"Even in this I do not agree. I cannot think that even if the people
were fit for, and had obtained, universal suffrage, the ballot would
be desirable. First, because it could not, in such circumstances be
supposed to be needful. Let us only conceive the state of things which
the hypothesis implies; a people universally educated, and every
grown-up human being possessed of a vote. If, even when only a small
proportion are electors, and the majority of the population almost
uneducated, public opinion is already, as every one now sees that it
is, the ruling power in the last resort; it is a chimera to suppose
that over a community who all read, and who all have votes, any
power could be exercised by landlords and rich people against their
own inclination which it would be at all difficult for them to throw
off. But though the protection of secrecy would then be needless,
the control of publicity would be as needful as ever. The universal
observation of mankind has been very fallacious if the mere fact of
being one of the community, and not being in a position of
pronounced contrariety of interest to the public at large, is enough
to ensure the performance of a public duty, without either the
stimulus or the restraint derived from the opinion of our fellow
creatures. A man's own particular share of the public interest, even
though he may have no private interest drawing him in the opposite
direction, is not, as a general rule, found sufficient to make him
do his duty to the public without other external inducements.
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