The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-01-19 00:00:00

THE BALLOT.

( From the Times.)
Having shown, in two former articles, firstly, that if the pre-
sent system of voting be repealed, you must either gag the
whide constituency. which would be absolute tyranny, or you
must leave it to the option of electors to vote openly or other-
iiise, WhiCh, in practice, would be found completely destructive
olsecrecy; secondly, that, supposing the gagging method to be
ati4iired, there iii no conceivable device whereby the desired
eonceihnent "can' be effected compatibly with an accurate and
rightful exercise or men's suffrages; and, thirdly, that, as the
argument derived from the ballot's alleged success in the East
14`limiChnipany and private dubs it so far an illusion, that The
supposed privacy of suffrage in these associations' is only
and nut real—so;-even if there existed in those quarters a
stricter concealment of operation than they now acttrally prac-
tise, the very cutestions on which they vote, as distinguished from
those of permanent public interest, afford them such facil.ties
for maintaining secrecy as no political constituency can ever
hope to command,—having, we repeat, demonstrated these seve-
ral points, we might well be entitled, on the foregoing premises
alone, to demand against the ballot a sentence of universal re-
probation.

But, in point of fact, the mere efficiency of this radical gag,
though quite sufficient to secure the contempt Of every free and
unskulking Englishman. is by no means the wort Of it, The
insult which it offers to the direct and fearless honesty of the
national character; the offensive imputation on which it pro-
ceeds as its basis. that the electors of this realm are a set of un-
principled sneaks. who, being disposed to pledge themselves to
one candidate and then to vote for another, are entitled to be
facilitated and protected in their perfidy by an express provision
of law=all this we do not now insist upon.

The fact, however, that the ballot would, in several respects,
afford opportunities for practising even a worse kind of corrup-
tion and to a much greater extent than the existing system ad-
mits of, must he almost self-evident. For example, what is to
hinder a keen partisan from giving in were, more votes
than he is' entitled to? Whether the suffrage were to be
giVen by means of labels or halls, we defy the ingenuity of
man to prevent a dishonest voter from privately furnishing
himself with a variety of these tokens, and from slipping
tiiix of them into the ballot-box instead of 0.1 It is Idle to g,.Y,
that'precautions would he taken to render this impracticable.
rr I.l.ttler the'present order of things, when. men are obliged to
Tote ill 'the face of day, neither the vigilance of contending par-

ties, nor the solemnity of an oath, nor the proverbial virtue of
pelting clerks, can prevent unprincipled pei sons from persona-
!nig the (lead, or from voting twice at the same election, we may
be very sure that, with such a convenient cover' as the ballot,
the facilities for giving a fraudulent plurality of votes would he
proportionably increased, in spite of all the ,atatutery precau-
tions that could lie taken upon the subject. The candidate
having the smallest number of bona.fide voters might thus gain
the election by a cony*, of treachery, which, even if ascertained
to have beeu practised in the gross, could not possibly admit of
being investigated in the detail, or judicially fastened upon par-
ticular individuals. Of the contusion and crime involved in
such proceedings we say nothing; but if the ballot brawlers
will only prove to us either that these 'misdeeds can be effectu-
ally prevented, or that they are of a less flagitious character
than the alleged evils of the preseht system, we shall give them
all manner of credit for their ingenuity. Assertions, mind,
will go for nothing. In the absence of actual experiment, we
must have a strong presumptive proof.
Another vital and insuperable objection to the ballot is, that
in such cases of fraudulent voting as we have anticipated no
improper return could ever be set aside by any Parliamentary
tribunal ; or we ought rather to say, that as long as knavish
electors 'should manage, by collusion, to prevent the number of
their extra legal labelsor halls from surpassing the actual num-
ber of the local constituency, it would be utterly impossible to
determine rightfully whether any return were an improper one
or not. How could the grounds be laid for a legal scrutiny by
the House of Commons ? and if laid presumptively, how could
judicial evidence he procured in reference to unknown offenders
whom the ballot had surrounded with impenetrable darkness?
Uncertainties, jealousies, plotting's, circumventions, and unde-
tectable villains, would be inseparable from the whole scheme.
The upright constituencies might have the strongest moral con-
viction that there had been false play in the dark; but under
the ballot system there could he neither proof nor remedy.
Moreover, it is especially worthy of remark that all the argu-
ments in favour of a concealed suffrage on the part of the voter
may' be. Urged with tenfold force in favour of secret voting in
Parliament. ' If the privilege of irresponsibility is to be con-
ferred on electors, common justice would require that the same
privilege should be extended to representatives. If the ballot-
mongers insist that no man shall be called to account fur his
vote at an election, we cannot gee why any member. should be
compelled to give an open suffrage in a parliamentary division.
Indeed, if the principle of the ballot is to be recognized and
acted on in. British politics, thee- the abandonment of open
voting in the legislature would only be its logical issue, as well
as its proper off-set. And let us hear observe, that the intro-
duction of such a novelty into the House of Commons, how
startling -soever to our just notions of responsibility, would be
quite in accordance with the theory of the constitution. The
rigorous exclusion of " strangers" :during the divisions of that
house'proc'eeds notoriously. upowthe princtple that the concien-
t ious votes- of 'members ought neither to tie influenced nor in-
timidated by popular opinion; and if, within a comparatively
short pirit.4.*,thls_nota-responsibility has been reduced to a mere
:theoretic fiction by the vigilanCe and intrepidity of the press,
no person can deny that the reasons which originally sanctioned
its adoption, would, under the ballot system, acquire a prodigious;
accession of force and importance. Fur ourselves, we of course'
justify the publicity of parliamentary voles, because we think
that members .ought to be responsible to public opinion, when
that opinion, as at present, can be satisfactorily ascertained.
But.once establish the ballot, and where are we to find a certain
and correct index of the public mind? You would have an
immense proportion of electors professing one thing and voting
for ati"dher. You would see weight of character and judgment
deprived of their just influence. You would have worthless
.vagabonds consorting with respectable men, and undermining
them with fraudulent ballots You would have the constitu-
ency of the kingdom enveloped in the deep shades and iniquitous
mysteries of the Inquisition; and therefore, in such a state of
things. we hold that to rescue representatives from the caprices
and injustice of a secret tribunal, the vote by ballot, if resorted
to by the country, cannot be refused to the divisions in parlia-
ment without the grossest tyranny.
Nor let us forget that if the protection of secrecy be due to
the voter, it is in many grave respects, far more indispensible to
the usefulness and iudependance of the representative: An
honest member of parliament may require to be protected against
the court, against the Minister of the day, against demagogue
junto;, and even against his own party connexions. On such a
subject, for instance as the recent provision in favour of the
Duchess of Kent, there can he no question that the known bias-
ses and dreaded disfavour of the palace did intimidate many mem-
bers from ex pressing t he opposition to the measure which only Sir
Geo. Sinclair and Col. Sihthorp had the moral courage to avow.
Even the lower Radicals, who, having never darkened the

