The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-17 00:00:00

T" OTTOMAN BANK.
TO THE SHAREHOLDERS.
Why are our Shires at so low a price (only 1 premium, of
Which 15s. is about to be returned in dividend), seeing that
seventeen and a half per cent. has been earned this year, al-
though only a ten per cent. dividend is deeared ? It being
also wel: known that sufficient profit has been already made
to Pay
20 per cent. next half year.
The public cannot be aware that, by Royal Charter, this
Rank is under limited liability.
irch 16, 1857.

A SHAREHOLDER.

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 fieltely to
~,,‘lv°rk, we limited most injuriously our range of choice for able
• "'ell to fill the administrative departments of the State, and
17e 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 professedly demo-
' - erotic has thrown us more completely, in practice, into the
bands of the aristocracy ; and no Venetian oligarchy was ever
more exclusive thandlir present caste of Sate-governors."
Why is this I Because the Sovereign can only select her re-
sponsible advisers out of a few great families, who form the
governing classes of this country ; for no Ministry, not chosen
from
these classes, Gould " obtain the necessary majority in
the Rouse of Commons." The result of this state of things is
Ils 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 ho niay
trom, any other class." " Our generals have turned out worse
than useless ; our Ministers something more than incap ible ;
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 maintain 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,
called 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
saoalthy 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, and
a majority of the borough members for England, 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. Au 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,
and not influence, will be the qualification for civil or military
Place and power. The only means of obtaining this Freedom
is to establish to vote by Ballot.
We gladly adopt the following 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 patriotic spirit ; but few will consent to ruin theinselves
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
families ruined, 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 pr9.tss.tfon 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 slew 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 elected. 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,!in appealing for your co-operation and
aid, we would again respectfully but earnestly remind you of
the importance of an energetic movement in favour of the
ballot at the presentjuncture. Now, if ever, should the con-
stituencies and tho people put forth the constitutional power
with which they are invested in a struggle for free and pro.
teeted voting.
Signed by ordor 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, New-all's-buildings, Manchester.
March 10, 1857.

AN APPEAL from the NON-ELECTORS
LEAGUE to the Electors of the United

Kingdom.

-FELLow-Coms-ravunx I
The approaching dissolution of Parliament will again enable
you to exercise that electoral power which injustice 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 be 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-
raands 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 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 ?
Electors pause and ask yourselves who and what are
these Four Million of your follow-subjects upon whose behalf
this appeal is made.
They are your countrymen—your neighbours ; they culti-
vate the soil—ply the shuttle—plough the main; they exca-
vate the rocks and themines ; 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 are that noble Army of Labour by whose
industry the resources of the Empire have attained their pro-
s/pot 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 I
ELECTORS I say, ought this to be ?
ELECTORS I We
indignationappeal; against this state of things in a
Spirit of properbut, at the same time, with a
feeling of reliance upon your justice and patriotism. It is in.
_
your power to alter the
Constleitdugtoioantoof
dtohjeusHtiooeusteo
the
uCnorrno:
mons by the return o
f inenhpo will not ally themselves with
presented masses ;
einnatutironns. have the exclu.
either of the dominaninetnfawctio
the affairs o
factions
who
fhtho
inst which the commercial
ofalvirehnieftonliagg:rmoheillcomposition of the Executive Government
is a crying scandal, and oi
constituencies ought to protest rthe working classes aro en-
tirely excluded from Parliamentary Representation, and the
commercial classes stand in a somewhat similar relation to
classes whose
the Exeoutive authority. Thus the
two great
interests are so obviously identical are treated with indignity
and injustice.
It is impossible to reflect upon the disgraceful incapacity
dhsplayed by titledand privileged. authorities during the re-
cent war without experiencing sensations of dread for the
future of our count
State continue to be distributed amongst the favoured P
17, should the responsible aces (.1 t hae.
tridents. It is for you,
ing, at the same time, that the thousands of the gallant men
Electors, to look to this ; remember-
who were slaughtered on the Crimean by tho cold ludif-
ference and unaccountable i
" noble families, were taken
nc
a
millions who now appeal tovoteless
pacity of the connexions of
from the ranks of the
justice.
ELECTORS 1 you are yeti
for
these interesting matters are eabPriumarY ratter of the next Parliament de t to be referred; the cha-
authority to which
the Non-Electors have, thereforePtts ,ewle?areat right to remind
'1133n your conduct ;
you of the responsibility which rests
deep interest they have in your decisionth you' and of the
.
You are not called on to decide mere] upon the conduct
of a Ministry in reference to the rupture but you
Fthreirm and Do-
have to determine the greater questions
and
etilTonEleetors
medic Policy for the new Parliament
will be justified in holding you accountable for
The demands of the Non-Electors upon the eounetresults. .
OF PARLIA.-
A FULL, FAIR, AND COMPLETE utpui:y are :--
TION IN THE COMMONS HOUSE ESENTA-
MENT ;
THE PROTECTION OF THE BALLOT ; and
SHORTER P.311,L1.121EN1
as the only means for effecting the other refornienocessary.
By order of the Committee.
WILLIAM TAYLOR, Chairman.
THOMAS CLARK, Secretary. L coramittee-room, ~ Windsor Castle," 152, High Holborn.