At a meeting of Guardians of the Stepney Union, on
Thursday week, a surgeon was balloted for. There were two candidates ; and 11 votes were put in for each, making .22, though only 21 Guardians were present. The proceedings were adjourned to last Wednesday ; when a Mr. Watson proposed that " the Holy Bible should be placed over the ballot-box" to frighten the perpetrators of such frauds. What follows is part of a paragraph in the Morning Herald, beaded and gar- nished in sundry places with wit directed against Mr. Grote— "Mr. Watson's proposition was eventually agreed to, and the Bible was placed over the opening in the box. At seven o'clock, the box was opened and the papers counted ; when there appeared fur Mr. Johnson 10 votes and for Mr. Burns 7. The number of Guardians were then carefully counted ; and their number (17) tallying exactly with the number of votes, Mr. Johnson was declared duly elected, to the infinite satisfaction of most of tile parishioners of Liinebouse, who believe that improper influence had been used to deprive him of a situation he has held for the last two years with credit to himself and to the benefit of the parish. The Board intend to use the Bible with the ballots box in all their future elections; and one of the Guardians said be should seri- ously recommend it to the consideration of Mr. Grote, being convinced that the ballot-box without the Bible would never secure purity of election."
[If the simpleton who wrote this trash understood what Mr. Grote's plan of secret voting really was, he would have known that the fraud practised at Stepney would have been utterly impossible with Mr. Grote's Ballot-machinery.)
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