Royal threshold, can suff •r. nothing from that quarter but con-
tinued exclusion. did not dare to propose an adverse vote. But
among members of high station, familiar with the precincts and
society of St. James's, the power of the court to avenge their
Parliamentary independence by inflicting serious retaliations
is as extensively possessed as in the gentle hands which now
wield that power it will, we trust, be generously and graciously
disused. That such power, however, has an obvious tendency
to intimidate representatives from giving a conscientious vote
that might incur the Royal displeasure—this, we say, forms a
plea. for secret voting in Parliament, which the advocates of the
ballot cannot consistently object to. Take another case, in
regard to the position in which many members of the House of
Commons stand towards the Ministryof the day. The services
of these members as men of talent, industry, and experience,
might often be of great benefit to the country, either in com-
mittees or in subordinate offices of the state. But their honest
and independent votes being openly given, are known and dis-
approved of by the Treasury Leader. They are, therefore,
marked men; and, accordingly, they are interdicted from serving
on committees wherein independence might be inconvenient to
the Government, as in the case of Mr. Whittle Harvey's ex-
clusion from the committee on the pension list, the packed
committee on the Poor Law question, and many others too
numerous to be mentioned. By open voting the upright retire-
sentative.is thus exposed to ministerial malice, not more to the
,lisadvantage of the commonwealth than to his own personal or
family injurY, in numberless instances in which himself or his
children may be, deprived of fair professional promotion, and
tyrannically balked in their laudable and legitimate pursuits.
lf, then, the practice of secret voting at the hustings be neces-
sary for the protection of electors against oppressive landlords,
it is equally; Aecessary in Parliament for the protection of re-
presentatives against a mean and vindictive government. Pre-
cisely the same thing may be argued in regard to borough and
parochial juatos. With- a pair of ruinps like those of West-
minster and Mary,letione, where is the conscientious member
who, being. required to give an open vote in 'Parliament, can
dare to excuse his honest convictions with any feeling of free-
dom orindependence? Let him dare to do so, and forthwith
he is pounced upon by the tribunals of the Crown and Anchor,
or the Barlow-street Club. The poor creatures who sit for
these little Metropolitan despotisms must vote, if they vote
openly, under the goad and lash. Nay, we are free to admit,
that in consequence of open voting in Parliament, an imprac-
ticable and independent member may often be thrown into very
embarrassing relations with his own party connections, inas-
much as he may.' thereby incur certain jealousies, alienations,
and resentments of a painful kind, from which.the.ballot in the
House or Commons would have effectually shielded him.
Observe, we are not arguing for secret voting in that house,
if an open suffrage is to be retained in county and borough
elections. But we hold, that as far as regards publicity -or
privacy, the mode of voting ought to be the same; and that all
the reasons which recommend a system of concealed operations
at an election may be pleaded with tenfold force in favour of a
secret mode of taking the divisions in Parliament. The advo-
cates of the one cannot, consistently, halt or falter without con-
ceding the other.

