name his candidate in the polling booth, just as the
judge does his duty in a court open to the public eye. No, replied Bright,
the jury-room is as important as the judge's bench, and yet the jury-room
is treated as secret, and in some countries the verdict is formally given
by ballot. Some scandals in the way of electoral intimidation did much to
ripen public opinion. One parliamentary committee in 1868 brought evidence
of this sort to light, and another committee recommended secret voting as
the cure.

Among those most ardent for the change from open to secret voting, the
prime minister was hardly to be included. "I am not aware," he wrote to
Lord Shaftesbury (Dec. 11, 1871), "of having been at any time a vehement
opponent of the ballot. I have not been accustomed to attach to it a vital
importance, but at any time, I think, within the last twenty or
twenty-five years I should have regarded it as the legitimate complement
of the present suffrage."(239) In the first speech he made as prime
minister at Greenwich (Dec. 21, 1868) be said that there were two subjects
that could not be overlooked in connection with the representation of the
people. "One of them is the security afforded by the present system for
perfect freedom in the giving of the vote, which vote has been not only
not conferred as a favour, but imposed as a duty by the legislature on the
members of the community. I have at all times given my vote in favour of
open voting, but I have done so before, and I do so now, with an important
reservation, namely, that whether by open voting or by whatsoever means,
free voting must be secured."

A bill providing for vote by ballot, abolishing public nominations and
dealing with corrupt practices in parliamentary elections was introduced
by Lord Hartington in 1870. Little progress was made with it, and it was
eventually withdrawn. But the government were committed to the principle,
and at the end of July Mr. Gladstone took the opportunity of explaining
his change of opinion on this question, in the debate on the second
reading of a Ballot bill brought in by a private member. Now that great
numbers who depended for their bread upon their daily labour had acquired
the vote, he said, their freedom was threatened from many quarters. The
secret vote appeared to be required by the social conditions under which
they lived, and therefore it had become a necessity and a duty to give
effect to the principle.

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