1819 Sept. 18

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons

§.9. Election Process

Suffrage secret why

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{On the other hand, a possible case, it is true, is this. A Voter whose wish it is to give his vote in favour of a certain candidate is made by external influence to give his vote against that candidate. But the external influence is the influence of the public at large: it is the influence of the popular or moral sanction: it is the influence of public opinion, by which the candidate in whose favour it would have been his wish to give his vote, is no unfit Candidate. To such a deputy unfit is this unworthy candidate, that By this public opinion, every Voter who /should/ gives a vote in his favour is /would be/ covered with shame. By the open mode here then not only is the public evil prevented but also /moreover/ a private one – and /the/ evil to the individual.

Answer. As to the public evil, That the direction taken by public opinion and thence by the force of the popular or moral sanction is generally speaking /upon the whole/ more likely to be conformable than unconformable to the universal interest is admitted. But that the free will with which in the case in question it operates is likely to be equal to the greatest force with which in this or that same sinister direction this or that private influence will in general be operating, this is denied.

Such is the /in this case is the known/ uncertainty of man’s genuine wishes, so liable to be turned about in all directions by unknown causes, and at the same time so overwhelming and irresistible is the external force of the influence liable on that occasion to be applied, that the quantity of sufferance liable to be sustained /experienced/ from this cause in the shape of shame by a man in consequence of his being known to have given his Vote in favour of this or that candidate, in how great a degree and how generally so ever regarded as unfit, is in comparison of that which is liable to be experienced from those other sources, is generally speaking very inconsiderable and ineffective.}