motion and activity. The boroughmonger works well practically: it must be defensible; knows the importance of arthritic positions; he disdains muscle, gets into the joints, and lords it over the whole machine by felicity of place. Other men are as rich-but those riches are not fixed in the critical spot.

I live a good deal with all ranks and descriptions of people; I am thoroughly convinced that the party of democrats and republicans is very small and contemptible; that the English love their institutions-that they love not only this king, (who would not love him?) but the kingly office-that they have no hatred to the-and such a government (work it ever so aristocracy. I am not afraid of trusting English happiness to English gentlemen. I believe that the half million of new voters will choose much better for the public than the twenty or thirty peers, to whose usurped power they suc-wicked, such envy and hatred accumulate ceed.

BALLOT.

jurious to society. He may set up a religious or a political test for his tradesmen; but admitting his right, and deprecating all interference of law, I must tell him he is making the aristocracy odious to the great mass, and that he is sowing the seeds of revolution. His purse may be full, and his fields may be wide; but the moralist will still hold the rod of public opinion over his head, and tell the moneybloated blockhead that he is shaking those laws of property which it has taken ages to extort from the wretchedness and rapacity of mankind; and that what he calls his own will not long be his own, if he tramples too heavily upon human patience.

It is possible, and perhaps not very difficult, [ who exercises his right in a manner very into invent a machine, by the aid of which electors may vote for a candidate, or for two or three candidates, out of a greater number, without its being discovered for whom they vote; it is less easy than the rabid and foaming radical supposes; but I have no doubt it may be accomplished. In Mr. Grote's dagger ballot box, which has been carried round the country by eminent patriots, you stab the card of your favourite candidate with a dagger. I have seen another, called the mouse-trap ballot box, in which you poke your finger into the trap of the member you prefer, and are caught and detained till the trap-clerk below (who knows by means of a wire when you are caught) marks your vote, pulls the liberator, and releases you. Which may be the most eligible of these two methods I do not pretend to determine, nor do I think my excellent friend Mr. Babbage has as yet made up his mind on the subject; but, by some means or other, I have no doubt the thing may be done.

All these practices are bad; but the facts and the consequences are exaggerated.

In the first place, the plough is not a political machine: the loom and the steam-engine are furiously political, but the plough is not. Nineteen tenants out of twenty care nothing about their votes, and pull off their opinions as easily to their landlords as they do their hats. As far as the great majority of tenants are concerned, these histories of persecution are mere declamatory nonsense; they have no more predilection for whom they vote than the organ pipes have for what tunes they are to play. A tenant dismissed for a fair and just cause often attributes his dismissal to political motives, and endeavours to make himself a martyr with the public: a man who ploughs badly, or who pays badly, says he is dismissed for his vote. No candidate is willing to allow that he has lost his election by his demerits; and he seizes hold of these stories, and circu

Landed proprietors imagine they have a right to the votes of their tenants; and instances, in every election, are numerous where tenants have been dismissed for voting contrary to the wishes of their landlords. In the same manner strong combinations are made against tradesmen who have chosen to think and act for themselves in political matters, rather than yield their opinions to the solicitations of their customers. There is a great deal of tyranny and injustice in all this. I should no more think of asking what the political opinions of a shopkeeper were, than of asking whether he was tall or short, or large or small for a difference of 24 per cent., Ilates them with the greatest avidity they are would desert the most aristocratic butcher that ever existed, and deal with one who

"Shook the arsenal and fulmined over Greece."

stated in the House of Commons; John Russel and Spring Rice fall a-crying: there is lamentation of liberals in the land; and many groans for the territorial tyrants.

On the contrary, I would not adhere to the A standing reason against the frequency of man who put me in uneasy habiliments, how-dismissal of tenants is, that it is always injuever great his veneration for trial by jury, or however ardent his attachment to the liberty of the subject. A tenant I never had; but I firmly believe that if he had gone through certain pecuniary formalities twice a year, I should have thought it a gross act of tyranny to have interfered either with his political or his religious opinions.

rious to the pecuniary interests of a landlord to dismiss a tenant; the property always suffers in some degree by a going off tenant; and it is therefore always the interest of a landlord not to change when the tenant does his duty as an agriculturalist.

