£^Q2. on the constitution. 23I 



able, and calculated ca gjard against everj kind of 

 corruption, begin to perceive that there may be some 

 deficiencies. The difficulty that was fouitd to induce 

 the voters in Paris to come forvvard, even when it 

 had the allurement of novelty to recommend it, has 

 Ihowed them that there, as well as every where 

 else, '* what is every body's businefs is deemed the 

 businefs of nobody," which excites a well grounded 

 fear that this mode of election may, in time, degene- 

 rate into a mere farce, where the great body of those 

 who have a right to vote will disregard that right ; and 

 where of course the elections will come to be carried 

 by a private junto, who will make it their businefs 

 to avail themselves of the negligence of others. 

 When this evil stares them in the face, and when 

 they try to devise a mode of correcting it, they be- 

 gin to perceive that it will be even a more difficult 

 talk than that of determining a Westminster election 

 by scrutiny. Those who thought that a House of 

 Peers was a wen in our constitution, which the French 

 had happily cut off, begin already to suspect that 

 virtue is not exclusively confined to the poorer sr- 

 ders of the community, and that wisdom is not pecu- 

 liarly appropriated to any one clafs of people. Tiiey 

 begin to advert to what they have often heard be- 

 fore, that a man who has much property to lose, has 

 a stronger inducement to support a government that 

 secures the property of every individual, than one who 

 has little at stake ; and that of course a body of weal- 

 thy men, may be expected to be at least, more cau- 

 tious legislators, than men of small fortunes. They 

 now see clearly that the French constitution is super- 



