THE BALLOT, THE MINISTERS, AND THE PEOPLE.
TO THE EIHTOK OF THE SPECTATOR.
SIR—As an advocate of the Ballot, and of the vital importance of its adoption alike to the Government and the People, may I request you to insert the fol- lowing ALLEGORY. Suppose an individual [the People] to be very liable to the attacks of thieves and murderers [the Tories, and that he had consequently provided a faithful servant [the 31inistry] with a pistol [the Ballot] for his defence—suppose the thief and murderer, nevertheless, to pay him periodical visits of depredation [the elections], to rob him of his most valuable possession [freedom of the franchise], and at each successive visit to beat him more and more, and bring him nearer and nearer to death's door. Now suppose that all the time, the Servant, to whom the individual had given very handsome wages, stood by, confining his assistance to his master to the most polite remonstrances with the thief, such as" Pray, 31r. Thief and Murderer, have compassion on my poor master ; don't quite kill him, if you please ! I decidedly object to use that pistuh—which be so obliging as to assist me in putting out of the reach of my master ; but at the same time, if I may take the liberty of saying so, your conduct is not constitu- tional, and, I may add, very immoral." I apprehend that, under the ordinary circumstances of life, the master would address the servant in terms similar to these: " Your conduct, John, in allow- ing the thief to rob and beat me without so much as pointing the pistol at him, and merely using remonstrances which you well know are useless, would cer. tainly make me regard you as an enemy, were not your fidelity to Me on former occasions proof that your error has been one of judgment only. Recollect, however, that as my life is now einperilled entirely by your fully, either use the only means adequate to my safety, or make up your miud to lose both lily con- fidence amid your place." The reply of the servant, after the :Ministerial fashion, is the following. " It is indeed true that my fidelity to your interest is unchangeable, and also that the thief is now so audacious as to emperil your life. But, Sir, I am con- scientiously convinced that we should try to counteract his character and con- duct hy an appeal to his moral opinion. You have not yet been neatly enough killed to persuade me to have recourse to stronger means of preservation : be- sides, Sir, the pistol is not an English invention ; and moreover, if we despatch the thieves at once ourselves, and by secret means, we shall deprive honest people at large of their invaluable information as to the art of plunder, which the openness of rascality atfrods them. Let, thelefore, knavery continue, that the people may not be deprived of their useful knowledge of the means by which they are robbed, or of their unquestionable prerogative of exercising the power of their moral opinion upon the conscieuces of the robbers."
I am, Sir, your very obedieut servant,
Previous page
