The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-17 00:00:00

VOTE BY BALLOT.

Yesterday evening the Parliamentary and other
members of the Society for the Promotion of the
Adoption of Vote by Ballot had a public dinner at
the Albion Tavern, Aldersgate-street. The attend-
ance of the Parliamentary members of the society
was by no means so numerous as the public had
been led to anticipate from the advertised announce-
ments of the festival, and not more than 120 gentle-
men in all sat down to the banquet. The Hon. H.
F. Berkeley, M.P., presided, and there were also
present—Mr. Wyld, M.P., Mr. Nicoll, M.P., Sir
J. V. Shelley, M.P., Mr. J. Locke, M.P. Mr.
White, M.P., Gen. Thompson, M.P., Mr. Cox,
Admiral Sir C. Napier, M.P., Sir J. Lillie, Mr. S.
M. Greer, M.P., Col. Sykes, M.P., Mr. Ayrton,
M.P., Mr. Sergeant Gaselee, *Mr. Sergeant Wool-
rych, with gentlemen from Manchester, Birming-
ham, Glasgow, Nottingham, &c. The dinner was
excellent and most admirabiy served, and, the cus-
tomary musical accessories being dispensed with,
the business of the evening in the way of speaking
commenced immediately grace was said and the
cloth removed.

The usual loyal toasts having been given and
duly responded to the Chairman gave " the Army
and Navy."
Gen. THOMPSON. M.P., returned thanks for the
farmer branch of the service, and after alliulliut to
a great variety of general topics, concluded by ex-
pressing his opinion that the country was in a most
defencless condition, and that there were £12,000,000
in the Bank almost unprotected, and call:Ng atten-
tion to what prize money that sum would give
among the first 100,000 men who could seize it.
Sir C. NAPIER, in responding for the Navy, took
an almost equally gloomy view of the condition
of the country, asserting that there was nothing
to prevent an invasion of England. The French,
he said, possessed 180 steam vessels in their com-
mercial marine, and at least 150 steamers in their
navy. England, it was true, possessed many more
than this; but what was there to prevent the Em-
peror of the French from laying an embargo on all
the vessels in his ports, using them as transports
for his troops, and in a fortnight from such a tune
all his fleet might anchor in the Portland Roads.
It was very well for people to say such things could
not be done, but he was a warrior whose life had
been passed in conflicts, and lie knew what could be
done, and he was sure the country was not at pre-
sent secure, as regarded the national defences, from
an invasion. The Emperor of the French had 20
sail of the line which he could man, while England
had only five sail of the line 'at Cork. This, he
thought, was not a safe state for this country to be in.
Letters of regret that prior engagements pre-
vented their attendance were then read from Lords
Stanley and Durham, while the letters which were
also read from Sir B. Hall, Mr. Villiers, M.P., Mr.
M. Gibson, M.P., and Mr. S. Crawford, not only
expressed their regret at non-attendance, but their
cordial good wishes on behalf of the cause of the
ballot. The following letter was also read from
Mr. Bright amid much applause :

"Rochdale, Feb. 15, 1859.

"My dear am very sorry that Tam not able to be
in town this week, and that I cannot be present .at your
meeting to-morrow, to show how much I unite with you
and our other friends in opinion in favour of the ballot. Of
the early success of your labours I do not doubt. The great
Reform party in the three kingdoms is unanimous as to the
necessity and justice of the ballot, and without it any ex-
tension of the franchise will be felt by multitudes to be an
evil rather than a privilege to be prized.
" The reform party is a ballot party, and any attempt to
give satisfaction without the ballot must fail.
"Your association has been of great service, and I hope
you will continue your labours until your object is accom-
plished. .

" Believe me, very sincerely yours,
"JOHN BRIGHT.
"Edward C. Whitehurst, Esq., London."

