PROGRESS OF HOUSEHOLD SUFFRAGE OPINION. The letter of Mr. Cobden
to the Chairman of his Committee at Huddersfield is interesting as adding an important testimony to the growth and maturing of an influential public opinion *lathe subject of the Franchise. Mr. Cobden's position among Parlia- ment men, his repute as a popularleader, hmeeneral independence of parties, and his particular knovsledgeof tamiddle and working classes, make him a witness of high value, and he is now to be- added to the number of those who stand forward in favour of household ,suffrage. He gives solid reasons for his opinion with regard to the working portion of the householder class- ' I Sale had great experience in eppealing te- all classes, and I say most sinewely„thati mould prefer an aucliencoof whichthe working class formed. a considerable part in all cases where I was the advocate of the rights of humanity. great bodies of men are, no doubt, liable to be misled by ap- Pelt* to- their passions ; they are sot always logical or capable of dear reasoning; ;but they are instinativtdy just and trful ; the multitude are inelpabierot p/sying the pant af bykreeritesAnd traitors. The lenger I live
the -greater is my reverence for and trust in the mass of humanity, Which, in the aggregate, seems to sum up a total of virtues greater than can be traced in the individual units."
One objection is made to household franchise, that it would ex- clude many persons of responsible position and even of 'property. To a certain extent this is true. But it would admit by far the larger proportion of responsible persons who possess some degree of information, and it would be easy to supply- any deficiency by another form of franchise. Any kind of educational suffag,e would admit those of the professional class who constitute per- haps the most important section of lodgers • and other omissions might easily be made good by means of a suffrage based on direct taxation. Of course we are speaking of towns ; in counties we should still have the forty-shilling freeholder, the copyholder, and leaseholder ; though probably the conditions of the lease- holder's suffrage might be reduced in length of term and in amount. These broad provisions would secure that on which the opinion of the country is manifestly concentrating and consoli- dating—the representation of the great body of the resident people who have something to show for their responsibility,. Already we have seen, in the case of those persons who signed the educational franchise memorial, a collection of names extra- ordinary in the amount of knowledge and influence which it em- bodied—what a wide portion of cultivated society is prepared to combine representation of the educated classes with an extension of the franchise to the general body of the resident people. Sir John Eardley Wilmot's pamphlet showed how manymindsamongst reflecting and conscientious Reformers were long since prepared to receive this idea. The same idea is the very nucleus and-es- sence of the address issued by Mr. Roebuck and his friends, and setting forth what might be considered the opinion of the Radical
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party n the principal towns. In Mr. Cobden we have an im- portant adjunct, representing the thoughtful middle-class party. There has been no general agitation on the subject ; but we scarcely remember a case in which, without agitation there has been this general and willing. agreement upon the broad and fun- damental principle of a measure.
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