Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/184

 deal of money spent upon the ferms, and they get twice or three times as much from them as they used to do. The labourers have constant employment, and, wherever cottages have been wanted, good roomy ones have been built. They have all good gardens, and there are schools for the labourers' children. I know little of what is meant by Tory, or Whig, or Radical,—but the man who seems to manage his own business best, and attends to the good of his fellow-creatures, is the man I should rather trust, and for whom I shall vote."

It is easy to suppose the same kind of reasoning to take place in a manufacturing or a maritime town, and to be caused by like contrasts, of the conduct of different employers of labour. When no triumph can be gained, by forcing the electors to sacrifice all individual opinions to make up great majorities, and when all pressure of that nature is taken away, men will begin to think independently, and not be led by clamour. They will be governed much more by practical tests, and less by abstract and barren generalities. Those who witness and appreciate every noble effort which a man may make for the good of his neighbours or his country will be found active in his favour, and will make for him a sufficient, an independent, and probably an enthusiastic constituency.

The gazetted lists will present to the electors of the kingdom a roll of names, containing a large proportion of the most eminent men in it; for, when the obstacles which now impede the entry into Parliament are removed, there are few who will feel within themselves any competency for its labours, and have opportunities of engaging in them, who will not make the tender of their services. In the number will doubtless be found much of the dross of conceit, of self-sufficiency, and of folly; but the lists will also contain the pure ore of wisdom and virtue, if it exist,—and it is hard to believe that any generation is left destitute of those qualities. There will be the most that the nation possesses,—of high endowment,—