I consider this, Sir, as a practical question. I rest my opinion
on no general theory of government. I distrust all general
theories of government. I will not positively say, that there is
any form of polity which may not, in some conceivable
circumstances, be the best possible. I believe that there are
societies in which every man may safely be admitted to vote.
Gentlemen may cheer, but such is my opinion. I say, Sir, that
there are countries in which the condition of the labouring
classes is such that they may safely be intrusted with the right
of electing Members of the Legislature. If the labourers of
England were in that state in which I, from my soul, wish to see
them, if employment were always plentiful, wages always high,
food always cheap, if a large family were considered not as an
encumbrance but as a blessing, the principal objections to
Universal Suffrage would, I think, be removed. Universal
Suffrage exists in the United States, without producing any very
frightful consequences; and I do not believe that the people of
those States, or of any part of the world, are in any good
quality naturally superior to our own countrymen. But,
unhappily, the labouring classes in England, and in all old
countries, are occasionally in a state of great distress. Some
of the causes of this distress are, I fear, beyond the control of
the Government. We know what effect distress produces, even on
people more intelligent than the great body of the labouring
classes can possibly be. We know that it makes even wise men
irritable, unreasonable, credulous, eager for immediate relief,
heedless of remote consequences. There is no quackery in
medicine, religion, or politics, which may not impose even on a
powerful mind, when that mind has been disordered by pain or
fear. It is therefore no reflection on the poorer class of