names stand first in the alphabetical list of the Court Guide
were made Members of Parliament, there would probably be able men
among them. We read in ancient history, that a very able king
was elected by the neighing of his horse; but we shall scarcely,
I think, adopt this mode of election. In one of the most
celebrated republics of antiquity, Athens, Senators and
Magistrates were chosen by lot; and sometimes the lot fell
fortunately. Once, for example, Socrates was in office. A cruel
and unjust proposition was made by a demagogue. Socrates
resisted it at the hazard of his own life. There is no event in
Grecian history more interesting than that memorable resistance.
Yet who would have officers appointed by lot, because the
accident of the lot may have given to a great and good man a
power which he would probably never have attained in any other
way? We must judge, as I said, by the general tendency of a
system. No person can doubt that a House of Commons chosen
freely by the middle classes, will contain many very able men. I
do not say, that precisely the same able men who would find their
way into the present House of Commons will find their way into
the reformed House: but that is not the question. No particular
man is necessary to the State. We may depend on it that, if we
provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions
will provide it with great men.

There is another objection, which, I think, was first raised by
the honourable and learned Member for Newport. (Mr Horace
Twiss.) He tells us that the elective franchise is property;
that to take it away from a man who has not been judicially
convicted of malpractices is robbery; that no crime is proved
against the voters in the close boroughs; that no crime is even