NOTES AND EVENTS OF THE MONTH, 569 



QUALIFICATION TEST. From a schedule published in a Macclesfield 

 paper, of the houses in that borough, it appears that there are rated 



at from 1 upwards 417 houses 



from 5 to 10 422 - 



at 5 and under 4385 



so that out of a population of 5224 householders, a little better than 

 one thirteenth only has the privilege of voting for members of parliament. 

 Now, if property be the test of a man's eligibility, i. e. moral fitness, to 

 choose such honest, wise, and worthy representatives, as shall be the best 

 guarantee of the safety and welfare of the kingdom, it follows that the 

 Macclesfield people have been wilfully or accidentally cheated out of a 

 great right : namely, the benefit of a voice which is now mute. As- 

 suming the standard of a 10 qualification to be the soundest that could 

 be established, it seems that, as 4385 times 5 make 21925 multiply 

 the houses by the rent in round terms we have here, at Macclesfield, 

 (waiving the middle item) property equivalent to 2192 good and indi- 

 pendent votes, which are totally unembodied! and as it is in Maccles- 

 field, so also may it be in other towns. What a loss to the common 

 weal, then, is this ! what an appalling oversight, or what an abominable 

 fraud ! 



We are perfectly sensible of the extreme difficulty of discovering a 

 safe qualification test, but if property be to be the criterion, let it ! but 

 let it at least be fully and unequivocally so. The plan by which we 

 should be disposed to rectify the blunder, or the worse than blunder, 

 just made manifest, is, that wherever property exists, in no matter how 

 many hands, two, or any given number of persons who can club together 

 the requisite qualification, should be allowed to vote as one per- 

 son ; providing, of course, they all unanimously concur in opinion. By this 

 means the actual advantage of all property will become apparent, and be 

 made available for the universal good. This notable crotchet would have 

 been long ago propounded by the Conservatives had they thought it would 

 have served their turn. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. We understand, upon authority which 

 may not be disputed, that, whenever a dissolution of parliament comes 

 to pass, it is the resolute determination of the master spirit of "the Age" 

 to oppose that indefatigable pamphleteer, and member for all England, 



Mr. Junius Roebuck. Why Mr. , standing as he does in society, 



should, in his efforts to become an " honourable gentleman," have chosen 

 a Bath for his first plunge ; or why, of all men and members, he should 

 have fixed on the unhappy Junius for victimization, is more than we have 

 learned but the fact is as we have stated it. The scribe in question 

 had better prepare for the coming contest in time ; for were he to lose 

 his present seat for that ancient and independent borough, he might, 

 possibly, indite three-ha'penny tracts from July to eternity, ere he se- 

 cured his return for another. 



LIBERALITY OF THE CLERGY. The Bishop of St. Asaph, at his late 

 audit, had the generosity to deduct 10 per cent, from the amount of 



