gr paper

AED 514

How we are to got ont of this dilemma with the present 1849.
House of Commons, and our representative system as it is, &'r.45.
% the problem. For we cannot shut our eyes to the fect that
our Jaw, or rather custom, of primogenitare, has its roots in
the prejudices of the npper portion of the middle class as
"oll as in the privileges of the aristocracy. The snobbish.
Ress of the moneyed classes in the great seats of commerce
and manufactures is a fearful obstacle to any effectual change
of the system,
“It was only ab the price of ten millions of money, and
bindreds of thousands of famished victims, that we suc-®eeded
 in passing our Encumbered Estates Bill. Our only
Consolation is that as we descend in the ranks of the middle
“lass, and approach the more intelligent of the working
People, the fendal prejudice diminishes ; and this brings us
fo oup only hope for progress, whether in this question or
the others on which we feel interested, namely, an increase
' the populer element in the House of Commons. I have
20 fear that we can effect this change gradually, and
Certainly if we can induce our friends to work with per-Severance,
 I do not object to Walmsley’s proreedings——in
fact I am grateful to snybody that does anything but
Stagnate, I subscribed my mite to his association and
have cheered him on. He has rendered this good service,
% least, that he has brought middle-class people and
Chartisis together without setting them by the ears, and
tlthough he has rather shocked some moderate Liberals by
his broad doctrines, he has carried others unconsciously with
him, Bat this good being done, I have not disguised from
him that more public demonstrations without an organized
System of working will do nothing towards effecting a
thangs in the representation. That can only be done by
local exertions in the registration courts, and above all by
the forty shilling votes in the countios,