28 SEPTEMBER 1872, Page 2

The English Press has been looking so exclusively at the

work- ing of the Ballot in the Pontefract and Preston elections, that it has missed for the most part a much more instructive experiment, —the first trial of the Ballot in Ireland. There was an election the other day of a town councillor in Limerick. One candidate was a moderate Liberal. The other was a semi-Fenian. Under' the open voting the latter would certainly have been returned. Under the Ballot the moderate Liberal was returned by a good majority. There is every reason to hope that the working of the secret system in Ireland will compensate for the evils, if any, it may cause in England.