Between thirty and forty years ago, long before the passing of the Reform Bill in the British House of Parliament, I was imbued with those Radical principles which were promulgated by Muir, Palmer, and Skirving. Knowing that the elective franchise under the old Tory rule was a mockery, I was impressed, like thousands of others, with the idea that the ballot was the only mode in which the rights of the people could be. protected against the corrupting influence of the great landed aristocracy. The Reform Bill was passed, under which a new order of things was inaugurated, the condition of the people improved, and the prosperity of the country advanced. The elective franchise, however, still remained a vexed question. The upper classes were afraid to entrust the people with anything like a free voice empowering them to send representatives to Parliament, and as a consequence the same system of political corruption prevailed, though in a modified form. I therefore continued a warm advocate for the ballot; but since I came to see the new organization of self-government by the American people and the working of the ballot, my idea of that boasted safeguard has been thoroughly exploded. I have found that universal suffrage is not the voice of the people, and that the ballot only affords dishonest and designing men a cloak for their knavery. While I am writing, the Republican party are taking every means that money, craft, and foul misrepresentation can give them, by which to retain place and power.