The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-20 00:00:00

week. Captain Gossett, R.E., has already ieft•for
Cork. The Hon. Captain Bury, R.E., remains in
charge of Kilkenny, which is henceforth to be at-
tached to the Curragh district.
It having heen determined to rednce the artillery
force quartered at Balliucolig from three companies
to two, the company under command of Captain
Thomson, numbering 136 rank and file, re?eived
orders a few days ago to hold themselves in readi-
newa for the route, and on Thursday morning they
were accordingly directed to prepare for their de-
parture. Having started in the afternoon from
their quarters in heavy marching order they. ar-
rived in Cork at about six o'clock, the same even-
ing, in charge of the captain of the company, and
were subsequently billeted throughout the city for
the night, preparatory to their departura per steamer
for Bristol, en route to Woolwich, where they are to
join the head-quarters of the Royal Artillery Corps.

THE BALLOT IN AUSTRALIA.

cone: ms quietness and general order, the proceedings of
votes by ballot, on Thursday, were a complete triumph
over the antiquated style of voting. If vote by ballot is
so un-English as Dr. Palmer emphatically declares it to
be, it has this advantage, that men record their decision
in sober earnestness and with proper decorum, instead of,
as heretofore, in the midst of excitement, and when the
mind was almost incapacitated from judging in a calm
and rational spirit, But the real object of the ballot—
to give the electors a fair opportunity of returning the
most eligible candidates—has been already so fully real-
ised by the late elections for the Central and Southern
Provinces, that we have very little fear for the result of
Thursday's election."
At the South Melbourne election the following
were the words of the returning officer, on declaring
the poll—
" I hope one day all will be in favour of the ballot, for
the ballot never will be overturned. The report of its
successful operation here will go home and strengthen
the hands of the popular party in England, who are
working towards the same great end."
That it will do so is beyond a doubt. The arrival
of Mr. Nicholson in England at this particular mo-
ment, with the Victorian Ballot law in his band,
and the narrative of the first elections held under
it, is to be regarded as a most auspicious event for
the popular cause. The Society for promoting the
Ballot (the most useful political association we are
acquainted with) is entitled to our applause for the
judgment with which it has availed itself of the
presence of the Australian reformer to give a fresh
impulse to the question. It is wall done to make
' the public as extensively acquainted as possible
with the achievements and experienos of such a
man.

(From the Examiner.)

