The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-02
NEW VOTERS IN ENGLAND.
Scarcely More Intelligent Than Their Cat
ue-PrOvisions of the Law.
iChicago Times

LCEIcaZo IILoeSI
A good many thousand names are
about 70 Be added 70 the voters Of Eng
land under the new franchise act, ma
IorIty 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 10 this end every portion Of the
country Is being visited by political
agents. Liberal reports from their note
books are published by newspaper rep
resentatiyes who are looking up the
new voters and questioning them as TO
what they know o. the new order Of
things, and what they expect 70 gain by
it
4 perusal Of the newspaper reports
forces the conclusion that the new voters
among the agricuIturists 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
be the eject upon their relations with
their landlords il 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, voter 8 given a ballot by the re-
turning OTcer, a government Official,
on which are printed the names Of the
opposing candidates This ballot has
ar official stamp, and no other one can
be used. There Is a compartment into
which the voter takes his ballot, where
ne marks cross opposite the name OF
the person he wishes TO vote for, and
then folds it so as TO conceal the mark
and drops il into a sealed ballot 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 a
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
look 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
lord
one of the new element said: 81
bean, able to see how this yir vOtingll
do uch good for We" He 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 their 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 It's
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 ma jority is afraid to use it, and
still others regard it as a dangerous,
new-fangled thing that had best be let
alone.