
the fleet and the security of the nation. Give us
a good Channel Squadron composed of such ships
as weathered the great storm of Tuesday, and the
money will be found without a murmur. The
public ask only for money's worth, and it is satis-
factory in the extreme to,think that this fair con-
sideration is now forthcoming. Perhaps there was
a natural exaggeration in the description given of
the navy at the Liverpool banquet, when, in order
to exalt the merits of Lord Derby's Adminis-
tration, it was said to have raised our fleet to a
condition of " unprecedented power." Much, how-
ever, was really done by that Government, and
all praise is due to those resolute exertions by
which the average productiveness of our dock-
yards was so largely increased. We have passed
the crisis now. We have emerged successfully
from the position in which :a variety of cir-
cumstances had combined to place us for the
moment, and it is not likely that any future
Government will shut its eyes to the warning.
Once ahead, it is impossible that any State can
overtake us, for our pecuniary and mechanical re-
sources exceed those of any country in the world.
Whatever phase naval warfare or nautical science
can assume, we must needs be better prepared for it
than others. If steam rams or steel plated frigates
should be in the ascendant, it is here that they can
be most speedily constructed; if rifled cannon are
to carry the day, it is here that they can be turneL
out with the greatest rapidity.
Englishmen are naturally disposed to grumble,
and perhaps this grumbling goes far towards getting
us good service, but to those who remember the
state of our defences 10 or 12 Years ago their pre-
sent condition must present a spectacle both agree-
able and surprising. That we have still much to
do in organising a supply of men for the Navy is
doubtless true, but the stride we have taken in all
departments is immense. Our line-of-battle ships
are magnificent, and we have one fleet in the Medi-
terranean and another in the Channel. Our heavy
frigates arc admirable structures, unsurpassed by
any vessels of the class afloat, while in vessels
below these rates we are exceedingly strong. We
entirely
battle
concur
ships
mN,Vililthbethose superseded
bywho imaginegu n -
boats, but nobody can doubt that such a flotilla of
that cannot
line-of
small, but heavily armed craft as we could send
out must be of infinite service in times of emergency.
Lastly, and above all, it is clear, if only from last
week's experience, that we still possess officers and
seaman of that quality which constitutes the real
power of a navy, and that no improvements in ar-
tillery or navigation are likely to supersede the gifts
of daring and skill. With these conclusions we may
well be gratified, and especially when we reflect
that such a power of confronting all the perils of
war is more likely than anything else to secure us
the blessings of unbroken peace.

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W. B. Reeves, 181, Fleet street, London." Cure 4,208.
" Eight years' dyspepsia, nervousness, debility, with cramps,
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' Gracechurch-street ;4, Cheapside ; 63, an . ,
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and
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125.; 1-hir.,
at Liverpool,_ Nixon and Thew; at Manchester, Sharp and
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, ampton, Randall and Son,

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA,
COVENT-GARDEN.
Under the manazement of Miss L. Fyne and Mr. W. Harrison
THIS EVENING, DI N 0 RrA. 11. Messrs. Santley, II
Corti, St. Aibyn, and W. Harrison. Misses Pilling, Th
rl-
Wall, and Miss Louisa Prue.
Conductor, Alfred Mellon.

DIVERTISSEMENT. Mdlles. Lequine, Pasquale, Pier-
ron, and Mons. Vandris.

Commence at 8 o'clock.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HA YMARKET.
Lpssee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.

Trlig EVENING the performances will eommerw with
THE CONTESTED ELECTION. Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Mathews, Mr. Bud:stone, &c.
After which, USED UP. Mr. C. Mathews.
And JACK'S RETURN FROM CANTON.
Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.—
Lessee, Mr. A. Harris.
THIS EVENING, the performances will commence with
a new drama, entitled THE MASTER PASST4 )N. Messrs.
Ryder, G. Melville, Graham, It. Cathcart, Garden ; Miss C.
Lee ercq and Mrs. Charles Young.
After which, PT SS ; or, Metempysychosi2. Miss L. Keeley.
To be followed by a dramatic tableau in Watteau colours,
by J. It. Planche, Esq., entitled LOVE AND FORTUNE.

