Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 34 (1/2)

Soon after the adoption of the Australian ballot in Great Britain, it was introduced in Canada, but no serious agitation was begun for a similar system in the United States until 1885. In 1887 bills for the Australian ballot were actively urged in the legislatures of New York and Michigan, although neither became law. A Wisconsin law of that year, regulating elections in cities of over 50,000 population, incorporated some features of the Australian system, but the first complete law was enacted by Ma.s.sachusetts in 1888. This Ma.s.sachusetts statute provided for the printing and distribution of ballots by the state to contain the names of all candidates arranged alphabetically for each office, the electors to vote by marking the name of each candidate for whom they wished to vote. At the presidential election of 1888 it was freely alleged that large sums of money had been raised on an unprecedented scale for the purchase of votes, and this situation created a feeling of deep alarm which gave a powerful impetus to the movement for ballot reform. In 1889 new ballot laws were enacted in nine states: two states bordering on Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island; four states in the middle-west, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota; two southern states, Tennessee and Missouri; and Montana, in the far west. The Connecticut law, however, marked but little improvement over former conditions, since it provided only for official envelopes in which the unofficial party ballots should be voted. The Indiana law provided for a single or ”blanket” ballot, but with the names of candidates arranged in party-groups, and a method of voting for all of the candidates in a party-group by a single [v.03 p.0281] mark. Michigan and Missouri also adopted the party-group system. The other states followed the Ma.s.sachusetts law providing for a blanket ballot with the candidates arranged by offices.

The new ballot system had its first practical demonstration at the Ma.s.sachusetts election of 1889, and its success led to its rapid adoption in many other states. In 1890 ballot laws were pa.s.sed in seven states: Vermont, Mississippi, Wyoming and Was.h.i.+ngton provided for the Ma.s.sachusetts plan, although Vermont afterwards adopted the system of party-groups, which Maryland used from the first. The New York and New Jersey laws of 1890, however, only provided for official ballots for each party, and allowed ballots obtained outside of the polling-booths to be used. In 1891 seventeen additional states and two territories adopted the Australian ballot system. All of these provided for a blanket ballot; but while the Ma.s.sachusetts arrangement was adopted in Arkansas, Nebraska, New Hamps.h.i.+re, North and South Dakota, Kentucky, Texas and Oregon, the system of party groups was followed in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. California had the Ma.s.sachusetts arrangement of names, but added on the ballot a list of party names, by marking one of which a voter would cast his vote for all of the candidates of that party. Pennsylvania placed all the candidates not in a party-group in alphabetical order.

Iowa adopted the Australian ballot system in 1892; Alabama and Kansas in 1893; Virginia in 1894; Florida in 1895; and Louisiana and Utah in 1896. In 1895, too, New York adopted the blanket ballot in place of separate party ballots, but arranged the names of candidates in party columns. The only state to abandon the blanket ballot after once adopting it was Missouri which in 1897 returned to the system of separate ballots, with no provision for booths where the ballot might be marked in secret. (See the article, ”Present Status of the Ballot Laws,” by Arthur Ludington in _Amer. Pol.

Science Rev._ for May 1909.)

Owing to the large number of officials chosen at one time in American elections, the form and appearance of the ballot used is very different from that in Great Britain. At the quadrennial presidential election in New York state, for example, the officers to be voted for by each elector are thirty-six presidential electors, one congressman, state-governor, lieutenant-governor and five other state officers, a member for each house of the state legislature, several judges, a sheriff, county-clerk and other county officers. The column with the list of the candidates of each party for all of these offices is 2 to 3 ft. in length; and as there are often eight to ten party-tickets in the field, the ballot-paper is usually from 18 to 20 in. in width. Each voter receives one of these ”blanket” ballots on entering the polling-place, and retires to a booth to mark either a party column or the individual candidates in different columns for whom he wishes to vote. Where, as in Ma.s.sachusetts, the names of candidates are arranged by offices instead of in party-lists, every voter must mark the name of each individual candidate for whom he wishes to vote. Connecticut, New Jersey, Missouri, North and South Carolina, Georgia and New Mexico use the system of separate party ballots. (See also VOTING, VOTING MACHINES, ELECTION, REPRESENTATION.)

[1] For a description of Grote's card-frame, in which the card was punctured through a hole, and was thus never in the voter's hands, see _Spectator_, 25th February 1837.

