Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/131

 patron had in view, in order to succeed in that object he was compelled to choose the most suitable instrument which could be had. The result of this competitive pursuit, possibly more of selfish than of national objects, was yet to produce an assembly composed, for the most part, of superior men. It was the sure operation of those adequate causes, which, to use the words of Mr. Burke, filled the House of Commons with much of that which the country possessed,—"illustrious in rank, in descent, in hereditary and in acquired opulence, in cultivated talent, in military, civil, naval, and politic distinction."

The state of society silently underwent a change. The system which produced these results had fulfilled its purpose. It could not be perpetuated, the middle classes which grew up were not prepared to yield unreasoning obedience to hereditary leaders or ancient names. If the few possessed a sacred and prescriptive right to speak and act for the many, it was a right not easy of proof, and not to be admitted without proof. They bore about them no marks indicative of the divine origin of their claim, and no iguniments were found to sup- port their pretensions. The old chronicles of the people told that their forefathers, while yet in the German forests, had used to be consulted by their chiefs,—that the Plantagenets had summoned their ancestors to the royal councils,—and that the haughtiest of the succeeding monarchs had then found no security but in laws which the deputies of the people had confirmed. They demanded that the representation should be what it professed to be. They were not satisfied that the government had attained, or was in the road to, perfection. They were acute and severe critics of its evils and anomalies, and were not content with arriving occasionally, and by indirect courses, at objects which they insisted should be sought for incessantly and directly. In forming a representative assembly they preferred a homely and clumsy reality to a splendid and not successful show. Their demands