"That's no reason for giving them votes."

"I should like to behold the experiment of a new form of
misgovernment. If we are to be eternally enslaved to fools and
swindlers, why not a change? We have had regal misrule and
aristocratic swindling long enough."

"Seriously, my friend," he continued, "study that immortal charter,
the Declaration of the Rights of Man."

He stopped in the street, and with an oratorical air repeated the
well-known lines, "Men are born and always continue free, and equal
in respect of their rights. . . . Every citizen has a right, either
by himself or by his representative, to a free voice in determining
the necessity of public contributions, the appropriation of them, and
their amount, mode of assessment, and duration." He knew them by
heart. "It is the truth," he continued: "you must come to that,
unless you believe in the Divine appointment of dynasties. There is
no logical repose between Lord Liverpool and the Declaration. What
is the real difference between him and you? None but a question of
degree. He does not believe in absolute monarchy, and stays at this
point. You go a little lower. You are both alike. How dare you
say, 'My brother, I am more honest and more religious than you; pay
me half-a-crown and I will spend it for your welfare'? You cannot
tell me that. You know I should have a RIGHT to reject you. I
refuse to be coerced. I prefer freedom to--felicity."

Zachariah was puzzled. He was not one of those persons who can see
no escape from an argument and yet are not convinced; one of those