1819 Oct. 3.

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons ult o

§.8 Election how

Art. Secrecy

4

If it be admitted that an Election is not properly performed any further than as the person wish declared by such vote is the uninfluenced wish of the person by whom the vote is given{and would be so independently of all external influence exercised by will on will as above} it follows that every Election in which if on all sides those votes were struck off which the direction given to which would not have been what it was were it not /had it not been/ for such external influence, is /has been/ in principle a Miselection: that the appellation Miselection belongs with propriety to the case thus exemplified: and that the conclusion /result/ in question is an evil, and as such a proper object of avoidance.

When in this particular the Constitution in its present state is defended, it is always on the supposition that /no such effect as/ the effect thus secretly produced is not the effect really produced /is produced/: and in a countless number of instances this supposition is compleatly and incontestably /and notoriously/ false: false in a number of instances so great but yet so countless that all that is known of the number of them is that it is such as to give to the constitution a real character and effect directly opposite to that which in form and pretence is nevertheless so continually attributed to it.