Abstract
This article explores Anthony Trollope's attempts to answer a question that preoccupied Britain's Liberal party in the second half of the nineteenth century: Should all subjects have an equal right to privacy? Trollope's Palliser novels Phineas Finn (1867–68) and The Eustace Diamonds (1871–73) examine this question through locked containers—the ballot box and the safe, respectively—that promise individual privacy but also create opportunities for dishonesty, deception, and fraud. Trollope's depiction of these material objects underscores his view that privacy is a privilege rather than a right and that it should only be granted to citizens who are capable of wielding it responsibly. Responding to recent legislation that extended privacy rights to women (in the Married Women's Property Act of 1870) and working‐class men (in the Ballot Act of 1872), Trollope warns readers that the safety deposit box in The Eustace Diamonds and the ballot box in Phineas Finn present opportunities for the abuse and misuse of discretion by these subjects. The containers in these two novels thus reveal Trollope's reluctance to extend the privileges of liberalism beyond the sphere of middle‐class men.
