" This is notoriously the case with regard to electoral
corruption. There has never yet been, among political men, any real
and serious attempt to prevent bribery, because there has been no real
desire that elections should not be costly. Their costliness is an
advantage to those who can afford the expense, by excluding a
multitude of competitors; and anything, however noxious, is
cherished as having a conservative tendency if it limits the access to
Parliament to rich men. This is a rooted feeling among our legislators
of both political parties, and is almost the only point on which I
believe them to be really ill-intentioned. They care comparatively
little who votes, as long as they feel assured that none but persons
of their own class can be voted for. They know that they can rely on
the fellow-feeling of one of their class with another, while the
subservience of nouveaux enrichis, who are knocking at the door of the
class, is a still surer reliance; and that nothing very hostile to the
class interests or feelings of the rich need be apprehended under
the most democratic suffrage as long as democratic persons can be
prevented from being elected to Parliament. But, even from their own
point of view, this balancing of evil by evil, instead of combining
good with good, is a wretched policy. The object should be to bring
together the best members of both classes, under such a tenure as
shall induce them to lay aside their class preferences, and pursue
jointly the path traced by the common interest; instead of allowing
the class feelings of the Many to have full swing in the
constituencies, subject to the impediment of having to act through
persons imbued with the class feelings of the Few.
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