92 MONTHLY REVIt.W OF L1TKUA TU RG. 



Proposals for an Intellectual Franchise. By W. JOYCE. Effingham 

 Wilson. 



WHO Mr. Joyce is we know not ; but he is evidently a well-meaning vi- 

 sionary. His plan may be carried into effect when the millennium arrives, 

 should there be any necessity for politics then ; but it certainly stands a poor 

 chance before that time. For our own parts we must say that he is often 

 beyond our comprehension ; and where we understand him, or fancy we 

 understand him, his plan is too prolix to admit of analysis within the limited 

 space we can afford. In order, however, that our readers may be able to 

 form some idea of his notions and manner of delineating them, we give the 

 following extracts : 



" The principal argument in favour of an Intellectual Franchise is that all 

 classes will be enabled to obtain the right of Representation, that no man 

 need be without the Franchise : and that it would be a general rule that no 

 one will possess it that does not deserve it. If you are a rich but ignorant 

 man, you have only to make use of the superior advantages wealth gives you 

 over the poor man, and set about rendering yourself worthy of the right to 

 vote. If a poor man without these advantages of wealth shall enable him- 

 self to become a constituent, how much more ought you to do so ! Still 

 your wealth will carry its advantages ; you will be able much sooner, and 

 more certainly, to acquire that knowledge which ought to be the test of capa- 

 bility for the higher, and more ennobling, duty of a representative in the 

 Legislature of your country, or the higher offices of the state. Though the 

 mere possession of riches or birth ought not to give one man a political ad- 

 vantage over another, yet the luxuries, pleasure, ease, and other numberless 

 advantages, which riches carry with them, ought to be sufficient to gratify 

 their possessors, without their wishing to obtain superior political advantages 

 to their fellow-creatures. 



" Be you of whatever grade you may, you will be able by this method to 

 obtain a Representation in the State, if you choose to fit yourself for that 

 right. The Intellectual Franchise would include men of every denomination. 

 I do not mean, by an Intellectual Qualification, such a one as would occupy a 

 man's life to obtain, and such that professors only could obtain ; but such a 

 Qualification as would prevent the man from giving a vote the consequences 

 of which he could not by reason of his ignorance at all see ; the information 

 which he must acquire would be such as with the most common capacity he 

 should be able to master in a moderate time, and which should be published 

 in a cheap and compendious form, the single, the married, the master, the 

 man, the prince, the beggar, the rich, the poor, will all have the same oppor- 

 tunity to obtain this work, except that there might be some who would not 

 spare the small sum which it would require to purchase it; but I think that, 

 let a man's poverty be ever so great, that he would be able to obtain either the 

 loan, or could, if he valued the right it would procure him, by dint of perse- 

 verance and frugality, obtain the possession of that that would raise, so con- 

 siderably, his position in society. 



" One of the advantages of this system would be, that no one would be 

 able to vote, until after he had proved his fitness for that duty. There will 

 be, as I before remarked, many who will give votes after this improperly, but 

 still I say these will be but exceptions Have we not reason to conclude, that 

 if a man is capable of learning all the grand facts connected with the resources 

 of this empire, and of acquiring a general knowledge of the principal laws 

 that have been framed, with the various other information which 1 propose 

 the work I before spoke of should contain, that this man is deserving of the 

 vote he would then have a right to ? It may be said, that if a man should 

 have property but be too idle to acquire the knowledge necessary for its re- 

 presentation, that that property would be unrepresented- In answer I say, 

 that every man who gives a vote, not only represents his own property and 



