But we may be told, politically the movement has been a failure. Our
answer is, it has been nothing of the kind. It is true, and we state the
fact more in sorrow than in anger, that Messrs. Newdegate and Spooner
still represent North Warwickshire; but it is also clear that whilst at
the election previous to the last Mr. Spooner had, in the Birmingham
district, a majority of 196, at the last election, in consequence of the
operation of the Freehold Land Societies of that district, he was
actually in a minority of 395. But let us look nearer home. At the
recent election for Middlesex, Bernal Osborne was returned, after a
severe struggle, by a majority of 195. Now, when we recollect that the
National alone has purchased 152 acres in Middlesex, and that each acre
is capable, on an average, on subdivision, of making five votes--when we
also remember that the remaining London societies have purchased between
them another hundred acres in the same county--it is impossible not to
feel, even supposing all the allotments have not been taken up, that out
of the 250 acres thus cut up into allotments came the majority which
returned Bernal Osborne as the champion of Liberalism and Free Trade. We
repeat, it is impossible not to feel that if it had not been for the
Freehold Land Societies, to the disgrace and shame of the county, Lord
Maidstone would have misrepresented Middlesex. Then we remember that Mr.
Locke King was but 400 ahead of Mr. Antrobus at the Surrey election last
summer--we must also feel that that gentleman has some reason for
thankfulness to Freehold Land Societies. If we pass to Herts, we shall
feel that it sadly failed in its duty by returning three pledged
Protectionists; but when we recollect that the National has purchased 300
acres in that county, we cannot but be persuaded that there is "a good
time coming" for our friend Mr. Lattimore and the Herts Reformers. At
the last election, the lowest of the Protectionist candidates--the
quondam Reformer, Sir Bulwer Lytton--had 2,190 votes: the highest of the
Liberals had 2,043. It is thus as clear as anything can be that a very
little effort will make Hertfordshire for ever safe. It is in the power
of any two hundred persons desirous of a good investment to do so at
once. Essex, the home of Sir J. Tyrrel and the delight of W. B., we
regret to write, is not so easily liberalised. North Essex at present is
impregnable. Its squires, as Barry Cornwall ironically writes,
"With brains made clear
By the irresistible strength of beer,"
are beyond salvation: there is no hope for this generation of them. But
South Essex is not so hopelessly lost to the people's cause. It is true
that last summer it did unseat Sir E. N. Buxton, and return Sir W. B.
Smijth by a majority of 600; but the National has purchased 242 acres in
that county, and out of that number can create 1,210 electors.
Evidently, then, there is hope for Essex yet. But we need not continue
this scrutiny. The people have placed within their hands the very
privilege they so much desire. They need not wait for Government to
emancipate them; they can emancipate themselves. For instance, the
National will put any person desirous of the same in possession of a
county qualification for North or South Essex, East or West Kent,
Hertfordshire, West Sussex, North Hants, North Lancashire, or Middlesex.
If, as some of the knowing ones maintain, we shall soon have a general
election, of course the sooner one is put on the register the better. If
not, the purchaser can take no harm: he will have his _quid pro quo_; he
will have placed his money in that best of all banks, the land, and will
have become one of that important class appealed to on certain occasions
as the "Electors of the United Kingdom." Heaven helps those who help
themselves. Instead of the people waiting for Government to extend the
franchise, they can boldly help themselves. No man deserves the
electoral privilege who cannot purchase it by his own industry and
self-denial. At the present time, when provisions are cheap, when work
is abundant, when wages are high and labour scarce, there is not a man in
our streets who may not win the franchise if he has the will. Half the
men who brawled in low pot-houses, while their wives and children were
starving, over their beer, for the Charter, and nothing but the Charter,
if they had stopped at home, and worked and saved their money, might, by
this time, have realised the manhood suffrage of which they so idly
dreamed; and if, at the next election, the men of progress are beaten,
and the friends of class legislation and injustice prevail, it will be
because the people were not true to themselves--because they had not
enough of self-denial, enough of earnestness and independence, to avail
themselves of the advantages offered by the Freehold Land Movement, and
thus to have a representation that shall be real, and not a sham. By
means of the Freehold Land Movement, every county in England may be won.
To the very natural suggestion that that is a game that two can play at,
the answer is very obvious. In such a contest numbers will tell. A
qualification that may be had for 30 pounds will fall into very different
hands to what it would were its price 1,000 pounds. For one aristocratic
voter thus made, the people will have ten. An appeal to the masses can
have but one result. Human nature must be changed before it can be
otherwise. Be this as it may, the political result is undoubtedly
good--the emancipation of all who have the wit, and will, and worth to
win the franchise for themselves.