NEW THEATRE - ROYAL, AIDELPHL
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Beni. Webster.
I .THIS EVENING, to commence with GOOD FOR.
NOTHING. Messrs. J. L. Toole, llillington, Eburne, More-
land, Powell, and Miss Woolgar.
After which (by desire), ONE TOITcll OF NATURE.
Messrs. B. Webster, Bilring-ton, Moreland, iii ;s 11. Simms.
Followed by LOVE AND HUNGER. Mr. David Fisher,
Mr. Paul Bedford, C. Selby, C. J. Smith, Miss K. Kelly, Miss
Laidlaw.

Doors open at half-past slx,-Commence at seven. Box-
Offic.e open from 10 to 5. No charge for securing seats,
nor for hills of performance. All fees to servants of this
establishment are strictly prohibited.
Acting Manager—Mr. Win. Smith.

ROYAL ST. JAMES'S THEATRE,
King-street, St. James's. Lessee, Mr. T. B. Chatter-
ton. The nearest Theatre to Chelsea, Pimlico, and West-
minster, the Park being open to carriages and foot passen-
gers all hours of the night.
THIS EVENING, Poole's comedy, THEY'RE BOTH TO
BLAME. Messrs. Leigh Murray, Barrett, Walter Carle ;
Mesdames Frank Matthews, Murray, Catharine llickson.

Followed by MAGIC TOYS, support •d by Miss Lydia
Thompson, Miss Clara St. Casse, and a numerous Corps de
Ballet.
After which, the new Comerlietta, entitled CUPID'S
LADDER. Reuben, Miss Lydia Thompson.
Reduced Prices—Gallery, 6d ; Pit, Is. The Box-office open
from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past six ; perform-
ance commences at 7.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE,
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborough
THIS EVENING, TRYING IT ON.
Followed by (first time) ROMEO AND JITT,TE C. Mr. J.
Clark, Mr. J. Rogers, Marie Wilton, and Charlotte Saunders.
And THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS.
Commence at 7 o'clock

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.

Sole Lessee Mr. William Cooke.

Most legitimate and perfect success of the New Historicsl
Drama, by Tom Taylor, Esq., entitled GARIBALDI, and
Illustrating the principal events in the life of that celebrated
Italian General, supported by Messrs. R. Phillips, Bellmore,
Ennis, Raymond, Miss Kate Carson, aide i by a powerful Dra-
matic Company, full stud of beautiful trained horses, appro-
priate and picturesque scenery, with great hippodramatic
effects. Enthusiastic reception of the renowned Delavanti
Family—Gymnasts par excellence—with Little Menoni, the
most wonderful Juvenile Equestrian ever known, who are re-
ceived each night with deafening- plaudits John Henry
Cooke, the unrivalled Parisian Magnet—Artistes of astound-
ing ability from the Continental Cirques Miss Emily, the
most elegant rider of the day—Full troupe of Gymnastic Pro-
fessors, facetious Clowns, and Pierrots—Magnificent Menage
Horses and clever Dwarf Ponies, &c.
Stage Manager, Mr. It. Phillips

CANTERBUR Y HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING.—The Music of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
certs).

And a Grand Selection from Neyerbeer's new opera of
DINORAII.

Comic Vonll3ts - Messrs. George Ro,ison (the Trish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfield, and E. W. Mack-ney.

Several interesting- Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
ROSA BONE, EUR'S celebrated PICTURE of the HORSE
FAIR is now added to the already magnificent Collection of
Paintings in the Canterbury Hall Pine Arts Gallery. The
gallery is °pc]. from 9 am. till 12 p.m. Admission, Six-
pence.

TEE WEATHER.—SuN Ormit, NovEmßEn 3.
TIfEItMOMETER7 IN THE SHADE.
59—highest since noon yesterday.
45—lowest this morning and during the night.
52—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.72.
WIND, South-Westerly; light, with fine cool weather.

lIIGII WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAY.—Morninr,, 7h. 18m.—Afternoon, 7h. 55m.
To-Molutow-Morning, Bh. 3.3m.—Afternoon, Oh. 14m.