BALLOU, HOSEA (1771-1852), American Universalist clergyman, was born in Richmond, New Hamps.h.i.+re, on the 30th of April 1771. He was a son of Maturin Ballou, a Baptist minister, was self-educated, early devoted himself to the ministry, became a convert to Universalism in 1789, and in 1794 became a pastor of a congregation at Dana, Ma.s.sachusetts. He preached at Barnard, Vermont, and the surrounding towns in 1801-1807; at Portsmouth, New Hamps.h.i.+re, in 1807-1815; at Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1815-1817; and as pastor of the Second Universalist Church in Boston from December 1817 until his death there on the 7th of June 1852. He founded and edited _The Universalist Magazine_ (1819; later called _The Trumpet_) and _The Universalist Expositor_ (1831; later _The Universalist Quarterly Review_); wrote about 10,000 sermons, many hymns, essays and polemic theological works; and is best known for _Notes on the Parables_ (1804), _A Treatise on Atonement_ (1805) and _Examination of the Doctrine of a Future Retribution_ (1834); in these, especially the second, he showed himself the princ.i.p.al American expositor of Universalism. His great contribution to his Church was the body of denominational literature he left. From the theology of John Murray, who like Ballou has been called ”the father of American Universalism,” he differed in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism and opposed legalism and trinitarian views.

Consult the biography by Thomas Whittemore (4 vols., Boston, 1854-1855) and that by Oscar F. Safford (Boston, 1889); and J. C. Adams, _Hosea Ballou and the Gospel Renaissance_ (Boston, 1904).

His grand-nephew, HOSEA BALLOU (1796-1861), born in Halifax, Vermont, on the 18th of October 1796, preached to Universalists in Stafford, Connecticut (1815-1821); and in Ma.s.sachusetts, in Roxbury (1821-1838) and in Medford (1838-1853); and in 1853 was elected first president of Tufts College at Medford, serving in that office until shortly before his death, which took place at Somerville, Ma.s.sachusetts, on the 27th of May 1861. He was the first (1847) to urge the necessity of a Universalist denominational college, and this did much towards the establishment of Tufts. He was a.s.sociated with the elder Hosea Ballou in editing _The Universalist Quarterly Review_; edited an edition of Sismondi's _History of the Crusades_ (1833); and wrote the _Ancient History of Universalism_, down to A.D. 553 (1829; 2nd ed., 1842).

MATURIN MURRAY BALLOU (1820-1895), son of the first Hosea, was a pioneer in American ill.u.s.trated journalism, edited _Gleason's Pictorial_ and _Ballou's Monthly_ and many collections of quotations, and in 1872 became editor-in-chief of the _Boston Daily Globe_, of which he was one of the founders. He wrote a life of his father (1860), and a _History of Cuba_ (1854).

b.a.l.l.sTON SPA, a village and the county-seat of Saratoga county, New York, U.S.A., about 7 m. S. of Saratoga Springs. Pop. (1890) 3527; (1900) 3923; (1910 U.S. Census) 4138. It is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway, and is connected with Saratoga Springs, Albany, and Schenectady by electric lines. There are several manufacturing establishments, among which are one of the largest manufactories of paper-bags in the United States and a large tannery. It is, however, as a popular summer resort that b.a.l.l.ston Spa is best known. Many fine chalybeate and other springs rising through solid rock from a depth of about 650 ft. furnish a highly effervescent water of considerable medicinal and commercial value. The village has the b.a.l.l.ston Spa public library, the Saratoga county law library and the Saratoga county court house. b.a.l.l.ston Spa, which was named in honour of the Rev. Eliphalet Ball, an early settler, was settled about 1787 by the grandfather of Stephen A. Douglas, and was incorporated in 1855.

See E. F. Prose, _Centennial Hist. of b.a.l.l.ston Spa_, 1908.

BALLYCASTLE, a seaport and watering-place on the north coast of Co. Antrim, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, situated on a bay of the same name opposite Rathlin Island. Pop. (1901) 1481. It is connected with the Northern Counties (Midland) railway at Ballymoney by the Ballycastle light railway. The town consists of two divisions, about a quarter of a mile apart and connected by a fine avenue. Towards the close of the 18th century Mr Hugh Boyd, obtaining the estate, devoted himself to the extension and improvement of the town, establis.h.i.+ng manufactures, endowing charities and building churches; and succeeded in producing a temporary vitality. Upwards of 150,000, including a large government grant, is said to have been expended upon the pier and harbour; but the violence of the sea overthrew the one and the other became filled with sand. To the east of the town are the remains of Bonamargy Abbey, the burial-place of many of the MacDonnell family. The Carey brook, by the side of which the abbey stands, was formerly called the Margy, and on its waters according to tradition dwelt the four children of Lir, changed to swans by their step-mother until St Columba released them from enchantment. (See P. W. Joyce, _Old Celtic Romances_.) With this well-known romance is connected the wide-spread belief in Ireland of ill-fortune following the killing of a swan.

