Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/22

 populous kingdom, possessing knowledge and powers of thought infinitely varied and diffused; and to expect that the electoral forms of a rude and illiterate age will gather for the national benefit the fruit of this expanded intelligence, is as reasonable as to suppose that the vast manufacturing results of this day could be produced by the primitive loom and the hammer. To succeed in this work it is indispensable that every elector should have the widest field of choice, and the most extensive sphere for co-operation. It is by comparison, that the standard of excellence is raised. “As we eliminate comparison we fall into dead acquiescence.” It is by the co-operation of kindred and sympathetic minds that great ends are accomplished. In the kingdom there is a range wide enough for that accord which can be rarely obtained in any single constituency. “The essence of liberty is the simultaneous manifestation and action of all rights, all interests, all social elements and forces.” We follow the true guiding of experience when we found our conclusions of the probable actions of men from the motives by which they are commonly guided: it is thus that the science of political economy has been evolved; and in the improvement of representative institutions we must pursue the same method.

As electoral action is freed, most of the evils which now accompany it will disappear. A seat in Parliament, as an avenue to social estimation, as well as to political power and rank, will still be an object of intense ambition ; and the rich candidate will as surely use his money to bribe, as the crafty and fluent candidate will use his tongue to delude. Penal laws cannot reach the latter, and only aggravate the demoralization occasioned by the former. But in casting off the legal shackles, this moral disorder is dealt with as physical maladies are encountered. Its virulence is abated,—as many of its causes as are capable of removal are got rid of; and, above all, the contagion is prevented from spreading to those who are in health. Personal representation equalizes the pecuni-