frage to the unenfranchised, because many of them || gain more by the adoption of this principle than consume part of their earnings in a most objectionable manner, is worthless; except against the evil-doers themselves, and better or wiser men should not be punished for their misdeeds. The spirit of our laws has said for centuries, that ten guilty men should escape rather than one innocent person be punished. The administration of the electoral law punishes many innocent persons to prevent the escape without punishment of many who are guilty.

Various schemes have been propounded to reform the law, and to extend the franchise to all competent persons. A five pound franchise, household franchise, a moral and intellectual franchise, have been advocated with various degrees of zeal. The first would be, probably, supported by many of the Whigs; the second is a premium on early mar-aid of his family can be profitably employed; but riages, and calculated to exclude thrifty bachelors who have some stake in the well-doing of the nation, and intelligence to give effect to their motives; the third is, doubtless, the most complete and advisable scheme, but it is troublesome, and Government officials hate trouble, while it is also liable to abuse-a counter qualification that might compensate its administrators for some objections.

places. It also embraces the condition of a twelve- || months' residence prior to voting, which would necessarily exclude lodgers in a great number of cases, for they are a movable class, who enjoy their freedom with apparent zest.

which a large number of persons can be brought together with some prospect of immediate success, we notice all the schemes before the public. Intellectual and moral suffrage is now scarcely ever mentioned. It is considered as an unattainable degree of perfection in politics, which those who sigh for will vainly seek. That is its general character, and it is the worst character, nearly, that a great political scheme could possess. The general prevalence of this opinion must lead to its realisation. People will not labour for, and will grow not to love, the unattainable; and before the prevalent impression could be rubbed out, we suspect that a generation would be carried away. Ex

Universal suffrage is definite. It leaves little room for cavil or doubt. If the parochial registrar has discharged his duty, a youth has merely to live on with the certainty of becoming qualified. The Charter contains, indeed, a moral qualification -it denudes those persons who may be convicted of crime. That form of expression is very general, and might be interpreted to include many persons. The law might recognise, as erimes, trans-cept for that fear, an intellectual and moral suffrage actions which are not at present within its grasp. carries many recommendations, and removes various Still, this system is more explicit than any other objections. The mere title conveys only a small idea project, and has received some support on that of the object sought. An intellectual suffrage might account alone, apart from all other considerations. be fixed high; and the moral addendum might be comThose amongst its advocates, who believe that it plex and troublesome. Any legislators who had a will form the next step in advance, refuse to take desire to confuse the system, and render its working a single hop in any other direction, or to contem- difficult, could propose means for that purpose; but а plate any route to their journey's end except simple and efficient scheme might be readily contrived, the straight path which they have chalked. They The art of reading and writing legibly would not prove probably forget the character of mankind; they a high intellectual suffrage; and if its existence comseem never to have learned that men who cannot pelled many persons living in a state of gross ignorance be driven may be led. They are unwilling to to remove that reproach, the world would be better finesse, and they have a heart-hatred of expedi- for a deed which had not made them worse. The ency. The franchise at twenty-five would be registries of England show that many males, to the deemed by them an invasion of natural privileges;extent of nearly two-fifths, sign with "a mark." The although there is nothing more natural in twenty-fact is infamous; and we believe nothing regarding one than in twenty or in twenty-two, in twenty-the fitness of these men to elect representatives on any five or in thirty. It is an arbitrary line adopted sound political reason. They might confide in their by the public for general convenience; but another neighbours, and do well; exactly as a blind man may generation will have the same right to believe that follow his dog and be safe; but they cannot form males reach their majority at eighteen as we have an intelligent opinion on their own account. We to fix on twenty-one. Precedents exist: For the know that men have made money who were never purpose of the "chief magistracy" of the throne, at school. Men have been known even to do a large eighteen was named as the majority of an illus- business who could not write a day-book. We have trious lady. "All males from eighteen to sixty,' met individuals who knew much of the world, past is the extreme call to arms. Eighteen is the verge, and present, and yet who could neither read nor write. on the cradle side of life, where militia liabilitiesStill, we have no reason to make a rule by deductions commence by our present law. Therefore many arguments might exist for eighteen, while another generation might take the next septennial period; and, for legislative purposes, some nations struck the age qualification farther into life.

