The late Lord Macaulay on Universal Suffrage.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3009, 7 October 1878, Page 2

The late Lord Macaulay on Universal Suffrage.

.The following letter, sent by the late Lord Macaulay to a friend iv New York in 1857, is apropos at the present time: 41 Dear Sir,—You are surprised to learn that I hare not a high opinion of Mr JVlTerson, and I am surprised at your surprise. lam certuin that! never wrote * a line, and that I never, in Parliament, in conversation, or even on the hustings—a place where it is the fashion to court the populace—uttered a word indicating an

opinion that" "the supreme authority in a State ought to be entrusted to the majority of citizens told by the head ; in other words,'to the poorest and most ignorant part of society. I have loDg been cdnvinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilisation, or both. • • "In Europe, where the population is dense, the effect of such institutions would be almost instantaneous. What happened lately in' France is an example. * * * " You may think that your country enjoys ah exemption from these evils. I will frankly own to you that I am of a' very different opinion. Your fate I believe, to be certain, though it is deferred by a physical cause. As long as you have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your labouring population will be far more at ease than the labouring population of the old world ; and, whilst that is the case, the Jeffersonian policy may'continue to exist without causing any fatal calamity 1. But the time will come when New England'will become as thickly peopled as Old England, Wages willbe as low, and will fluctuate as much with you. as with us. You will have your Manchesters and you Birminghatns; and in those Manchesters and Birminghams hundreds of thousands of,artisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your institutions willbe fairly brought to the-' test. Distress ' everywhere makes the laborer mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen with eagerness to agitators, who tell him that it is a monstrous iniquity that one man should have A million while another cannot get a full meal. In bad years there is plenty of grumbling here, and sometimes a little rioting ; but it matters little, for here tho Bufferers are hot.the rulers. The supreme power is in the hands of a class, numerous indeed,'but select—of an educated class-— of a class which is, and knows itself to be, deeply interested in the security of property and the maintenance of- order. Accordingly the malcontents are firmly but gently restrained. The bad time is got over without robbing the wealthy to relieve the indigent. The springs of national prosperity soon begin to flow again ; work is plentiful, wages rise, and all is tranquility and'cheerfulness.. I have seen England pass "three or four times through such critical seasons as I have described. Through such seasons the United States will have to pass"in the course of the next century, if not of this. How will you pass through them? I heartily wish you a good deliverance. But my reason and my wishes are at war, and I cannot help foreboding the- worst. It is quite plain that your Government will never be able to restrain a distressed and discontented majority, for with you the majority is the Government, and has the rich; who are always a minority, absolutely at it« mercy. The day will come when, in the State of New York, a multitude of people, not one of-whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to have more than half a dinner, will choose a Legislature. Is it possible to doubt what «ort of Legislature will, be chosen ? On one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect, for Tested rights, strict observance 'of public faith. On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists and usurers, and asking why anybody should be permitted to drink champagne and ride in a carriage, while-thousands of honest folks are in want of necessaries. Which of the two candidates is likely to be preferred by a working man who hears his children crying for. more bread? 1 seriously apprehend that you will,^ in some such case of adversity! do things which will prevent prosperity from returning.' ' Either some Casar or Napoleon will seize the reins of Government with a strong hand; or your republic will be as fearfully plundered in the 20th century as the Roman Empire was in the sth; with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals* who ravaged the Boman Empirecame from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions. "Thinking thus, of course I cannot reckon Jefferson among the beneffetors of mankind.' "I have the honour to be,dear Sir, " Your faithful servant, . „ " T. B. Macaiti-at." '