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THE SUN.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 180

There is a story told, if we remember rightly, of
WILLIAM PITT, when Prime Minister of England.
It is to the effect, that when one of his constituents,
accompanied by his stripling son, waited one day
upon the great minister with a view to obtain his
patronage in favour of the boy, so as to afford him
at onto an advantageous start in life, the Right Hon.
Gentleman after listening apparently with con-
siderablQ interest to the application, and remaining
for a moment seemingly in deep thought when it
was finished, put to the father the inquiry—" Does
your son know Spanish ?" " No." " Ah,
that is unfortunate—for in the other event,
had he known Spanish, I might have—
However, it is no use talking about it now—the
deficiency presents an insuperable difficulty." And
so—after a few minutes' further converse upon
other subjects, the important interview is terminated
with no step gained in any way in advance—no
prospect even before the father of his son's eventu-
ally obtaining an appointment. . . . Eight or
ten months having elapsed after this trivial inci-
dent, the same ingenious place-hunters (one of them
sufficiently ingenuous)--- arcades anibo obtain a
second interview with Mr. PITT, still as long pre-
viously and long afterwards First Lord of the
Treasury. The countenances of father and son beam
with satisfaction. Mr. PITT is informed that the
youth has studied hard during the interval, and that
he knows Spanish, and knows it, moreover, very
creditably. "In that case," so runs and ends the
anecdote, "in that case," observes the Premier,
strijling to another part of his library, and return-
ing with a copy of Don Quixote, and :placing
the Work in the hands of the stripling, " in that
case, you will have peculiar enjoyment in reading
the masterpiece of CERVANTP—in the original !"
The Right Honourable Gentleman the Leader
of Her MAJESTY'S Opposition, although none
the less powerfully impressed in his own mind
with a conviction that knowledge is, indeed,

its own reward, has a less caustic way of
enforcing the conviction of that wholesome truth
upon the judgments of the more youthful class of
aspirants. He speaks to them in terms fraught
with generous encouragement. He urges upon
them' the belief that life is not a lottery, that life is
rather, it should be said, a science, that every man
has his opportunity, and that what they have
really and seriously to do is so to prepare them-
selves for the coming of that opportunity, that when
it does come (as come, says he, it inevitably
will and must for the majority) they may
be capable of availing themselves of it.
So abounding with noble incentives to hope and to
exerti,n in every sentence is this thoughtful and
impressive harangue of Mr. DxsaAELl's that we
would most earnestly commend the perusal of it
and the study of it, to the more youthful among the
energetic members of every mechanics' institute in
the land—certain that the advice it inculcates will
tend directly and practically to their advantage. It
will be found in exlenso in another part of our im-
pression of this evening—this important address
delivered by the member for Buckinghamshire es
chairman of a monster meeting in the Free-Trade
Hall, at Manchester. The meeting itself being
convened there on Tuesday for the distribution of
the prizes awarded by the Institutional Associa-
tion of Chashire and Lancashire. And the address
itself being an apropos oration upon the kindred
themes of Mechanics' Institutes, of the prospects of

National Education, and of the principle and
machinery, the especial advantages of the newly
inaugurated system of competitive examina-
tions. Mr. DISRAELI wisely conceives that
the best possible means of securing the bene-
fits of National Education is for the people
as much as possible to educate them-
selves. The State may then come in as an aux-
iliary. Aide tui et Dieu t'aidera, says the old pro-
verb, and so might it be reasonably said upon this
matter, in regard to the relations existing between
the powers that be and the general mass of the
population. Help yourselves and the Government
will help you. To :which end the Mechanics' In-
stitutes afford the happiest means and the most
suitable opportunity. Hitherto the right hon. gen-
tleman frankly declares that those institu-
tions have :not fully realised the general ex-
pectations. And this, in a great measure, from their
isolation one from another, and their consequent
lack of that all-essential gift—Experience. Be-
sides experience, they have heretofore, he argues,
been seriously, wanting in emulation. Added to
which there has been an obvious deficiency of
energy in their general organisation. " Within
these few years," however, he goes on to remark,
" a very great change has taken place, and I attri-
bute that change to the recognition on the part of
the people of this country, that there was a defi-
ciency of those qualities of experience, emulation,
and energy which I have referred to." There-
upon, in vivid illustration of this, he points
attention to the character of the institution
resulting in that very monster meeting at
that moment on Tuesday last addressed by him in
the Free Trade Hall at Manchester. " These,"
said Mr. DISRAELI, " are filets. There are at this
moment more, considerably more, than a hundred
institutions in Lancashire and Cheshire that are in
unity together, and which act in unison with a
central guiding association. They number 22,000
members ; of these 22,000 members, 8,500 are in
habitual attendance upon the evening classes of
these institutions. Of those 8,500 members, up-
wards of 1,200 have voluntarily come forward, and
challenged all difficulties and all the tests of a com-
petitive examination. Those 1,200 have been exa-
mined by a committee of the central association, a
committee of scholars ; they have undergone a legal
examination, an examination in each of the phases of
their particular interest and connection, and out of
this between 400 and 500 have been seected as compe-
tent to encounter an examination, which I sincerely
say, after having examined the papers which were
submitted to them, is an examination which no man
could have encountered who had not taken great
pains to train his intellect and to acquire consider-
able knowledge." Nor is this enough for his argu-
ment. He goes on immediately to add—" Well,
who are the men who have done this ? What is
the class that has given 8,500 scholars to the even-
ing classes that have supplied this great body of
spontaneous competitors in a severe examination—
that have given the select body of 500 who have
challenged, and one-fifth of whom have gained,
the sanction of men of considerable acquirement
and weight—their sanction as having gone through
a process which none but men of a scholarly feeling
and of considerable strength of character and dis-
position could have encountered ? Can they say
now that they are not working men ? Why, T
have looked over the lists of those who have ob-
tained what we may call the first-class certificate in
many of those branches in which they have been
examined. I remember that in algebra, that in
mensuration, that in geography, that in arithmetic,
and in history, first-class certificates have been
obtained after a most severe and scientific exami-
nation, and by whom have they been obtained P
They have been obtained by boys, by youths, all
of them under 20 years of age. The first-class certi-
ficate in algebra, I observe, is obtained by a boy of
15 years, who obtained, by the bye, a second-class
certificate, I think, in arithmetic—but a boy of 15,
working in a factory for ss. a week. Who are
these men now to whom I am to have the high
honour to night of offering these recognitions of