We published last week the secret-suffrage clauses
of the electoral law of the colony of Victoria, printed
in accordance with an address of the late House of
Commons. The history of the introduction of the
vote by ballot into Victoria is briefly tit's. The co-
lony in 1855 obtained a new constitution from the
Imperial Parliament establishing two houses of leg-
islature, both elective, and a responsible ministry.
The then existing legislative body, called the
Legislative Council, only partly elective, was
charged with the preparation of an electoral law, to
constitute the electoral body, and regulate the mode
of holding elections. The electoral law, introduced
by the existing colonial ministry, proposed to esta-
blish open voting, as practised in the mother coun-
try. A leading member of the Legislative Council,
Mr. Nicholson, a man of great intelligence and
energy, who had filled several important posts in
the colony, made a counter-proposition in favour of
the ballot. The ministry resisted, were defeated in
the council, and resigned office. Mr. Nicholson was
called to form a government, but declined, in con-
sequence of his intention to visit England. The
old government resumed their places, but perse-
vered in resisting the ballot, disputing the point
inch by inch with the opposition, who were, how-
ever, not to be outdone in vigour and determina-
tion. Mr. Nicholson proposed the necessary clauses
iu the electoral law, and carried them by still larger
majorities than that which had originally sanc-
tioned the principle. In the debate on the third
reading, the Attorney-General of Victoria croaked
the most awful warnings of the ruin which secret
voting was sure to bring down upon the devoted
colony. No Attorney-General at Westminster
could have performed the raven's part more ad-
mirably. The ballot was folly, the ballot was
revolution, the ballot was un-Australian, and the
immediate setting of the Victoria sun, never
again to rise, was predicted in a most lachrymose
strain of a colonial crown-lawyer, mimicking Eldon
at the Antipodes.
It is only just, however, to the Diabolus Regis of
the other hemisphere to add, that he afterwards
publicly recanted some of his strongest objections,
seen to be untenable by the light of experience.
Mr. Nicholson, who is still in England, has been
welcomed, as he well deserved to be, by Parlia-
mentary reformers in every part of the country.
Several public entertainments have been given to
him, and he has availed himself of these and other
opportunities to relate the history of the move-
ment which he led with so much spirit, and brought
to so triumphant a close.
Example is of immense weight in the business of
the world, and that of one of our greatest and most
flourishing colonies seizing the earliest opportunity
of applying the principles of plain common sense to
the problem of securing the genuineness of the
elective franchise, will not be lost on the people of
England. How often have we not heard the parrot
cry that there is something in the Anglo-Saxon
race that revolts with shuddering from the notion
of voting in secret T Well, here is an Anglo-Saxon
community, and a vigorous specimen of one, which
has revolted most conapicuously in the opposite
direction. Let us hear no more, therefore, of the
Anglo-Saxon argument against the ballot. Vic-
toria has knocked it in the head, and after full
experience of the evils of the open poll, for it was
the experience of those evils that called the ballot
party into existence, and supplied Mr. Nicholson
and his friends with the artillery of argument that
carried the day.
Again, how many times have we not heard it re-
iterated that it was beyond the mechanical inge-
nuity of man in any part of the world to devise a
machinery for tile conduct of an election on the plan
of secrecy. Mr. Nicholson's answer is very short.
" We have done it in Australia," and he has told
the British public what the process is.
" The mode he said was a very simple one. There was
a returning officer fora district, and he held a nomination
' tbe same as was the custom in England. Supposing a
' poll was demanded, it opened at 9 o'clock in the morning
, and closed at 4in the afternoon. The voting was by ballot
papers furnished by the returning officer, who took with
him tothe booth the electoral roll, and a number of ballot
papers, containing the names of the candidates. In a pah-
lie room each elector came up to vote, and miglht be ques-
tioned by any one, this being done with the view of avoid-
' ing the possibility of personation. As soon as an elector's
identity and right to vote had been established,
he was handed a ballot-paper, and then passed
into a private room, where he was required
to mark out the names of the candidates he
did not vote for, arid then to fad up and place the
ballot-paper in the ballot-box. He was then pa, std out
by another door. The mode of voting was secret in this
way ; no one had an opportunity of knowing what,
names he had marked out, or what parties he had voted
for or against. In a large constituency, such as Mel-
bourne, with 8,500 electors. they had various election
booths, and in these rooms are sub-divisions over which
are the letters indicating where individuals must record
their votes, After a person came out of a ballot-room he
could say how he had voted, but he had it not in his
power to show how he had voted. He was perfectly free
in this is spect, therefore, from all influence."
