The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-01 00:00:00

all that evasion and all that unfaithfulness—
the Advocates of the Ballot number just
about One-Third of the Whole Rouse of
Commons ! No longer a mere handful observe, able
upon an occasion adroitly managed to surprise a
very small house into a microscopic majority, in
support of the annual motion of the member for
Bristol, say in between the Darby and the Oaks !
Nailing of this kind any longer—but a compact
phalanx of just upon tTO hundred representatives.
So that the Ballot, after all, has made an advanco,
a decided and appreciable advance in the New
Parliament-. " After all "—viz., after the short
memories of some and the small courage of others—
after the paltry non-attendance of Evaders, and the
impudent recalcitration of the Recanters !

There is my Lord JOHN RUSSELL, for example,
what in the name of Truth, of Honesty, of Fair
Dealing can we possibly say of him and of his
astounding conduct yesterday ? What—but that
he and his brother (Lord CHARLES, the Sergeant-
at-Arms) have regularly done [there is uo other
phrase for it,]—have regularly done the metropo-
litan constituency. We assert it, we repeat it—
we are not talking at random—we maintain that
the course pursued by those two noble brothers
in regard to the question of the Ballot
is a course irreconcilable with one's notions of
perfect candour and magnanimity. Recollect
what took place on Lady-day last in the City of
London Remember the meeting then, on that
25th of March, 1857, held by the inhabitants of
the Ward of Broad-street, there, at the North
and South American Coffee-house. Observe ! we
have forgotten neither time nor place—and cer-
tainly we have. not forgotten what gave a certain
degree of importance to both, namely, the ,words
that fell, there and then, from the lips of Lord
JOHN'S brother, Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, "the
Sergeant-at-Arms of the British House of Com-
mons ! What were those words ? They were
" I will state to you a fact,"
said Lord CHARLES RUSSELL to the elec-
tors of the City of London, assembled
upon that occasion, on Wednesday, the 25th
%leech, 1857, at the North and South Ame-
rican Coffee-house ! Mark the phrase—" I will
,tate to you a fact ; I have autho-
rity for stating that the Vice-President and
[treasurer of the Ballot Society have both of them
mpressed their determination to support Lord J.
RUSSELL in the coming election, so satisfied are
they with his conduct. After all, I want to know
is LORD JOHN RUSSELL so determined an oppo-
eant of the Ballot as some here seem to suppose ?
In the abstract I am, myself, in favour of open
voting ; but what made me a convert to the Bel-
ot was seeing the enormous amount of coercion
exercised in an election when I was candidate—
and I have heard Lord JOHN RUSSELL say, when
he was contesting Devonshire, that he saw things
hen which, though in the abstract he was
opposed to the Ballot, led him to believe it pos-
sible that he might be driven to it." Indeed,
Lord CHARLES RUSSELL declared further
than this, ho asserted that what Lord JOHN
wanted first of all was to carry a large extension
of the franchise : and added then—" When two
men out of seven, instead of one out of seven
had the power of voting, the argument against
Ballot would not be quite so strong
'n his brother's mind as it was !" Very
well. Now recollecting all this, and re-
collecting that at the time those words
were uttered, that at the time that declaration
was volunteered by Lord JOHN RussELL's Brother
he election of Lord Joax was a matter very
loubtful indeed, and not all to be calculated
upon ! Remembering that, and remembering
hat a little while afterwards Lord JOHN was
brought in the " third" upon the list of the sue-.
!essful candidates, by a generous and not by a
'actions combination—What, we ask, does the
country think of the Noble Lord the Member for
the City of London now ? Yow that his conduct
in reference to the Ballot can be viewed dis-
thretly between the cross lights thrown upon
it by two very different speeches—by the speech
leads on Wednesday, the 25th of March, by
Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, and by the speech de-
livered on Tuesday, the 30th of June, by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL ? We leave the question to the
conscience of the general community.
And in reference to the Times? Well, the
story there is as old as the hills. It is a thing
quite notorious—an inevitable necessity, as such
universally recognised. The Times, in regard to
Reform, iu regard to the Corn-laws, in regard to
everything—says obstinately Nay, until the period
has arrived when everybody else says Yea, and then
the Times says Yea too. It has been so before. It
is so now. It threatens to be so always. The
Times was dead against Free Trade until every-
thing combined to show plainly that Free Trade
at last must as a matter of certainty be trium-
phant. And then—at the eleventh hour and
three-quarters, and fourteen minutes, and fifty-
nine seconds—the Times veered round dead
against Protection. It will be the same, in due
course, with the Ballot—" in due course," ob-
serve ! Not sooner and not later. We are now
at just about the tenth hour in regard to
the Ballot. That we are at that, the diviSion
of last night demonstrates incontestably.
Consequently, when, politically speaking,
there shall have elapsed one hour more, and three-
quarters and fourteen minutes and fifty-nine
seconds, and perhaps half the beat of a pendulum
besides—whirr I round the Times will inevitably
o "For " the Ballot, and proclaim it a "great
fact." We can wait for all this now calmly and
confidently. The minority of 189 is at once our
solace and our encouragement.