Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/155



THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE FEDERALIST

135

Number 57.

point the inclination of the people" (p. 356.)

" The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern and most virtue to pur- sue the common good of the society" (p. 356).

"No person is eligible (in Great Britain) as a representa- tive of a county unless he possess real estate of the clear value of six hundred pounds sterling per year ; nor of a city or borough, unless he possess a like estate of half that annual value" (p. 360).

Madison.

" The objects to be aimed at were to fill all offices with the fittest characters, and to draw the wisest and most worthy citizens into the legislative service." Debates, 226. "a body, in the government suffi- ciently respectable for its wis- dom and virtue." Ibid., 243.

" In Great Britain no one can be elected to represent a county without having an estate of the value of six hundred pounds sterling a year; nor to repre- sent a corporation without an annual estate of three hundred pounds." Virginia Debates, Elliot, III, 395.

The form of this statement in No. 57 corresponds so closely with that of Burgh I, 850 and II, 271, that it seems altogether probable that it was drawn from that source like the similar material on p. 354. As was before remarked, Madison was studying Burgh at this time.

Number 58.

No. 58 combats the objection that the House will not be increased in size as the population grows. Hamilton dis- cussed the same question in the New York Convention, I, 426, in a similar way. Like the author of No. 58, he remarks that the large States will control the House and consequently will favor augmentations of its numbers still further to increase their effective influence. An additional argument is presented in No. 58, to which there is nothin