LIVERPOOL MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

LECTURES ON CIIEMISTRY.

Kane delivered his fourth lecture on Saturday evening,
and one which afforded a richer scientific treat has rarely been
listened to. Indeed, we are glad to find that the present course
upon chemistry is attracting, as it well merits, the attention of
the scientific in this town.

At a very early period of chemistry we were acqainted with
the substance called sal-animoniac, and the leading chemists were
aware of the method of extracting from it a volatile liquid
known under the name of spirits of sal-ammoniac. It was found
likewise that a liquid of the same nature could be obtained by
the distillation of animal matter, and we are now aware that
the mijorits of vegetable substances yield a small quantity of
it. if we take a quantity of any sort of animal substance what-
ever, and subject it to destructive dist illation, we have a reaction
which, although in reality complicated, and giving rise to a
great variety of products, may be simply explained in general
terms A uimal substances consist generally of four elements,
carbon, oxygen hydrogen, and nitrogen. Now, where a sub-
stance composed of elements is acted upon by heat, the
action is very complicated, the carbon and oxygen unite to
form carbonic acid, and the nitrogen and hydrogen to form am-
monia. Now, these two substances, by virtue of the law which
affects the union of acids with bases, unite together to form car-
bonate of ammonia. In practice, however, animal matters con.
tains too much carbon, and we get a carbonaceous residue; we
likewise get some water and some nitrogen. Yet, putting these
aside, we may state the general result as being explicable in
the above-mentioned way. Ammonia is usually known as the
spirit of hartshorn of commerce. It was formerly obtained by
subjecting horn to the action of heat. After the distillation of
coal, ill addition to the inflammable matters which are obtained,
there is procured an enormous quantity of ammonia, so much
so that we may say that by this means our principal supply of
coal is obtained. On analyzing sal ammoniac we find it to con-
sist of ainuiania, nutted to muriatic acid. We may show the
by which ammonia is obtained from this subatance in a
simple manner. Ammonia is a base of superior power, but it is
a base inferior in attraction to other bases. It is inferior, for
instance, to potash, soda, and lime, and if we present these
stronger bases to sal ammoniac the weaker base is set tree. The
separation of the elements of sal-ammoniac by lime is one of the
simp:est specimens of decomposition which can be exhibited.
When heat is applied the process is much expedited, and all
the ammonia may be obtained, but mere tritriration in a mortar
will expel aminoniacal ocbtor. This odour is easily distinguished
by its pnngent smell. It is the pungent constituent of the smell-
ing salts, by which name it is universally known. We generally
see ammonia under the liquid.or solid form, but when perfectly
separated it is a transparent and colourless gas, permanent at
ordinary temperatures and pressures. Ammonia may be col-
lected in the same manner as oxygen. hydrogen, and nitrogen,
but it is necessary to mike a simple alteration in the operation.
We have hitherto collected the gas over water, but as ammonia
unites very powerfully with water it is collected over quicksil-
ver. Ammonia is very light, being only half the weight of at-
mospheric air. It we pass through ammoniacal
it gas series of
electric sparks its volume increases, and it becomes inflamina-
Isle, having been converted, in a great measure, into hydrogen.
Thus, if we operate on two pints of hydrogen we shall get four
pints of the gas resulting from its decomposition. On an
analysis it was found that three measures of hydrogen and one
of nitrogen went to form two measures of ammonia. Now, it
is easy from these results to collect the specific gravity of ammo-
nia, and we shall find that it is considerably lighter than atmos-
pheric air. We take advantage of this levity to Procure it
tolerably pure, by collecting it under a jar without the aid of
the pneumatic trough. A pipe is introduced under the jar to
its tun, and the amumniacal gas as it issues from this tube fitrces
the atmospheric air downwards until it finally expels the whole.
Ammonia possesses an exceedingly interesting action on vegeta-
ble colours. By putting, caustic
moisture will be absorbed and the gat thoroughly dried. if a
piece of turmeric paper be then introduced into the jar it will
be turned from a yellow into a dark brown. By damping the
tunnel is paper the change is more remarkable. The character
of browning vegetable yellows is a property of alkalies, and we
here recognize ammonia to be an alkali. One of the most re-
markable properties of ammonia is, that by uniting with various
acids it forms a beautiful class of salts. Thus by uniting with
muriatic acid gas, it forms muriate of ammonia, &c. As it is
soextreinelv soluble in water we generally make use for experi-
mental purposes not of the gaseous ammonia but of the aqueous
solution iu a concentrated fo,
There are °tienr two circumstances connected with ammonia
which are worthy of notice ; one of the most remarkable of
which is its metallization. After the discovery of potassium
and sodium by Sir Humphrey Davy, he supposPa that ammonia
wits similarly constituted to :hese lealies, and that lie should be
able to prove it to be a metallic oxide. The most distinguished
men of the day have accordingly directed their attention to am-
monia iu thaaxpeetatiou of obtaining- oxygen from it. They