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THE STATE PRISONERS.

SALE or O'CONNELI.'S BOOKS.

THE ILLJIAN CATHOLIC PRIMACY.

WHOLESALE EVICTIONS.

DISTRESS IN THE MIDLAND COUNTIES.

THE BANTllY UNION.

[No title]

THE NEW HUNGARIAN TARIFF.

-------------ANOTHER" GOLD…

HOUSE OF LORDS.—THURSDAY,…

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY,…

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HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY, MAY 24. THE BALLOT. Mr. Henry BERKELEY rose to move for leave to bring in a bill to give the electors of Great Britain and Ireland the protection of the ballot in the discharge of their solemn and bouuden duty to return fit and proper persons to serve as their representatives in Parliament. He protested against being told that the House had been surprised or entrapped into passing the resolution last ses- sion, and he referred to the debate on that occasion as containing his case, confining himself to the arguments and objections of the opponeilts of the ballot. Their main argument, lie observed, was that the ballot was hostile to the spirit of English institutions and to the constitution of this country, and he proceeded to show that this argument presupposed that we were in a primitive state of po- litical innocence, and that the electors were free agents; wheteas their compulsory subserviency was the rule, and their free agency the exception. He characterised as preposterous the sequel to this argument, which was opposed to experience, that if the ballot were established it would be futile, as the electors would be unable to keep 'their own counsel. His bill did not impose secrecy it merely threw the protection of secrecy around those who had cause to fear the effects of open voting. The ballot was not necessarily dependent upon an extension of the suffrage; it would be effica- cious without it; it had never failed in any country where it had been tried it had been eminently successful in Belgium, and it would in this country improve the relations been landlord and te- nant, and all orders of society. Mr. J. WILLIAMS seconded the motion. As one of the class of traders, he knew the persecutions they endured in the exercise of the elective franchise, which to many of them was a curse rather than a blessing, and he mentioned instances of intimidation, in- cluding a case in which he was a victim. If the trading classes were thus victimised, how must it be with the working classes P The ballot could not make things worse than they were but he believed it would be a death-blow to the present system of ter- rorism. After GHANTLEY BERKELEY had shown how the Gloucestershire farmers were coerced by their landlords, and Captain BERKELEY had defended the Earl of Fitzhardinge, Mr. W. J. Fox said he scarcely expected the House would have been disposed to dismiss in so summury-he might call it so con- temptuous a manner—a proposition which had received the sanc- tion of their deliberate resolution. He supported the motion, though with some regret, which was twofold—first, because it had been brought forward as an isolated proposition, unconnected with various regulations as to the size of the constituencies, and it would thus widen the antagonistic feelings between the repre- sented and the unrepresented; secondly, because he did not think that secrecy in such an act, to which responsibility was attached, was fit and proper. He regarded the bill, however, as affecting not merely the rights of the democracy, but the character and social relations of the aristocrary, and Mr. Fox drew no flattering portraiture of those who sapped by influence the principles of the constituency. He thought it would be conceded that the House did not really represent the people, and under the ballot candi- dates would feel that it was a struggle not of influence, but of opinion, and would apply themselves to action upon opinion. Sir H. VERXEY opposed the motion, after which the House di- vided, the numbers being 85 ayes and 136 noes. Leave to bring in the bill was, therefore, refused.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY, MAY…

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COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—FRIDAY,…

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY.