"This argument is specious, and I once thought it conclusive. It now
appears to me fallacious. All who are fit to influence electors are
not, for that reason, fit to be themselves electors. This last is a
much greater power than the former, and those may be ripe for the
minor political function who could not as yet be safely trusted with
the superior. The opinions and wishes of the poorest and rudest
class of labourers may be very useful as one influence among others on
the minds of the voters, as well as on those of the Legislature; and
yet it might be highly mischievous to give them the preponderant
influence by admitting them, in their present state of morals and
intelligence, to the full exercise of the suffrage. It is precisely
this indirect influence of those who have not the suffrage over
those who have which, by its progressive growth, softens the
transition to every fresh extension of the franchise, and is the means
by which, when the time is ripe, the extension is peacefully brought
about. But there is another and a still deeper consideration, which
should never be left out of the account in political speculations. The
notion is itself unfounded, that publicity, and the sense of being
answerable to the public, are of no use unless the public are
qualified to form a sound judgment. It is a very superficial view of
the utility of public opinion to suppose that it does good only when
it succeeds in enforcing a servile conformity to itself.
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