登陆注册
15383700000016

第16章 Part The First (16)

The constitution of France says that every man who pays a tax of sixty sous per annum (2s.6d.English) is an elector.What article will Mr.Burke place against this? Can anything be more limited, and at the same time more capricious, than the qualification of electors is in England? Limited-because not one man in an hundred (I speak much within compass) is admitted to vote.Capricious- because the lowest character that can be supposed to exist, and who has not so much as the visible means of an honest livelihood, is an elector in some places: while in other places, the man who pays very large taxes, and has a known fair character, and the farmer who rents to the amount of three or four hundred pounds a year, with a property on that farm to three or four times that amount, is not admitted to be an elector.

Everything is out of nature, as Mr.Burke says on another occasion, in this strange chaos, and all sorts of follies are blended with all sorts of crimes.William the Conqueror and his descendants parcelled out the country in this manner, and bribed some parts of it by what they call charters to hold the other parts of it the better subjected to their will.This is the reason why so many of those charters abound in Cornwall; the people were averse to the Government established at the Conquest, and the towns were garrisoned and bribed to enslave the country.All the old charters are the badges of this conquest, and it is from this source that the capriciousness of election arises.

The French Constitution says that the number of representatives for any place shall be in a ratio to the number of taxable inhabitants or electors.

What article will Mr.Burke place against this? The county of York, which contains nearly a million of souls, sends two county members; and so does the county of Rutland, which contains not an hundredth part of that number.

The old town of Sarum, which contains not three houses, sends two members;and the town of Manchester, which contains upward of sixty thousand souls, is not admitted to send any.Is there any principle in these things? It is admitted that all this is altered, but there is much to be done yet, before we have a fair representation of the people.Is there anything by which you can trace the marks of freedom, or discover those of wisdom?

No wonder then Mr.Burke has declined the comparison, and endeavored to lead his readers from the point by a wild, unsystematical display of paradoxical rhapsodies.

The French Constitution says that the National Assembly shall be elected every two years.What article will Mr.Burke place against this? Why, that the nation has no right at all in the case; that the government is perfectly arbitrary with respect to this point; and he can quote for his authority the precedent of a former Parliament.

The French Constitution says there shall be no game laws, that the farmer on whose lands wild game shall be found (for it is by the produce of his lands they are fed) shall have a right to what he can take; that there shall be no monopolies of any kind- that all trades shall be free and every man free to follow any occupation by which he can procure an honest livelihood, and in any place, town, or city throughout the nation.What will Mr.Burke say to this? In England, game is made the property of those at whose expense it is not fed; and with respect to monopolies, the country is cut up into monopolies.Every chartered town is an aristocratical monopoly in itself, and the qualification of electors proceeds out of those chartered monopolies.

Is this freedom? Is this what Mr.Burke means by a constitution?

In these chartered monopolies, a man coming from another part of the country is hunted from them as if he were a foreign enemy.An Englishman is not free of his own country; every one of those places presents a barrier in his way, and tells him he is not a freeman- that he has no rights.Within these monopolies are other monopolies.In a city, such for instance as Bath, which contains between twenty and thirty thousand inhabitants, the right of electing representatives to Parliament is monopolised by about thirty-one persons.And within these monopolies are still others.A man even of the same town, whose parents were not in circumstances to give him an occupation, is debarred, in many cases, from the natural right of acquiring one, be his genius or industry what it may.

Are these things examples to hold out to a country regenerating itself from slavery, like France? Certainly they are not, and certain am I, that when the people of England come to reflect upon them they will, like France, annihilate those badges of ancient oppression, those traces of a conquered nation.Had Mr.Burke possessed talents similar to the author of "On the Wealth of Nations." he would have comprehended all the parts which enter into, and, by assemblage, form a constitution.He would have reasoned from minutiae to magnitude.It is not from his prejudices only, but from the disorderly cast of his genius, that he is unfitted for the subject he writes upon.Even his genius is without a constitution.It is a genius at random, and not a genius constituted.But he must say something.He has therefore mounted in the air like a balloon, to draw the eyes of the multitude from the ground they stand upon.

Much is to be learned from the French Constitution.Conquest and tyranny transplanted themselves with William the Conqueror from Normandy into England, and the country is yet disfigured with the marks.May, then, the example of all France contribute to regenerate the freedom which a province of it destroyed!

