THE FRANCHISE.
While I was a member of the City Council, the question of the proper
qualification for electors of municipal councils and of the legislature,
was much under discussion. I told my Reform opponents, who advocated an
extremely low standard, that the lower they fixed the qualification for
voters, the more bitterly they would be disappointed; that the poorer
the electors the greater the corruption that must necessarily prevail.
And so it has proved.
In thinking over the subject since, I have been led to compare the body
politic to a pyramid, the stones in every layer of which shall be more
numerous than the aggregate of all the layers above it. And this
comparison is by no means strained, as I believe it will be found, that
each and every class is indeed numerically greater than all the classes
higher in social rank--the idlers than the industrious--the workers than
the employers--the children than the parents--the illiterate than the
instructed--and so on. Thus it follows as a necessary consequence, that
the adoption of the principle of manhood suffrage, now so much
advocated, must necessarily place all political power in the hands of
the worst offscourings of the community--law-breakers, vagrants, and
outcasts of all kinds. This would be equivalent to inverting the
pyramid, and expecting it to remain poised upon its apex--which is a
mere impossibility.
Whether the capstone of the social pyramid ought to be king or
president, is not material to my argument. On republican principles--and
with the French King, Louis Philippe, I hold that the British
constitutional monarchy is "the best of all republics"--the true theory
of representative institutions must be, that each class of the electors
should have a voice in the councils of the country equal to, and no
greater than, each of the several classes (or strata) above. This would
greatly resemble the old Scandinavian storthings, in which there were
four orders of legislators--king, nobles, clergy, and peasants, each of
which had a veto on all questions brought before any one of them.
Thus, the election of members of local municipal councils would be
vested in the rate-payers, much as at present. The district (not county)
councils would be elected by the local municipalities; and would
themselves be entitled to elect members of the provincial legislatures.
These latter again might properly be entrusted with the election of the
Dominion House of Commons. And to carry the idea a step further, the
Dominion Legislature itself would be a fitting body to nominate
representatives to a great council of the Empire, which should decide
all questions of peace or war, of commerce, and other matters affecting
the whole body politic. To make the analogy complete, and bind the whole
structure together, each class should be limited in its choice to the
class next above it, by which process, it is to be presumed, "the
survival of the fittest" would be secured, and every man elected to the
higher bodies must have won his way from the municipal council up
through all the other grades.
I should give each municipal voter such number of votes as would
represent his stake in the municipality, say one vote for every four
hundred dollars of assessable property, and an additional vote for every
additional four hundred dollars, up to a maximum of perhaps ten votes,
and no more, which would sufficiently protect the richer ratepayers
without neutralizing the wishes of the poorer voters.
On such a system, every voter would influence the entire legislation of
the country to the exact extent of his intelligence, and of his
contributions to the general expenditure. Corruption would be almost,
and intimidation quite, impracticable.
To meet the need for a revisory body or senate, the retired judges of
the Upper Courts, and retired members of the House of Commons, after ten
or twenty years' service, should form an unexceptionable tribunal for
any of the colonies.
I am aware that the election of legislators by the county councils has
been already advocated in Canada, and that in other respects this
chapter may be considered not a little presumptuous; but I conclude,
nevertheless, to print it for what it is worth.