Coal-seams, formerly extensively worked, and from an unknown [v.03 p.0282]

period of antiquity, appear in the cliffs towards Fair Head, and the fisheries are important. The coast-scenery and the view from the hill of Knocklayd are notable.

BALLYMENA, a town of Co. Antrim, Ireland, in the mid parliamentary division, on the Braid, an affluent of the Maine, 2 m. above their junction. Pop. of urban district (1901) 10,886. It is 33 m. N.N.W. of Belfast on the Northern Counties (Midland) railway. Branch lines run to Larne and to Parkmore on the east coast. The town owes its prosperity chiefly to its linen trade, introduced in 1733, which gives employment to the greater part of the inhabitants. Brown linen is a specialty. Iron ore is raised in the neighbourhood. Antiquities in the neighbourhood are few and the present buildings of Ballymena Castle and Galgorm Castle are modern. Gracehill, however, a Moravian settlement, was founded in 1746.

BALLYMONEY, a market town of Co. Antrim, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, 53 m. N.N.W. from Belfast by the Northern Counties (Midland) railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2952. The Ballycastle railway joins the main line here. The trade of the town is prosperous, brewing, distilling and tanning being carried on, besides the linen manufacture common to the whole county. Soap, candles and tobacco are also manufactured, and the town is a centre for local agricultural trade. Near the neighbouring village of Dervock (4 m. N.) is a cottage shown by an inscription to have been the home of the ancestors of William McKinley, president of the United States.

BALLYMOTE, a market town of Co. Sligo, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, 14 m. S. of Sligo by the Midland Great Western railway. Pop.

(1901) 997. It is a centre for some agricultural trade and has carriage-building works. There are remains of a strong castle, built by the powerful earl of Ulster, Richard de Burgh, in 1300, and the scene of hostilities in 1641 and 1652. Ruins are also seen of a Franciscan foundation attributed to the 13th century; it was a celebrated seat of learning and an extant memorial of the work of its monks is the _Book of Ballymote_ (_c._ 1391) in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy, a miscellaneous collection in prose and verse of historical, genealogical and romantic writings. There are also, near the town, ruins of a house of the Knights of St John (1303).

BALLYSHANNON, a seaport and market-town of Co. Donegal, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, at the mouth of the Erne; on the Bundoran branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 2359. The river is here crossed by a bridge of twelve arches, which connects the town with the suburb of The Port. Below the bridge the river forms a beautiful cascade, 150 yds. wide, with a fall at low water of 16 ft. Here is the salmon leap, where the fish are trapped in large numbers, but also a.s.sisted to mount the fall by salmon-ladders. The fisheries are of great value, and there is an export trade to England in salmon, which are despatched in ice. The harbour is a small exposed creek of Donegal Bay, and is only accessible to small vessels owing to a bar. Previous to the Union Ballyshannon returned two members to the Irish parliament and it was incorporated by James I. There are slight remains of a castle of the O'Donnells, earls of Tyrconnell, where the English, on attempting to besiege it, were defeated and lost heavily in their retreat across the river, in 1597. There are numerous raths or encampments in the vicinity and other remains. Coolmore, 3 m.

N.W., is a bathing-resort.

BALM, a fragrant herb, _Melissa officinalis_, of the Deadnettle order (_l.a.b.i.atae_) with opposite, ovate, crenulated leaves, which are wrinkled above, and small white or rose-spotted flowers. It is a native of central and southern Europe; it is often grown in gardens and has become naturalized in the south of England and grows apparently wild as a garden escape in North America. The name is from the Greek [Greek: melissa], the plant being visited by bees. b.a.s.t.a.r.d Balm is an allied plant, _Melittis Melissophyllum_, a southern European species, found in the south and south-west of England.

BALMACEDA, JOSe MANUEL (1838-1891), president of the republic of Chile, was born in Santiago in 1838. His parents were wealthy, and in his early days he was chiefly concerned in industrial and agricultural enterprise. In 1865 he was one of the representatives of the Chilean government at the general South American congress at Lima, and after his return obtained great distinction as an orator in the national a.s.sembly. After discharging some diplomatic missions abroad, he became successively minister of foreign affairs and of the interior under the presidency of Senor Santa Maria, and in the latter capacity carried compulsory civil marriage and several other laws highly obnoxious to the clergy. In 1886 he was elected president; but, in spite of his great capacity, his imperious temper little fitted him for the post. He was soon irreconcilably at variance with the majority of the national representatives, and on the 1st of January 1891 he sought to terminate an intolerable situation by refusing to convoke the a.s.sembly and ordering the continued collection of the taxes on his own authority. This led to the Chilean Civil War of 1891, which ended in the overthrow of Balmaceda, who committed suicide on the 18th of September, the anniversary of his elevation to the presidency.

