The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-17 00:00:00

,14" ---:1111,

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1849.

Although the proposition of M. EDOUARD CHAR-
TON, to the effect that no electors should be legally
entitled to avail themselves of the franchise who are
unable to write their own signatures, was met with
the comical and derisive exclamation—" Why not
require also that the electors should be vaccinated?"—
we cannot but think that the notion of this amend-
ment to universal suffrage is singularly felicitous.
It would tend to advance the cause of civilization in
the most direct manner, by holding out the preroga-
tive of citizenship as a reward to education. It
would facilitate the diffusion of knowledge in the
most extraordinary degree, by casting an additional
disgrace upon ignorance. In the event of such a
condition being declared essential to the exercise
of electoral rights, there would very soon be few in-
deed who could not comprehend the rudiments of
learning. The horn-book would no longer continue
to large masses of the population as inscrutable a
mystery as the arrow-headed hieroglyphs of
Nineveh had been to the lingual-antiquaries before
the genius of Mr. HENRY AUSTIN LATABD had dis-
covered their grammar and their dictionary. Big A
and little b would very shortly be deciphered by men
who are now more innocent of any acquaintance with
the materials of literature than CALIIIIN or Mrs.
MALAPROP. The hedge pedagogues would find
their elder scholars less given to the weaknesses of
mitching. The first barriers against the de-
velopment of the intellect would be broken down,
and, those obstacles being once removed, habits of
sobriety would become more prevalent among the
labouring classes. For it is indisputable that an
artizan who ca❑ read after the toils of the day—be it
the Bible, the novo], or the newspaper—has less in-
ducements to neglect the humble roof-tree of his cot-
tage than those who can only wile away their business
hours by smoking bad tobacco in the tap of some ob-
scure public-house, talking slip-shod politics, or
bandying coarse jests with their trulls and pot-com-
panions.

In the present temper of the National Assembly, it
is not surprising that the proposition of M. CHARTON
was summarily negatived. The representatives, now
on the eve of their dissolution and disper-
sion, are exquisitely sensitive of anything
that at all bears the appearance ofi.an encroach•
ment upon their previous labours. In compliance
with the ever-memorable suggestion of bl. DE LA-
MARTINE, the Assembly had confirmed the decree
evoked by that great man from the councils of the
Provisional Government. The first Republican Par-
liament is consequently
loath to modify in anyernan-
ner, however minute, a decision so grand and corn-
rehensiye. Nor is the disinclination to alter their
own achievements at all unreasonable. The modifi-
cation would come more within the province of their '
successors of the Legi4lative Assembly. The re-
presentatives appeared to feel this, and acting
upon the idea, they at once very emphati-
cally discountenanced the proposition of M CHARTON
Abstractedly the principle involved
proposition
is
in the roposition
is immeasurably beyond the reach of disproof. It is
based upon right reason, upon humanity, upon
caution, upon morality and religion. It, affords the
only secure guarantee that the votes of tne ignorant
crowd, who can neither read nor write, shall not be
flagitiously employed by the persons to whom they
may apply for assistance in the penning of the name
of a candidate. It is the only protection that
should be extended over the ballot-box—the
protection against fraud. It is, therefore, with
absolute amazement that we find an en-
lightened contemporary, like the Journal des
Debuts, crying out against the proposed innova-
tion upon Universal Suffrage---" What a privilege !
What a monopoly !" A privilege, quotha ? Why,
the only privilege in the whole suggestion is con-
&led to the exclusion of numskulls from the exercise
of a right adapted only to the will of a man who
knows at the least the alphabet of civilization. A
monopoly ? Why, the monopoly involved in tlo
proposal of N. CHARTON is at any rate accessible to
the most mediocre understanding, to an understand-
ing not much eiovated above that of the gentleman
mentioned in Piclarzck, who had carved on the lintel
of his door that memorable inscription
BIL L
L S TU
N P
S HIS M