their labours and their merit ? Why, they are
factory operatives in all the various classes of that
branch of labour ; there are weavers, there are mill-
minders, and piecers, there is every class of factory
labour represented." These are (indeed) facts—and
they are facts full of the most heartening, the most in-
spiriting encouragement. The right hon. gentleman,
who enforced the significance of them sd powerfully
on Tuesday, at Manchester, had peculiar reason,
it appears to us, in the very act of enforcing them,
to insist upon it that Life is more of a game than of
a lottery, and to warn his hearers that they
should prepare themselves betimes for the opportu-
nity that would assuredly come to each in due sea-
son. It is the thought already nobly ex-
pressed by that all-wise and all-comprehend-
ing SHAKSPERE—that thought " familiar in
our mouths as household words"—to wit
" There is a tide in the affairs of man which, taken
at the flood, leads on to fortune." It is the "oppor-
tunity" of which Mr. DISRAELI spoke on Tuesday
—the invariable, inevitable opportunity in relation
to which he said whimsically, but with peculiar
force, " I have found that if a man has a head upon
his shoulders, whether he lives in Lancashire or
whether ho lives in Buckinghamshire, he generally
gets on in the world." No wonder the monster
meeting on Tuesday, in that Free Trade Hall, at
Manchester, rang, at these words, with 'mingled
cheers and laughter. For England contains not
any more striking illustration of the capacity that
seizes the opportunity, than that afforded by the
genius, the career, and the position of the right hon.
gentleman himself—Statesman and man of letters,
orator and administrator, M.P. for Buckingham-
shire, and leader in the House of Commons of her
MAJESTY'S Opposition.

We notice in the Norfolk Net-vs an account of
certain clauses to be suggested for adoption in the
forthcoming Government Reform Bill. The un-
questionable and disgraceful bribery at the late
general election in the city, induced the Radicals to
take up the subject of bribery in good earnest, that
party having always in Norwich been decidedly
opposed to it. The Whigs and Tories, it would seem,
for shame's sake, could not refuse to do something,
and hence, we believe, the appointment of a com-
mittee to consider the subject of bribing at both
Parliamentary and municipal elections was agreed
to. In regard to the municipal elections immediate
action was of course necessary ; they were at hand,
and the bribery at them, as in the case of Glou-
cester, is only second to that practised at elections
of members for Parliament. The pror,osal was
that each member of the council prior to the
municipal election should sign a declaration to
abstain not only from all bribery and illegal prac-
tices, but also from canvassing ; and that he
would abide by the decision of umpires
named in tho declaration, as to whether the pledge
had been fairly carried out, engaging to resign
his seat should the decision be against him. It
appears that 37 members of the council dared not
agree to the pledge, as implied by their silence ;
that 16 were willing to talie it, and that 7 were
"not content." So ended the attempt at " preven-
tion of corrupt practices" by voluntary agreement.
There can be no doubt that the old Cathedral city,

