The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-10-16
NEW VOTERS IN ENGLAND.
Scarcely More Intelligent Than Their Cat
tIe-Provisions of the Law.


tIe-Provisions of the Law.
IChicago Times.l
A good many thousand names ara
about to be added to the voters OF Eng
land under the new franchise act, ma
jority of which is made up of agricul
tural laborers and small tenant farmers.
Both parties are making every effort to
engage the votes of the new element,
and to this end every portion of the
country is being visited by political
agents. Liberal reports from their note
books are published by newspaper rep
resentativeS who are looking up the
new voters and questioning them as to
what they know of the new order of
things, and what they expect to gain by
it.
A perusal of the newspaper reports
forces the conclusion that the new voters
among the agriculturists are no more
intelligent than their own cattle. Few
of them have the remotest idea as to
what is intended by giving to them the
right to vote, and nearly all of them are
in great apprehension as to what may
he the effect upon their relations with
their landlords if they venture to vote
without consulting their wishes Under
the rule, the ballot is absolutely a secret
one.
According to the provisions of the
law, a voter is given a ballot by the re
turning officer, government Official,
ON which are printed the names of the
opposing candidates. This ballot has
an official stamp, and no other one can
be used. There is a compartment into
which the voter takes his ballot, where
he marks a cross opposits the name of
the person he wishes to vote for, and
then folds it so as to conceal the mark
and drops it into a sealed DallOt-bOx.
The contents of ali the boxes of poll
ing division are mixed together before
being counted, so that anything like the
detection of the person who put in
certain vote is an impossibility.
Despite these precautions, the new
voters are very much alarmed, for such
are the relations between the small ten
ants and their landlords that the former
looh on the latter as having absolute
control of their destiny, more es
pecially the power to turn them of the
farms which they have been occupying.
The new voters are not at all certain
that the right to vote is going to be of
much use to them, especially as it may
bring them into conflict with their land
lords.
One of the new clement said: Il
beant able to see how this yir vOtingll
do much good for we" lie thought
them parliament might help US about
ground game, which is about as much
as we might ask on EN-" The ground
game" concerning which something
might be done has reference to the for
bidding of the killing of hares and rab-
bits. These animals cause an enormous
loss to the farmers by sther destruction
of crops, and yet they dare not kill
them. Law allows it, but land
lords don't" was the remark of
farmer on this point, coupled with
the information that an effort to pre-
serve his crops by killing the pests was
liable to be followed by a. six months
notice to vacate the land.
The condition of the classes enfran-
chised by the late acts is something in
comprehensive in the density of its
ignorance as to the use and value of the
franchise. Few of them see any end to
be attained by the possession of the bal
lot; a majority is afraid to use it, and
still others regard it as a dangerous,
tangled thing that had best be let
alone.