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    EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE.

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    to a certain extent against the patriot cause , and thus lost the credit and prestige of honestly sympathizing with it . If it does stop the brave Italian chief , or by hampering his proceedings lead to his failure and death , no Italian can hold it guiltless . It -will be poor consolation that it had an accomplice in the Cabinet of Great Britain . It might not have been prudent for the Sardinian Court to have appeared at once as an actor on the scene . It ought , however , to have been left to follow its own inclinations—to avow its heartfelt sympathy with the insurgents , because they were right ; and it ought not to have been cajoled or bullied into a seaming complicity with the side that was wicked and wrong .

    Whig expediency , which always avoids the truth of extremes , cannot " deal with great questions ' at critical epochs , and it would be better for England to lock up its Foreign-office , and take no part in external affairs , than to adopt a course of meddling that has neither the dignity of justice nor the power of truth . We are as anxious as any ' member of the Peace-at-any-price faction that England should not mingle in a European strife of arms , if such a catastrophe can be avoided with honour ; but the reasons which keep back the employment of physical force do not apply ht to be firm and

    to the action of moral power . Here we oug impregnable , and no minister should be permitted to misrepresent the national voice . Our interests are peace , order , and development . We . have nothing to gain from military struggles or the crash of thrones ; - but it is , nevertheless , our duty to do our utmost to make the voice of justice heard in oppressed lands . In a high sense , this is our interest also ; for if ever the time should come when we could only pride ourselves upon the quantity of cotton we-have , spun , or iron we have forged , either decline or convulsion will be at hand . If prudential reasons bid

    us stand by and watch the struggle in Sicily , it is not prudence , but-cowardice-or crime , which prevents our Government from declaring their cohvictioirthat the patriot cause is right , arid their-wish that it may prevailr It is not the guilty Sovereign and his ministers that should have a "just reliance" upon the friendship of a British Cabinet . The British cannot follow their rulers in such iniquity—their friendship can only be given to worthy objects ; ' and when they , behold a tyrant in the lust of evil power , they must watch with anxiety for his-. punishment and fall .

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    we had now for the first time to construct a House of Commons , it is mosfe certain that neither Oxford nor Cambridge would be permitted to send members ., there . When the privilege was conferred , it was almost the only sure way of obtaining a tincture of literature for the popular branch of the Legislature . The bishops and mitred abbots were in the House of Lords ; but what could be expected of the Commons , when even kings sealed their charters with the hilts of their swords , and discarded all knowledge of the four-and-tvventy letters as a very troublesome accomplishment ? In fact , all the learning in the kingdom resided in the clei ' gy ; of these a large portion were members of the Universities , and the rest had a representation of their own besides .

    Now that the progress of education has extended to all classes , the grounds on which the franchise was extended to the Universities no longer exist ; and of all constituencies those are the most inconvenient whose members are scattered not only all over the kingdom , but even all over the world . The very statement that a Master of Arts must go from the North of Scotland to Cambridge , or from the Scilly Isles to Oxford to record his vote , and that the resident electors are a small minority , is itself enough to condemn the system . It is true that the rank and position of the electors put bribery out of the question ; and besides this , it argues a great love for the exercise of the franchise to take such an abnormal amount of trouble for it ; again , the expenses of bringing up the electors , now no longer allowable , was a large drain upon the candidates . In fact , so

    long as these latter undertook so great an expense , so long it cost a very large snnl to become the representative of one of our English Universities . When it was decided that no such expense could be incurred , it Avas found that comparatively very few electors would give themselves the trouble to go up and record their Votes . There are , . moreover , few members of our X ' niversities who have not votes in other capacities , so that they have no particular reason to ti-oubfe themselves about what may be called their educational franchise ; they are usually more interested in the election for their own borough or counfy , than in that of the University ; they are represented apart from Oxford or Cambridge . For all these causes , the present electoral condition of these learned bodies is an anomaly in our constitution ; it was very proper- and valuable when first established , lint the lapse of time has made it incongruous and all but useless .