from phenomena, and we believe that few zealous friends for an extensive suffrage would deeply regret if an intellectual suffrage, in the simplicity of merely reading and writing, were conditional to any scheme of making up the electoral roll, provided they could The public require merely a convenient rule obtain a guarantee for its fair administration. Many whereby they may attain self-government, and of them revert in argument to the natural right, and regarding which few good citizens shall be able to insist that it should not be broken; but they say, very say that they are excluded by circumstances over clearly, that the only natural right in the case is, the which they have no control. For this great end will of the majority, who have a right to make condiof suffrage agitation, no necessity exists to standtions calculated to improve individual happiness and stiffly upon any prescribed mode. The object in view being once reached, we need not quarrel regarding the way. To those parties who believe that twenty-one has an exclusive claim for adoption, no alternative remains. They are bound over by their creed to twenty-one, without any change or compromise, and they cannot seek the adoption of a different system. The number of this class is comparatively few, and the great body of followers of twenty-one are merely jealous of new schemes, because, having often been cheated in past times, they are reluctant to run risks for the time to come.

Our object being to ascertain different means by

to secure the public good, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," is a saying that does not possess a literal but a general interpretation. Many persons are taxed who can have no share in the appointment of representatives. Rich minors, of promising genius, possessed of great information, aged twenty years and eight months, may miss an election with our septennial parliaments; and yet are not the objects of special tyranny. Females, in or out of business, who have no male delegate or representative, pay taxes, and cannot be exempted; yet they are not electors, and very few individuals, indeed, propose to enfranchise them. We are not sufficiently limbued with Mahommedan dogmas to excuse their

