Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/262

 with the rest of the counties. What is the objection to this demand? There should be no shrinking on any side from principle of indisputable justice. It is the duty—and duty is always true policy—of the ministry who may conduct the affairs of the State,—of the peers, who are, by tradition and constitution, hereditary guardians of justice and liberty,—of every member of the lower House who can rise above mere party attachment, to insist upon this measure of justice for those whose position do not enable them to combine for the purpose of demanding it. If, in the discussions to arise, they shall be led by rectitude of principle to the conception of political wisdom, they will insist upon perfect and equal rights for the dwellers in the counties, regulated by the same measure, to the uttermost fraction,—abating not one jot or tittle from what is conceded to those who live in towns,—and demanding nothing more. If their demands be tainted with a desire to secure a monopoly, or an unjust partition of influence or power, they deserve to fail; but, in requiring equality, their position is impregnable. The English people, from the impromptu-crowd which gathers in the street, to the most august court in the land, are lovers of fairness and justice, and they will scorn the sophistry which shall attempt distinctions between their countrymen, founded upon the difference of the spot on which they may happen to live.

An equal measure of justice must be extended to the towns. On this point, the metropolis seems to appal even some of the most extreme reformers. On calculating its vast population, and the corresponding share which it may claim in the representative assembly, the agitation for reform, like fear, "recoils at the sound itself has made.". An extensive metropolitan representation, framed as it has hitherto been, may well be dreaded; but, constructed on a system which is freed from the ties of parish or boundary, it might be the strength and anchor of the constitution, if such a character or office could be attributed to any part of the kingdom rather