To part with tenants for political reasons always makes a landlord unpopular. The ConI distinctly admit that every man has a right stitutional, price 4d.; the Cato, at 34d.; and the to do what he pleases with his own. I cannot, Lucius Junius Brutus, at 2d., all set upon the by law, prevent any one from discharging his unhappy scutiger; and the squire, unused to tenants and changing his tradesmen for po- be pointed at, and thinking that all Europe and litical reasons; but I may judge whether that part of Asia are thinking of him and his farmman exercises his right to the public detri-ers, is driven to the brink of suicide and dement, or for the public advantage. A man has a right to refuse dealing with any tradesman who is not five feet eleven inches high; but if he acts upon this rule, he is either a madman or a fool. He has a right to lay waste his own estate, and to make it utterly barren; but I have also a right to point him out as one

spair. That such things are done is not denied, that they are scandalous when they are done is equally true; but these an reasons why such acts are less frequent than they are commonly represented to be. In the same manner, there are instances of shopkeepers being materially injured in their business from the

votes they have given; but the facts themselves, | gains the votes and affections of nis dependants;

the natural guides and leaders of the people: political influence, founded upon honour and ancient honesty in politics, could not grow up under such a system. No man's declarations could get believed. It would be easy to whis per away the character of the best men; and to assert, that in spite of all his declarations, which are nothing but a blind, the romantic Rodgers has voted on the other side, and is in secret league with our enemies.

afraid to go in at the front door, and to say in | tendency of ballot would be to destroy all the a clear voice what you have to say, go in at Pelhams, Johnsons, Rodgers's, and Smiths, to the back door, and say it in a whisper-but | sow a universal mistrust, and to exterminate this is not enough for you; you make me, who am bold and honest, sneak in at the back door as well as yourself: because you are afraid of selling a dozen or two of gloves less than usual, you compel me, who have no gloves to sell, or who would dare and despise the loss, if I had, to hide the best feelings of my heart, and to lower myself down to your mean morals. It is as if a few cowards, who could only fight behind walls and houses, were to prevent the whole regiment from showing a bold front in the field: what right has the coward to degrade me who am no coward, and put me in the same shameful predicament with himself? If ballot is established, a zealous voter cannot do justice to his cause; there will be so many false Hampdens, and spurious Catos, that all men's actions and motives will be mistrusted. It is in the power of any man to tell me that my colours are false, that I declaim with stimulated warmth, and canvass with fallacious zeal; that I am a tory, though I call Russell for ever, or a whig, in spite of my obstreperous panegyrics of Peel. It is really a curious condition that all men must imitate the defects of a few, in order that it may not be known who have the natural imperfection, and who put it on from conformity. In this way, in former days, to hide the gray hairs of the old, every body was forced to wear powder and pomatum.

Who brought that mischievous profligate villain into Parliament? Let us see the names of his real supporters. Who stood out against the strong and uplifted arm of power? Who discovered this excellent and hitherto unknown person? Who opposed the man whom we all know to be one of the first men in the country?" Are these fair and useful questions to be veiled hereafter in impenetrable mystery? Is this sort of publicity of no good as a restraint? is it of no good as an incitement tc and a reward for exertions? Is not public opinion formed by such feelings? and is it not a dark and demoralizing system to draw this veil over human actions; to say to the mass, be base, and you will not be despised; be virtuous, and you will not be honoured? Is this the way in which Mr. Grote would foster the spirit of a bold and indomitable people? Was the liberty of that people established by fraud? Did America lie herself into independence? Was it treachery which enabled Holland tc shake off the yoke of Spain? Is there any instance since the beginning of the world where human liberty has been established by little systems of trumpery and trick? These are the weapons of monarchs against the people, not of the people against monarchs. their own right hand, and with their mighty arm, have the people gotten to themselves the victory, and upon them may they ever depend; and then comes Mr. Grote, a scholar and gentleman, and knowing all the histories of public courage, preaches cowardice and treachery to England; tells us that the bold cannot be free, and bids us seek for liberty by clothing ourselves in the mask of falsehood, and trampling on the cross of truth.*

With

It must not be forgotten that, in the ballot, concealment must be absolutely compulsory. It would never do to let one man vote openly, and another secretly. You may go to the edge of the box, and say, "I vote for A.," but who knows that your ball is not put in for B.? There must be a clear, plain opportunity for telling an undiscoverable lie, or the whole invention is at an end. How beautiful is the progress of man!-printing has abolished ignorance-gas put an end to darkness steam has conquered time and distance-it remained for Grote and his box to remove the incumbrance of truth from human transactions. May we not look now for more little machines to abolish the other cardinal virtues. But if all men are suspected; if things are so contrived that it is impossible to know what men really think, a serious impediment is If this shrinking from the performance of created to the formation of good public opinion duties is to be tolerated, voters are not the only in the multitude. There is a town (No. 1.) in persons who would recur to the accommodat which live two very clever and respectable ing convenience of ballot. A member of Parmen, Johnson and Pelham, small tradesmen, liament, who votes against government, can men always willing to run some risk for the get nothing in the army, navy, or church, or public good, and to be less rich, and more at the bar, for his children or himself; they honest than their neighbours. It is of con- are placed on the north wall, and starved for siderable consequence to the formation of opi- their honesty. Judges, too, suffer for their unnion in this town, as an example, to know how popularity-Lord Kilwarden was murdered, Johnson and Pelham vote. It guides the af- Lord Mansfield burnt down; but voters, forfections, and directs the understandings, of the getting that they are only trustees for those whole population, and materially affects public who have no vote, require that they themselves opinion in this town; and in another borough, should be virtuous with impunity, and that all No. 2, it would be of the highest importance the penalties of austerity and Catonism should to public opinion if it were certain how Mr. | fall upon others. I am aware that it is of the Smith, the ironmonger, and Mr. Rodgers, the greatest consequence to the constituent that London carrier, voted; because they are both

thoroughly honest men, and of excellent understanding for their condition of life. Now, then, if the world were a chess-board, would be an im

*Mr. Grote is a very worthy, honest, and able man; portant politician.

