The Sun. — 1839-07-05 (London, England)

REMEDY FOR THE BALLOT.  TO THE EDITOR OF ZHE SUN.  DIEPPE, JUNE 27, 1839. SlR—Permit me to state that the almost hopeless Ballot business might safely be dispensed with altogether, provided a law to the following effect were passed as soon as possible :—1 st. That every briber and bribee, with all their agents and accomplices, shall be, on conviction, declared guilty of felony.agamst the tion, and punished by the immediate forfeiture of both their electoral and representative rights for ten or so many years, more or less, according to the enormity of their respective offences in the opinion of a competent Jury, carefully chosen to try the same, and composed of Tories, Whigs, and Radicals in equal numbers, whose Foreman should be, at least, a well-known liberal, honest, private character, to whichever of the foregoing classes he may happen to belong, so far as the selection may depend on a majority of a Court so constituted. To secure detection, as in the case of unknown murder, &c., whoever among the suspected and accused criminals shall first impeach his associates, to conviction, he or they shall escape from the projected penalty, nay, an adequate reward, composed of a competent fine from the delinquents, pro re nate, might be decreed by the Jury in terrorein to all future traitors to their fellowcitizens, and as a recompence to informers against every Lzberticide of this description, whatever his rank &c, may be. Regicides, parricide's, homicides, with the longlist of other Bides, fall short in enormity in my estimation of the base murderers and traitors of popular freedom, who deserve death without benefit of clergy, if capital punishments did not on all occasions produce more evil than good on the jury, judges, executioner, victim, spectators, and the people at large, in a variety of ways too tedious to enumerate in this letter. Were the Act projected :to pass, certain innate sinners might pretend to scorn a seat in the House of Commons on the conditions stated above, nay some ten-pound noblesse would probably cock their noses up at the very idea of the pending ordeal, and decline voting as a matter of course, lest corruption, like the devil, who is the great legal scapegoat, may, in an evil hour, tempt them to betray their native country into the hands of a greedy, corn-law-grinding aristocracy from selfish motives entirely, either dictated by avarice, cowardly fear, or future prospects of gain by patronage or otherwise. To representative candidates and voters for them, let me whisper in their ears that congenial prudence should dictate the great danger of having offensive weapons of any species about their persons, because Satan, the grand deceiver, can then try his persuasive wiles to instigate them to commit suicide, or send by one bold stroke a human being to his long home from the sudden impulse of revenge, rejected love, or that invincible sacra fames auri. that has deluged the world with more blood than the mortal bane of a dominant religion, which like the boasted Protestant Church of England, sets reason, morality, and even the purest principles of the Christian faith in time and eternity at utter defiance. J. B. G.  The Thames Tunnel is expected to be opened for foot passengers in about fifteen months.