Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/168

 1 54 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1820- the kind the necessity that the people should have a direct and influential voice in the government of the country. Mackintosh went to great pains in the construction of a system by which not the masses of the people, but particular social interests, should be represented, numbers being still subordinated to class interests* To a wide extension of the suffrage and to the ballot he was directly opposed. Of course such a proposition, whatever might be its philosophical merits, could never commend itself to the sympathy, nor obtain the active support, of that public opinion without which no altera- tion of any kind could be obtained. To this article Grote wrote a reply, in which he enforced the principles which he had imbibed by his association with Bentham and Mill, and had matured by the strength of his own learning and intelli- gence. In the course of his essay he maintained the necessity of a wide extension of the suffrage, of the ballot, and of short Parliaments, and pointed out the fallacy of the Whigs in trying to evade these broad issues by incomplete and fantastic schemes. In Parliament, two plans submitted, one by Lambton, and the other by Lord John Russell, stand in quite as great contrast. On the i/th of April Lambton moved a resolution founded on a bill which he had prepared, and which he was anxious to introduce. The bill is printed in extenso as an appendix to Hansard's Report for 1821, its principal objects being, as he said, the extension of the franchise to the unre- presented classes, the disfranchisement of venal, corrupt, and decayed boroughs, and the recurrence to triennial Parliaments. The plan with regard to boroughs was thorough. It provided for the disfranchisement of all boroughs, cities, Cinque Ports, and other constituencies excepting only the Universities returning burgesses to Parliament, and the formation of new districts round populous centres. All householders were to have votes in these districts. In counties the franchise was to- be extended to all copyholders and leaseholders. Stringent provisions were to be enacted for the prevention of bribery and corruption. This was a scheme which would have given