But I cannot see why the
feelings and interests which arrange mankind according to localities
should be the only one thought worthy of being represented; or why
people who have other feelings and interests, which they value more
than they do their geographical ones, should be restricted to these as
the sole principle of their political classification. The notion
that Yorkshire and Middlesex have rights apart from those of their
inhabitants, or that Liverpool and Exeter are the proper objects of
the legislator's care, in contradistinction the population of those
places, is a curious specimen of delusion produced by words.
In general, however, objectors cut the matter short by affirming
that the people of England will never consent to such a system. What
the people of England are likely to think of those who pass such a
summary sentence on their capacity of understanding and judgment,
deeming it superfluous to consider whether a thing is right or wrong
before affirming that they are certain to reject it, I will not
undertake to say. For my own part, I do not think that the people of
England have deserved to be, without trial, stigmatised as
insurmountably prejudiced against anything which can be proved to be
good either for themselves or for others. It also appears to me that
when prejudices persist obstinately, it is the fault of nobody so much
as of those who make a point of proclaiming them insuperable, as an
excuse to themselves for never joining in an attempt to remove them.
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