    And yet Lord John * Hussell has up better plan to propose than an extension of this obsolete system . It would seem as though he ' were'incapable of any new idea ; as though having once merited the title of " Finality John , " all the rest of his'life ' , were to be devoted to the task * of . showing that he deserved it no longer . Alliiis plans arc temporary . He can put the hands of tu ^ fiTmipTec ^ that there is such a thing as a political regulator . Let us point out one way by which this problem may be solved , one mode of regulating thy educational franchise , so that it shall not want a ' continual , tinkering . No one disputes that education ought to

    be represented . The advocates of manhood' suH'rage base their theory on the necessity of not passing over any fraction of human intelligence . Those , of a money test tell us "that they only propose this because property is the best criterion . of education . Sow , why should not education itself be taken as its own proof ? How absurd it is to say . to a Master of Arts at Cambridge or Oxford , to a Fellow of the Royal Society , to the licensed curate of a parish , to a member of the College of Surgeons or Physicians , " We object to you because you do not inhabit a house of your own , or one above a . ecrtaiu rental , because yoii have not a certain landed estate ;

    not that these an ? the qualifications which we seek , to hove , represented , but because they arc the best means of ascertaining ; that you have education and intelligence enough to be trusted with the franchise ! " What can be more ridiculous than to give the franchise to the greengrocer who waits in Berlin gloves at dinner parties , and to deny it to those on whom ho waits ; to confer it ou the small tradesman who lets out his house in lodgings , and to refuse it to those who hire his apartments ? Money may be , to a certain extent , a fair test enough , but it certainly ought not to exclude those very attainments which it ; in puppo . sed to

    WHAT persons and what things are to be represented Such is the question which presents itself to the philosophical mind , whenever any agitation takes place on the subject of the -franchise in this country . It is easy to say that we mjnTKTan ~ el ? pT ^^ define what-we mean by the phrase . Some have boldly declared that property alone was to be represented , ou the ground that property itself represented the land , the accumulated wealth and credit of the'country , its trade and commerce , success in any

    profession , and consequently all , or nearly all , the intellect and virtue of the nation . The ' theory is by no means an idle oneit docs not proclaim that money itself is the ultimate object to be represented , but it seeks by means of a pecuniary test to represent all that is really valuable in the country . On the other hand , there is the population theory , which repudiates a money test altogether , which goes back to the old Anglo-Saxon principle , that all the . country belongs to all the people , and founds on this a doctrine of representation embracing every ' man unaccused of crime as an elector . These two systems arc in one

    respect alike ; they arc perfectly intelligible , and scientific m their simplicity . But between them there are a number of jtustM utUletm , o ( mezzo tvnttiui , of ttj / x / eMiw ( loelrhuiin'x—things which , because they arc not English in their nature , have no English names , and which are , for the most part , the emanations of " pure Whig minds . " On these we shall not waste time at present ; we wish to draw the attention of our readers , while it is yet time , to the necessity of some better i ' prm of educational franchise than those fragments which , in the proposed law , gleam like scales of mica in the rock of granite . Lord John proposes to enfranchise the

    Universities of Scotland and London , and tp leave unrepresented that of Durham and the 'Quuou ' h UmvoriiUy in Ireland . ; Hen ! alone , to say no more , wo hnvo one of those pieces of inconsistency which arc enough to condemn any measure of the kind . . Why has not Durham a representative ; ? U it not evident that tho Queen's University in Ireland will soon very far surpass in numerical . importance " that of Trinity College ,, Dublin ? . Do w « not look for a continuance of th ( J present educational movement , and the creation of new colleges , new universities , all which in turn will have a claim to bo represented ? But , in truth , the system of representing universities is a mere relic of the past ; it is altogether unadaptcd to the firc'imistanee . -j of our ago , and if

    measure . We would propose that evidences of ... education .. should ... be received , and , in order to avoid imposture , or mistake , we-would constitute those evidences only as admissible which are derivable from public sources . It could never be . competent for a man lo say , " . Give me a vote , for I am a well-educated person ; examine me in cllis ' sics and mathematics , science and history , and you will find me well qualified , " for to this tho natural reply would be , " We have neither time , nor inclination , nor authority to examine you . Without troubling us , you should be able to prove your fitness . " If , then , the applicant be able to any , " 1 am u graduate of n University , whore 1 have regularly passed-an examination , ' *

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    440 . ¦'< The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ May 12 , 1860 .

    Educational Franchise.

    EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 440, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2347/page/4/