It is finally decided that we are to have the Ballot in its compulsory form for period oi three years. We hope that we may be benefitted this decision. The whole of the old arguments pro con has been fought out over and over again both Houses of Parliament, but no new light has been thrown on the subject, although the country is asked to accept the Bill.
Mr. Gladstone’s large majority in the Commons, feeling that it is gradually thinning away, has, obediently to the wishes of its master, succeeded in intimidating the House of Lords, for on no other ground can the absence of so many opponents of the Bill in the Upper House be accounted for, on the final reading of the measure on Monday.
That the country is urgent for the Ballot is false, and petitions to the Lords to oppose it, shew the truth of this, at the same time we cannot deny that there is a large section of the public, who, not desiring the Ballot, will not exert themselves at all, but feebly shaking their heads satisfy their consciences (if they have any) by saying that the Radicals will be the first to suffer from their own measures.
It is all very well to turn our opponents’ weapons against themselves, but we do not get rid of the effects of poison by using it against poisoners, and we turn ourselves into murderers at once.
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