同类推荐
  • She Stoops To Conquer

    She Stoops To Conquer

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 北轩笔记

    北轩笔记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Canterbury Pieces

    Canterbury Pieces

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 医学指归

    医学指归

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 洞灵真经注

    洞灵真经注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 灭世老魔头

    灭世老魔头

    天哪?那是什么,一道光降临,人们惊恐,接着所有人都死了!哎呀,怎么一不小心又灭了一个星球啊!老魔自语道!脸上露出无辜的神情!!
  • 忍界

    忍界

    喜历史者不可不读此书,往日尘嚣,栩栩如生,揭开不载之秘。喜诗文者不可不读此书,一书典故,满纸墨香,尽显唐文风骨。喜悬疑者不可不读此书,旧迷未解,新迷又生,挑战脑力极限。喜玄幻者不可不读此书,奇能异术,惊世骇俗,神奇绝非荒唐。喜言情者不可不读此书,情深似海,心密如丝,道尽人间风月。喜国学者不可不读此书,琴棋书画,儒释岐黄,普涉大国之学。不喜书者不可不读此书,燥热心起,解于清凉,书中自有润海。喜读书者不可不读此书,书以载文,文以言志,乃发无邪之思。
  • 腹黑总裁追妻:宠妻101次

    腹黑总裁追妻:宠妻101次

    邪慕凉,那个无人不惧怕,可偏偏在她面前是一只癞皮狗,死缠着她不放过,还在媒体前宣布“永生永世我非幽静心夏不娶”这还让她怎么见人啊
  • 强者时代

    强者时代

    至从夏商两大王朝过后,原本强大无比的神化者纷纷消失,慢慢的淡出人们的视线,直到如今普通人更本不知道还有神化者这类人存在,只当做是神话故事。随着一条空间裂缝的出现,使得原本已经被人们遗忘的神化者纷纷现世。原本普通的李然,至从得到的了一件宝贝后,从此踏上了强者之路,随之,萝莉,御姐,校花纷纷而来。
  • 言情的男孩

    言情的男孩

    我们没有感情,只是一辈子朋友。我们是朋友,对彼此都有好感,为什么不能在一起。而是一帆三折。虐情。
  • DNF之箭神传说

    DNF之箭神传说

    他只是一个普通的大学生,日常的玩着一款名为“地下城与勇士”的网游,后来,死神德莱弗斯出现在他面前,他的生命的齿轮,开始了改变。
  • 童猴雅什卡

    童猴雅什卡

    本丛书为俄罗斯众多著名作家的动物文学合集,文章生动有趣又不乏诗意,让人在阅读的同时,好似亲身处在朝气蓬勃的大自然里,而那些可爱、单纯的大自然的精灵,就在自己身边…… 本分册包括《童猴雅什卡》《树上的猎人》和《血腥的小兽》等。
  • 天下无双:邪妃太撩火

    天下无双:邪妃太撩火

    天下第一的杀手女王竟然输在自己最爱得人身上,从此在阮家最草包身上,看她怎么逆袭,神兽?这是她小弟。神物?她身上一大堆。钱?她家富可敌国。美貌?她是大陆第一美女。可是这个老是粘在自己身上的男人是怎么回事,还美名其曰:这是我夫人,我怎么了,没听说过夫君亲娘子天经地义吗!,哼。但是她毫不动心,因为她要的只是巅峰,不要靠男人!
  • 重生之英雄无敌

    重生之英雄无敌

    易凡是个LOL菜鸟,刚注册账号玩了几天,就灵魂附身在无极剑圣易大师身上,带着刚拥有的三个英雄穿越到全民武修的神武大陆。于是,一个菜鸟与三个极品队友踏上了未知的冒险之旅,上演了一场热血与谛笑皆非的英雄史诗。易凡:“艾希,你整天背着箭筒,不重吗?”艾希:“你要来几发吗?”易凡:“盖伦,你能不能别整天一副凶巴巴的样子,妹子都吓跑了。”盖伦:“正义与我同在!”易凡:“赵信,你的菊花枪又捅到我的屁股了……”赵信:“一点寒芒先到……随后枪出如龙!”
  • 不为江山只为卿

    不为江山只为卿

    作为一名资深的寡妇,许慎言最大的愿望是嫁给村东头的鳏夫李二娃,寡妇配鳏夫,绝配有没有?可是,再美好的愿望都扛不主寡妇门前是非多啊,瞧这京城来的纨绔少爷。项辰:“许慎言,救命之恩,无以为报,吾只能以身相许了!”许慎言:我只是心血来潮,千日行一善,你搞毛线以身相许?姐姐是要跟二娃哥哥白头到老的。李二娃:阿言,我一定对你好一辈子,帮你一起养孩子!许慎言:……顾珉安:天要下雨娘确要嫁,娘亲,你们这样有问过我么?许慎言:大人说话,小孩子一边去!顾珉安:在家从父,出嫁从夫,夫死从子,娘亲——你从了我吧!许慎言:……现在的娃娃太逆天,姐不玩了,姐要回家!【情节虚构,请勿模仿】