. . 538 . . . . . . . . . . Academy, Exhibition at the Royal 168 Dom Alured, the Canon of St Paul's 270 Naseby Fight . Amicitiæ Shakesperianæ, No. III 165 Needlewoman, Ellen Linn, The 465 Archæology in England 641 Oakley Common, History of 336, 400, 631 Arts, Fine 449 Obituary Notices . 66, 133, 199, 261, 328 Ashley, Lord, his Address to the Queen on Sunday Oxonian, An Irish 612 Post-office Regulation 447 Page of St. Ladislas, The, an Hungarian Tale . 50 Assurance Offices 327, 392, 455, 518, 582, 645, 711, 771 Paris, Notes from 387, 451 Banking (See Savings Banks) 365 Peel, Sir Robert 457 Brczwezmcisl, A Night in 607 Pencil of the Sun 625 Craigallan Castle 599, 659, 721 Peter versus Paul; a Pig-row at Malta 381 Crime, Causes of in the Metropolis 329 Pirates, A Brush with on the Coast of Africa 541 Colds and Cold Water 705 Protection, The Farmers and 438, 471 College Reminiscences: Dan Looby's Débat Cotton Trade and Protection, The 636 741 Drunkenness, Scottish 547 123 Epping. Origin of the Hunt 528 667 Exeter, The Bishop of 318 689 Franchise, Hints on 1 598 , Supplementary Hints 117 179 Greek, Debates on the Question 506 399 Gustave and his Dog Dives and Lazarus 412 High Farming 44, 713 Epigrams; by Civis Universitalis Glasguensis 124 Hungarian War 510 Eos 680 Hyperboreana 73 758 Indian Archipelago, British Policy in 88 269 India, How to Develop the Resources of . 201 274 Jeffery, Francis 239 Goblin Broom 298 Jews, Admission of, into Parliament 427 Gross and Nett Journalism, A Chapter on Provincial 424 Hast thou forgot that beauteous Night; by W. H. . 63 Legends of Ulster; by Frances Brown : Lament for Sir Lancelot 680 The Dear Lease. 30 407 The Midnight Procession 97 624 Madden's Infair. 148 284 The Rath Dream. 292 720 The Wreckers of Fannet 242 206 O'Reilly's Improvements Moorland Grave . 215 O'Donnell's Penance 754 New Song for the New Year; by Colin Rae Brown 62 Limits of Party Discipline 265 Peasant to his Lord, The 343 Literary Register and Literature, 55, 125, 191, 254, 319, Rosette. Beranger 611 388, 452, 516, 576, 644, 703, 765 Roseneath 215 London as it was and as it is . 759 Roi d'Yvetot 463 Lover's Melancholy. 681 Rosemary for Remembrance 527 Memoirs of Colonel Albert Brenton, An Extract The Shepherdesses. From Goethe 274 from Shorn Lamb 630 PAGE . . . . POETRY :-(continued.) PAGE. Reviews :-(continued.) 753 695 124 226 649, 730 505 285 105 521 562 ." 372 248 299,414 690 702, 743 479 275 Sculptures of the Modern Athens 110 372 Day-book. 573 674 668 . 234 173 There and Back Again 17, 137, 216, 344 585 360 747 Winter Pictures from the North of Europe . 37, 88, 154 393 179 . TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1850. HINTS ON THE FRANCHISE. a THE franchise will be the framework of a debate || representatives of the working classes exist and in the next session of Parliament. The feeling the Scotch operatives require to display no regret evoked by the National Financial Reform and on that account, for the English freemen often do Complete Suffrage Association is not strong, but things discreditable to themselves. The ten pound it is respectable. The noise made by the agitation rental of London, and the same rental in Thurso is not deafening; but the claim is substantial, and or Galway, are very different qualifications. Money . is pressed by parties of some weight—by men with is of less value in large towns than in old rural votes and influence, to whose arguments members borouglis. Therefore, the man who pays six pounds must lend a willing audience as “ hustings days of rental in the good town of Elgin is probably approach. better to do in the world than a ten pound houseThe period would be well selected for the settle-holder in Edinburgh. Government clings to a ment of the franchise movement on some permanent qualification of stone, but declines to make it more basis. The work must be done at some early date; i chan nominally uniform. Inequalities of this deand, on prudential motives, a quiet season should scription can never be entirely obviated, but arbe chosen for its completion. Cottagers might rangement and care would reduce their present in. teach statesmen wisdom on this and on other consistencies. questions. Thatched roofs require repairs; but Their recapitulation is an unpleasant and also the thatcher does not linger idly beside his straw an unprofitable and provoking mode of spending until the rains fall and the storms rise, to make the time. They are not defensible, and they are not roof tight, for he prepares in autumn's stillness for defended. Their authors and supporters only decry winter's tempests. The most intelligent politicians any disturbance of the country at present. Let ill