Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/268

 lably higher tone of life to our national politics. A few thousand electors might still make choice of men who could do them no honour, but the system thus affords a kind of safety-valve, by which deficiency of judgment or public spirit is drawn off,—for every quota that makes a mean selection is thus prevented from lowering the tone and character of any other constituency, which such a number of voters is now able to do; and the objects of their choice will find their proper level.

Another condition of the population of London, and one which may be expected to operate to an immense extent in a system of individual independence, must also be taken into account. At the census of 1851, of 1,395,000 persons above twenty years of age, then in London, 588,000 were born in other parts of England, including every English county, 14,000 in Wales, 26,000 in Scotland, and 89,000 in Ireland. It is a habit of mankind to cling tenaciously to early associations. A native of Scotland or Ireland, or of a distant county, whom a profession or a trade has drawn to London, retains still his attachment to his birthplace. His sympathies are with it, as his mind dwells on the memories of home, and of youth or early manhood. Not in London alone would the attachment to country and early associations operate. It would be found throughout the kingdom, especially in all the great centres of industry. Lancashire contained, at the same census, 378,000 persons not born within that county. Of these, 26,000 had their birthplaces in Scotland, and 190,000 in Ireland. Of the inhabitants of Yorkshire, about 8,000 were born in Scotland, and 43,000 in Ireland. In Wales, there were 2,200 from Scotland, and upwards of 20,000 from Ireland. Scotland contained 75,000 born in Ireland, and 45,000 in England. The extent to which the means of travelling have been facilitated within the last few years will operate, in a degree which has never before been felt, to preserve the connection between individuals and the places of their more cherished associations,