Sm: Ballet and Third Letter to Archdeacon Singleton THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES BALLOT. BY THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. £eronU inrition. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1839. London : Printed by A. Spottiswoode, New- Street- Square. BALLOT. It is possible, and perhaps not very difficult, to invent a machine, by the aid of which electors may vote for a candidate, or for two or three candidates, out of a greater number, without its being discovered for whom they vote ; it is less easy than the rabid, and foaming Radical supposes ; but I have no doubt it may be accomplished. In Mr. G rote's dagger ballot box, which has been carried round the country by eminent patriots, you stab the card of your favourite candi- date with a dagger. I have seen another, called the mouse-trap ballot box, in which you poke your finger into the trap of the member you prefer, and are caught and detained till the trap-clerk below (who knows by means of a wire when you arc caught) marks your vote, pulls the liberator, and releases you. Which may be the most eligible of these two methods I do not pretend to determine, nor do I a <2 131 6957 el him the name of Simon, < .' 36 I presume that what has drawn upon me the indignation of this prelate, is the observations I have from time to time made on the conduct of the Commissioners ; of which he positively asserts himself to have been a member : but whether he was, or was not a member, I ut- terly acquit him of all possible blame, and of every species of imputation which may attach to the conduct of the Commission. In using that word, I have always meant the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and Lord John Russell ; and have, honestly speaking, given no more heed to the Bishop of Glou- cester, than if he had been sitting in a Commis- sion of Bonzes in the Court of Pekin. To read, however, his Lordship a lesson of good manners, I had prepared for him a and that all the Bishops now call him Simon. Simon of Glou- cester, however, after all is a real writer, and how could I know that Dr. Monk's name was Simon? When tutor in Lord Car- rington's family, he was called by the endearing though some- what unmajestic name of Dick ; and if I had thought about his name at all, Ishouldhavc called him Richard of Gloucester. 37 chastisement which would have been echoed from the Seagrave who banqueteth in the castle, to the idiot who spitteth over the bridge at Gloucester ; but the following ap- peal struck my eye, and stopped my pen: — " Since that time my inadequate qualifica- tions have sustained an appalling diminution, by the affection of my eyes, which have im- paired my vision, and the progress of which threatens to consign me to darkness : I beg the benefit of your prayers to the Father of all mercies, that he will restore to me the better use of the visual organs, to be employed on his service ; or that he will inwardly illumine the intellectual vision, with a particle of that Divine ray, which his Holy Spirit can alone impart." It might have been better taste, perhaps, if a mitred invalid, in describing his bodily infirmities before a church full of Clergymen, whose prayers he asked, had been a little more sparing in the abuse of his enemies; but a good deal must be forgiven to the sick. I wish that ever) 38 Christian was as well aware as this poor Bishop of what he needed from Divine assistance ; and in his supplication for the restoration of his sight and the improvement of his understanding I most fervently and cordially join. I was much amused with what old Hermann * says of the Bishop of London's iEschylus. "We find," he says, " a great arbitrariness of pro- ceeding and much boldnessqf innovation guided by no sure principle ; " here it is : qualis ab incepto. He begins with iEschylus and ends with the Church of England ; begins with profane and ends with holy innovations — scratching out old readings which every commentator had sanc- tioned, abolishing ecclesiastical dignities which every reformer had spared ; thrusting an ana- pcest into a verse, which will not bear it ; and intruding a Canon into a Cathedral, which does not want it ; and this is the Prelate by whom the proposed reform of the Church has * Ueber diebehandlungcler Griechischen Dichter bei den Engliindern Von Gottfried Hermann. Wiemar Jahrbueher, vol. liv. 1831. 39 been principally planned, and to whose practical wisdom the Legislature is called upon to defer. The Bishop of London, is a man of very great ability, humane, placable, generous, munificent, very agreeable, but not to be trusted with great interests where calmness and judgment are re- quired ; unfortunately, my old and amiable schoolfellow, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has melted away before him, and sacrificed that wisdom on which we all founded our se- curity. Much writing and much talking are very tire- some, and above all they are so to men, who, living in the world, arrive at those rapid and just conclusions, which are only to be made by living in the world. This bill past, every man of sense acquainted with human affairs must see, that as far as the Church is concerned, the thing is at an end. From Lord John Russell, the present improver of the Church, we shall descend to Hume, from Hume to Roebuck, and after Roebuck we shall receive our last im- provement- from Dr. Wade : plunder will follow UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-Series 444 London : Printed by A. Spottiswooue, New- Street- Square. ^J u — PAMPHLET BINDER "Z^ZL Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Calif. ^SOU^EW REGIONAL LIBRARY AA 000 375 5 FA 11 s