POLITICAL REPRESENTATION. 



89 



estate together, worth about fifteen thousand dollars ; and 

 when he gets his seat he is obliged to discharge its duties 

 without any compensation. 



A high property qualification like this, of course reduces 

 the number of persons eligible to the assembly to a very 

 small figure, and throws the legislation, not only into the 

 hands of the comparatively rich, but into the hands of the 

 landholders. The poor are utterly excluded from all par- 

 ticipation in its privileges or responsibilities. 



Such discriminations are as pernicious as they are ab- 

 surd, and have resulted, as any statesman could have 

 anticipated, indeed, as they were probably designed to re- 

 sult, in subordinating the interest of the commercial, 

 mechanical and industrial classes to that of the large land- 

 holders. All the energies of legislation are exerted to 

 promote the growth and sale of sugar and rum ; but there 

 is no party in the assembly inquiring about the inexhaust- 

 ible commercial and manufacturing resources of the island. 



In spite of these conditions, imposed by law upon 

 candidates applying for seats in the legislature, they might 

 still possess some of the more important representative 

 functions if their constituency were free, and if the right 

 of suffrage were liberally extended. But here again we 

 find a characteristic distrust of poor men, and a truly 

 English anxiety to guard the landholder. Every voter must 

 own a freehold estate worth thirty dollars, or pay a yearly 



