that no mortal could discover what he did? He must not
tell it to his wife or his child; he must keep it locked up from his
bosom friend; he must not broach it to his pot-companion, but be as dumb
as the tankard which they had emptied between them; and this state of
silence must be observed for three years. Thus far for the elector: how
far was the concealment to be operated upon by the candidate? He had
found out that he was unsuccessful; that where he had been promised five
hundred votes he had not got fifty, the seed giving back one for ten,
instead of yielding ten for one, as a good husbandman had a right to
expect. Inquiries will be set on foot as to where the deficiency was. It
might be a mistake of the poll-clerks: the poll-books were examined
and all was right still. Then the Lord Johns and Sir Roberts, who had
promised their interests, were questioned; but they insisted that it
could not be amongst their tenants, for they had all promised, and
had all, no doubt, religiously kept their words. Each defended his own
tallies; but one had not voted for every tally promised. Suspicions were
excited, and some of the voters questioned. The man so questioned had
only one of three answers to give: he must say that he voted against the
candidate, by which he was sure to lose his farm; or he must refuse
to say how he voted, by which his loss of the farm would be equally
certain; or he must insist and solemnly call God to witness that he had
voted as he had promised. But even this latter alternative would not
completely lull suspicions: there would still be the watchings and
questionings of friends, and of agents, for no act that could be framed
could prevent these. In the course of these something would turn up to
fix the suspicions on which bad landlords would be ready to act against
their tenants; and it was on the assumption of bad landlords, who would
visit the refusal to vote for them or their tenants, that the necessity
of vote by ballot was at all defended. The bad landlord would act upon
suspicion: the more so, as, there being only fifty votes where five
hundred had been promised, the chance was ten to one that any one of
the five hundred who said he kept his word, was stating a falsehood.
Examples would then be made of a few: and what would be the result? Why,
that at the election a vast number would not vote at all. Some even of
those who had kept their word would take that as the surest way to prove
that they wer