644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Government derived from the breadth of the basis on which it rested, 

 and from the universal feeling that it was in the fullest sense the Gov- 

 ernment of the people. It was enabled in this way to put forth a power 

 which no autocracy could have put forth. Many Americans, it is true, 

 will tell you that universal suffrage is a failure, and that it is the great 

 danger of the state. But they overlook the fact that the danger arises 

 not from universal suffrage by itself, but from universal suffrage in 

 conjunction with party government and direct elections. It is as the 

 tool of faction and its demagogues that the rowdy is politically formi- 

 dable. Universal suffrage, however, in America, is no doubt to-day a 

 very different thing from what it was when the great majority of the 

 people were substantial farmers, and almost all of them were holders 

 of property, responsible, settled in their habitations, and of English 

 blood. No absolute rule can be framed for all countries, nor even, 

 supposing that such a rule could be laid down, would it be practicable 

 everywhere to get up the hill again, when once you have gone down, 

 and withdraw powers once granted to the multitude. Property quali- 

 fications are odious, and, where power is in the hands of the people, to 

 be odious is to be weak. On the other hand, an education qualification 

 is not odious ; the writer, at least, has always found that artisan audi- 

 ences receive the mention of it with favor ; it is most reasonable, since 

 a man can hardly give an intelligent vote, or do himself and his con- 

 cerns anything but mischief, by voting without the common organs of 

 intelligence ; nor does there seem to be any insuperable difficulty in 

 the way of ascertaining that an applicant for registration is able to 

 read and write, or at least to read. Writing, perhaps, ought hardly to 

 be required, for the horny hand of the farm-laborer may lose that 

 faculty without default of brain or heart. Under a complete system 

 of popular education, if we ever arrive at it, the school-certificate 

 might be the qualification. All voters ought also to be liable to every 

 civic duty, such as that of national defense, and that of serving on 

 juries, if the system of jury-trial is retained on its present footing. If 

 a sifting process is necessary, let it be one of self -disfranchisement by 

 refusal of equitable conditions, rather than one of disfranchisement by 

 exclusive legislation ; the popular feeling that government rests on the 

 broad basis of equality and justice will be less impaired. The senti- 

 ment of monarchies and aristocracies has been stiidied ; it is now time 

 to study the sentiment of republics. A good deal of sifting, and, on 

 the whole, of the right kind, would probably be done by abstention, 

 when there were no longer organized factions to marshal the irrespon- 

 sible, and march them to the poll. As the possession of a vote excites 

 interest in public affairs, the suffrage has a certain educating power, 

 though by no means so great a power as some sanguine advocates of 

 extension have maintained. A consideration, perhaps, of not less im- 

 portance is that, under a thoroughly popular system of suffrage, the 

 holders of property and the highly educated are spurred by regard for 



