Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/150

 134 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The Suffrage Franchise in the Thirteen English Colonies in America. By ALBERT EDWARD McKiNLEY. (Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, Series in History, No. 2. ) Published for the University. Ginn & Co., selling agents. Pp. 518.

In a bulky monograph of more than five hundred pages, Mr. Albert Edward McKinley, of Philadelphia, presents the results of exhaustive study in colonial archives to determine the conditions of the suffrage franchise. After an appropriate introductory chapter on " Parliamentary Suffrage in England " follow thirteen chapters, each devoted to a single colony. The author indicates his purpose to have been "to present the dynamic or developmental aspect of the subject, rather than the analytic; he has not been content with a mere summary of the suffrage qualifications in the several colonies, but has endeavored to trace the growth of the colonial ideals and practices respecting the elective franchise." What seems to have been a most thorough examination of colonial archives, covering a wide range, indicated by a wealth of footnotes, reveals certain con- clusions of interest:

1. Political rights everywhere were restricted to males, only two cases appearing in the records of women seeking the franchise.

2. The legal age, twenty-one, was a requirement in eleven of the colonies, and by implication in the other two. There were cases where a greater age was required under certain conditions.

3. There were limitations regarding race and nationality, provi- sion being made for naturalization, limitations of religion and char- acter, restrictions as to residence; and property qualifications of /arying character were important factors.

4. Some special features of interest were connected with free- manship in corporations ; in some places there were prerequisite qualifications similar to the English borough franchise ; in one case, that of the College of William and Mary, the president and six mas- ters could elect a member of the house of burgesses.

Mr. McKinley's volume is full of interest. In connection with each colony the narrative style is followed, and the text, therefore, is free from the dulness which might be supposed to attend a dis- cussion of details of so dry a subject as electoral qualifications. Taken in connection with Mr. Bishop's History of Elections in the Colonies, the whole ground seems thoroughly covered.

F. W. S.