Corruptly tampering with the box appears to be
most effectually guarded against; another thing
stated ten thousand times to be beyond the reach of
human wit.
" One great evil suggested against the ballet was,
that the returning officer might tamper with the ballot-
box ; but, in Victoria, each candidate was allowed t
nominate a scrutineer, who sat by the returning officer
during the whole proceedings, and until the poll was
closed. It was impossible for a returning officer to suc-
ceed in tampering a ith the box with such a scrutiny as
that. Each scrutineer has the opportunity of seeing the
ballot-box before it is locked up, and placed for the re-
ception of votes and at the close of the poll to see the
votes counted. In the elections in Victoria there were
some close contests ; in one large district the successful
candidate vas returned by a majority of twelve, in
another by a majority of one, and in another by the cast-
ing vote of the returning officer, but never had a return-
ing officer been charged with making a false return.
'Another check upon the returning officer was, that the
returning officer when he delivered a ballot paper signed
his name to it, so that, to be any imposition, they must
very successfully forge the name of the returning officer."
Although so recently established, it is to be ob-
served that already the ballot has ceased in Victoria
to be a theory. It has be-n tried, and has given
unmixed satisfaction to the public. Of course the
experience of its advantages is brief, but what more
was it ever possible to say foe the wisest and most
valuable of human institutions, in the first days of
their working, than that to the extent of their
working their efficiency was proved ? We subjoin a
few testimonials borne by the Australian journals
to this satisfactory operation of the ballot in the first
elections held under the new law. We give them as
we find them in one of Mr. Nicholson's speeches,
beginning with the evidence of the Melbourne
Herald :
• " At the date of our last summary, the Upper House
elections were pending, and the utmost public interest
was excited as to the resist. The polling for the Central
Province (jlelbourne and suburban districts) came off
on the 26th ult., when the ballot was tested for the first
time in the colony, and operated in a manner which not
only satisfied the expectations of its mCst sanguine ad-
vocates, but actually won over as converts some of those
who were previously its most determined opponents,
both in and out of the Legislature."
His next extract would be from the Argus, this
and the Herald being the two leading papers. It
had reference to the election for St. Kilda :
ta" The polling for the two representatives to serve this
district in the Legislative Assembly took place yester-
day, and passed off with the most exemplary good order
and quiet ; indeed, with the exception of all the dead
walls in the neighbourhood being covered with placards
in all the colours of the rainbow, a stranger in the dis-
trict accustomed to election scenes in the old country
would have exhibited some amount of incredulity on
being told that an active election contest was proceeding.
Not a single complaint against the working of the ballot
or of any underhand or unfair pvaotices reached our ear
during our visits to the polling places. The amount of
excitement which prevailed during the day was anything
but active, so far as we could observe by the collection of
persons about the booths; but at the close. of the:poll
considerable interest was manifested in the result."
The returning officer for St. Kilda was strongly
opposed to the ballot, but he stated (as recorded in
the Argus) on declaring the poll :
"The returning officer said he thanked the meeting
for their kindness, and in doing so could not help bear-
ivg testimony to the favourable working of the ballot,
although opposed to it in principle himself. His assistant
officers joined with him in asserting that during the pro-
cess of election, especially in the Windsor district, there
had often been less noise in a polling booth than in a
place of worship. That proved the strict propriety of the
proceedings."
Mr. Nicholson convAlered the testimony of Mr.
Hammill, the returning officer in this instance, as
of great value, as it shows that, although a consis-
tent opposer of the ballot, his practical experience
as returning officer compelled him to acknowledge
its success:—
The Melbourne Age, in speaking of tke Geelong
election, stated :
" The ballot on this occasion bas shown what a safety
valve it is to the people. Mr. Slade, in his address, had
the effrontery to say that the voluntaries ware in the mi-
nority, but this shows his ignorance .of public opinion,
which the ballot on this occasion has proved. The bal-
lot has saved many a man from having a mortgage fore-
closed upon him, as was the ease under the old system,
where a man exercised his own free will."
As to the Geelong election, the Geelong Observer
says :
"The ballot saves the people from much of the an-
noyance they would have suffered under the old regime.
When party malice and individual rancour have done
their work, the ballot affords a few minutes for, calm re-
flection,• and in that few minutes, honesty, capacity, use-
fulness, and character will have the victory, and, after
all, the chances are in favour of the best men."
He then read from the Ballarat Examiner, Sept.
15, 1856 :

