This sensible and just memorial was not attended to, and the same violation is suffered to continue. It is now seven years since the death of the testator, and there is no prospect of the college being finished. Previous to an election great numbers of workmen are set on, selected so as to be available, through the ballot-box, to the party in power, by whom the people are on these occasions annually told that in a few months the orphans will be admitted. While this is going on, the other party, not a jot less villanous, are, to serve their purposes, railing against this management; but, as soon as the election is decided, the workmen are discharged on the one side; and, on the other, not a single word more is said in favour of the poor orphans till the next contest comes on. Thus is this legacy made, and ever will be made, a bone of contention between the two parties; the equal to either of which, for baseness of every kind, never before lived in any age, or under any form of government, since Adam and Eve entered the garden of Eden. Such is the stedfast belief of

Your affectionate Father,

THOMAS BROTHERS.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL STANHOPE.

MY LORD,

Bishop's Itchington, July 30, 1839.

Having been favoured through the press with your opinions on voting by ballot, universal suffrage, no-property qualifications, and so on, as delivered on the presenting of various petitions on those subjects to the House of Lords on the 25th of June last, I humbly beg leave to lay before your Lordship such information as I possess relating to the workings of these things in the United States of America.

I believe that no man has the welfare of his country more at heart than has your Lordship; and this encourages me to expect that a plain matter-of-fact statement of what I have seen and known relating to these matters may lead your Lordship to the conclusion that, whatever difficulties beset the nation, the further verging into democracy will not impede their progress, but, on the contrary, will increase them; and they have been already much increased since the Reform Bill passed, as acknowledged by your Lordship in the following words:-" Seven or eight years ago I expressed my conviction that, unless parliament redressed the grievances of the country, the argument in favour of reform of parliament would be unanswerable, and would prove to be irresistible; this anticipation has been fully confirmed." And then your Lordship further informs us that "it has been found, by experience, that the reform parliament, instead of redressing the grievances of the country, had even refused to inquire into them." Such, your Lordship, is likely to be the case; and if the parliament progress further into the reform you now advocate, I will stake my life upon it that such a parliament will be less and less regardful of the rights and happiness of the people, and more and more prone to serve itself. That, if ever that parliament should be constituted as your Lordship's petitioners desire it to be, it will then be as corrupt as the government of the United States now is, and which, beyond all question, is the most corrupt government under the sun.

I have, for many years, advocated the voting by ballot, thinking it the only way to prevent bribery and all sorts of undue influence; but, from what I have seen of late years, I am convinced that there is no possible way of voting in secret, and at the same time for any effectual purpose, in general elections, where there is universal suffrage, at anything like the age of twenty-one years. I am aware that Englishmen have a high

opinion of their capabilities, and I know that in many cases it is well that it should be so; but, when they tell me that although they are convinced that this system of voting has, in other countries, failed, still they think that Englishmen could devise means to make it effectualwhen they tell me this, I think they furnish me with an instance in which self-esteem is to be regretted, because I believe, under the same circumstances, human nature is much the same all over the world. For instance, I find that in the United States Englishmen are full as ready as any other men to join in with, and to support the wild doings that have brought that country to its present condition. I have read the plan of balloting recommended by Major Cartwright, which is attended with a pathetic and excellent prayer for its success; but I am certain that if such a plan, perfect as it appears to be, was adopted in the United States, it would, in twenty-four hours, be made of none effect, and would no more prevent the doings that I am about to relate to your lordship, than the many schemes, to mature which so racked the brains of the wise men of the American revolutionary times. If Washington, Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, and such like characters, chiefly English, or descended immediately from England-if such men could find out nothing that would do, I see no great reason to expect that our leading "Chartists," or that a parliament emanating from universal suffrage, should be more successful.

I will try to explain to your Lordship how these things work in the republic, and I will take the city of Philadelphia as an example where they have annual elections, universal suffrage, and vote by ballot; except that by the late amended constitution of Pennsylvania the blacks are excluded from the franchise. In other respects the qualification of voters is, I believe, the same as usual, or agreeable to the following abstract, which I take from Art. 1, Sect. 1, of the late constitution.