might go, with advantage, to the peasants' school, | alone, they say, because some persons have been for they alone wait until troubles come before they doing mischief at Turin, or in Mesopotamia, or in provide a remedy, that would prevent their oc- Bokhara. The day will never dawn on this side currence, if applied at the right hour. of the millennium, in which, somewhere, unreasonThe franchise of this country embraces so many | able men will not be doing and asking unreasonable qualifications that an inquirer loses himself, or his things. The British people are not to be consijudgment, in the labyrinth. The qualification of dered as guarantees for all the human family: England would serve no good purpose in Ireland they cannot be justly punished for any crimes exand Scotland, for the forty shillings freehold of|cept their own. Political privileges should not be England is unknown in the other two kingdoms. I withheld from them on account of riots done by the In the latter country, two hundred shillings are Baden-Badenese; or because Red Republicanism cir. required, in political qualifying, to stand, instead of culates through French workshops. Should the opeforty shillings in England. The franchise in ratives of England, and especially of Scotland-since Ireland is more desultory, and depends very often those of England may buy freeholds—be politically on the caprice of valuators. Difficulty is experi- || disfranchised because they are poor? The negative enced in getting on, and at least equal difficulty in is the answer by everybody; but many add, that for getting off, the roll of voters. A registered man their own sins they suffer. They are ignorant, imhas no immunity against death; but, for political provident, or intemperate; and, on these grounds, parposes, he is scarcely allowed to die. His name, a general sentence is issued against the whole body. like a licensed house, has a virtue in it, although The inconsistency of this conduct is remarkable, the original occupant may be buried for six months. for although the artisan who tipples has, for tipThe body that, by the laws of nature should be pling, his citizenship shred away, yet the licensed dust and ashes, walks bale and hearty to the poll, dealer who supplies his artificial cravings, and and votes for the highest bidder-unless some great generally drinks deep himself, is a privileged man; political end, or some religious object, perhaps and all the other persons who minister the means some bit of threadbare quackery, revives the lost of debasement are exalted into voters, because their and nearly forgotten man. trade requires or their profits enable them to pay In England, the freemen form a powerful body ten pounds and upwards of annual rent. in borough registries; but in Scotland no similar The argument against the concession of the sufVOL. XII.-10. CICH. A a frage to the unenfranchised, because many of them gain more by the adoption of this principle than consume part of their earnings in a most objec- || the owners and tenants of farms, because it would tionable manner, is worthless; except against the improve the character of farm labourers in many evil-doers themselves, and betteror wisermen should respects. It would give a tremendous blow to nocnot be punished for their misdeeds. The spirit of turnal trespasses for sinister objects; and game our laws has said for centuries, that ten guilty men preservers should have it in their minds with that should escape rather than one innocent person be view. It would also sécure steady labourers, and an punished. . The administration of the electoral law | abundant supply at hay and harvest seasons, for punishes many innocent persons to prevent the which farmers should support the allotment scheme. escape without punishment of many who are The franchise would also exclude some trades guilty. that are overdone. The wages paid in various deVarious schemes hare been propounded to reformpartments of the weaving business prove the trade the law, and to extend the franchise to all compe- || to be in bad circumstances. It may answer, and tent persons. A five pound franchise, household even do well, on the Irish or the Saxon systems, franchise, a moral and intellectual franchise, have where it is pursued in conjunction with the cultivabeen advocated with various degrees of zeal. The tion of small farms; where the weaver considers it first would be, probably, supported by many of the as a supplementary branch of support, in which the Whigs; the second is a premium on early mar- | aid of his family can be profitably employed; but riages, and calculated to exclude thrifty bachelors as the sole means of support in large towns, who have