Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/80

 thereby opened wide the doors of knowledge. It remains, still, instead of the signs by voice and hand,—the means of expression in the rude assemblies of old, in which writing was an unusual accomplishment even for the noble, to substitute the vehicle of letters, and by them to transport and concentrate, in the choice of legislators, the stores of wisdom and virtue that are scattered throughout the land, extracting them, like the precious ore from quartz or sand, by the powerful sympathies and affections which God has implanted in our nature, and which it is for man either to let die, or call into healthy or baneful luxuriance. In gathering the electoral will, we seek for the expression of every thoughtful and earnest mind, and of all pure, lofty, and patriotic resolves,—

In the following pages it will be shown that this is no vain hope, and that, to render the exercise of the parliamentary franchise an act in which the highest moral and intellectual power of every elector may be excited and employed, is no impracticable attempt.

In treating of the representation of minorities, on a principle of unanimity amongst those who are so represented, it will be observed that the course proposed is very different from, and almost the opposite to, that suggested in the address presented to Lord Palmerston, towards the end of the year 1857, on the subject of making an educational franchise a part of the anticipated Reform Bill. The address was entitled to high respect, as bearing the signature of many eminent men; but it is believed that the greater number of those who signed it, intended to express nothing more than their adherence to the principle of giving a just weight to education, and that they did not intend to intimate any adoption of, or preference for, the details of the scheme adverted to in the address. The form in which it was proposed that the educa-