some hard-handed country mechanic or labourer had, through his own
exertions, become the proud possessor, forming a higher certificate of
character than masters the most conscientious and discerning could
bestow upon their _employes_, or even Churches themselves upon their
members. Nor is this house-owning qualification much less valuable
when it has been derived by inheritance--not wrought for; seeing that
the man who retains his little patrimony unsquandered must be at
least a steady, industrious man, the slave of no expensive or
disreputable vice. Let us remark, however, that we would not
attach the educational franchise to property as such: the proprietor
of the house, whether a small house or a large one, would require
to be the _bona fide_ inhabitant of the dwelling which he occupied,
for at least a considerable portion of every year. The second class
to which we would fain see the educational franchise extended are
all those householders of the kingdom who tenant houses of five
pounds annual rent and upwards, who settle with their landlords not
oftener than twice every twelvemonth, and who are at least a year
entered on possession. By fixing the qualification thus high, and
rejecting the monthly or weekly rent-payer, the country would get rid
of at least nineteen-twentieths of the dangerous classes,--the
agricultural labourers, who wander about from parish to parish, some
six or eight months in one locality, and some ten or twelve in
another; the ignorant immigrant Irish, who tenant the poorer hovels
of so many of our western coast parishes; and last, not least, all the
migratory population of our larger towns, who rarely reside half a
year in the same dwelling, and who, though they may in some
instances pay at more than the rate of the yearly five pounds, pay
it weekly, or by the fortnight or month. We regret, however, that
there is a really worthy class which such a qualification would
exclude,--ploughmen, labourers, and country mechanics, who reside
permanently in humble cottages, the property of the owner of the
soil, and who, though their course through life lies on the bleak
edge of poverty, are God-fearing, worthy men, at least morally
qualified to give, in the election of a teacher, an honest and not
unintelligent voice. And yet, hitherto at least, we have failed to
see any principle which a British statesman would recognise as
legitimate, on which this class could be included in the educational
franchis