d have extreme poverty
in the electorate and extreme opulence in the legislature. You would
see soon in France what yon see now in England, the purchase of
voters in the boroughs not with money even, but with pots of
beer. Thus incontestably are elected many of their parliamentary
members. Good representation must not be sought in either extreme,
but in the middle class. The committee have thus placed it by making
it incumbent that the voter shall possess an accumulation the
equivalent of, say forty days of labor. This would unite the
qualities needed to make the elector exercise his privilege with an
interest in the same. It is necessary that he own from one hundred
and twenty to two hundred and forty livres, either in property or
chattels. I do not think it can seriously be said that this
qualification is fixed too high, unless we would introduce among our
electors men who would beg or seek improper recompense.

If you would have liberty subsist do not hesitate because of
specious arguments which will be presented to you by those who, if
they reflect, will recognize the purity of our intentions and the
resultant advantages of our plans. I add to what I have already
said that the system will diminish many existing inconveniences, and
the proposed law will not have its full effect for two years. They
tell us we are taking from the citizen a right which elevated him by
the only means through which he can acquire it. I reply that if it
was an honor the career which you will open for them will imprint
them with character greater and more in conformity with true
equality. Our opponents have not failed either to magnify the
inconveniences of changing the constitution. Nor do I desire its
change. For that reason we should not introduce imprudent
discussions to create the necessity of a national convention. In
one word, the advice and conclusions of the committee are the sole
guarantees for the prosperity and peaceable condition of the nation.

COMMERCIAL POLITICS

Commerce forms a numerous class, friends of external peace and
internal tranquillity, who attach themselves to the established
government.

It creates great fortunes, which in republics become the origin of
the most forceful aristocracies. As a rule commerce enriches the
cities and their inhabitants, and increases the laboring and
mechanical classes, in opening more opportunities for the
acquirement of riches. To an extent it fortifies the demo