support of twenty-one members. The ballot formed a part of the reform bill as reported to the Cabinet by Lord John Russell, Sir James Graham, and others, but it was not included in the act as presented to Parliament. During the next three years many petitions for the measure were presented to Parliament and debated. On April 23, 1833, George Grote brought forward a resolution affirming the expediency of its adoption, and until 1840 this was yearly presented and affirmed by Mr. Grote. After the retirement of Grote, Mr. Ward and later Mr. H. Berkley became the champions of the measure. It was supported by such statesmen as Macaulay, Bright, Cobbett, Hume, and O'Connell, and was opposed by Lord Derby, the Duke of Wellington, and Lord Palmerston. Although this movement was retarded by the revolution of 1848 and the opposition of John Stuart Mill, the long period of agitation finally bore fruit. In the Queen's speech from the throne in 1868-69, a recommendation was made that the present mode of conduting elections be inquired into and further guaranties adopted for promoting their tranquillity, purity, and freedom.[1] A committee of twenty-three, with the Marquis of Hartington as chairman, was appointed. This committee not only examined the English situation, but questioned witnesses from France, Italy, Greece, the United States, and Australia; and in 1870 it recommended that the secret ballot be adopted. The result was the ballot act which became a law in 1872.[2] With the prestige gained by its success in England, the principles of the Australian ballot were soon adopted in Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Italy.[3]
2. ITS INTRODUCTION INTO THE UNITED STATES
At first this new reform in Australia and England does not appear to have created much of an impression in this country. According to Mr. John S. Wigmore, it was first advocated by a member of the Philadelphia Civil Service Reform Association in 1882 in a pamphlet called English Elections.[4] The following year Henry George in the North American Review advocated the adoption of the English system as a cure for the vices arising from the use of money in elections.[5]
The first attempt that the writer could discover to secure the passage of the reform was made in Michigan in 1885. A bill modeled on the Australian act was introduced into the lower house of the legislature by Mr. George W. Walthew, but it failed to pass. A bill similar to that
