ust as dear to huz as pedigrees an' acres to the
aristocracy. We want nae ten-hours bills--what richt hae parliaments to
dictate to huz, an' keep huz frae sellin' a' we hae to sell, oor time
an' oor labour? We want to be let alane to mind oor ain business, an no
to be treated as if we was bairns that didna ken what was for their
gude. Na, na, Maister Hogarth, when ye gied thae allotments to your
hinds, ye showed that ye kent what they were fit for, an' ye MAUN see
that the bigger a consteetuency is, the purer it is like to be."

"My friends," said Francis, "the effect of any great extension of the
suffrage, as things are at present, would be to put the WHOLE political
power into the hands of the least educated classes of the community."

"Not the whole with a five-pound vote," said Sandy.

"Surely, not the whole, even wi' manhood suffrage," said Jamie.

"We dinna want it all, only oor fair share."

"But it is in the nature of things," said Francis, "that it must be so.
Your five-pound voters, Mr. Pringle, would outvote the ten-pound voters
enormously. Your non-propertied electors, Mr. Howison, would out-vote
even the five-pound voters, and would, in every constituency, carry
their candidate by an overwhelming majority. This would not be good
either for the country or for you."

"But the rich have the House of Lords, where they are paramount," said
Sandy Pringle.

"A very feeble barrier that would be found against the abuses of
democracy," said Francis. "You know well that in all emergencies the
Lords must give way to the Commons."

"'Deed maun they," said Jamie Howison, "and the only chance of justice
for huz that they maun. But, Maister Hogarth, ye see that property, an'
education, an' rank, an' a' that, hae had it a' their ain way for
hundreds o' years; it's time that we should hae oor turn. We arena like
the French (in the days of the auld revolution); we would respect
property. Even if we had owre muckle power, I think we wad mak nae bad
use of it. It's hard to keep huz oot o' oor richts for ever because ye
think we micht get a thocht mair than is good for us."

"But," said Sandy, sagaciously, "ye acknowledge that things as they are
are na fair. What wad ye do to mend them?"

"You recollect a proposal of Lord John Russell's, some years ago, to
reconstruct the electoral districts, by making them each return three
members, and allowing each elector to vote for only two, so as to
secure somewhat of the right