THE great change in constituencies and elections which divides with so
marked a line the period over which the records of this volume extend has
long been accepted by all parties as _un fait accompli_, and few, if any,
would revert to the system of former days, even if it were possible. All
now see that by its means we have been enabled to take Reform as our
watchword, instead of Revolution, and to escape anarchy and despotism—the
Scylla and Charybdis into which the continental nations have been
continually falling. Elections in Worcestershire have of course been
much the same as elections elsewhere; often scenes of riot and
corruption, now and then the occasions of an irresistible burst of
popular feeling, but very far from being at any time exercises of calm,
deliberative, and patriotic judgment. As to the changes which should be
made in the constituencies with a view to remedy existing evils, and to
add strength to our constitutional edifice, everybody now-a-days has his
own crotchet, and the writer’s is an educational franchise. He believes
that it would be perfectly feasible to make a register of all parties who
could read and write, in the presence of the revising officer, some
declaration of the privileges and responsibilities of a vote, and who
could satisfy him that they understood the functions of a representative.
No one that had not so far qualified himself for the exercise of the
franchise could in these days reasonably complain of being denied it, and
it would give a greater impulse to elementary education than all the
grants of public money that ever have or ever will be made for the
establishment of schools.