by nature, the latter, after that which we have been taught to desire by experience. The light must enter into the darkness, ere the darkness can know that it is without light, and open its heart to desire and embrace it." Examples of questions, in which economy must be modified by morals, and morals corrected by economy, are abundant. Of these are the discussions on the hours of female and infantine labour,-on the education of children in factories,-on poor-laws-workhouses -and public charities,-on lodging-houses and dwellings for the poor,-on mediative tribunals between labourers and employers,—on friendly societies and saving banks. The working classes have need in these subjects of men from among themselves. They may not be wiser, they may possibly not be more fitted to deal with matters so serious and profound, than men who are elected by other classes; but a consideration of what is due to the vast body of the working classes, leads inevitably to the conclusion, that they ought to have the power of placing in the House some in whom they have confidence, some who view all such questions from their side, who have been brought up with them, and who know experimentally where and how their condition needs amelioration. More is to be known than theory can teach. A representative assembly of the Commons without this element is grossly defective. A hint which was somewhere thrown out, that the working classes might elect men with whom the more refined members would be unwilling to associate, betrays the source from whence it comes. The true aristocracy will reject the suggestion with disdain.

* Guesses at Truth, 2nd Ser. p. 351.

Nothing exemplifies more clearly the maxim, that all injustice will rebound upon its authors, than the present claims of the working classes for representation. Their class has been unwisely and improperly excluded, and they now demand such a construction of the franchise, and of electoral divisions, as will tend to throw all power into their hands, by extinguishing every class but their own. In mercy to themselves, it may be hoped that such a consequence may yet be averted.

In the state of society at which we have arrived, the vesting in every elector of a power to act, if such be his will, without any trammel created by the particular section of voters to which he is nominally annexed, is the keystone of parliamentary reform. It is by this means that the utmost facility and inducement will be afforded to every elector to exercise his judgment in making the best and wisest choice. "That the service of our country is no chimerical, but a real duty," are the words of a great constitutional philosopher. When a political system promotes and encourages the association of minds having common pursuits and common sympathies, and when these associations are necessarily so extensive that they can be governed by no narrow or selfish motives, and by nothing less comprehensive than a desire to further the moral or material welfare of large numbers of men, the union becomes necessarily the occasion of exciting generous sentiments, and to the degree in which the object of the association is pure and wise, to that degree are its members elevated above all ignoble and selfish objects. All good influences will be aided and all evil ones discouraged, not as results directly aimed

at, but as the indirect and natural consequence of a wholesome state of political existence; just as the cultivation of a pure mind, and application to honest objects, is a better protection for virtue than all the repressive laws that can be made to extirpate vice. Full scope will be given to every generous sentiment by which men may be drawn together. Devotion to a great principle,-regard for an illustrious name,— affection for an ancient house,-admiration of worthy deeds,-attachment to a particular neighbourhood,-love of country or of class-community of feeling,-harmony of taste,-may all form so many occasions of concord, and create innumerable circles, binding together in society all varieties of rank and station, with an attraction of such power that malignant influences will find no place, and the occupation of the demagogue will be gone. Inclination will thus be brought to the aid of duty. When no elector can, by the reflection that any exertion on his part would be vain, if not mischievous, as injuring the cause he desires to support, excuse his inaction to his conscience, he will then be sensible of the obligation which the service of his country imposes upon him. It is beyond the power of law to compel men to unite for a common purpose, and labour in it with energy of will, unless it be one in which their nature prompts them to agree. An electoral body composed of the most heterogeneous and antagonistic materials, bound together by an act of parliament, and told that they must act together, and find one person who can reflect the most dissimilar things, can be compared to nothing better than the melancholy spectacle of sub

dued and torpid natures, which is exhibited in the streets of London. With equal truth, or irony, onet is called the "happy family," where every instinct is quelled; and the other the "independent constituency," where every man's action depends, not upon himself, but in most cases on those to whom, of all others, he would be least willing to trust either his honour or his purse. The indifference of hopelessness, and the languor of debility, are occasionally varied by fits of spasmodic animation when they are roused by the showmen, who extract a miserable profit from the exhibition. Is it too much to say, that instead of on one side constructing schemes which shall perpetuate a stereotyped expression of political sentiment, and, on the other side, contriving how it may be counteracted, by shrouding every elector in a veil of obscurity, statesmen might more wisely employ themselves in discovering, in that great laboratory of science in which we find all we know of man's nature and of the elements of his moral health, some means of dissipating the unwholesome miasma, and clearing the tainted atmosphere which now envelop political life?

The two following chapters will explain the position in which majorities would be placed, in relation with unanimous constituencies, the respective provinces of the two principles, and their essential harmony.

CHAPTER III.

GEOGRAPHICAL, LOCAL, AND CORPORATE DIVISIONS OF ELECTORS.

Representation conferred on boroughs and creation of boroughs for representation-Natural order in forming communities—Artificial divisons-Burke-Existing anomalies and inequalitiesComparative independence of members-Contributory boroughs may be without contiguity-Disfranchisement of smaller boroughs directly adverse to the principle of complete representation-Disposition to voluntary association-Its operation to be permitted and encouraged in forming electoral divisions -The Crown the essential basis-Proposed law for creating and reconstructing electoral divisions on petition - Necessity in the vicissitudes of society-Effect on the public spirit and emulation of majorities-Early access to political life for men of talent.

IN the ancient and historical form of our constitutional system, the right, or privilege, of nominating representatives in Parliament, was given,-or, it may be more correct to say, accrued to the various detached and distinct communities in the then existing divisions of counties, cities, or boroughs, in consequence and as an incident of that previous existence. In the remodelling of the electoral system in 1832, a course in many respects the reverse of this was, and perhaps for many reasons necessarily, pursued. Communities, districts, or boroughs were then created, or unions of such communities formed, without any other basis of connection