176] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
tions deemed essential to the proper 
discharge of the duties attached to 
them. Of these conditions and 
qualifications the nation is to judge; 
and when it has fixed, according to 
its best views of public utility, the 
terms on which each public. office 
shall be conferred, and the descrip- 
tion of persons to whom it shall be 
sues no man who is destitute 
of the civil qualifications prescribed, 
has any plea for complaining of in- 
justice in being precluded from fill- 
ing the post. It would be as un- 
reasonable in a person thus disquali- 
fied, to contend that he is treated 
with injustice in not being permitted 
to be an elector, as it would be to 
affirm that he is unjustly treated in 
not being permitted to be king. 
The king and the elector are alike 
public officers and the nation has 
the same right to appoint citizens 
of a particular description to choose 
members of parliament, as it has to 
appoint a particular family to oc- 
cupy the throne.” In a subsequent 
part of the same chapter, the au- 
thor considers the expediency of 
the limitation of the right of voting 
for members of parliament ; and 
concludes with the following ob- 
servations : ‘‘ The grand object to 
be had in view in imparting the 
elective franchise is, to secure, as 
far as may be possible, the’choice of 
proper representatives. By « this 
consideration alone the number and 
description of electors ought to be 
regulated. And if this considera- 
tion undeniably requires, on the 
one hand, that the whole number of 
electors in the kingdom should bear 
an adequate proportion to the 
amount of the inhabitants, it seems 
equally to require, on the other, 
that the right of voting should be 
confined to men competent and 
likely to discharge the trust come 
mitted to them, in a manner condue 
cive to the public good. If we re- 
flect on the uninformed condition of 
multitudes in the lower ranks of 
society; on the blind deference 
which they commonly pay to the 
will of their immediate superiors ; 
on the temptations they are under 
of being corrupted by bribes; on 
the facility with which they may be 
deluded by artful misrepresentations 
and inflammatory harrangues; on 
the difficulty of preventing confusion 
and riots in popular assemblies, — 
spreading over the face of a whole 
kingdom; on the rapidity with 
which tumults excited by design or 
accident in one assembly would be 
communicated by contagion to 
another, until the country would 
be agitated with general convul- — 
sions; if we reflect on the dangers © 
to be dreaded from these and other 
circumstance which would attend © 
the plea of universal suffrage, we © 
shall probably see great reason to 
rejoice that the elective right is lis 
mited under the British constitution. 
And we are not to forget, that if 
any inconveniences and hardships 
are to be apprehended, in conse 
quence of limiting it, they are ne- . 
cessarily much diminished, if not — 
altogether removed, by the very 
small share of property requisite to 
procure the privilege of voting for. 
county members, ; 
From chapter the third, which 
treats of the duties of the sovereigny 
we shall make no selection; not that 
we think it inferior in excellence to 
the other parts of the work ; but as 
we cannot quote from every part, 
we would wish to conform to the 
intention of the Worthy and patri- 
etic author, of €xtending, to the 
widest~ circles ‘the ‘benefit of his 
labours. | 