Let us mention one or two more points in which
Mr. Nicholson informs us that secret suffrage has
already verified the predictions cf its advocates.
Personal canvassing is, of course, absurd under the
ballot, and we are not surprised to learn that it
ceased almost entirely at Victoria with open
voting.
" It was a remarkable fact that in Victoria canvassing
had almost ceased to exist. It was the practice there for
candidates to address public meetings such as the pre-
sent, but private solicitation was all but entirely abo-
lished. In many cases candidates had declared that
• they did not canvass, and that was the reason why they
were popular. A letter from Mr. Kerby, in the Mel•
Ourne Argus of Oct. 11, said The ballot being now
the law of the land, ought to be carried out with strict
integrity. An advertisement emanating from Mr.
M'Dermott's committee invites the electors to hear him,
as he has altogether abstained from a personal
canvass, "so unfairly a lopted by other candi latex."
If such has been the case I quite agree with him in
denouncing such proceedings, and am therefore
anxious to let the public know that, as far as I am con-
cerned, the charge cannot be brought against me, and I
challenge any elector, if I, in any one instance, directly
or indirectly, resorted to such a practice. I would much
rather, by using fair means, be an unsuccessful candi-
date, than the reverse, and a successful one."

•
Observe also another operation of the ballot-box.
One of the notorious and worst effects of the pre-
sent unprotntel state of the franchise in England
is the virtual political annihilation at every election
of multitudes who, being placed in the dilemma of
voting at the hazard of their personal interest, or
abstaining from voting at all, choose the latter side
of the alternative, and might therefore just as well
be disfranchised by positive law. It will be worth
inquiring what proportion of the electors of the
United Kingdom left their franchise unexereised in
the elections which are now just concluded, and the
Ballot Society would do well to collect and publish
the facts. We have no doubt that the number will
be found very considerable, aisd just as little that
its magnitude is chiefly to be ascribed to the state
of the law, which mocks men with privileges only
t ) be used at risks to which political extinction is a
preferable evil. Now, hers is what we are told of
the effect of the ballot at Melbourne, actually more
than doubling the effective constituency; for elec-
tors that dare not vote might as well not exist at
all ; the law gives them a barren' right, which the
ballot-box alone can convert into a practical advan-
tage.

76 It might be said, when all this quietness prevailed,
that there was not sufficient interest taken in the elec-
tion. But what was the fact. An election took place at
Melbourne some time before the last general election.
The number of the constituency was about equal on the
tw• occasions. At the first election a large amount of
money was spent by both candidates, of whom he (the
epealeer) had the honour of nominating one, and then
nut of the 8,000 electors, but 2,000 recorded their
votes ; whilst at the last election, under the operation
of the ballot, out of the same number of electors, and
accompanied by no noise or excitement, those who re-
corded their votes numbered over 5,000. In South
Melbourne only twelve electors failed to record their
votes. In another a very remarkable and almost un-
exampled circumstance occurred, for there only one
elector did not record his vote out of the whole district.
It was manifest that, however much people were pressed
or driven to the poll, under a system of open voting,
they were influenced by considerations of various kinds,
and many of them•read° it their business to get out of
the way so as to escape from voting. Now, however,
under the ballot they recorded their votes in more thau
dcuble proportion they did formerly. "

" The election for the weetern provincem-As far ha

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1857

and we may expect to Fee the French nation, under
the sway of its present intensely selfish vices, dwind-
ling more than under the guillotine of the Ter-
rorists, or the desolating wars of the first Napoleon.
Her declining population is the reproachful record
'against her.

THE INEQUALITY OF THE POOR-LAW

RATES.

(Prom the Times.)

Whatever may be the general prosperity of the
nation, it is pretty clear that a certain amount of
pauperism must be considered permanent in the
metropolis and the great towns. Even in the At-
lantic cities of America there are the aged who
cannot work, and the journeymen of depressed
trades who cannot get work, to be provided for.
This great capital and its suburbs, with nearly
3,000,000 of people, must therefore expect to have
its perpetual multitudes of unfortunates, who must
be maintained by those who are able to make a liv-
ing. The question of Poor-rates is, therefore, one
of the most Important which can affect the house-
holder. That the inevitable burden should sit
equally on all, the constant drain exhaust no one
more than another, is a matter worthy of the most
careful legislation. But how stands the case in
London ? Is not every one aware that in certain
parishes the Poor-rate is but a trifle—that, in fact,
there are no poor to be supported—while in others
the householders are burdened with a most oppres-
sive impost ? It is well known that sometimes one
street lets better than another adjoining it, simply
because the former is in a parish of respectable resi-
dences and well-to-do shops, while the other belongs
to a district which contains some nest of poverty,
squalor, and crime. But, not only are parishes of
what may
,be assumed as equal wealth unequally
taxed, but the working of the system is to give to
those that have, and to take away from those that
have not. It is eviddiat that the parishes which are
the most free from paltry tenements will be those
inhabited by the richer classes, while the poor will
live among those who are almost as poor as them-
selves. The wealthy will therefore be freed from
a burden of which the industrious and struggling
cannot get rid. The rate in the pound for differ-
ent parishes in London varied in the year 1856
from Md. to 3s. 4d. And which wet e the parishes
that presented this strong contrast ? The
rich, aristocratic, and Royal parish of St. George,
Haaover-square, paid the ltd. ; while St. George's-
in the-East paid the 3s. 4d. Of the lightly-taxed
parishes we may mention St. James's, Westmins-
ter, rated at 10/d. ; Paddington, at lid. : Isling-
ton, at. Is. Oid. —all fashionable or respectable loca-
lities ; while, on the other hand, we have Shore-
ditch rated at 3s. 41d. ; Whitechapel, at 2s. 74d. ;
Bethnal-green, at 3s. 2d. ; St. George's, South-
wark, at 2s. 11d. ; Rotherhithe, at 3s. 03/4d. ; and
so on. It is evident, therefore, that those districts