The CHAIRMAN then said, he was about to pro-
pose what was called in general parlance the toast
of the evening. He felt a great deal of diffidence
in proposing that toast, and if it was necessary that
he should stand up and argue for the ballot, or
prove its necessity by a process of logical reason.
ing, he should lose a good deal of time if he were
not able to say something strongly in favour of the
question. But to paraphrase the motto " //tots a
non lucendo," he might say that talking on the
ballot was eloquentia et non loquenda. (Laughter.)
It would be an absolute absurdity for him to enter
into the matter there. They all knew the subject,
and instead of his teaching them there were many
around who could teach him. They wanted no-
thing said as regarded the argument of the ques-
tion; therefore, in proposing the toast, he would
speak, not of the ballot as necessary to be defended,
but as to the actual position in which the ballot
Question stood at present. That was interesting to
them all, and it was a question on which they
might reasonably confer. As regarded, then, the
position of the question, he thought, not allowing
" hope to tell a flattering tale," that they had
reason for much congratulation. He looked upon
the question as a fast rising one. "-In the first place
it had the support of some active—and some, per-
haps, more passive-237 members of the House of
Commons. (Cheers.) That was a vast phalanx,
and it had been said by persons who were better
acquainted with such matters than himself, that a
smaller number of united men could carry any
question. (Cheers.) As regarded the union of the
Liberal party the less they said about that the
better—(laughter)—but he did not think that that
reproach attachedto those gentlemen who advocated
the ballot, for he was sure they were all united on
that question. (Cheers.) What made him con-
sider the question of the ballot as a rising one was,
that in watching the press, which he did on this
subject very anxiously, he observed that those
faithful recorders of public proceedings, the re-
porters,
placed more " cheers," and " reiterated
cheers," .and "great sensations," and those well-
known marks of approbation against all mention of
the ballot, in all parts of the United Kingdom, much
more so than to any other question of reform.
(Cheers and laughter.) He had observed, in many of
the constituencies, when various able and experi-
enced members had been addressing them, that when
they perhaps got on to dubious ground, and tread-
ing too much on the subject of peace, or the subject
of war—he observed, when these little accidents
happened, hon. members generally brought them-
selves beautifully up by a happy reference to the
ballot. (Cheers.) However weak their arguments
on all other points had been, people always thought
their arguments strong when they asserted that the
ballot was a necessary shield to place before the
elector. (Cheers.) He did not say too much when
he said that this was universally the case at public
meetings. But there were other signs of the times,
and in saying that he really mentioned the subject
of his thoughts,
which was the Times. No man had
more respect for the splendid power of writing
which the Times newspaper possessed, but no man
from one end of the kingdom to the other had a
more hearty contempt for the way in which that
paper used it. (Cheers.) He confessed—and he
stated it as a fact, for he knew it, and had but too
often felt it, and he should, please God, feel it again
—that no man was more nervous in coming before
the public than he was. He never rose to speak
in the House of Commons without the greatest tre-
pidation, but he felt no trepidation when he was
pitted
against a man who wrote from the ballot-box
of the Times. It was but a man, and a man making
use of that principle which he denied to others--
(cheers)—and he was about to call their attention
to the fact that, great as was the power of the
Times—magnificent as some of its articles were,
alternately surprising either by the force of their
logic, or carrying away readers by their humour—
yet, on the subject of the ballot, that paper had
been guilty of putting forth articles for which a
schoolboy would be whipped. And yet, with its
command of money and its great command of talent,
it had at last been compelled to take the field
against the ballot, which it had formerly affected
to despise, passing over the question as " coming
in once a year with green peas," and all that style
of writing ; it was now compelled to buckle to the
question and try what it could do with it by
fair argument and fair logic ; and he asked
them honestly where was the Times when fairly
weighed on that question ? (Cheers.) Well, then,
he said, if all the best orators and men skilled in
debate in the House of Commons had failed to bring
any new argument against this question at all valid,
and if that great leading journal became perfectly
contemptible, and from argument slipped
into mere
for saying
that was that not a strong reason
that their cause was so powerful that such a paper as
the Times, with all the united abilityabe o
to shake it ?
f old Whigs
and impenitent Tories, wa
(Cheers.) Seeing, then, thast theyun had got out at
last the real guard of the enemy in the shape of the
Times brought into the field against them, and see-
ing that they could make no more effect than the
vanguard had done before, it was a reason for con-
gratulating themselves that they stood strong both
in argument and right. He thought he had not
slipped into any argument for the ballot, or gone

beyond the limits which he had pre.seribed
self, as to stating the position of the qUeSti.
congratulated' them on that position, tine-would
give them a toast in connexion with the proposed
Reform Bill. Of Mr. Bright's bill he need not, of
course, say anything, for he had been always a
stanch steadfast supporter of the ballot ; but
there were other Reform Bills—Lord Derby's, for
instance, which was to come off on the 28th inst.,
and with regard to the details of which there were
many rumours afloat. He had heard some people
say that they were to have a permissive ballot, but
he could only say, as regarded a permissive ballot,
that, although it was a most objectionable form in
which to give such a measure, yet, if they would
accompany the permission by the test of the ballot
—if they would ballot for the ballot, then he
thought, speaking, of course, with submission to
those around him, that that was a proposition which
they ought to accept. (Cheers.) When they heard a
Tory proposing a reform bill at all, it was so mon-
strously opposed too all that they had ever heard of
Tories, but more especially of Tory Ministers, pro-
posing to give to the people of England in any
shape protection and independence to the voters,
that he could only turn round and look
through the counties ; look at the lords of great
estates—he could only look at the tyranny exer-
cised over the working classes by the Tories, and
they could all see that, Tory as that tyranny was,
it became impossible that they would ever give
them any measure half so liberal, unless they at
once abjured the character of Tories, renounced
their errors, and said they started as new men. He
would conclude by giving " Vote by Ballot, the
chief Requisite of all Parliamentary Reform."
The toast was drunk with the usual honours.
Mr. BARNARD proposed " The 237 Members of
Parliament who supported the Ballot," and urged
upon the members of the society present the neces-
sity for uniting upon such a question, and making
it one independent of Governments, and one to be
pressed alike upon the consideration of all. He
was sure that no measure of Parliamentary Reform
which did not acknowledge the principle of vote by
ballot would ever be acceptable to the people of
this country. (Cheers.). .e
Sir J. V. SHELLEY returned thanks on the part
of the members of the house. He said he quite
agreed with what the last speaker had hinted at—
that it was time the members who supported vote
by ballot should firmly unite in pressing their just
demands upon the present or any other Govern-
ment, no matter what their politics. A great many
rumours and surmises had gone abroad respecting
the coming Ministerial Reform Bill and its provi-
sions; but he sincerely believed that but few knew
anything accurately about that measure, for the
secret of its details had been exceedingly well kept.
He, however, for one, did not believe in the pro-,,.
mise of a permissive ballot, and thought all their
expectations on that head would end in some mere
dodge—(cheers)—in the way of voting papers, or
some such paltry excuse. Voting papers might be
all very well for the sick, the timid, or cripples,
but such an expedient could render no service to
the bone or healthy vigorous muscle of the country.
Mr. ROUPELL briefly proposed "The Council of
the Ballot Society," to which Mr. J. WHITE, M.P.,
responded.
Other toasts, more or less connected with the ob-
ject for which the festival was given, such as. the
"Ballot•elected Members of the Australian Colc.
nits," " The Executive Committee of the Ballot
Society," &c., were duly given and honoured, " The
Health of the Chairman' concluding the proceed-
ings at an advanced hour.

