New-York tribune., 1869-01-20
THE BALLOT IN ENGLAND.

! The next great question Of Reform TO come
| up in England will be that of the Ballot. a
meeting in favor of the ballot in Parliamen-
| tary elections, the Cable informs us, was held
IN London day or two since and speeches
were made by men of such prominence IA
Milner Gibson, Charles Buxton, and Edward
Beales in its support Not long since,
Mr. Bright declared cmphatcally to a friend
that he hoped to be soon able to devote
himself, before all other things, to the com
pletion Of the Reform bill by the intro
duction of the ballot. The late elections have
| lent an immense impetus to the agitation. which
| had so long been langIishing, III favor of n
system of protected voting. In the great
county of Lancashire, the Tory landlords seem
to have "put the screw on" in the most reck-
less and remorscless fashion. In the northern
division of that county, there was a mOmen-
t0us struggle between the strength of two great
houses-that of Earl Derby, in favor of his son,
Capt. Stanley and that of the Duke of Devon
shire, on behalf of the Marquis of Harrington.
The latter was defeated. and in a speech which
! he made after the contest he alluded very sig
| nifcanty to the pressure which had been put
on to prevent voters from giving him their
support. "In justice to my own friends, he said
% must say that there did exist among them
every strong impressions that they would
"not be permitted for fear of the
consequences. to record their votes in my favor
land, if that impression had not prevailed, /
"should have polled a greater proportion of
" the votes than have done" The Marquis
talked with aristocratic and even Ministerial
caution, but his audience understood what he
meant, and his words were followed by cries Of
"The Tory screw" "Who put the screw on ~
and Lets have the ballot" Now, when Mar
quises in England begin TO set this sort of
thing going, when the sons of great Peers find
that they lose their seats because other great
Peers "put the screw on" to- keep them out
the prospects of the ballot are indeed bright
ening. so long as landlordlsm only eXerts its
power to keep mere Radicals, and Manchester
men, and manufacturers, and Tenant-Right
champions, out Of the House of Commons,
landlords and landlords sons will find no fault
with 1t. But when hawks begin to pick hawks
eyes out, the thing grows intolcrable to hawks
of all regions and breeds When Cavendish
begins to suffer from Stanleys screw, and Stan
ley knows that at the next opportunity he may
be made to feel the vcngeful pressure of Cav
endishs rctalatOry squeeze, III Is not at all un-
likely that both parties will show themselves
willing to assent to n system which shall secure
fair play and hands off on both sides for the
future. Mr.. Gladstone, too, acknowledged
openly that in the Southwestern division of
Lancashire he found the screw of the landlord
put on the tenants and he went further to-
ward declaring himself an advocate of the
ballot than he ever did in his life before.
Indeed, all over the surface of the English
elections lately there was evident n remarkable
bubblng up of unexpected adhesion to the
principle of the ballot. New men came in
protesting themselves its unconditional advo-
Gates. Men who had been long opposed to it
declared themselves converted by the evidences
of It's necessity which had been forced on them
during the contest. 1t seems universally adj
mitted that bribery and landlord terrorism