The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-13 00:00:00

LONDON,

don of a clause into the Elections (Ireland) Bill
enacting that henceforth, in all elections in Ireland for
Members to serve in Parliament, the votes shall be
taken by ballot. We can easily imagine that the
discussion of such a motion would be regarded
as exceedingly inconvenient by the official gentlemen.
Sir Joins ROMILLY, for instance, introduced this very
Bill—Sir Jour; ROMILLY is the Member for Devon-
port, and is a supporter of the ballot (just as Sir G.
GREY was a supporter of the ballot while he was
Member for Devonport, and before he was returned
by family and aristocratic influence for Northumber-
land). Sir JOHN ROMILLY having voted for Mr.
HENRY BERKELEY'S motion could hardly with any ap-
pearance of consistency have opposed Mr. MAURICE
O'CONNELL'S motion, and therefore, no doubt, Sir
Joust Rosm.Ly would be very glad to take advan.
tage of any point of form to escape from
the " fix " in which Mr. MAURICE O'CONNELL'S motion
had placed him. Sir GEORGE GREY, whose sudden voile
face on this question has not, we can assure him,
been either forgotten or forgiven by the great body of
honest reformers, would be well pleased to escape
from a repetition of that castigation (it was richly
deserved and well laid on) which he received from
the Hon. Member for Bristol, about a month
since, when that Honourable Gentleman brought
forward the general question of the ballot:
In addition to the " tricksters" and " the bullies,'
there are also the " skulkers," "the shabbies," and
" the envious" (we include in this latter term those
who oppose every measure of reform which does not
originate with their own clique),—all these would be
required to shelve the proposition of Mr. MAURICE
O'CONNELL, and therefore we are not surprised at the
attempt made In Thursday to take advantage of a
point of form to "burke" the discussion, and to
avoid the division on the ballot which that motion, if
proposed, would necessitate. The attempt was
temporarily successful, but only temporarily. ♦s
is usual with very cunning people, the opponents of
the motion overreached themselves, and the very
effect of this attempt was the withdrawal of the pro •
position on Thursday, to be renewed to-night on the
third reading of the Bill, so that the supporters of
the ballot are under an obligation to "the tricksters"
for having, by their attempt, called the attention of
the public to the subject ; and we can assure Hon.
Members that the division lists on this subject will
be most minutely scrutinized by the constituencies—
that the absentees will be marked, and that every
" skulker" and every "rat" will be questioned at the
hustings concerning his vote on this motion.
Ireland is of all other portions of the British em-
pire the best entitled to be the first to receive the
boon of the ballot, if any portion of the constituency
is to have justice done to it before another. The op-
ponents of the ballot say it is no effectual remedy
against bribery. The receiving of bribes is not the
besetting vice of the Irish constituencies—to their
honour be it spoken, they have never sold themselves
wholesale "fur the love of gain ;" there is no Irish Sud-
bury—but that they suffer from intimidation we have
the evidence of the intimidators themselves. "He
would have voted for our candidate (say the land-
lords) if it had not been for the intimidation of the
priest—he would have voted fur our candidate (say
the priests) if it had not been for the intimidation of
the landlord." We do not dispute either assertion,
tut we gather from both that it is abundantly clear
that every effort has been used to prevent the man
from voting according to his own opinion ; and as the
object of conferring on him the franchise is to give
him an opportunity of recording his own opinion, and
not that of either his landlord or his priest,
we cannot see how the demand to give him the ballot, li
which will protect him from the intimidation of both,
can be reasonably met. We hardly think that the
opponents of the ballot in the House will venture to
make use of the arguments adduced against it by the
leading reactionary journal in its leader on the
recent elections in France. Speaking of vote by
ballot, it says, "It is under cover of that dishonest
and furtive system that servants vote against their
masters, soldiers against officers, craftsmen against
the capitalist who employs them, labourers against
landlords." What, then, do the votes of servants be-
long to their masters, of craftsmen to the capitalist, of
labourers to their landlords? Because, if so, be
honest—disfranchise all these, and give masters,
capitalists, and landlords a plurality of votes,
in proportion to the number of their servants,
their craftsmen, or their labourers. To be
logical, you must either do this, or you must give
the constituency the protection of the ballot. We
urge upon every Member, English and Irish, and
more particularly upon every English Member who
has the smallest pretensions to the character of a Re-
former, to be in his place this evening, and to vote
in favour of the motion of Mr. MAURICE O'CONNELL ;
and we call upon every constituent to scrutinise the
division list, and to reject the backsliders.

