In a majority of cases, the
vote of the electors, whether in opposition to or in accordance with
the wishes of their superiors, is not now the effect of coercion,
which there are no longer the same means of applying, but the
expression of their own personal or political partialities. The very
vices of the present electoral system are a proof of this. The
growth of bribery, so loudly complained of, and the spread of the
contagion to places formerly free from it, are evidence that the local
influences are no longer paramount; that the electors now vote to
please themselves, and not other people. There is, no doubt, in
counties, and in the smaller boroughs, a large amount of servile
dependence still remaining; but the temper of the times is adverse
to it, and the force of events is constantly tending to diminish it. A
good tenant can now feel that he is as valuable to his landlord as his
landlord is to him; a prosperous tradesman can afford to feel
independent of any particular customer. At every election the votes
are more and more the voter's own. It is their minds, far more than
their personal circumstances, that now require to be emancipated. They
are no longer passive instruments of other men's will- mere organs
for putting power into the hands of a controlling oligarchy. The
electors themselves are becoming the oligarchy.
"Exactly in proportion as the vote of the elector is determined by
his own will, and not by that of somebody who is his master, his
position is similar to that of a member of Parliament, and publicity
is indispensable.
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