To secure
him against the first, at the cost of removing all restraint from
the last, would be to exchange a smaller and a diminishing evil for
a greater and increasing one. On this topic, and on the question
generally, as applicable to England at the present date, I have, in
a pamphlet on Parliamentary Reform, expressed myself in terms which,
as I do not feel that I can improve upon, I will venture here to
transcribe.
"Thirty years ago it was still true that in the election of
members of Parliament the main evil to be guarded against was that
which the ballot would exclude- coercion by landlords, employers, and
customers. At present, I conceive, a much greater source of evil is
the selfishness, or the selfish partialities, of the voter himself.
A base and mischievous vote is now, I am convinced, much oftener given
from the voter's personal interest, or class interest, or some mean
feeling in his own mind, than from any fear of consequences at the
hands of others: and to these influences the ballot would enable him
to yield himself up, free from all sense of shame or responsibility.
"In times not long gone by, the higher and richer classes were in
complete possession of the government. Their power was the master
grievance of the country. The habit of voting at the bidding of an
employer, or of a landlord, was so firmly established, that hardly
anything was capable of shaking it but a strong popular enthusiasm,
seldom known to exist but in a good cause.
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