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440 The Leader and Saturday'Analyst. [Ma...
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EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE. WHAT persons and ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Lord John Russell And Sicily. From The M...
to a certain extent against the patriot cause , and thus lost the credit and prestige of honestly sympathizing with it . If it does stop the brave Italian chief , V ty" hampering his proceedings lead to his failure and death , no Italian can hold it guiltless . It will be poor consolation that it had an accomplice in the Cabinet of Great Britain . It might not have been prudent for the Sardinian Court to have appeared at once as an actor on the scene . It ought , however , to have been left to follow its own inclinations—to avow its heartfelt sympathy with the insurgents , because they were right ; and it ought not to have been cajoled or bullied into a seeming complicity with the side that was wicked and wrong .
Whig expediency , which always avoids the truth of extremes , cannot " deal with great questions at critical epochs , and it would be better for England to lock . up its Foreign-office , and take no part in external affairs , than to adopt a course of meddling that has neither the dignity of justice nor the power of truth . \\ e are as anxious as any member of the Peace-at-any-price faction that England should not mingle in a European strife of arms , it such a catastrophe can be avoided with honour ; but the reasons which keep back the employment of physical force do not apply ht to be firm and
to the action of moral power . Here we oug impregnable , and no minister should be permitted to misrepresent the national voice . Our interests are peace , order , and development . We have nothing to gain from military struggles or the crash of thrones ; but it is , nevertheless , our duty to do our utmost to make the voice' of justice heard in oppressed lands . In a high sense , this is our interest also ; for if ever the time should come Avhen we could only pride ourselves upon the quantity of cotton we have spun , or iron we have forged , either decline Or convulsion will be at hand . If prudential reasons bid
ns stand by and watch the struggle in Sicily , it is not prudence , but cowardice or crime , which prevents our Government from declaring their conviction _ that the patriot cause is right , and their wish that it may prevail . It is not the guilty Sovereign and his ministers that * should have a" " just reliance" upon , the friendship of a British Cabinet . The British cannot follow their j-iders in such iniquity—their friendship can onl y be given to worthy objects ; and when they behold a tyrant : in the lust of evil power , they must watch : ' with anxiety for his punishment and fall .
440 The Leader And Saturday'analyst. [Ma...
440 The Leader and Saturday'Analyst . [ May 12 , 1860 .
Educational Franchise. What Persons And ...
EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE . WHAT persons and what things are to be represented ? Such is the question which presents itself to the philosophical mind , whenever any agitation takes place on the subject of the franchise in this country . It is easy to say that we require an expres 3 fen ~ t > f-i ± re- ^ optilm' —\\ 41 l T--but-nat _^ o ~ easy _ t < QL _ define what we mean by the . . phrase ! Some have boldly declared that property alone was to be represented , on the -ground that property itself represented the land , the accumulated wealth and credit of the country , its trade and commerce , success in any profession , and consequently all , or nearly all , the intellect and virtue of the nation . The theory is by no means an idle oneit docs not proclaim that money itself is the ultimate object to be represented , but it seeks by means of a pecuniary test to represent all that is really valuable in the country . On the other hand , there is the population theory , which repudiates a money test altogether , which goes back to the old Anglo-Saxon principle , that all the country belongs to all the people , and founds on this a doctrine of representation embracing every imiu imaccuscd of crime as an elector . These two systems are in ouc respect alike ; they arc perfectly intelligible , and scientific in their simplicity . But between them there are a number of junta * milieux , of mezzo termini , of Ki / athuaa doctrinaire *—things which , because they are not English in their nature , have no English names , and which are , for the most part , the emanations of " pure Whig minds . " On these we shall not waste time at present ; we wish to draw the attention of our readers , while it is yet time , to the necessity of some better form of educational franchise than those fragments which , in tho proposed law , gleam like scales of mica in tho rock of granite . Lord John proposes to enfranchise the Universities of Scotland and London , and to leave unrepresented that of Durham and the Queen ' s University " m : lrelnmt . Here alone , to say no more , wo have ono of those pieces of inconsistency which are , enough to condemn any measure of the kind . Why has not Durham u representative ? la it nut evident that the Queen ' s University in Ireland will soon very far surpass in numerical importance that of Trinity College , Dublin ? Do we not look Tor a continuance of tho present educational movement , and tho creation of new colleges , new universities , all which in turn will lmvo n clnim to be represented ? Hut , in truth , tho system of representing universities is a more , relic of tho past ; it is altogether uuaduptod to the circumstances of our ngo , and if
we had now for the first time to construct a . House . of Commons , it is most certain that neither Oxford nor Cambridge would be permitted to send members there . When the privilege was conferred , it was ' almost the only sure way of obtaining a tincture of literature for the popular branch of the Legislature . The bishops and mitred abbots were in the House of Lords ; but what could be expected of the Commons , when even kings sealed their charters with the hilts of their swords , and discarded all knowledge of the four-and-twenty letters as a very troublesome accomplishment ? Tn fact , all the learning in the kingdom resided in the clergy ; of these a large portion were members of the Universities , and the rest had a representation of their own besides .
