Year: 1871

the bill intended to secure for the British peo-
pie the right to vote by ballot was passed. 1t
was doubtful for time whether the bill would
pass this session; but Mr.. Gladstone having
put spurs 10 his horse resistance was useless
1t was stormy day in the Commons House of
Parliament Dsraelis Jewish blood was up.
He accused and abused the administration.
Mr.. Gladstone, according to the conservative
chief, was q bad leader of the House, bad
leader of his party in the House and out of the
House, was wasteful of precious time, was a
dangerous innovator, and was otherwise an
unfortunate or useless, or, what is worse,
ruinous Minister to the British Crown The
retort Of the Prime Minister was gushing as
usual. Mr.. Disraeli had good imagination
and respectable linguistic powers, but he had
the radical defect of being unable to look
facts in the face. If time was lost and if i'm
portant and even vital measures were post
poned it was because of the resistance of the
tories and the dislike of Mr.. Disraeli and his
friends to all genuine reform. Mr.. Gladstone
called upon the House to pass the Ballot bill,
and the bill was passed.


This fresh triumph of the "Great Common
err is proof that his daring conduct in the
matter of the purchase of commissions has
not robbed him of his power in the House of
Commons That his conduct in that matter
was most daring, that it was revolutionary,
that il amounted to coup dftat, most men
who have made themselves familiar with the
working of the British constitution for the last
century will willingly admit. But it is just
as willingly admitted that it was called for,
and the fact that the whole liberal party in the
House of Commons, at least, has endorsed his
daring stroke of policy is its best vindicatiou 1t
is fresh proof that Mr.. Gladstone has the coun
try at his back; that he knows he is the trusted
leader of the conservative democracy of Great
Britain and that he does not mean to betray
them. Vote by ballot has been before the
British Parliament almost every year since
men whose hair now begins to grow gray first
began to read the newspapers; but Mr.. Glad
stone is the first Prime Minister who ever gave
it honest and hearty support The Commons
have now demanded it, and it remains to be
seen whether the Lords will so oppose the bill as
to make its passage through the upper House
impossible this session, or whether, admitting
the fact that their own future welfare lies in
the direction of no longer resisting the Com
mons, they will hurry the bill through to
third reading, and so make it law. The pre-
sumption is that the bill will not pass the
Lords this session. The dog days have made
both houses impatient of delay, sick of
further legislation; and the gentlemen in
both houses are so anxious to get to their
shooting boxes that it is not unreasonable to
conclude that vote by ballot will not become
law until next year. The recess is close at
hand; an October session has been spoken of;
but it is not our opinion that Mr.. Gladstone,
daring as he most unquestionably is, will dare
| much more until the next year. 1t is not to
| be imagined, however, that If his life is spared
he will give up what he has won. Vote by
ballot must, as In this country, become law
| in Great Britain. 1t is not our opinion that in
carrying this measure Mr.. Gladstone can again
surprise Parliament, the country and the world
by the efficacous power of royal warrants
but it is open to him to do, If the Lords resist





the first great Reform bill was in danger-to
call upon the Crown to create as many new
Peers as shall be necessary to pass the bill
through the House of Lords. The carrying
out of the threat was not necessary then and,
if we judge rightly, the determination of the
Minister has been so proved and he is SO
thoroughly backed up by the country that the
Lords will find it convenient to avert at once
the threat and its filflment.


The necessity of vote by ballot to pure
and honest representation of the mind and
will Of the electors is so obvious, that
the discussion of the subject amounts
| almost to a work of supererogation. We
know that in the reconstruction of the
South after the war, vote by ballot by
the universal demand Of the new voters, was
made preliminary necessity. In some of the
Southern States the oi0a U0ce system of voting
at the polling booths had been, as it now is
in Great Britain the rule. The new voters
found that, under such system, to vote
according to conscience was impossible.
Wisely, therefore, the old system was unver-
sally abolished, and vote by ballot is now the
universal law all over the Union. In Great
Britain it has long been notorious that all
| Parliamentary reform-tbat anything and
! everything in the shape of the extension Of
| the franchise was more or less sham with
out the protection of the voter by the ballot.
Who that knows anything Of the British sys-
TEN of voting does not know that every land
lord can drive every tenant like sheep of
the flock before him to the polling booth ? To
vote with the landlord in Great Britain is to
remain in something like comfort in ones
home, the home, perhaps, Of the family for
many generations. Not to vote with the land
lord is to run the risk of being driven at the
first opportunity, perhaps at the end of the