Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/194

 the volition of the elector, by protecting him from the influence of his fears. The system of individual independence encourages him to act by giving his sympathies and opinions, and through than his volition, scope and operation as extensive as the moral and intellectual condition of his age shall afford, and thus calls every high and generous motive into exercise.

The ballot proposes, by enabling the voter to conceal his vote, to exclude the operation of that extraneous and improper control over him, which is the symptom of a vicious state of political morality. The system of individual independence addresses itself to the disease itself, as the most certain and effectual method of removing the symptom; it puts an end to the temptation of exercising an improper control over the conscience of any, by appealing to and giving freedom of action to the consciences of all.

The ballot, moreover, proposes to prevent not only direct and open intimidation, but that tacit discouragement of the free action of electors, which is the result of partiality in dealing,—of the giving, or withdrawal, of custom,—or of the extension, or privation of other advantages, according as the opinions of the electors are, or are not, in accordance with those of the persons who have such advantages to bestow or to withhold. Upon this point the pretensions of the ballot must be more closely examined.

The argument in favour of the conceahnent of the pohtical action of every individual—whatever that action may be—in order that his temporal interests may not be affected, should be stated in all its force, that it may be fairly considered. It is undeniable that, throughout our political system, the manifestation of public opinion, in county, city, and borough meetings, and in open gatherings of people on all occasions, is looked upon as one of the features of the free political life existing amongst us. A mistaken importance may be attributed to these manifestations, but they have, no doubt, for