THREATENING VOTERS.
THE non-electors of Rochdale have passed the following resolu- tion— " We publicly declare that we are determined, individually and collectively, without any evasion or mental reservation, that we will not expend one half- penny with any medical man, grocer, publican, butcher, baker, flour-dealer, innkeeper, draper, barber, joiner, builder, or carpenter, or any other person whatsoever, being an elector of Rochdale, who shall refuse to pledge himself to vote for Mr. James Taylor ; and that we hereby promise that we will use all our influence with our friends to induce them not to expend one farthing with any elector who shall refuse to pledge himself as aforesaid."
We were prepared for this. It is a necessary consequence of that determination to do what he liked with his own, of which the Duke of NEWCASTLE was the first to set the example. The reso- lution of the Rochdale weavers and that of the Lord of Clumber are equally destructive of free choice in the elector,—upon general principles, the one is not more defensible than the other; but we cannot join with the Times in visiting both with equal severity of censure. The Duke of NEWCASTLE ejected his old and respect- able tenants, because they would not vote for his man—the Roch- dale people refuse to deal with such electors as will not vote for their man ; but the interest of the Duke was the interest of an in- dividual, or at most of a few—the interest of the Rochdale weavers is the interest of all the weavers and operatives in the kingdom, as they understand it. The end differs, if the means do not.
Then, the resolution of the weavers is by no means so sweeping and indiscriminate as that of the Duke. The weavers declare against voters only, not against all persons directly or indirectly connected with voters. They do not interdict their wives and daughters from dealing with a Tory milliner. In extent, there- fore, as well as in purpose, the Radical and the Tory resolutions essentially differ. Again, the weavers of Rochdale did not begin. This is an im- portant point for consideration. We will not say that "all is fair" in politics—or even in love and war, although that has been often said. But, assuredly, there is a distinction between the use of a questionable weapon for offence and for defence. If the Tories mine, the People may countermine. If the former, as their friends and advocates have strongly and repeatedly urged them, will be- stow their countenance exclusively on their political friends, upon what principle can we blame the People, when, in order to coun- teract the effects of such a course of conduct, they bestow their countenance exclusively on their political friends? Can any thing be more absurd than to insist that the Reformers shall observe, in respect of Reformers and Anti-Reformers, a strict impartiality, while the Anti-Reformers are acting on a system of exclusiveness? There is another point to be considered—the custom which the people of Rochdale withdraw from the opponents of Mr. JAMES TAYLOR, in order to bestow it on his supporters, may in- fluence an elector to vote for that gentleman, who would not otherwise have done so, and thus compel the elector to violate his conscience. But it may happen also, that the effect of such a re- solution will not be to compel such a violation, but to prevent it. Here again the weavers differ from the Duke. His tenants were not threatened, much less compelled into their vote for Mr. Ser- geant WILDE; it was free-willed, if it was foolish. In Rochdale, however—as in all places—there are, probably, not Dukes, but men whose notions are quite as Conservative, from whose zeal it is of importance to save the voter. There is one common point in which the resolutions of the Radicals and those of the Oligarch, if acted on steadily, must end, and to which both directly and necessarily lead—the Ballot. The elector must be protected from the great mob and from the small equally. The end and purpose of clothing him with the franchise, was that he might exercise it. honestly and impartially; and if he do so, he must exercise it freely. Looking to the com- mon tendency of all attempts to prevent him from soesercisiest, we cannot regret the conduct of the Rochdale weavers. conduct of the Aristocrats was already bringing round to t) Ballot the entire body of the advocates of the Reform Bill ; the dictation of the Radicals will equally bring round to the B allot the entire body of its opponents.
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