NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THERE have now been four registrations under the Reform Bill. Ample opportunity has therefore been given for bringing out the advantages as well as defects of the system ; and the most striking result is, that a very large number of qualified persons have not registered at all. It is too notorious to require proof by reference to particular towns or counties, that the Parliamentary constituency is much smaller than what was anticipated by the authors and supporters of the Reform Act. There are many reasons for this, arising out of the vexatious working of the regis- tration parts of the Act,—whose tendency to disfranchise electors we have repeatedly exposed ; but the main cause of the deficient numbers of the constituency is to be looked for in the reluctance of' large classes to register themselves as voters. By multitudes the possession of the franchise is looked upon as a curse, and the Charter of 1832 as an act of bondage and oppression. They have now the power to oblige or offend those upon whom their success in life or their means of reputable subsistence depend. Where private interest of the most pressing description is at war with a man's conscientious opinion, it is not to be wondered at that he strikes a compromise between his political duty and pecuniary necessities, and abandons the right of an Englishman and a free- man, which the Legislature conferred, but whose free exercise it refuses to guarantee. The Reform Act prodigiously augmented the power of the oppressor. Under the old systeni, a dependent voter was tolerably secure till the canvassing time arrived, every four or five years; but now the list of electors undergoes an an- nual scrutiny ; and it is scarcely possible for a resident even in the largest towns (for they are districted) to escape a declaration of his politics, on one side or the other. Thus he is constantly a marked man, aod seizes as a blessing any chance which ena- bles him to say that he has no vote to give. We learn from the Dublin Freeman's Journal, that the Tories are gaining an advantage in the Irish metropolis, not only by an
illegal creation of pauper freemen, but by the reluctance of the Liberal shopkeepers to go to the registry. The Dublin journalist attributes this backwardness to the" systematic exercise of the corrupt influence of the rich Tories." He says-
,. This influence is not directly exerted to deter the Liberal tradesman from the registry ; but it is not the less operative because it is indirect in its working. The corruptionists take care to have it generally understood, that every man who votes against the Tory candidate will have the advantage of their custom
withdrawn from him ; and the knowledge that the possession of a vote will place the voter in the painful dilemma of either losing his business or violating Isis principles, leads a multitude of timid people to adopt the resolution of not
registering their votes at all. In a state of things like this, we always feel it to be a difficult thing to visit with severity the reluctance of the people to invest themselves with the elective franchise."
It is not merely the wealthy Tories whom the shopkeepers of Dublin must fear to offend. We observed the other day, that a member of the Trades Union threatened to publish the names of all the backsliders. Thus, the timid or dependent elector is menaced with the consequences of Democratic as well as Oligar- chical displeasure. This state of things prevails more or less everywhere—in England and Scotland as well as Ireland—in town and country. Yet we are told, that to this enormous evil, eating into the very vitals of the representative system, no efficient remedy shall be applied. The other day, the Lord Advocate said to his constituents at Leith, that he was opposed to the Ballot—because electors would still be asked for their votes, and that in Leith pub- lic opinion bad discountenanced intimidation. This is the reply of a statesman :o the arguments in favour of secret voting, and of one too who does not scruple to call upon the electors to rally round the Whigs, and sacrifice themselves for the Ministers, his colleagues! t we recommend to Mr. MURRAY'S perusal the following ob- b.tvations of the Freeman's Journal, provoked by the intimidation now practised in Dublin ; where electors need protection, al- though they may be secured (which we doubt) from molestation in Leith.
" The statesman has certainly no right to expect the people of a country to make themeless daily martyrs for the good of the community. He is bound, in putting political powers into the hands of the citizens, to take such precau. tions as will enable them to use them effectullly, and without the risk of per. sonal losses, which may perhaps more than counterbalance the benefits of it public nature which are consequent upon an independent use of the suffrage. There is evidently no method of securing this grand requisite but the ballot ; and until this point is gained, it is not to be expected that the constituency of the country will ever include any thing approaching to the full number of electors, which (even with the present high qualifications) it might and would include—if open voting were changed for secret."
From what is now passing in various parts of the country— events touching them most nearly in the persons of their own col- leagues—the Whigs will soon be convinced, that as opponents of the Ballot they cannot stand. There is no adequate motive for undergoing personal losses in their behalf. They may talk of the necessity of union among Reformers ; and the more earnest and energetic Liberals—the men who carried the Reform Bill when the Whigs quailed—may unite before long; but it will not be for the support of Ministers, unless those Ministers shall give pledges, which cannot be mistaken or evaded, of their determination to make common cause with the masses. Let it be proclaimed and believed, that, if indemnity for the past is not to be had, security for the future free exercise of the franchise will be given ; and the Whigs may go to the hustings as they went in 1831, sure be- cause deserving of victory.