omission on the score of intellectual inferiority. The || to cross their names in the electoral rate, and suspend readers of this magazine could scarcely accept that them after two, three, or more transgressions, for a time. argument, for since its commencement it has been If the majority adopt that rule; or if the present Pardeeply indebted to the pens of females for a great liament, or any similar Parliament, in passing a sufproportion, probably one-half, of its most interesting frage bill, insert clauses of that nature, we can see papers. We see before us a rich treat in a scientific no great objection to their conduct. They will punish work, published anonymously, and yet unread. We a vice that increases our poor-rates, our police rates, expect great delight from its perusal, founded on the our criminal charges-and is, in fact, the cause of threeinstruction and pleasure derived from its predecessor. fourths of the sums levied on these heads being requisite. Both volumes are written by a lady, who chooses at It has the office of paternity to a large portion of our public present to conceal her name; but three-fourths of her begging; it is closely connected with all the overreaders, or more, ascribe them to some active and elo- crowding, the straw beds, the gross ignorance, the quent professor, some gentleman in black, whom the incipient crime, the sanatory defects, and the fatal Government would have deemed a windfall for the epidemics of large towns. Drunken fathers, husbands, Chair of Natural History, in one of their new Irish || brothers, and sons, made Thomas Hood's "Song of the colleges; and who would not have thanked them for Shirt." They had more certainly to do with it than this presentation. The exclusion of females from the proprietors of shops for cheap needlework. They electoral lists must be defended on some other field have done more and worse than that; for they have than that of intellectual efforts; and is a matter of succeeded in making many drunken wives, sisters, convenience assented to, and enforced by, nine-tenths mothers, and daughters; and females, once given over of the parties affected by its existence. We must to intemperance, are the most helpless and hopeless grasp the spirit of the old Saxon saying, that "taxa- specimens of a fallen and degraded humanity. No tion without representation is tyranny," instead of good objection, therefore, can be stated to any course losing time in splitting hairs or nice distinctions re- calculated to discourage this vice, and to affix a stigma regarding rights natural or acquired. The time has on its followers; but "the Charter" leaves this matter come to seek the rights; and when they are obtained open, and casts on the legislature the responsibility if we can settle their characteristics at leisure. A fair it do not classify all crimes under their proper names. and full representation of the people will cover all that || Our criminal law is in a most imperfect state, and the rule quoted requires, by whatever means that repre- many positive crimes escape with a light punishment. sentation be obtained. The Charter itself embodies a To this intellectual and moral qualification for the moral qualification; the claimant for the franchise franchise we have given already space disproportioned must be unstained by crime. It does not clearly lay to its chances of adoption under existing circumstances; down the law on this topic, which it broadly announces. although both additions might be made with marked Is the man who has been convicted of crime to be advantage to any scheme of franchise, and both are permanently excluded from the rights and the roll of under fair restrictions, and, in the way and to the extent citizenship; or must his exclusion run only during the we have described, quite practicable. currency of other parts of his sentence? A different The employment of the forty shillings freehold scheme from either of these might be adopted, and the qualification in England points the way to a measure, franchise could be withdrawn for a definite period in which, without being objectionable to any party, may addition to the punishment otherwise affixed to crime. form the basis of a compromise, on fair terms, of an These questions are not idle inquiries, tending to no intermediate system that may be made, if it works practical end; for they must be answered and cleared well, and the country be brought into a prosperous away if ever the Charter be put in the form of a Par-|| state, a final measure. The forty shillings freehold liamentary bill, under the care of the leader in the qualification is confined to England; but no rational House of Commons. They are practical questions for ground for opposing its extension to Ireland and Scotwhich those in charge of the measure must make prac- land exists. We may at once state here our insupertical answers, and put them in the statute if their able objection to a bane already entering into, and movement be successful. A moral qualification must corrupting, the forty shillings franchise in England. always proceed upon the convictions of criminal courts. Societies have been formed for the purpose of advanc It must differ materially from an intellectual qualifica-ing money, by mortgage, on these freeholds. We care tion, although they are generally coupled. The intellectual must be an affirmative, and the moral a negative. The former must proceed on something possessed, and the latter on something avoided. Other plans have been proposed, but they are all attended with insuperable objections in principle, or serious difficulties in working. The law must afford the test. For that purpose the law can be amended. Some persons have alleged, with much apparent propriety, that a clever man who squandered intemperately the money that should support himself and his family in comfort, is an enemy to society, and a criminal. Their conclusion is inevitable; and we could see no sound reason for refusing, or deferring to give the police a right to seize all drunkards seen in the act, to bring them before the magistrate, to fine them, and, if the public consented,

not whether these societies be under the patronage of the Member for the West Riding, or the Member for Warwickshire. Even although both these honourable gentlemen should have some responsibility for their existence, yet their effect is only "swindling made easy." Political swindling is not considered quite so bad as the same article in trade, but we do not think it calculated to improve public morals. This description of qualification for the franchise should be free. Our Saxon ancestors did not contemplate burthened freeholds; and the procuration of forty shilling freeholders who are debtors on their property, to a large extent, is only another system of fictitious voting, similar to that practised in Scotch counties.

All classes in the three kingdoms should have liberty to qualify upon holdings of this nature, if they

were not burthened by debts. The public know nothing || not judiciously buy land. He is ignorant of its ma

the full amount would require to be re-invested for one-[] half of the full period--and other sums drawn to be re-lodged for a corresponding time, prior to the renewal of the qualification.

Building societies should furnish those members with a qualification who derive the requisite income from their funds, under similar conditions and provisions to those which we have already described as applicable to deposits in savings' banks. The money invested in this instance, to yield a clear income of forty shillings, should not exceed twenty-five years' purchase.

their increase, and make it a reproach, for a man who had enjoyed health and tolerable employment for several years, not to be a voter and the owner of property.

The legislation of the House of Commons perpetually affects labour, and it would be satisfactory to have the opinions of the best men amongst the working classes embodied in their votes. The friends of native industry, on all sides of the house, would thus have an opportunity of hearing the opinions of the industrious on their various projects, by the most constitutional

means.