Germany still continues to waver irresolutely be-
tween the alternative of Democracy and Absolutism.
The solution of the political problem so long under
discussion has hitherto evaded the intelligence of all
parties and classes, of princes and peoples, of dema-
gogues and statesman. During many past months
this important question has been debated with un-
weariable assiduity in one or other of the capitals of
the confederation. Heretofore, as we have said, with-
out any satisfactory consequence. The latest result
of these Parliamentary failures has been the resigna-
tion of the matter, almost unconditionally, into the
hands of the governing authorities. At present,
therefore, the difficulty is left at the discretion
of the ruling powers of Germany. How far these
heads of the states will advance towards the settle-
ment we fear may be but too readily conjectured.
Experience has assured us again and again that the
bickerings of the popular delegates are as nothing to
those arising among the chiefs of the larger or lesser
kingdoms and principalities. In addition to a variance
of opinion as strikingly conspicuous as among the
former, there are visible, moreover, among the latter,
an accumulation of rivalries and jealousies such as
almost defies every influence towards reconcilement.
First of all, there is the paramount contention be-
tween the northern Protestantism and the southern
Catholicity. Then there is the collision inevitable
from the encounter, no matter how peaceful its aus-
pices, of the retrogressive force of the ancient
Lords Paramount, the Austrians, and of the advance
movement of the modern Lords Paramount, the
I'russians. Of all the political rivalries rankling in the
bosom of the German Confederation, of course the
vast majority are subordinate to the one which has
been so long raging feta een the reyal or imperial
councils of Berlin and Vienna. Yet, with all its in-
disputable prominence, it cannot possibly exclude
from our attention the inferior but still important rival-
ries existing between the four monarchies and
the smaller principalities of Germany. Anything
more inveterate can scarcely be conceived even by
the most imaginative than the feeling which for
upwards of a century has tended year after
year to the greater and greater estrangement
of the forty Governments. With every circum•
stance to demonstrate the advisability of some ami-
cable arrangement, even at the price of large and
mutual concessions, the Kings and Princes, the
Grand Dukes and Electors of Germany have shrunk
from an alliance such as appeared to portend effects
detrimental to their individual interests. The principal
states have dreaded lest an alliance of this kind
mmight
oconducel
etsos e thern
eui
gl thebroi our r
se: ewv ahtei lor zei a
so r t
he develop-latter
have recoiled from a proceeding that might at length
result in their absorption into the enormous
dominions ruled by the dynasties of Hapsburg
and of Brandenburg. Hence the hopes of the
aspirants fur German unity have remained up to the
present moment unrealised. Hence the heroic
achievements of some patriots, and the yet
more heroicbl osod
long
ocf-oosfu ffering of others, have
been ineffectual, if not altogether fruitless.
cont
dtfar
irn as any
vain, the visible
thestehqe consequence might
chivalric
lydrei
saptdr hohaysaess tt oibr
been
stirred
se
the hearts of his compatriots to no purpose. Such
at least must be the conclusion arrived at by the
more superficial observer of the past European oc-
currences. A somewhat closer scrutiny must of
course give rise to a very different opinion, but such
we maintain is the inevitable deduction of those who
regard merely the superficies of the events transpiring
onthe continent.
considerations it must be obvious to
o t
these
e
Fr m all h
the many that but little good can be at all anticipated