The Court of Common Pleas decided on Thursday that bribes
given to influence a test-ballot were bribes given to influence an -election, and therefore invalidated such election. This decision, given immediately in the case of Bristol, where it unseats Mr. Robinson, is of the greatest consequence to purity of election, -which a contrary decision would have destroyed. There would -always have been a " test " when anybody wanted to bribe. We want the more extreme advocates of the ballot, however, to answer two little questions. In what does a test-ballot differ from an election ballot? If it paid Mr. Robinson's friends to bribe voters at the test-ballot, why will it not pay Mr. Anybody's friends to bribe voters at the real ballot? The theory is that nobody will buy the chance of being cheated, but at Bristol men did buy it.
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