against the supporters of an extended franchise, | plan, but as a compromise. The charge made originates in the poverty of the persons for whom they seek justice. At present, many men of considerable property are excluded from the suffrage. The Government Bill of this year, by reducing the county occupation franchise from fifty to ten pounds, would have provided for that class in conjunction with the lodger's qualification. Even without any fancy franchises, but by the bare hard rental system, all men of ample means could have obtained the franchise under the Bill of the Government.

Eleven years since, the franchise question was less matured than now. Then, with the view of obtaining some practical advantages, we suggested the propriety of calming the fears of the nervous by allowing depositors in savings banks, and other banks approved by the Government, to vote upon their deposit receipts. There can be no propriety in limiting the privilege to savings banks. It is much more desirable, for the benefit of the country, that depositors should place their money in other banks. In Scotland, there are comparatively few depositors in savings banks, because money is received on call at a fair interest by the common banks of the country. That practice is now extending in Eng land, with a conditional notice of removal by the depositors, which seems to be an improvement on the ordinary practice of banking in Scotland. The deposit in any bank, approved by the Government, should therefore be equal to a deposit in a savings bank as a qualification. There is no reason whatever for confining the qualifying power of the money to one kind of lodgment.

The amount next follows the place. Upon what ground is fifty or sixty pounds selected as the evidence of economy and industry? A person who earns eighty pounds annually can save sixty pounds in two years; or lives in a different style from the man who earns fifty pounds and saves nothing. A saving bank deposit can therefore be no proof that its owner is a better citizen or a more intelligent subject than his neighbour, who has never owned a savings bank book; and if the object, apparently sought by the qualification, is ever obtained, it must be by the adoption of a smaller sum.

The difference in wages would tell unfavourably in some trades. The difference in the customs of the trades would have a similar result. The operative in some trades is obliged to find his tools; in other trades the employers find all tools. The difference is quite equal to sixty pounds. Many "workers in wood" will have a stock of sixty pounds in tools; and they cannot be expected to have the same money in a bank as operatives who, without finding sixty pence or sixty shillings worth of tools, earn the same wages. Legislators, generally, may not know the fact, and indeed there is reason to suppose them in ignorance of its existence, for they persist in charging a heavy duty upon the insurance against fire of this

description of property; but it is true, that as many operatives are daily engaged in numerous trades they must have a capital, and not a small one. invested, to enable them to work. It is not easy to reckon the value held in tools by workmen; but we believe it is equal to twenty millions-a startling sum to persons who did not think that any money was invested in that way. If we reckon the number of artisans and operatives at two millions, and assume ten pounds as the average outlay for each, we get at twenty millions; but many artisans, in respectable employment, do not expend more than one pound upon tools, while we have known some workmen's chests valued at one hundred pounds, and even more money. It would be foolish, therefore, to suppose that early in life the two classes of men could have, or need to have, the same deposits in cash.

To all savings bank, or any other bank deposit as a means of qualification, there exists Mr. Bright' objection, that when a man gets married, and requires to draw for a time upon his savings, he may be disfranchised for doing "right." There are other objections, as if, when bad times come, with no work, it were wise to disfranchise men because they were compelled to eat up part of their savings, and thus add insult to what is suffering, and may perhaps have been wrong; or, as if it were wise, if accident or sickness has weakened the frame and chastened the spirit, it were good to disfranchise the object of affliction, not for anything that he had done, more than drawing from his hoard the means of life, in circumstances when he could earn nothing, by causes which he could not prevent. A man's entire family history must be known before he can be blamed for having no deposits. Perhaps he should be praised for not having them. He may have had such calls upon him, that he is refused electoral rights because he has a good heart, and really did his duty to society and to the world. Another man might trench upon deposits long maintained, to meet, not any affliction of his own, but a calamity which had befallen a neighbour. Such circumstances have occurred in life, and according to the depositing qualification proposed by the rival statesmen, the Levite and the Priest might both remain on the registry of voters; while the Samaritan's name would be struck out.

