ting
privilege as far as possible consistently with due regard for the
principle that the voters ought to be men of substance enough to insure
their independence. This security they believed they could attain by
establishing the ten-pound franchise. This seems, no doubt, to modern
eyes a somewhat eccentric and haphazard line of demarkation; but it
must be remembered that even until much later days the ten pounds
rating principle in boroughs held its own, and was believed to be
absolutely essential to the {131} maintenance of an independent and
upright body of voters, and to the securing of such a body against the
danger of being "swamped," according to the once familiar word, by the
votes of the dependent and the corrupt.

There were some slight differences of opinion between Lord John Russell
and Lord Durham as to the extent to which the total or partial
disfranchisement of the small boroughs ought to go, but the scheme, as
finally shaped, had on the whole the thorough approval of the
committee. One important proposal, brought forward, it was understood,
by Lord Durham, was agreed to and formally adopted by the committee,
but not without strong opposition on the part of Lord John Russell.
This was the proposal for the introduction of the vote by ballot. When
Lord Grey's Cabinet came to consider the draft scheme the proposal for
the introduction of the vote by ballot was struck out altogether. The
time, in fact, had not come for the adoption of so great a reform.
Forty years had to pass before the mind of the English public could be
brought to recognize the necessity for such a change. Statesmanship
had still to learn how much the value of a popular suffrage was
diminished or disparaged by the system which left the voter at the
absolute mercy of some landlord or some patron who desired that the
vote should be given for the candidate whom he favored. The ballot
even then was demanded by the whole body of the Chartists. Orator
Hunt, one of the most popular heroes of the Chartist agitation, had
only just defeated Mr. Stanley at Preston. Daniel O'Connell was in
favor of the ballot, because he saw that without its protection the
Irish tenant farmer would have to vote for his landlord's candidate or
would be turned out of his farm. But the general feeling among
statesmen, as well as among the outer public, was that there was
something un-English about the ballot system, and it was contended that
the true Englishman