"In elections by the citizens, every freeman of the age of twenty-one years, having resided in the state two years next before the election, and within that time paid a state or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least six months before the election, shall enjoy the right of an elector: provided that the sons of persons qualified as aforesaid, between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-two years, shall be entitled to vote although they shall not have paid taxes." The city of Philadelphia is divided into fifteen wards. On the second Monday of every August there are meetings called by each party: it is seldom that there are more than two parties, and at these meetings they elect seventy-five delegates each, that is, five from each ward-meeting. These delegates all meet the next Saturday; of course each "party" by themselves. Then they meet and adjourn, from time to time, until they have agreed upon persons to fill all the offices for the ensuing year. This done, the

politicians, or office-hunters, form their "block committees," the duty of each of which committees is to organise and drill all the whigs, or democrats, as the case may be, that live in a certain number of houses adjoining each other, which they are pleased to call "blocks." And now all sorts of lying, cheating, and deception commence in earnest; each of those that live by politics cheats and is cheated, from the lowest to the highest. The election machinery of the whole Union is frequently directed by one man to each party. For instance, those that are a little more cunning or obstinate than the rest of the dupes, are flattered and won by various tricks-some of the smallest by being chosen on these committees, and having their names exhibited as such trustworthy democrats in the partisan newspapers: it is astonishing the effect that is produced by this simple contrivance. Next the whole "party," every man in the blocks that professes democracy (if that be the party), is requested to sign a call for a town-meeting; and the next day all their names are displayed in the papers. Then each captain of the block enters down in a book the name of every man belonging to his party. Then, night after night, they hold ward and often townmeetings, where they spout away at a tremendous rate; extolling their own ticket and denouncing that of their opponents. If there be ten or a dozen speakers following each other, their speeches are always exactly alike, in substance if not in manner; and, whatever else is said from year to year, the following phrases are on no occasion left out:-"The blood of our forefathers. The star-spangled banner. The sons of liberty. The old independent hall. The Boston tea party. The hero of New Orleans. The Hartford conventionists. The blue lights. The gallant ship United States. The glorious sovereignty of the people. Bunker's Hill. Yorktown. Warren. Montgomery. Tories. Federalists. Republicans. Democrats, and the ever-glorious 76." These, and a few others that I forget, always form the bases of their spiritstirring " eloquence," which is generally concluded by calling upon the dear people to think of these things, and to give for the faithful democrats the "long pull, the strong pull, and the pull all together."

Thus, by adjournment, they go on till October, when, about a week before the general election, each party has a ward-meeting for the purpose of choosing inspectors—that is, judges to decide whether a man's vote is good or not when he offers it at the general election.

There is, however, to be but one set of judges; and, to decide which shall have that all-important advantage, they stand out in the open street, facing each other, and this is what they call "toeing the curb-stone;" the strongest evidence of a genuine democrat that can possibly be given. They boast of this voluntary open method of doing it, while the English democrats are clamouring for secresy. Well,

they are now in regimental order, and a person from each side is appointed to count them; that having the greatest number sends inspectors immediately into the ward voting-room, and the voters outside proceed to vote by ballot, through a hole from which a pane of glass has been removed. This voting is for the final judges at the general election. It is rare, indeed, if the party having the lead in the first instance does not keep it till the end of the race.

The party defeated in the "stand out" sends one of its members under the window, where he stands with the roll-call in his hand, containing the names of all "the party" in the ward, and, when they make their appearance to vote, he crosses them off: by this means he knows how many have voted his ticket, and how many have voted the other; but do what he will, he cannot, nor does not expect, to prevent those who have possession from cheating. So that the knowledge he gains on the subject is only calculated to irritate him and his party. The other party having the authority, officially declare the state of the poll, to which all must submit. Over this business there is generally rioting, confusion, and, of late years, bloodshed and murder. This excitement then continues to increase till after the general election. There is some late alteration as to the manner of voting in Philadelphia, which works worse than before. In all other parts of the State it continues as I have described.

We have now seen the order in which the sovereigns are brought to their 66 duty." If a single one of them were to attempt deception, so as not to vote at all, it is known by the man under the window: he is marked, and has forfeited all claim to the patronage of "the party." And if he votes for the opposite side there are a thousand ways of detecting him. The tickets are printed by order of a trustworthy committee, and they are not delivered till the last hour, poked under the doors in the night, previous to their voting, which commences at eight o'clock the next morning. This is done to prevent the managers of the parties finding out each other's tricks in time to benefit by them. The duty of the "ticket committee" is to see that they are printed on a peculiar kind of paper; a shade lighter or darker, coarser or finer, to be folded up a little longer or wider; tied with a thread and a knot so as by themselves to be known at first sight; and if a man tenders any other than this, it is instantly known by the appointed watch.

The inside judges, by the same kind of tricks, know their own men, whom they pass without scrutiny; hundreds of them at a time, that have no right to vote, coming frequently from other towns to give a lift to "the party." There is no law to prevent a man having his own ticket printed, or even writing it himself, but to do that would be to get the displeasure of both parties; and if he were to vote for a set of men of