The Ballot Bill has got through Committee, or nearly through,
after a fashion. That is to say, the principle of secret voting has been sanctioned ; but the much more important prin- ciple that a man who has not 11,000 to throw away in elec- tion expenses may, nevertheless, stand, has been rejected. The Government supported the clause throwing expenses on the rates, Mr. Gladstone even making a speech in favour of working-men candidates; but the House would not have it, and rejected the proposal by 256 to 160, the heaviest independent vote of the Session. The majority did not care much about working candi- dates, who will get in all the same ; but they wanted to keep out capacity without riches, and leave the monopoly of power to that "wealthy and leisured class "for whom Mr. Gladstone a year or two ago expressed such a preference. That a man with £500 a year should sit for a county is to county members shocking, and the millionaires who sit for boroughs are of a similar opinion. As they had the ready excuse that their constituents did not like rates, they voted as they pleased. The sincerity of the plea may be imagined, when it is remembered that the legal expenses might, if the ratepayers liked, be reduced to 1100 or 1150.
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