The Press.
London, England, 1853-11-05 00:00:00

626

clay moneyed property, is defrauded of its
Lair share of electoral rights. Yet there are at
this moment residing in London non-electors,
and these not few in *umber, owners of inde-
pendent fortunes exceeding 1,000/. a year.
Such defects are, and always will he, inherant
in every electoral syrtaut which is based. as it
ought to be based, not on the theory of indi
vidual rights, but on that of national advan-
tage. They may be regretted—they may be
repaired wherever it is possible to repair
them—but they furnish no ground for a gene-
nil condemnation of the system under which
they exist. Taking the country at large. we
deny that education as such, which, to a certain
extent at least, is usually coexistent with
property, can fairly lay claim to a more exten-
sive share iu the parliamentary representa-
, snit we add that, if such a claim could
be maintained, the project before us does
nothing, or less than nothing. to satisfy it.
One educational test only we arc willing to
admit, and that not of a positive, but negative,
character. That every elector unable to read
and write, however otherwise qualified, should
be excluded from the franchise, seems a pro-
position too reasonable to be objected to on
any side. The time is gone by when one
could suppose the existence of men naturally
Intelligent and acute, but debarred from the
means of instruction. By such a limitation
no party could suffer, except, perhaps, the
priest party in Ireland ; and the desire of
knowledge would thus be stimulated by the
dread of political degradation.
But, rejecting wholly the idea of " repre-
sentatives of education," we are of necessity
thrown hack on the stern, simple elements of
property and population. And here it is not
denied that many difficulties meet us. On the
one hand, scarcely auy practical politician as-
serts the desirableness of throwing all the
power of the State into the hands of a single
class, and that the least educated of all—we
mean, of course, the working class. Yet to this
we come, if the influence of property be utterly
set aside, and if population alone be taken as
the basis of representation. The precedent of
America dot's not apply. Transatlantic work-
ing men are on the whole more educated than
taws. They have more leisure and more inde-
pendence, not from political causes, but be-
cause the state of the labour market ensures
them remunerative employment at a high rate
of wages. The some disparities of fortune.
again, do not exist in the New World. That
envy of acquired and artificial advantages
which democratic institutions unquestionably
tend to foster is not largely called firth.
There are few very poor. and as few very rich ;
to say nothing of the total absence of those
traditional influences which in England exer-
• vise a power so vast and so little understood.
But it is needless to multiply arguments.
Universal suffrage, in the present state of the
country, is a political theory only—an election
claptrap—not a practical measure. Yet, on
the other part, the line of demarcation be-
tween elector and non-elector—between the
citizen and the simple subject—hi confessedly
bard to draw. No arbitrary law, however in-
geniously laid down, will prevent the exclusion
of many who ought to be admitted, and the
admission of many who ought to be excluded.
Restrict the franchise unduly, and you have
an oligarchy. Enlarge it greatly—at the same
tune stopping short of the point where it ap-
proaches universality—and you inflict on those
without the pale a degradation which is the
more acutely felt in proportion as it is shared
by fewer. Include dependents of every kind.
and you open a wide door to undue influences.
making popular election a mockery. Exclude
them, and there is hardly a poor man through-
out the country whose vote will not he in
danger. Do what you will, the social difference
between the must respectable non elector and
the least respectable elector will never be suffi-
ciently marked to justify, in the eyes of the
people, the political distinction which exists
between them. Let us concede that much
imperfection. and even some apparently gross
injustice, is inevitable in framing a represent*
Live theory, still it is the duty of statesmen to
lessen, if they Cannot remove, these anomalies.
and to bring within the pale of the Constitu-
tion every one whose admission cannot be
proved dangerous.