The two points made by -Sit Hugh,Cairna in his able
but too extended • speech of- Monday •-were-that the. motive - power of. the British Constitution oughtto-rest, and was intended to rest., in the middle class, and that thia.end was, secured by a careful balancing of different classes. The second statement is correct in a way, but the first amounts to a refusal of any-reform whatever. Nobody doubts that.the.middle class. it absolute now; that they are; as the Iring,of Prussia expresses it, the " pivot of power,"'and if thatiii the -end of the ConstitutiOn discussion may as well cease; The truth is, that in a ..free government there ought to be no pivot of power except the nation, no class strong enough to overbear every Other, and therefore, because such a class does begin so to over.- bear, we want a large infusion of working men. For the rest, Sir Hugh Cairns repeated the arguments, which are becoming -truisms, on the danger of trusting one class with all power, and the immense demand made by the Cabinet on the confidence of the House in asking,them to transfer power without knowing to what extent.
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