THE SUN, LONDON,

like most of its class, is too demoralised to reform

except by compulsion.
The recommendations which, after being duly
canvassed in Norwich, are, we suppose, to be for-
warded to Lord JOHN RCSSELL to aid him in his
task, are principally three—to prohibit canvassing ;
to provide voting-papers, which are to be so de-
livered on the day of election that the state of the
poll shall not be known till after its completion ;
and the payment of all election charges
out of the county rate. It is also proposed
that petitioning against returns shall be the
duty of the returning officer, who is to adTer-
tise a reward of £25 to persons who will disclose
cases of bribery. Severe penalties to follow in-
fringement of the provisions of the Act.
The proposals are, it will be seen, directed almost
exclusively against the lowest, but not the most
widely spread form of corruption—against bribery.
This was natural in a city like Norwich or Glouces-
ter. The corruption which has assimilated the
counties, politically, to the American Slave States,
would be untouched by these schemes. The
worst effects of slavery are justly said to
be seen, when men can be contented and merry in
their bondage. The degradation of the man is com-
plete when ho makes no sign that he desires free-
dom. It is thus, to a great extent over the broad
acres of our country. The farmers, a class of men
well worthy of political liberty, abounding in strong
natural sense, and becoming better instructed every
day,—this vast class slumbers in hopeless bondage.
Liberty is forgotten. The farmer would sing in his
chains, were he not a born grumbler. The cor-
ruption of landlord control works without resist-
ance, for resistance means starvation. It works
indeed almost without noise or friction.

In corrupt old city constituencies the worst bri-
bery " is often practised within the last hour or two.
The undecided," if they think things will run: close,
always hold off till then. This is, of course, the
reason for putting the votes into a ballot box to be
opened after all the votes are received. It is ob-
vious that while this plan may have the advantage
intended, it will be little check against the previous
purchase of the voter. He will not take out the vot-
ing paper till he has had his fee. He can then give
his receipt for it—the thing which a secret Ballot
alone would prevent,
.by destroying confidence
between corruptor and corrupted.
Two principal checks are still left, the candidate
is to to have no pretext for spending money ;
and a reward is to be offered to informers. The
reward is less than was paid for voters at Wake-
field ; in such cases no man would kill, by in-
forming, the goose which laid the golden eggs.
Votes generally cost, it is true, much less than £25
—still what with the infamy of turning informer,
and the prospect of repeated bribes, £25 would
rarely induce the bribee to inform against the
briber. The proposal is, however, a good one, but
Lord BROUGHAM'S, to make bribery felony would
go further to settle the business.
As to relieving the candidate of expenses, unless
it were done, after nomination by some hundred or
more electors, it would embarrass, we should think,
the election, by a number of upstart candidates
who would have no title to nominate them-
selves. We like nomination in some form.
We like too the hustings. As to the
prohibition of canvassing, it is desirable, were it
practicable. We fear, what indeed the discussion
in the Corporation illustrated, the impossibility of
legally defining canvassing. To us it appears that
all sincere Reformers will be driven to the Ballot.
They are indeed, now, almost universally, favourable
to it ; but they think they cannot carry it. Many
are no doubt also a little intimidated by the cant
exclamations of those who profit by open
voting. We beg, however, to remind all
who really desire free and independent dee
tions, Ist, that the Ballot is the method always
resorted to by respectable directors of companies,
clubs, and even dissenting churches, when they
wish for a perfectly independent election. 2dly.
That it may be added to all the other plans.
Bribery may still be made felony. Candidates
may still make declarations at the poll or in the
House of Commons. If the bribed or the personated,
&c., are proved, under the ballot, to be sufficient
to have turned the election, a new one can be ordered.
The ballot is compatible with all the laws we please
against corruption, though it would leave, we are
persuaded, but little need for them. idly. The ballot
alone protects the poor, and the dependent, against
the intimidating class, the most cruel bribers of all;
it even protects the poor man against the tyranny
of his own class. In short we know of no plan
which can supersede the simple, old fashioned, but
efficient one of absolutely secret voting. We find
that in Australia it has abolished canvassing al-
ready, and even made it dangerous for a candidate
to attempt it. We are pleased to see Reformers at
work in any way, but they will find no substitute
for the Ballot.