LETTER XXX. 66 "You may," continued he, "call me an alarmist, or what you please, but I am convinced a crisis is at hand, which prudence, not brute force, can avert. Universal Suffrage, the right in every freeman, of a certain age, to have a voice in the election of his Rulers, must be recognised at last: no shifting party-evasion and temporizing, will much longer avail. Such a Representation of Freemen, must and would legislate on principles of absolute freedom of avowal, as to opinion on matters of religious belief and worship. One of our political circles propose to extend Elective Franchise to all householders, to those who are in immediate Taxation: good. But I cannot, for the soul of me help thinking, that it makes no real difference whether a man contributes to the exigencies of the State immediately, by actual tribute, or does so more remotely, by performing a due portion of labour of some sort, which in every society governed by right, he is bound to give, bodily and mental health permitting. He is as much a member of the Commonwealth in one case, as in the other; and in both has an equal right to be instrumental in choosing his Representatives. For if he has not, by reason of non-payment of actual tribute, he is punished in 'Duplicate,' after the manner of paupers before remarked. The old plea on the other side, that his ignorance will lay him open to the wiles of party, who will twist him as they please,' will not do at this day, or soon; though in days of yore it most certainly had much weight; because, I repeat for the thousandth time, and will repeat it ten thousand more, that same ignorance is giving place to information, as sterility to culture. A chamber of deputies, returned by the whole adult community, would of course speedily enact perfect freedom of discussion on theological points, as conducive to the best interests of truth. "When a young man is asked why he 'does not marry,' ninety-nine times in a hundred he replies, 'not that he does not love, or is unwilling to enter the state from disappointed affection, but that he cannot afford to maintain a wife, and meet the encreased expense attending a household.' This answer implies about three general meanings, according to the relative position of the speaker. If he is what is called a 'man of rank and fashion,' affluent; it means that he cannot pick up a yoke-fellow who will play the fool, handin-hand with him, in every possible shape, such as equipage, useless slaves, and animals of the doubtful gender, two-legged and fourlegged; gormandizing, marmouseting; and perhaps having played the game out, (losers of course from not reserving trumps), make an exit, the Lord knows where and how. If he is in the middle station of life, a tradesman or artificer, the answer implies, that he is not yet a master-man; or if he aspires no higher than to remain a subordinate workman, either that there is not a sufficient call for his labour to keep him in employ, or that if there is such demand, his wages as a hireling are inadequate to support a family. And, lastly, if he is a pauper, at the bottom of the roll-call, it is as much as to say, 'I have not so much of a house to cover me, as the hollow tree is to the squirrel.' A very pretty system this, upon my word! there must be wrong somewhere, for Nature has made nothing in vain, and we are intended to love each other: is she wrong, or are we who place bars to her emotions in our hearts? Here we see the inlets to fornication and adultery; if society were ameliorated as it might be, and brought back to Reason and Nature, we should not hear such replies " as these: man would seek an helpmate, their children would flourish in turn, and themselves die in a good old age. "Dear Sensibility, source of gladness unalloyed," concluded he, in a tone of fervency I had never heard before, "well art thou avenged on those dull spirits who know thee not; who check thy rising sigh, which as the Zephyr's wing on the ocean, plays round the heart refreshed, hushing the storms of passion, calming the waves of despair! I will not leave, though the cruel world forsake thee: I will court thee in the dusky night,' for thou can'st dissipate the mind's murkiness; I will seek thee at the matin-hour, for thou art fair-eyed as the dawn: I will woo thee, to shade me from the glare of intolerance: and when grey evening comes, thou, and only thou, shall bind me in slumber on thy bosom. "Grant me but sufficiency of frugal fare, I envy not wealth, the companion of care; give me to meet a kindred being, whose soul may float with mine down the tide of time, until time glides into eternity. Give me the labour which makes leisure grateful, enhancing the value of repose: give me the riches of content, of satisfaction from consciousness of meaning all things well, I ask no other wealth. Give |