One ridiculous objection hangs by all these property qualifications. The rights of citizenship are not bartered for an investment of fifty pounds, or of sixty pounds in a savings bank, which may be drawn on the day after the elector gives his vote, although it must have remained for twelvemonths in hand before he offers to vote-not even for one pound, but for one shilling. At the period in question, we suggested one fancy franchise," which might be available for four fifths of all the males who live to manhood, and would produce indirect but inestimable blessings to society. We have never recommended the scheme as a matter of right; but if the members of the Legislature

The pre

and statesmen really seek to wed population to property, they have the means in Life Insurance. The elder men in society could not insure their lives with advantage for a large sum. mium becomes high upon a new policy, after a man has reached his fortieth or fiftieth year. That obstacle must invariably remain in the way; but the younger portion of society could always qualify on a Life Assurance policy by a little selfdenial. We proposed that policies of three years' standing should qualify from that date and onwards through life. It would be useless to suggest a sum much under one hundred pounds. Justice would, indeed, permit a sliding-scale. Some trades have been so pressed down by competition, that the earnings of skilled and strong mea in them, will scarcely support life. The agricultural labourers of the country receive small wages, and they could not devote a large sum for this purpose. A large sum would not, however, be required. A young man of eighteen might insure his life for one hundred pounds, by payment of sixpence per week. At twenty-one, he would be in the full enjoyment of his rights as a citizen, and he would not know how to use them well. That might be true; yet we believe that the agricultural labourers have a general and good idea of the landowners in their beat. They know if the rich discharge their duties as men of property, and stewards of a portion of the earth. We have scarcely ever found an error on this subject in the popular voice. The peasantry know the character of the aristocracy of the counties better, we believe, than these gentlemen themselves. They see it from a superior point of view, and the one which gives glimpses of it that all classes in society should know. The agricultural labourers would probably not vote politically right, but they would vote socially right if they were left to the guidance of their own will. They would support the views of good landowners, who are not always, but are likely often to be good men. Even good men may be bad politicians; but the errors of a good man in politics will not mar his dealings with his neighbours. He will not neglect the duties of his station, and he will not employ his influence, possessions, or rank, for evil purposes. In order to gain political influence, he must be useful in his county, especially upon his own estate, and particularly among his own labourers. A man of this character will command votes by ballot, or by open word. No possible process could be devised to destroy his influence, and we have not the slightest desire for its reduction. We only desire that it may be attained and paid for in a legitimate manner, The results of an extended suffrage do not, however, concern our present business, which is to recommend one franchise, that, being accessible to the great majority of the operative classes, would infallibly connect them with the interests of property.

A qualification of this nature must obviously prove its reality by existing for some time.

If

property be connected with the franchise, we should see that it be more than a pretence that it be a reality. The payment of the premium due upon a policy for three years would indicate the intention to continue and preserve the right to property which it acquired. Life Assurance does not place property, in one sense, in any man's hands. Indeed, it makes him a debtor, as it is ordinarily arranged, for the term of his natural life. Still, it gives him, from the moment of its completion, a right to transfer property. He becomes at once interested in the "stability of our institutions," and much more so than the person who has a deposit in a savings bank, for which he can draw a cheque in any week, and finish the business.

Policies of Life Assurance may lapse by nonpayment of the premium. The holder has no longer an interest in properly to that extent. It is the same thing with the depositor in a savings bank, who might draw and spend his money. The franchise would be lost to both from a similar cause,

The propriety of this qualification, from general and social causes affecting the well-being of society, is evident; but it would imply facilities for the payment of premiums which have not been afforded extensively by companies of ample means to the working classes. Some inducements are necessary to extend the practice, which has many advan tages among the classes who receive weekly wages. Weekly payment is one of these inducements. It could be accomplished certainly by making the payment weekly to a sayings bank, and drawing it quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly for the company; but the latter, in the end, would gain by the transaction of its own business, and rendering it convenient for tradesmen. At present, the convenience of that class is not studied by Life Assurance companies, although other professions" or "trades," who do anything, or offer anything, in which the great body of society are interested, gain by conforming their hours and places of business to the convenience of the more numerous classes in society. In this case, irrespective of the political object which we suggest, an immense business might obviously be done. The policies would cover small amounts. The payments would be small, therefore, and numerous, and thus troublesome. They would involve additional clerks to make additional entries; but any person conversant with bookkeeping must know that this expense would be met by an almost imperceptible charge upon the policies.

The risk of loss has greatly interfered with the extension of Life Assurance. Some very old companies realised fortunes out of misfortunes and penury. They revelled in calamities. A great crisis in commercial affairs was a windfall to them. They occupied precisely the position of wreckers, They were respectable wreckers, who never got wet in the storm, but at their desks coolly pocketed all the gifts of the tempest, and coiled up their investments out of common waifs.