Now that the progress of education has extended to all classes , the grounds on which the franchise was extended to the Universities no longer exist ; and of all constituencies those are the most inconvenient whose members are scattered not only all over the kingdom , but even all over the world . The very statement that a Master of Arts must go from the North of Scotland to Cambridge , or from the Scilly Isles to Oxford to record his vote , and that the resident electors are a small minority , is itself enough to condemn the system . It is true that the rank and position of the electors , put bribery out of the question ; and besides this , it argues a great love for the exercise of the franchise to take such an abnormal amount of trouble for it ;
again , the expenses of bringing up the electors , now no longer allowable , was a large drain upon the candidates . In . factj so long as these latter undertook so great an expense , so long it cost a very large sum to become the representative of one of our English Universities . When it was decided that no such expense could be incurred , it was found that comparatively very few electors would give themselves the troiible to go up and record their votes . -There are , moreover , few members of our
Universities who have 4 iot votes in other capacities , so that they have no particular reason to trouble themselves about what may be called their educational franchise ; they are usually more interested in the election for . their own borough or county , than in that of the University ; they are represented apart from Oxford or Gambridge . For all these causes , the present electoral condition of these learned bodies is an ~ anomaly in our constitution ; it was very proper and valuable when first established ,, but the lapse of time has made it incongruous and all but useless .
And yet Lord John Russell lias no better plan to propose than an extension of this obsolete system . It would seem as though he were incapable of any ne \ v idea ; as though . having once merited the title of " Finality John , " all the rest of his life were to be devoted to the task of showing ; that he , deserved it no longer . All his plans are temporary . He can put the hands of the timepiece backwaT ^ 7 n ^ OTwurdfbut ^ eem « -to 4 iav « -4 io-. nQtion
that there is such a thing as a political regulator . Let us point out one way by which this problem may be solved , ono inode of regulating the educational franchise , so that it shall not want a continual tinkering . No one disputes that education ought to be represented . The advocates of manhood suffrage base their theory on the necessity of not passing over any fraction of human intelligence . Those of a money test tell us that they only propose this because property is the best criterion of education . Now , why should not education itself be taken us its own proof ? How absurd it is to say to a Master of Arts at Cambridge or Oxford , to a Fellow of the Royal Society , to the licensed curate of a parish , to a member of the College of Surgeons or Physicians , " We object
to you because you do not inhabit a house of your own , or one above a certain rental , because you have not a certain landed estate ; not that these are the qualifications which we seek to have represented , but because they arc the best means of ascertaining that you have education and intelligence enough to be trusted with the franchise 1 " What can be more ridiculous than to give the franchise to the greengrocer who waits in Berlin gloves at dinner parties , and to deny it to those on whom he waits ; to confer it on the small tradesman who lets out his house in lodgings , and to refuse it to those who hire his apartments ? Money may be ,, to a certain extent , a fair test enough , but it certainly ought not to exclude those very attainments which it is supposed to
measure . We would propose that evidences of education should bo received , and ,. in order to avoid imposture or mistake , we would constitute those evidences only as admissible which arc derivable from public sources . It could never be competent for a man to say , " Give me u vote , for I am a well-educated person ; examine mo in classics and mathematics , science and history , and you will find me well qualified , " for to this the natural reply would bo , " We have neither time , nor inclination , nor authority to o & aiuiiio you . Without troubling us , you should bo able to prove your fitness . " If , then , the applicant bo nble to say , " I am a graduate , of a University , where I have regularly passed tin examination , "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051860/page/4/
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