BALMAIN, a town of c.u.mberland county, N.S.W., Australia, on the western sh.o.r.e of Darling Harbour, Port Jackson, 2 m. by water from Sydney and suburban to it. Pop. (1901) 30,881. It is the home of great numbers of the working cla.s.ses of Sydney and some of the largest factories and most important docks are situated here. Saw-mills, iron foundries, chemicals, gla.s.s and soap works, s.h.i.+pbuilding yards and a cocoanut-oil factory in connexion with the soap-manufacture at Port Sunlight, England, are among the chief industrial establishments. Balmain became a munic.i.p.ality in 1860.

BALMERINO, JAMES ELPHINSTONE, 1st BARON (_c._ 1553-1612), Scottish politician, was the third son of Robert, 3rd Lord Elphinstone (d. 1602).

Rising to power under James VI. he became a judge and a royal secretary; he accompanied the king to London in 1603 and was made Lord Balmerino, or Balmerinoch, in 1604. In 1605 he became president of the court of session, but his ardour for the Roman Catholic religion brought about his overthrow.

In 1599 on the king's behalf, but without the king's knowledge, he had sent a letter to Clement VIII. in which he addressed the pope in very cordial terms. A copy of this letter having been seen by Elizabeth, the English queen asked James for an explanation, whereupon both the king and the secretary declared it was a forgery. There the matter rested until 1608, when the existence of the letter was again referred to during some controversy between James and Cardinal Bellarmine. Interrogated afresh Balmerino admitted that he had written the compromising letter, that he had surrept.i.tiously obtained the king's signature, and that afterwards he had added the full t.i.tles of the pope. In March 1609 he was tried, attainted and sentenced to death, but after a brief imprisonment he was released and he died at Balmerino in July 1612.

Balmerino's elder son JOHN (d. 1649) was permitted to take his father's t.i.tle in 1613. In 1634 he was imprisoned for his opposition to Charles I.

in Scotland, and by a bare majority of the jury he was found guilty of ”leasing-making” and was sentenced to death. But popular sympathy was strongly in his favour; the poet Drummond of Hawthornden and others interceded for him, and after much hesitation Charles pardoned him.

Balmerino, however, did not desist from his opposition to the king. A chief among the Covenanters and a trusted counsellor of the marquess of Argyll, he presided over the celebrated parliament which met in Edinburgh in August 1641, and was one of the Scottish commissioners who visited England in 1644. He died in February 1649 and was succeeded as 3rd lord by his son JOHN (1623-1704), who in 1669 inherited from his uncle James the t.i.tle of Lord Coupar. John's son JOHN, 4th Lord Balmerino (1652-1736), was a lawyer of some repute and, although a st.u.r.dy opponent of the Union, was a Scottish representative peer in 1710 and 1713. John's son ARTHUR (1688-1746) who became 6th Lord Balmerino on the death of his half-brother John in January 1746, is famous as a Jacobite. He joined the partisans of James Edward, the Old Pretender, after the battle of Sheriffmuir in November 1713, and then lived for some time in exile, returning to Scotland in 1733 when his father had [v.03 p.0283] secured for him a pardon. He was one of the first to join Charles Edward in 1745; he marched with the Jacobites to Derby, fought at Falkirk and was captured at Culloden. Tried for treason in Westminster Hall he was found guilty, and was beheaded on the 11th of August 1746, behaving both at his trial and at his execution with great constancy and courage. On his death without issue his t.i.tles became extinct.

BALMeS, JAIME LUCIANO (1810-1848), Spanish ecclesiastic, eminent as a political writer and a philosopher, was born at Vich in Catalonia, on the 28th of August 1810, and died there on the 9th of July 1848. Having attacked the regent Espartero and been exiled he founded and edited on his return the _El Pensamiento de la Nacion_, a Catholic and Conservative weekly; but his fame rests princ.i.p.ally on _El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo en sus relaciones con la Civilisacion Europea_ (3 vols., 1842-1844, 6th edition, 1879; Eng. trans. London, 1849), an able defence of Catholicism on the ground that it represents the spirit of obedience or order, as opposed to Protestantism, the spirit of revolt or anarchy. From the historical standpoint it is of little value. The best of his philosophical works, which are clear expositions of the scholastic system of thought, are the _Filosofia Fondamental_ (4 vols., 1846, Eng. trans. by H. F. Brownson, 2 vols. New York, 1856), and the _Curso de Filosofia Elemental_ (4 vols., 1847), which he translated into Latin for use in seminaries.