some stake in the well-doing of the na- or in any other quarter, very few branches of handtion, and intelligence to give effect to their motives; loom wearing are at present advisable professions. the sthird is, doubtless, the most complete and ad- A household franchise is indefinite, and contains visable scheme, but it is troublesome, and Govern- no element that could induce a wise man to stop ment officials hate trouble, while it is also liable to at that point, short of universal suffrage: for what abuse--a counter qualification that might compen- is a house? Is it a single room in a six pair bate its administrators for some objections. attic, or one of the pyramidical mansions at Princó A franchise of five pounds would not carry the Albert's gate? Is it a hut or a mansion; or where same objections in principle as one of ten. The is the line between the two; which divides between difference between five and ten in this case is more houses, and hovels, or lodgings? Mr. Hume onco than one of degree. Sanatory reformers who have defined a householder to be a rate-payer; but ini studied the circumstances of all towns, with popu- the great majority of towns and rural districts, lations ranging over ten thousand, will admit persons occupying less than five pounds worth per readily that in nearly all of them an artisan's annum of houses or lands, are not rated, and by fainily may obtain a house, or part of a house, this definition, would be placed on the terms of a suitable to their real necessities, for a less annual fire pound franchise. Another objection is prérent than ten pounds, but not for less than fivé. sented by the fact that in many quarters á strong This is a broad distinction in the character of the opposition has been formed to rating on rental, from two rental qualifications. Ten excludes economi- | good motives; and supported, we believe, by strong cal" and industrious families; five includes all of reasons. Heritable property should not be alone them who are not suffering severe calamity, required to bear local or general taxation. Divior do not follow an overdone trade. Ten pounds dends from the funds, interest from mortgages, yearly is four shillings weekly—a higher proportion professional incomes, and profits from trade, will all than should be paid for rental out of any income be involved in the vortex of local rating. Precariunder twenty to thirty shillings weckly; and a ous incomes are to be considered in a very different higher sum than that for which persons with a better light, and dealt with entirely in a different manner income can obtain suficient accounmodation in many from incomes derived from property; but they arê of the largest towns; while five pounds annually is liable to some share of general burdens, and are two shillings weekly, a payment for rental abso- unlikely to be long exempted. In this change, lutely necessary to all who receive twelve shillings however, small incomes, like small rentals, will be of weekly wages or upwards, and who properly, in practically exempted, and the class of persons intheir circumstances, discharge in their families the habiting houses cheaper than five pounds of annual duties owing to them, and to society on their ac- rent would be left off the roll of electors, in return count. for being left out of the local rate collector's list. A five pound franchise is not, therefore, a pal- These remarks are intended only to show the liative of the present system, but involves a new practical working of a household suffrage with a principle. A rental of ten pounds yearly would rate-paying clause. It is said by Mr. Cobden, who be, for many families, a deed of misthrift; while the has adopted it from Mr. Hume, to be an old Saxon payment of five pounds is a certificate, in the great practice—to have all the advantage of precedent majority of cases, that just precautions for health, -and to bé therefore dear to Englishmen. We and the culture of the moral feelings, have been cannot discuss the question in that form, for thể adopted. The line would not include many deserv- || anxieties of Englishmen for this or any other ing persons amongst the peasantry and country system of franchise cannot be exactly ascertained; labourers, although it is desirable that they should but we wish them to know the precise meaning of pay five pounds annually, that their cottages should || a household franchise, under the qualification of be increased in value by allotments of land, in all rate-paying. It is a five pound qualification, in cases sufficient for this purpose. No classes would almost all towns, and may be higher in some other |
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