The modern system is a slight, and only a very slight improvement. Competition has introduced the practice of issuing indisputable policies, and of returning to poverty some portion of its payments in better times. Before Life Assurance can be extended widely among artisans and labourers, it must be improved in both particulars. The payments must be secured, and the policies must be absolutely indisputable. A working man feels as any other man feels, that his past payments may be lost by inability to continue them, or from want of employment. As he is more exposed to these evils than a clerk, shopkeeper, or a tradesman on his own account, he expects more naturally that he may come to less by Life Insurance.

The remedy is easy. A company have merely to keep out of their calculations all chance or all hope of gain from the calamities of their customers, fix their payments by that reckoning, and the insurer will be certain to have accumulated a fixed sum of money-if not all the money which he once anticipated. Some companies were formed once upon that basis, but it may have had too little gambling excitement in its nature to please the speculative, and we do not think that it has been successful. This is no reason why it should not be prosperous. The plan is perfectly practicable, and the calculations would be regular and simple, while the rates would be a trifle higher than those in common use.

The Government issue annuities perpetual and terminable, and there is no reason why the Government should not, by the same machinery, extended to meet the work, accept annuities terminable for the payment on that event of a fixed sum. That is the process of Life Assurance; and if the Government can become a banker, it may also be converted into a Life Insurance Company, and do its own work. If this be deemed an improper interference by a company of gunmakers and ship-builders, shoemakers and tailors, with the business and trade of its subjects, which we think it may be deemed, then perhaps the Government would not object to the appointment of adequate auditors by the public, who would give official approval to the companies whose policies and receipts for premium upon them would be considered qualifications for the registry of voters.

This "fancy franchise" would probably qualify in the three kingdoms a million of men before 1865, at a cost of sixpence to eightpence per week, invested for the benefit of their families in the best manner, by associating them not only with the present property, but the prospective security and wealth of the country; and while accomplishing a political, it would insure a social revolution in the circumstances of society.

The existing companies for insurance supply the machinery without any expense, but with profit to themselves, for there is no company based

on accurate, and conducted on honest principles, that could object to an audit by a public accountant; that could not arrange the manner of payment conveniently to the insurers, if they expected an adequate business to repay the expense; and that could not, and would not, adopt rates equitable for the security we have proposed, and sufficient to meet their additional risk.

To the public, the plan secures constituencies, whose interests would be pledged to the prospective welfare of the country, and the accumulation of provision for the education, the independence, and the support of the operative classes, such as never were contemplated, and never, of course, existed in any other land. To the politician, it would afford the probable solution of a question, which may be deferred or postponed for a few years, but must arise, and recur regularly and steadily until Manhood Suffrage become our rule; unless we adopt some substitute, which combining practical applicability, with direct benefit to the artisan and labouring classes, may make a satisfactory compromise.

This franchise, or any other that repudiates the personal right of the voter, is not abstractly just. We have no right to take away a right without showing a good and sufficient reason. The burden of proving the right to refuse the the franchise, rests with those who assume that superiority. In this country, the franchise has really been withdrawn. We are not seeking something new, but we are struggling for re possession of an old privilege. Celts and Saxons, in ancient times, chose their chiefs as the Hebrews elected their Kings, and political privileges were lost in ages of conquest, corruption, and misrule.

The politicians of the present day burden the personal franchise with property conditions, which have been devised to obtain either a representation of property, or some testimony of respectability; but rates, rents, or savings banks economics, are not distinct evidences on this subject-certainly not more distinct, not so enduring, as the "fancy franchise which we again mention; with the certainty that if the leaders of the two political parties mean well, it will be adopted; that if adopted, it will enfranchise a multitude of good men; that thereby it will accomplish a permanent benefit to society, equivalent to a happy revolution; that it will do good to the families and friends of the new electors, and, under the conditions named, will be secure against loss to them; and that it might perhaps be taken, after a brief experience of its practical working, as the solution of a great question; uniting together the personal claim and the property condition, in the manner least likely to depress the former, by the presence of the latter; although we neither allege nor insinuate that it could be better than the least harmless compromise of right and wrong,

"WRITE an article on Shoppers, Crichton, and I'll give you illustrations from life. Don't refuse now, there's a good fellow."