To institute ballot, is to apply a very dangerous innovation to a temporary evil; for it is seldom, but in very excited times, that these acts of power are complained of which the pallot is intended to remedy. There never was an instance in this country where parties were so nearly balanced; but all this will pass away, and, in a very few years, either Peel will swallow Lord John, or Lord John will pasture upon Peel; parties will coalesce, the Duke of Wellington and Viscount Melbourne meet at the same board, and the lion lie down with the lamb. In the mean time a serious and dangerous political change is resorted to for the cure of a temporary evil, and we may be cursed with ballot when we do not want it, and cannot get rid of it.

If there is ballot there can be no scrutiny, the controlling power of Parliament is lost, and the members are entirely in the hands of returning officers.

Purity of election, the fair choice of representatives, must be guarded either by the coercing power of the House of Commons exercised upon petitions, or it must be guarded by the watchful jealousy of opposite parties at the registrations; but if (as the radicals suppose) ballot gives a power of perfect concealment, whose interest is it to watch the registrations? If I despair of distinguishing my friends from my foes, why should I take any trouble about registrations? Why not leave every thing to that great primum mobile of all human affairs, the barrister of six years' standing?

The answer of the excellent Benthamites to all this is, "What you say may be true enough in the present state of registrations, but we have another scheme of registration to which these objections will not apply." There is really no answering this paulo-post legislation. I reason now upon registration and reform which are in existence, which I have seen at work for several years. What new improvements are in the womb of time, or (if time has no womb) in the more capacious pockets of the followers of Bentham, I know not: when I see them tried, I will reason upon them. There is no end to these eternal changes; we have made an enormous revolution within the last ten years, let us stop a little and secure it, and prevent it from being turned into ruin; I do not say the reform bill is final, but I want a little time for breathing; and if there are to be any more changes, let them be carried into execution hereafter by those little legislators who are now receiving every day after dinner a cake or a plumb, in happy ignorance of Mr. Grote and his ballot. I long for the quiet times of Log, when all the English common people are making calico, and all the English gentlemen are making long and short verses, with no other interruption of their happiness than when false quantities are discovered in one or the other.

What is to become of petitions if ballot is established? Are they to be open as they now are, or are they to be conducted by ballot? Are the radical shopkeepers and the radical tenant to be exposed (as they say) to all the fury of incensed wealth and power, and is that protection to be denied to them in petitions, which is so loudly demanded in the choice of representatives? Are there to be two distinct methods of ascertaining the opinions of the people, and these completely opposed to each other? A member is chosen this week by a large majority of voters who vote in the dark,

An election is hard run-the returning officer lets in twenty votes which he ought to have excluded, and the opposite candidate is unjustly returned. I petition, and as the law now stands, the return would be amended, and I, who had the legitimate majority, should be seated in Parliament. But how could justice be done if the ballot obtained, and if the returning officer were careless or corrupt? Would you put all the electors upon their oath? Would it be advisable to accept any oath where detection was impossible? and could any approximation to truth be expected under such circumstances, from such an inquisition? It is true, the present committees of the House of Commons are a very unfair tribunal, but that tribunal may and will be amended; and bad as that tribunal is, nobody can be insane enough to propose that we are to take refuge in the blunders or the corruptions of 600 returning officers, 100 of whom are Irish. It is certainly in the power of a committee, when incapacity or villany of the returning officer has produced an unfair return, to annul the whole election, and to proceed again de novo; but how is this just? or what satisfaction is this to me, who have unquestionably a law-and the next week, when men vote in the light ful majority, and who ask of the House of Commons to examine the votes, and to place in their house the man who has combined the greatest number of suffrages? The answer of the House of Commons is, "One of you is undoubtedly the rightful member, but we have so framed our laws of election, that it is impossible to find out which that man is; the loss and penalties ought only to fall upon one, but they must fall upon both; we put the wellloer and the evil-doer precisely in the same situation; there shall be no election;" and this nay happen ten times running.

of day, some petition is carried totally opposite to all those principles for which the member with invisible votes was returned to Parliament. How, under such a system, can Parliament ever ascertain what the wishes of the people really are? The representatives are radicals, the petitioners eminently conserva tive; the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

And if the same protection is adopted for petitions as is given in elections, and if both are conducted by ballot, how is the House of Commons to deal with petitions? When it is