Ballot

by Sydney Smith

Excerpt from Ballot
It is possible, and perhaps not very difficult, to invent a machine, by the aid of which electors may vote for a candidate, or for two or three candidates, out of a greater number, without its being discovered for whom they vote; it is less easy than the rabid, and foaming Radical supposes; but I have no doubt it may be accomplished. In Mr. Grote's dagger ballot box, which has been carried round the country by eminent patriots, you stab the card of your favourite candidate with a dagger. I have seen another, called the mouse-trap ballot box, in which you poke your finger into the trap of the member you prefer, and are caught and detained till the trap-clerk below (who knows by means of a wire when you are caught) marks your vote, pulls the liberator, and releases you.

94 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 2015

About the author

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Sydney Smith was an English Anglican clergyman, essayist, and public intellectual celebrated for his brilliant wit, humane outlook, and lively prose. Born in Essex to a mercurial merchant father and a mother of Huguenot descent, he was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he distinguished himself for both scholarship and personality. Ordained in 1796, he combined energetic parish work with wide intellectual interests, soon gaining attention as a preacher of unusual humor and clarity. After moving to Edinburgh in 1798 as a tutor, he helped found the influential Edinburgh Review in 1802 and remained one of its most admired contributors for decades, shaping liberal opinion with essays that blended moral seriousness and comic flair. Settling later in London, he lectured at the Royal Institution, advocated progressive causes such as Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, the abolition of slavery, and the education of women, and became a central figure in Whig society. Though his outspoken views limited ecclesiastical advancement, he served faithfully in rural parishes, winning deep affection from parishioners while continuing to write and speak on public issues. Smith’s reputation as one of the great conversationalists of his age endured through his sermons, essays, pamphlets, and countless anecdotes attributed to him. Remembered as much for his humane common sense as for his humor, he left a lasting mark on nineteenth-century British intellectual life and remains one of the most quoted clerical writers in English literature.