in which the poor have their' dwellings are con-
demned to pay a much higher rate than the more
fortunate neighbourhoods which have been swept
of inferior tenements. The consequences of such
a sytem are obvious. The poor are employed all
over the metropolis, and yet there are on'y certain
districts in which they can live, it being the direct
interest of the parish, the landowner, and the
builder to destroy the kind of houses inhabited by
the labouring classes. Thus, not only are the sol-
vent inhabitants of the poor parishes taxed exorbi-
tantly, but a burden is imposed on the poor them-
selves—the burden of living in places far from their
work, and wasting time and strength in passing to
and ire. An " Association for Promoting the
Equalisation of the Poor-rates and Uniformity of
Assessment" observes in its address that the pre-
sent laws are unjust and cruelly oppressive, their
effeot being that in those parishes where property
is of the greatest rateable value the charge for poor-
rate is so light as to be only nominal, while, on the
contrary, in those parishes where the houses are
small, and where the labouring man can find a
residence, the poor-rate is most oppressive, vary-
ing from 3s. to 45., 55., and even 109. in the pound
per annum. In the former case it will be found to
be only 4d., 3d., 2d., and in a few instances only
id. in the pou. d for the year. All these facts
point to something like a general rate for the entire
metropolis ; and there is, indeed, much to be said
in favour of such a scheme. London is a city of
an extent out of all proportion to the other towns
of England, and it is the onlylarge city in this part
of the kingdom. It might, then, be not unfairly
considered as an exceptional region, and, as' it has
its Central Criminal Coutt, it might be furnished
with its General Poor-Law Board and rate. But
there are, on the other hand, many difficulties.
The metropolis has been well described as not so
much a city as an aggregation of neighbourhoods.
The gentry and, tradespeople of at. George's and
St. James's, of Belgravia and Tyburnia, have as
little to de with the manufacturing population of
Lambeth and Southwark, the maritime race of
Wapping and Blackwall, or the vast labouring
population of Bethnal-green and its neighbourhood.
In fact, London is a metropolis properly so called,
with its Court and Legislature and administration
of justice; but it is also a great seaport, and a
great manufacturing city. To throw all these to-
gether, and tax each individual according to the
wants of the whole, would be pretty much as if

Liverpool, Mancheater,land one or two favourite
watering-places were united to support the poor of
the whole. It would be conceding the principle of
central as opposed to local rating ; and, were it
established for London, it might soon be demanded
for the entire kingdom.
But leaving this great question aside for the pre-
sent, we think much may be done by the parishes
themselveq. There is no doubt that at present there
exist great inequalities, from the system of fititious
rating which prevails. Instead of rating all houses
equally some are made to pay on their rack-rent,
some on two-thirds, and some on not more than
half. It is evident that this is an inherent defect
which will render ineffectual any scheme for
an equalisation of burdens. Even we're London
united for rating purposes, the inequalities
for rating would exist as heretofore so long as some
parishes or parts of parishes were only half-rated,
while others paid up the full rental. It is certainly
a great hardship for St. George's-in-the East that
property-tax value should be 106,469!., while its
poor-rate assessment amounts to 153,2971.; also for
Bethnal-green and Whitechapel that a similar ex-
cess should appear.; while St. George's, Hanover-
square, with a property-tax value of 1,027,5801.,
should only be assessed at 694,3801. We find that
this rich parish is not only lightly rated from the
absence of poor, but that the nominal rating is in
reality much less, from a low fictitious value being
substituted for the real value of the property.
Under the present system this nominal rating is no
test of the real burden on the parish. Until, there-
fore, uniformity of assessment be attained, either
by the voluntary action of the parishes or by the
interference of the Legislature, there can be little
hope of a practical equalisation of poor-rates ; and
the great Metropolitan Union, with its general rate
of is. in the pound, must remain a vision of the
future.