The objections of the disfranchised to this system of suffrage would have great weight if the plan were a final settlement; but they would stand here on the ground which the Duke of Wellington said we occupied regarding the corn laws-if the plan do not answer, we can change again. The only difference between this property qualification and universal suf

Property, although not freehold, should convey this. In Scotland a large amount of this property is held on || what may best be described as leases renewable for ever, at an annual rental. In all those cases where|| the real interest exceeds the annual feu duty by the sum mentioned, the electoral privilege might be conceded. We deem that every species of property, fixed in the country, and not requisite in the manage-frage is seven years on an average. The artisan who, ment of a man's business, or not used in his household, by the one scheme, would slip out of his indenture on but strictly to be regarded as economised, should be to the registry, would have, by the other, to fight his placed, for political purposes, on the footing of freeholds. way-to deny and to discipline himself for seven years. We would even yield an equal privilege to annuitants A determined saving, week after week, of half-a-crown, from the national stocks, although that form of invest- || would accomplish the object. If these savings were ment is commendable only in peculiar cases. To the the price of the franchise and freedom, it would holders of life policies current for a considerable period, not be too high; but when they are to be made even although not of the value of £50, this right should for the benefit of the economist, for his own and his be conceded, because nothing can be more desirable family's independence, we see no hardship except the than the extension of this practice. All our readers delay of this septennial period. But how many sepmay know that £50 paid in premiums will not render tennial periods have passed in the effort to obtain the a policy worth £50. An insurance company will not required extension of the suffrage ? Seven times repay all the money that they have received; but an seven years and more have passed away since the late arrangement of this matter could be easily accom- Earl Grey, before he had attained a coronet, and while plished. We suggest the idea, which we once did for- a member of the House of Commons, introduced a merly, as the means of improving the position of the measure to enact universal suffrage. Aged men recall unenfranchised, who desire political privileges, and the days of their youth and manhood-the period of gratifying their wishes in that respect at the same time. Henry Hunt, of William Cobbett, and Sir Francis The leading principle recommended by us now was also Burdett, when they struggled from New-Year's Day to advocated in our pages a considerable period since. Christmas, in the hope that the next year would witTwelve months' reflection has confirmed our opinion ness their great Reform Bill. We might easily now that the plan is practicable. The most extreme suf- flatter hope by saying that next year, or the next, the fragists, who will take no step short of the great leap, barriers will be broken down; but we know not that can derive no harm from the measure while it lasts. they will, and we say not that they will stand The Conservatives and Whigs, who are nervous from perpetually. Some of the recent continental efforts the fear of property being invaded, or wild measures have not been so successful as to warrant the being rapidly adopted, must be reassured by a franchise expectation that they will soon be imitated here. formed on the acquisition of property. They may be- And yet in no quarter have the representatives lieve that fifty pounds is, to a man who has earned the of the people, chosen amid extreme excitement, sum by hard labour, no inconsiderable amount. He by a majority, adopted any measure adverse to will guard it with the care bestowed by the rich stock- the rights of property, injurious to the fundamental broker on thousands. They should not overlook the interests of society, or likely to confirm the evil imindirect advantages of the system. Many of the arti- pressions regarding their policy entertained by their sans in this country struggle honourably to attain inde- || former rulers, and by many who only looked at and pendence. For what other purpose are their benefit socie-watched European movements. But the blood shed, ties formed, and their building societies promoted? Why the misery caused, and the business prevented, by have they collected nearly thirty millions of money in political changes on the Continent, have damped the the national security savings banks? How is it that feeling in their favour here. The time is therefore whenever a system of life assurance suitable to their favourable to the adoption of a measure that would means has been offered, they have embraced it in con- make no violent change-that would teach as it enfransiderable numbers? The desire for independence is chised-give independence where it gave votes-would the prompting cause in all these cases. Such desires create habits of economy, and ensure respect for prowould be sharpened, and these efforts would be im-perty-would animate with an honest ambition all the measurably increased, by attaching to success the reward of citizenship in its fullest meaning. The poor rates in the three countries are very high, and they are increasing rapidly. This measure would check

unenfranchised, and inspire them with self-reliance and perseverance. The indirect benefits of this plan are more desirable than its direct results; for we believe it capable of gradually exhausting pauperism, as it