ingly fine type of man; conscientious, public
spirited, humane, and utterly without personal ambition. He resigned his
commission in the Navy because he believed it wrong to fight against the
American Colonies, and he organised a county militia for the sake of
national defence. On the pedestal beneath his statue in Cartwright Gardens,
just south of Euston Road, in London, the virtues of the "Father of Reform"
are described at length, and he is mentioned as "the firm, consistent and
persevering advocate of _universal suffrage_, equal representation, vote by
ballot, and annual Parliaments." It was in 1777 that Cartwright published
his first pamphlet entitled "Legislative Rights Vindicated," and pleaded
for "a return to the ancient and constitutional practice of Edward III."
and the election of annual Parliaments. Long Parliaments were the root of
all social political evil, Cartwright argued. War, national debt, distress,
depopulation, land out of cultivation, Parliamentary debate itself become a
mockery--these calamities were all due to long Parliaments; and would be
cured if once a year--on June 1st--a fresh Parliament was elected by the
votes of every man over eighteen--by ballot and without any plural
voting--and a payment of two guineas a day was made to members on their
attendance. Of course, Cartwright could not help writing "all are by nature
free, all are by nature equal"--no political reformer in the eighteenth
century could do otherwise--but, unlike his contemporaries, the Major was a
stout Christian, and insisted that as the whole plan of Christianity was
founded on the equality of all mankind, political rights must have the same
foundation. By the political axiom that "no man shall be taxed but with his
own consent, given either by himself or his own representative in
Parliament," Cartwright may be quoted as one who had some perception of
what democracy meant in England; but he is off the track again in arguing
that personality, and not the possession of property, was the sole
foundation of the right of being represented in Parliament. It was the
possession of property that brought taxation, and with taxation the right
to representation. We cannot repeat too often that in England the progress
to democracy has never been made on assumptions of an abstract right to
vote. We have come to democracy by experience, and this experience has
taught us that people who are taxed insist, sooner or later, on having a
voice in