780 REPOBT— 1888. 



future local appointments shall be made from successful competitors in examina- 

 tions ty the Civil Service Commissioners for the Empire. 



Reduction of Electoral Expenses. — As the Local Government Bill now stands, 

 with the procedure for the elections at polling-booths, the same as in the boroufhs, 

 it will frequently involve expenses as great as those of elections to Parliament, 

 and will exclude many fitting candidates. The results at the elections by the 

 polls for the School Board of London have been such as to exclude the most 

 fitting speciaUsts in education, and to admit grossly ignorant and ill-qualified 

 persons. The expense to the ratepayers of this systemj'which gives the returns 

 generally to minorities and to ignorance or to jobbery, it will be found would 

 suffice to defray the expenses of a superior board of specialists giving their undivided 

 and constant attention in harmony with the latest improved educational prin- 

 ciples, whose value would receive general recognition from Parliament as well as 

 from the public at large. 



Out of 1,398 contested elections for guardians which took place in 1874-75, it 

 appeared from a return to the House of Lords that there were only seven com- 

 plaints, scarcely more than 1 per cent, of the electors, of which four of the com- 

 plaints were adjudged to be well founded. On comparison of these results with 

 the election of members of Parliament, the complaints of false returns on account 

 of bribery, corruption, or intimidation at each dissolution were upwards of 20 per 

 cent, of the elections, and it was notorious that they would have been far more 

 numerous but for the enormous expense of prosecuting the petitions. In the case 

 of the house-to-house collection of votes the petitions are made and examined and 

 determined gratis. It is assumed that the ballot is incompatible with the house- 

 to-house collection of voting papers. This is a fallacy. House-to-house collections 

 of ballots for candidates are practised by charitable associations. An open 

 envelope containing a balloting paper is transmitted by post to the elector, who 

 takes out the paper, marks his candidate, returns the paper into the envelope, 

 closes it, and sends it back to the returning officer under some safe method, which 

 might be by postal delivery and collection under securities of registered letters. 



Let it be considered what is the practice of elections in the great civil business 

 of the country ; what would be their stability if, as in political life, they were 

 made dependent on the decisions of the hundreds who may be got to meetings, as 

 against the thousands who cannot be got to attend them, but whose voices are 

 brought to the poll by the house-to-house collection of votes as proxies. The 

 plurality of voting is objected to, but, in respect to landed property, the fact is 

 pmitted to be observed that on the average two-thirds of rent represents capital 

 in buildings, steadings, roads, hedges. &c. Now where is any objection raised to 

 plurahty of votes proportioned to holdings of shares in all commercial institutions ? 

 It is proposed that at all events candidates shall be allowed to call for a pre- 

 liminary test ballot as by way of a show of hands, or by show of collected papers, 

 to be distributed by the post, in such form as the Local Government shall regulate, 

 containing a balloting paper, such as are in use by private societies. All parties 

 would frequently abide by this preliminary test, which need not cost more than a 

 registered letter. 



-4 Completed Imperial Police Force. — In local agricultural associations the 

 eligibility of an imperial police force is fuUy recognised exclusively of the grounds 

 of its adoption as a great reserve military force, and as a means of repression 

 without bloodshed, and as an economy of military force which has been fully 

 explained. 



4. The Vital and Commercial Statistics of Bath. By F. Norfolk. 



5. Old Age and Sickness Assurance for the Mercantile and Professional 

 Glasses. By F. Norfolk. 



