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    for its adoption . After a time , perhaps , a better tone of feeling may be generated ; but till it be , the Legislature is bound to throw the protecting shield of secrecy over the defenceless , in voting according to their own convictions . The falsehood resulting from it would be self-corrective ; and would at worst be trifling in comparison with the enforced falsehood , in addition to all the other mischiefs , of open voting .

    From the smallness of the constituency , it is now apparent that some nomination boroughs have been left , and others created , by the Reform Bill . Of these some are subject to Government , some to local or proprietary influences . The ballot , and something more than the ballot , must be applied to this evil . Seats will else soon be in the market again . Ministers are even now at no loss to accommodate a friend .

    Two facts , in these elections , we regard with great pleasure . First , that the public opinion , on Slavery , Church Reform , the Ballot , and one or two other points , was so strongly expressed as to induce most of the candidates to go considerably further in the course of the canvass than they had done at its commencement . A visible change took place in their addresses and speeches . While it was made a point of honour to declare against being pledged , pledges were daily given on these subjects , and the more

    strong and explicit as the day of polling drew nigh . We say nothing of the men on whose minds so much light was breaking in at such a time ; but we rejoice in the manifestation of public opinion . The other circumstance is the return of many candidates who made no personal canvass , rightly regarding it as degrading to both parties , and only seeking the suffrages of the electors by publicly addressing them on political topics . This is as it should be .

    The five most remarkable and gratifying returns which have been made are those of Messrs . Buckingham for Sheffield , Grote for London , Roebuck for Bath , Hume for Middlesex , and P . Thomson for Manchester , After the conduct of the East India Company towards Mr . Buckingham , it is a retributory event that he should be seated amongst its judges , and ussist in the decision on the continuance of its chartered

    monopoly . He owes his election to his powers as a public instructor . The well-merited popularity of his lectures , the lucid style in which they were expressed , the ample and interesting information contained in them , and the sound and liberal commercial principles of which he was the advocate , supporting them by the most

    cogent proofs , and explaining them by the most diversified illustrations , have obtained for him a seat in parliament . That they have done so , is a new and honourable symptom of the spirit of the times .

    Mr . Grote stands first on the poll of the first constituency in this country . The fact is enough to reanimate the unburied body of the Utilitarian Patriarch . Spirit of Bentham , thy star is rising I

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    46 The Elections .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 46, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/46/