minister as a source of confidence and strength. It may be assumed that he will be a man of the highest talent and character, able to ameliorate while he also preserves, and, therefore, one on whose activity and moderation vast numbers will be content to rely. His own seat in the House would be in no danger. He would be re-elected with the tranquil certainty with which a director of the Bank is replaced. The result every general election would be to furnish him with a faithful index of the progress and existing state of public opinion. A triennial election would be soon considered as recurring at too long rather than too short an interval,—for the minister would find his main support not in any party arrangements or complications, but in the sense and approbation of the people.

of

The system of individual independence, a subject apart from the suffrage-More consistent with a qualification not dependent on locality-Principle of Mr. Locke King's bill-Equality of county and borough suffrage Natural rights - BurkeGeneral tests of electoral capacity-Manhood: its legal, physiological, and statistical definitions-Other qualifications or tests of electoral capacity-Proper conditions of such testsAccessibility of the qualification required, and its universality and practicability of application-The £10 qualification-Its variable effect, according to the density of the population-Modifications in the system of voting-Suffrage to be treated as a valuable right and not heedlessly distributed—Amendment of the regis tration system-Prospective abolition of qualifications founded on rentcharges-Removal of all disfranchisements in respect of office-Special facilities of voting by the deposit of the voting papers-Attendance at one polling place to suffice for voting on different qualifications-Voting by merchants, seamen, and travellers, and public servants absent from the kingdom-Voting by British subjects residing in the colonies-Suffrage of females qualified sui juris-Educational franchise.

THE subject of the suffrage has been reserved, as a matter which, in one respect only, is affected by, and affects, the system of representation suggested in this work. A provision has been introduced for enabling any district, town, or parish, to obtain a charter, entitling it to return a representative,*—or in another, and

*Clause v. p. 58.

perhaps better understood form of expression, to constitute itself one of a set of contributory boroughs. The right is proposed to be conferred by an order of the Queen in council, and is designed to be purely a change in division and arrangement in no respect affecting the right of suffrage. If a distinction of the right of suffrage depending on the place of residence be obstinately adhered to, it might in certain cases be an impediment to the equal operation of such a law,—for a village, which, having grown into a town, should apply for incorporation as a borough,—would find itself with a different suffrage from other boroughs, as it would be framed on the county franchise. It would not be proper to vest in the executive government the power of affecting the suffrage.

It may be hoped, however, that when the subject is examined in all its bearings, every party will agree on the abolition of distinctions, which are unworthy of the age in which we live, and carry us back to the times of the Norman villeins or the Saxon thralls. Much has been said of adopting, with reference to the county inhabitants, the proposal of Mr. Locke King for a £10 franchise, and of applying some different rule as to the borough franchise. Those who design to deal with the question in this manner, have totally misapprehended the principle of Mr. Locke King's bill. It has not entered into the imagination of the author or supporters of that measure, that the true standard of electoral capacity of the county inhabitants excludes all but the occupiers of tenements worth £10 a-year. The principle of the bill is the adoption of the same electoral standard in the counties as obtains in the towns: the

principle is equality of the suffrage, wherever the place of residence may be. If any persons delude themselves with the thought that a concession of a £10 suffrage in the counties, if it be reduced below that standard in the boroughs, will be a final measure, they cannot be too soon undeceived. If it be made £5 in the boroughs, and £10 in the counties, they may be assured of this consequence, a consequence which may be safely predicted without any pretensions to the spirit of prophecy, -that in the session of Parliament which follows such an Act, some county member, who, like Mr. Locke King, is able to regard himself as representing his county, and not merely a privileged class of its inhabitants, will ask for leave to bring in a bill reducing the standard to £5 in the counties. It is a logical, a necessary, and an inevitable result. It may fail the first time, or the second,--but that which is undeniably just, will, at no distant day, assuredly prevail. By withholding it as long as that can be done, its adversaries may succeed in producing hostility and rancour. They may alienate those who otherwise would be their friends,but for any purposes of good, their efforts will be impotent. When other anomalies are removed, many of the representatives of the counties will perceive the impropriety of preserving one which treats the rural inhabitants as a servile class, stamped by the legislature with the seal of inferiority. As they ride through the country,—the retired hamlet, and the antique marketvillage, they will experience an ingenuous shame at beholding the men who, by long converse with the external world,

Amid the bounties of the year, the peace
And liberty of nature,—

have acquired "the wisdom which works through patience," whom they had yet allowed to be excluded from the highest of civil rights,-rights which are conceded to others far inferior to them morally or physically, in some neighbouring borough. It may be confidently believed, that the aristocracy of England will not permit such an unjust and degrading badge of inferiority to be permanently established.

So much it has been thought necessary to say on behalf,—not of any particular qualification,—but of an equality of qualification,—not an equality of every man with every other, which the common sense of mankind has in all ages repelled,—but an equality of every man of any rank and class with others of the same rank and class as himself,—an equality wholly unaffected by the plot of ground which may constitute his freehold, or be the site of his dwelling.

The proper qualification to be adopted as the test of the right of suffrage is a question independent of that of its equality. It deserves much consideration, whether there is in truth any just reason for lowering the general standard of qualification adopted in the Reform Bill. It is important to consider, in the first place, the true principle to be observed in conferring the suffrage.

The question of right may be first considered. "If civil society be made for the advantage of man, all the advantages for which it is made become his right. It is an institution of beneficence; and law itself is only beneficence acting by a rule. Men have a right to live by that rule they have a right to justice-as between