The Portland daily press., 1865-08-12
rHH ELEor1oN RIOTS IN ENGLAND.


The reports which have come to us of the
riot and disorder that have characterized the
? English elections almost ssupass belief Inc
polling booths were surrounded by iniurla'eu
mobs Men were knocked down. Dea'on'
stoned, and in some instances shot. women
and children dared not appear IN tne streets.
candidates ware booted pelted with stones,
soot dood cots rabbits, heTings and rotten
! eggs. Armed MODS pau 'ueu 'Aie STREETS, Dreak-
inc windows. entering the houses of citizens
o,Sa tbrowipg furniture, pictures and chande-
-. ont of the windows, and cutting the
o,ons of tradesmen who held obnoxious opin-
ions, fights with the police were frequent and
bloody, and in many places the military had
to be called out. The London Star, COM
menting on these disgraceful scenes says:
eve have all heard good deal lately about
tile absolute perfection of the BRUSH eiecUorai
system. Mr.. Lowe and other eminent gen
tlemen have taken much trouble 10 snow us
that the thing is so sublimely and yet delicate
ly perfect that the touch ofany moral reformers
hand with the view ofateling tmust bring ON
If and rs irretrievable ruin and shame. Our cleo
toraI system. indeed is the sacred ark, to touch
which though it be in the hope of saving it,
deserves and draws down perdition. This is
the theory--perhaps | ought rather to say The
Eaith-whch every true Englishman and lover
OF his country is held bound to swear to-
We are hidden to glance at our neighbors over
the Atlantic, and shudder at their frightful
condition. We, the Pharisee, exult that we
are not like yonder poor Republican Mr..
Gregory pictures to us the fury of an Ameri-
can mob; Mr.. Charles Mackay anticipates a
saturnalia of slaughter ON the eve OF every
American election. Utter one word about inn
proving in any manner Except laterally) our
electoral system, and you are promptly refer
red to these authorities, and sternly asked if
You are in your right senses, or il you really
want to AmerieaniZe our institutions.
Now,I do not want to discuss the question
OR just at present any question. l want to
call your attention to a few facts, leaving your
readers or yourself to draw the moral. be-
lieve the present elections are passing off toll
erably well. At least they are not held to be
worse than any other general elections we
can recollect. They are fair average-lfa any
thing rather better than worse. Yet. il you
take up any of the daily papers you will find
them studded over with kilograms and reports
] Of election riots. The words Election Riots"
make sort of standing title now as regular
in its daily appearance as the 'City Article or
| Court Circular
The same writer asserts "at no Presidential
election in our generation has there been,
through the whole of the United States, one
1.-THE of the rioting this country has just seen
with the almost absolute unconcern which fa-
| nliliarity begetsP'
When we contrast with such exhibitions as
this, the calm, thoughtful peaceable manner in
which the last Presidential election in this
country was conducted, notwithstanding that
the whole nation was then agitated by the in
tense party feelings and the strong party spir-
it which a great civil war must necessarily
awaken, we cannot, we ought not to refrain
from rejoicing that the tendency of free insti-
tutions has received this triumphant vindica-
cation. The old diatribes against republican
lawlessness and democratic mob-aw" lose
| their force in the light of such facts as these
But our purpose in alluding to the matter
now is not to point contrast, but to note the
moral which intelligent men in England are
drawing from these events. In every instance
il has been observable that where large share
q the population were voters the elections
passed off in comparative quiet. Wherever
the electors We're only small portion of the
people there was rioting and uproar. "TRe
rioters arethe asaaerfsGaclsised. They have no
votes; SO they use rotten eggs and stones."-
On this side of the Atlantic, where it is pro-
posed to Keep in order four millions of unen-
franchisec laborers by the domination of the
superior race" rather than by giving them
the free voters interestin the maintenance of
IVY and order, the lesson may not be wholly
without significance