LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE BALLOT. TO THE EDITOR OF
THE SPECTATOR. SIR—Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in his speech at Stroud, has stated to his friends, that he was a member of the sub committee appointed by Earl Grey to settle the details of the Reform Bill. He has stated also, that in the Bill, as it left his hands, the franchise was fixed at 20/. and the Ballot stood part of the Bill. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this monstrous admission. Does his Lordship then think, that people require greater protection in pi oportion to the increase of those possessions which ought to render them independent of ex- ternal influence; and that they should be left exposed to the violence of their neighbours because they are bereft of the means of resistance ? What becomes now of his flimsy pretence—falsehood I should call it—that the electors should be subjected to the observation and scrutiny of the non-electors? The People of England may now see, (and seeing, they will admire !) what claw of DOD. electors his Lordship wished to endow with the faculty of scrutinizing their votes. Would the 20/. electors have fewer observers than the present consti- tuency, my Lord? Mark this, People of England. See who are your real enemies.
How long, Sir, are we to be led to destruction by this compound of weak- mess, conceit, and aristocratic pride? At every election since the Reform Bill, the Government majority has undergone a great diminution. Now there seems a possibility, say a probability, of its total disappearance. But he is a shallow observer, who concludes that the mind of the People has changed.
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