"My young friend, are you mad ?"

Harry had been compelled to abandon his intention of following out his studies. For his mother and sister's sake he sacrificed inclination to duty, and accepted a situation in a counting-house. But are

"From your insane proposal."

I understood authors could treat on any given subject."

"Within range of their knowledge and experience, good Frank."

"Pshaw! you could easily enough master my theme if you willed it."

"Nay, I would not willingly disoblige you, but shopping has always been my extreme aversion; and shoppers, as you well know, I have small intercourse with. Allow me to say, however, you are the last person I would have expected to make such a demand”—

"Upon the cynical Crichton," laughed Frank; but he seemed disappointed.

"Apply to a lady friend. You need be at no loss, Frank."

Frank was in no humour for jesting, apparently. He walked to the window, watched the falling snow a few moments, then flung himself into an easy chair, and resting his chin on his hand, gazed moodily into the fire, while I scrib. bled on in the fast fading light, until the shadows deepened, and the short wintry day closed in mist and gloom. I could not see to finish my paragraph. Frank mused on, and I laid down my pen and seated myself opposite him.

"I have rather astonished you, Crichton," remarked Frank at length.

"Rather," I repeated, laughing.

"As I owe you some explanation; if you are in no great haste for lights, I shall briefly relate how I come to feel so deeply interested in shoppers all at once."

"The old, old story, Frank; so often told, but ever new."

"I must recall to your mind Harry Leslie. He was an old schoolfellow of mine, whom you have met frequently when a boy, at Ashton-grove."

"An earnest, studious lad, destined like yourself for the Church, I thought. Has he too turned squire of dames ?"

We were warm friends in school-boy days, and when we left Dr. Wilder's parting with mutual regret, we agreed to correspond, and did so faithfully for a time-however, he seemed to have forgotten his promise at last, for I never once heard from him during the two years I was in Germany, and on my return to England the Leslies had left. The old man had died bankrupt, his widow and little girls had retired to an obscure village in the north, where Mrs. Leslie had a small property which was settled upon herself, and which just afforded a roof to shelter them, and nothing more.

"Not exactly," answered I, stirring the fire with desperate energy; for I had been fast falling into a reverie in which, truth compels me to confess, neither Frank nor Harry Leslie held any part.

"We shall run over a few miles in the railroad, and next stop at the great station where Harry Leslie and myself were to meet. I suppressed a yawn and ensconced myself more comfortably in my arm chair. In the city of cities, in an evil hour I was tempted to escort a party of fair friends to an exhibition of paintings. Nothing very far amiss so far; but it happened on the way home the matron of the party discovered we had an hour to spare before more sight-seeing. The warehouse of Jenkins and Jones was close at hand. Its temptations were not to be withstood, for the present was a favourable opportunity to show Miss Macduff the magnificence of a London warehouse. We were met at the door by a bland gentleman in black, who smilingly conducted us to the department we sought, placed chairs for the ladies himself, bowed low, and left us to go back to his station at the door. Half-an-hour slipped past, most agreeably, no doubt, to the fair shoppers, who seemed as if they never could grow weary of admiring and pricing and tumbling over costly textures of every line. Another half-hour-time was up; and it was still impossible to make choice, and, sooth to say, amid such variety it was doubtless a difficult task. It was declared too fatiguing -significent glances were exchanged betwixt the friends and smiling and gaily chatting to each other, without a word of thanks or any apology for the trouble given, the fair shoppers swept out of the 'Department' evidently well-pleased at the attention shown and the entertainment afforded them, indifferent as to whether they had not caused one fellow creature an additional hour's labour and another a waste of time, which, however valueless to themselves, was of infinite importance to him. I had the rudeness to brush past the young man who had waited upon these fickle dames without the courtesy of a good morning, in my eagerness to escape durance vile. With a sigh of relief I found myself once more near the door, when who should enter but Harry Leslie. There was no time for explanations; we shook hands, exchanged cards, and that same evening found us talking over old times in his parlour, which, by the way, was shared by a friend, Mr. Bartholomew Richards. Harry called him familiarly Barty. He was an assistant in the warehouse in which Harry acted as clerk. Mr. Bartholemew Richards evidently idolized Harry, and Harry was much attached to him. I thought him intolerable, and wondered how Harry