Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/153

 remuneration or reward. No country in the world is more rich in the classes willing to bestow their time and attention on public business. It is one of the wholesome fruits of our civil institutions, which, from parliament to the magistracy, and the jury, have called upon every order of the people to perform their several parts and duties in the business of the State. It is a remarkable proof of the extent to which we must have departed from those natural habits that adapt, with such wonderful accuracy, the means to the end, when not only is there small sign of any endeavour to call into activity all the latent energy and talent in the country, but rejecting and throwing aside, with a careless indifference, the materials which are ready to our hands, there are classes amongst us which seek to convert political labours into a trade, and seriously propose the payment of members of parliament by stipends from the State. Whether cases may not arise, of the possession or supposed possession of special qualifications by individuals who are personally in circumstances which incapacitate them from devoting their time to such public labours without some remuneration, and whether in such cases the constituency which they serve may not with propriety contribute to their support, is a different question. Such a payment would be scarcely distinguishable from those cases in which the public have paid the debts, or provided for the permanent maintenance, of the families of distinguished public servants. Wholly different in principle and effect, would be any system calculated to make all parliamentary duties venal. There is great reason to apprehend that it would deteriorate the character of the representative body, as well as diminish the respect with which it is viewed by the public.