CLASSES.
Tun Globe, in a fair and courteous tone, demurs to one of the po- sitions in our remarks upon "classes." We advert to the criti- cism in no spirit of controversy, but from a wish that by putting the question in different points of view the truth may be got at. Referring to the passage—" The exclusion from the franchise is one of the chief bonds cf union among the 'working classes' ; it is this that keeps them banded in a great measure in menacing array apart from the rest of society "—the Globe observes- " It cannot be affirmed universally that the ten-pound qualification (and still lees, of course, that of the lower class of freemen, whose franchise has been preserved) is calculated to exclude the working people from all share in electoral privileges. There is no line of demarcation drawn which need ex- clude any subject of the realm from a fair prospect of participating in whatever benefit those privileges confer (supposing they did confer any personal benefit on those whose circumstances attain to them)—there is nothing which need make any one feel himself the member of an excluded does—unless there is something in the social condition which reduces even the elite of the working class to despair of ever reaching the elevation of ten-pound householders. If that hopelessness does exist—it all the active spirits among the labourers re- gard the order of ten-pound householders as that of a high and hostile aristo- cracy—there is the root of the evil. Its source may be regarded as social rather than political. We do not say what is the fittest standard of pecuniary qualification ; nor whether payment of a ten-pound rent is below the right mark, or above it. But we say (though we know our opinion is opposed to many respectable reasoners) that the attempt to decry such qualification alto- gether, on alleged principle, indicates nothing but bad social circumstances, had social temper, or both. We cannot conceive any thing so little offensive, in its own nature, as the adoption of a pecuniary test for the exercise of a pub- lic trust. Provided the test is not such as to preclude the industrious from hopes of the privilege—provided it is such as to include the interests, if not the persons, of the whole community—what other so unobjectionable as a moderate pecuniary test could be applied? There would be something in- vidious (not to say impossible) in testing individual fitness. There is nothing invidious, nothing exclusive of any proscribed cage whatsoever, in Sung the -qualification at some such moderate amount of possessions as industry may enable many of every occupation to attain, and the having attained which may afford the presumption of moral qualities most important to states. A spirit strongly conservative of law and order, and not too impatient for sweeping changes with the view of social regeneration, is the spirit characteristic of all who have realized any possessions of their own, and have something positive to lose, which renders them averse to try the levelling lottery. It is in order to retain some security that this spirit shall predominate in the public councils, that we consider the retention of the qualification indispensably requisite. In a decently prosperous state of society, such a qualification would exclude no entire class; since no entire description of men would have nothing to call their own but their power of toil; no entire description of men would fail to furnish their contingent to the voting class. It is this decently prosperous state of things which requires to be better realized ; it is its deficient realiza- tion which lies at the root of the present discontents; and though there may be, and we believe there is, much unreasonable expectation from social changes existing in the minds of many who are not the most depressed in actual con- dition, yet it cannot be doubted it is that depression in the millions which makes these malecontents formidable."
To use the Globe's own expression, we find in these remarks "something for concurrence and something for criticism." By enu- merating the political cause of class-feeling after the economical, and dwelling upon it with less detail, we intimated that we looked upon the former as secondary and subordinate to the latter. But we do not agree with the Globe that it is altogether inoperative. The Globe hints a doubt whether electoral privileges "confer any personal benefit on those whose circumstances attain to them " : but the question is, whether the non-electors think that they confer such benefit, and therefore repine at the want of them. The Globe is of opinion that "there is no line of demarcation drawn which need exclude any subject of the realm from a fair prospect of par- ticipating in whatever benefit those privileges confer." The state- ments of the adversaries of the Corn-law, (even the most tem- perate,) of the adversaries of the Poor-law, of the witnesses before the innumerable Parliamentary Committees and Royal Commis- sions to inquire into the condition of the working classes, leave a very different impression. In the existing economical condition of the country, it is but few indeed of those who start in life without capital who can ever hope to realize as much property as will bring them 10/. a year, or earn as much as will enable them to indulge in a house rented at 101. per annum. The freemen are local and not numerous exceptions. Inquiry in the provinces would soon convince the writer in the Globe that a house-rent above or below 101. per annum coin- cides pretty accurately with a line of distinction separating small shopkeepers from handicraftsmen. The man who pays 9/. 10s. for his house feels himself the equal of him who pays 10/. in every respect except that he has no vote. This would be merely a personal grudge, but that those above are also distinguished by another circumstance from those below ; the former belonging almost universally to the small capitalists, and the latter to the earners of wages. It is the concurrence of these two circumstances that makes the 10/. franchise the cause of a class-spirit ; and there- fore we say, that the law of the land in this case gives a reality to the abstract notion of a class, inasmuch as the Reform Bill confines the right of voting to the ten-pounders, and the laws restricting our commerce contribute to render it impossible for the body of the labourers to raise themselves to the rank of electors. The influence of O'Corraos and others of his class is based upon the class-feeling thus created. Into the question whether any or what restriction ought to be imposed upon the attainment of the elective franchise, our present purpose does not require us to enter. We may, however, remark, that the observations of the Globe on this head seem to indicate a little of the class-feeling deprecated. The writer's assertion, that "a spirit strongly conservative of law and order" is characteristic of "all who have realized any possessions of their own," will be taken to imply that all others want this characteristic. This is classifying men, and judging the individual by the class in which he is placed by the classifier. In a subsequent article, the writer in the Globe wandered into the field of the French Revolution ; but, unable to see how any further light can be thrown on the question by such an excursion, we decline following him. His observation about Trades Unions not being political may be true, but somehow or other we have always found Trades Unionists politicians, and Radical politicians into the bargain. Since 1819, at least, the leaders of the Unions and the political leaders of the working-men have always been the same persons.
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