ow exist would be depreciated accordingly; an invidious process for
those who would lose by the alteration; and still more invidious for
those to whom the privilege would not be suffered to descend. Alas! I am
trifling with the subject! If the spirit of a People, composed as that
of England now is, were once put into a ferment, by organizing a
democracy on this scheme, and to this extent, with a Press as free and
licentious as our's has long been, what a flimsy barrier would remain to
check the impetus of the excluded! When, in thousands, they bore down
upon the newly constituted House of Assembly, demanding to be placed
upon a level with their fellow-subjects, it would avail little to send a
Peace-officer to enquire--where are your vouchers? Shew us that the
Tax-gatherer has been among you! As soon as the petty Artizans,
Shop-keepers, and Pot-house Keepers, of our over-grown Manufacturing
Towns and our enormous Cities, had each and all been invested with the
right of voting, the infection would spread like a plague.--Our
neighbours on the Continent tried this plan of direct taxation; and, in
the beginning of the third year of _their_ Reform, Universal Suffrage,
which had long ruled in spirit, lorded it in form also, from the
Pyrenees to the Rhine, and from the Straits of Calais to the Shores of
the Mediterranean. Down went the throne of France! and, if we should
take the same guide, the Throne of England must submit a second time to
a like destiny. Most of us would deem this a considerable evil--the
greatest political evil that could befal the Land! Not so, however, our
new Candidate! unless his opinion, if, indeed, he ever _held_ what may
be called an opinion upon any thing, has undergone important changes
since the time when he expressed himself in the following words:--'When
trade and the arts of civilized life have been carried to a certain
length, war is the greatest calamity that can befal a community. Any
state in modern Europe would be so completely ruined by the contests
which Athens and Carthage easily supported, that it would be a matter of
total indifference, whether the war was a series of victories or
disasters. The return of Peace to France or England, after half so long
a contest as either the Peloponnesian or the Punic wars, _would be
cheaply purchased by any conquest or revolution, any change of dynasty
or overthrow of Government_.'--See vol. i. p. 13, of _Colonial Policy_,
by H. Brougham.

The above