THE NAVY,

Commodore the Hon. James R. Drummond,
C. 8., Aide-de-Camp to her Majesty and superinten-
dent of Woolwich Dockyard, yesterday hoisted his
broad pennant onboard the receiving ship Fisgard,
at Woolwich, and assumed the duties of the yard
on the expiration of his leave of absence.
Commander L. R. Reynolds has been appointed
agent of mails, vice Western ; and Mr. Charles
Love, Master's Assistant to the Algiers.
M. Vianson, inspector of steam machinery in the
service of his Majesty the King of Sardinia, was
yesterday permitted by a special order from the
Admiralty, applicable to foreign visitors, to inspect;
the super-heating steam apparatus at Woolwich,
invented by Mr. Partridge, assistant chief engineer
of the dockyard factory, for economising the con-
sumption of fuel on shipboard, with a view of
introducing the same in the naval service of that
country. M. Vianson was likewise furnished with
an order to verify the capabilities and advantages
to be obtained by the substitution of Bray's traction
engines, under construction by Messrs. F. and J.
Hughes at their factory at New-cross, for service
at the dockyards of Woolwich and Keyham,
The steamship Urgent, Commander Macdonald,
with troops, which put into Plymouth Sound on
Friday, took in several tons of ordnance stores on
Saturday, and sailed on Monday for Malta.
Topsail-yards were crossed on board the screw
steamship James Watt, 91, at Devonport on Friday
last ; on Tuesday she was removed from dock.

The screw steamship St. Jean d'Acre, 101, was
placed in dock at Keyham on Monday.
The screw steamship Aboukir, 90, was masted at
Devonport on Tuesday.
The crew of the screw steamship Sanspareil, 70,
Captain Rochfort Magnin, were paid off at Devon-
port on Tuesday.
The Mersey, 40, screw.—The alteration of the
sheer of this mighty frigate, by cutting down the
hammock rails forward and heightening the same
amidships is a great improvement, and has taken
away the appearance (which she previously pre-
sented) of a huge merchant ship.
The Termagant, 25, screw, Captain R. Hall, has
taken advantage of the late two or three fine days
and has had the painters over the side. No ship
has fitted out so smartly or quickly.
THE NEW DOCK AT PORTSINIOUTH.—The con-
tractors for the iron caisson at the opening into the
harbour have commenced building this gigantic
security. The caisson will be more than 100 feet
across and about 300 feet in breadth; the keel and
midship ribs are already riveted together. The
dock is fast approaching completion, and will be
sufficienVy large to receive the Great Eastern, or
in thiee distinct compartments to dock three such
ships as the Agamemnon.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Virago, Com-
mander Dunn, from Liverpool, with 37 supernu-
meraries for the flag ship ; the gunboat Hind, from
Falmouth, with 17 volunteers for the St. Jean
d'Acre, and two for the Impregnable; and the
Diligence, Crook master, arrived at Plymouth on
Tuesday.
Yesterday, Captain Norton, who recently expe-
rimented at Chatham with his liquid fire-shell and.
some new descriptions of bullets he has invented,
the effects of which are very remarkable, again
attended at the head-quarters of the Royal Engi-
neers' establishment,Brompton, for the purpose of ex-
hibiting an equally valuable invention of his, named
the explosive percussion bolt-signal, which will
be found of great use as a military alarm signal. In
the trial of the invention yesterday, the " signals"
were taken in the hand and being allowed to fall
either on the earth or :even on the grass exploded,
with a sufficiently loud report to be heard a con-
siderable distance. Captain Norton proposes to
apply the same signals to be used on railways,
so as to enable passengers and guards to communi-
sate with the driver of engines.
The Nankin, 50, Commodore Hon. K. Stewart,
will be paid off at Chatham to-morrow, when those
of the crew who are continuous service men will be
allowed six weeks run ashore before they join
another vessel.