The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-07 00:00:00

n

this supreme authority is lodged in the ignore,
messes of the community alone; for this is the sole
lot ce and only result of universal euffrage, manhood
suffrage, or such a low qualification as must amount
to this or lead to it inevitably and soon. If the.
overwhelming working classes had any such natural
right it would be most wise to abolish it. But they
have not; for the State is held together by mutual
sacrifices and concessions as the price of protection
and peace. Political privileges, like all others
existing in a nation, must result from labour, must
be the price of toii, must be the fruits of thrift and
saving, giving a man exclusive property, and
therefore a firm stake in the well-being of the corn'
munity and kingdom. He must hold this property
either as the immediate recompense of his °via
exertions, or inherit it from Fersons having a right
to confer it upon him. There may, it is true, bean
of intelligence unallied to property, which
ought to entitle a man to the franchise, but this can
never be as sound and incorruptible a basis for the
suffrage as the qualification of property, for the
man who has must to lose will most dread needless
and perilous change and revolution. The repetition
of some very obvious political truths is not altoge"
ther an unnecessary duty now, when even our Go;
vernment are not very chary of how the question 01
the suffrage is to be treated so long as a tenure of
office is still secured to them. We do not suspect
Lord Palmerston himself of any extreme opinions,
but there are members of his Cabinet who eagerly
desire to see the franchise lowered to the accession
of numbers, or who, in other words, would place
the real Government of this country in the hen"
of a wavering, unpropertied multitude. The six-
pound borough vote, the ten-pound county vote,
without any sets-off or counterpoise, must lead t°
this democratic conclusion. The upper and middle
class votes would be swamped by the swarming
working classes, who would obey their
leaders and study what they considered to he
their own immediate and special interests, n°
matter how ruinous to the permanent welfare of
the kingdom. The adoption of the ballot involves
this question of universal suffrage; for where yen
destroy the open vote you exclude the non-electors
from their sole right in the representation, and thus
you make it only just that every one should enji9
the same electoral privilege. We do not fear that
the proposal to adopt the popular will as a new
feature in. diplomacy will be acceptable to the
crowned heads of Europe, although it should prole
to be the facetious suggestion of an Emperor,.lf
indeed the suggestion has been made ; but the dis^
cussion of this novel idea is in itself a ground for
exposing its danger, not only to international eon:
cord and peace. but to the stability of domestic
institutions. When universal suffrage is named In
connection with the Deno German question, it is la
some measure recommended for adoption as the rule
of adjustment everywhere. It ought, therefore, to
meet with no manner of entertainment. We all
know what it means. It argues the will of the
most influential, the most powerful, the most able
in the state to corrupt or compel all the others. 1t
does not imply the real voice of the people or their
independence or freedom. It is the open auction
mart of slavery. Nor is it singular that our own English Radicals should be on the same monopollett
track. When they contend for a wide extension of
the suffrage and disregard the claims of the middle
classes, they are on the rapid line which has led to
the restriction of liberty and the ultimate control
the popular will by a dictatorship. But it is re'
markable that members of the British Government
should fearlessly entertain and avow opinions
proved by all history, and by recent experience le
particular, to b 3 incompatible with any form of free
and liberal government.