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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 415.: THE BALLOT DAILY NEWS, 31 JULY, 1868, P. 5 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

415.: THE BALLOT DAILY NEWS, 31 JULY, 1868, P. 5 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV [1847]

Edition used:

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV, ed. Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, Introduction by Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


415.

THE BALLOT

DAILY NEWS, 31 JULY, 1868, P. 5

John Bright (who had been closely allied with Mill on many issues in the House of Commons) gave a speech to his constituents on 24 July, 1868, in which he predicted that the ballot, especially in the large constituencies, would be required “merely as a matter of election machinery.” He went on: “Even Mr. Stuart Mill, who had long objected to the ballot, was becoming a convert, and was of opinion that it might be tried in Ireland” (“Mr. Bright at Birmingham,” The Times, 25 July, p. 12). Mill’s response (not listed in his bibliography) is headed “Mr. Mill on the Ballot” with the subhead, “To the Editor of the Daily News,” and is dated “Blackheath-park, July 29.” It appeared also in the Beehive, 8 Aug., 1868, p. 7, without substantive variants.

sir,—

As it would appear from the report of Mr. Bright’s eloquent speech at Birmingham that there exists some misapprehension concerning my present opinion on the ballot, I should be obliged by your permitting me to state that my opinion is as decidedly unfavourable to the ballot as it ever was; that I should see its adoption with regret in any part of the United Kingdom; that I spoke against it in a meeting of my constituents on the same evening on which Mr. Bright was speaking at Birmingham; and that I voted against its adoption in Ireland at the division on it this session.1 —I am, etc.,

J.S. Mill

[1 ]In his speech of 24 July, at an election meeting in the Pimlico Rooms, Warwick Street, Mill is reported to have said “that he had been in favour of the ballot, but was not in favour of it now” (The Times, 25 July, p. 5). His vote against the ballot’s adoption in Ireland came on an amendment to the Representation of the People (Ireland) Bill on 18 June, 1868 (PD, 3rd ser., Vol. 192, cols. 1801-5).