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Show TEE SUFFRAGE. Tho New York Times, noting as a Bignof the times, that the expediency of univerpal mtl ge is coming to be mnre frequently called in question, and thr Mittiy Lho.i forms of society wbi. h rit np-tn it to be boldly de-nipd, de-nipd, discusses tho education and euflrano questions, quoting from President Woolsey's work on political, science, bb follows: "Suppose now the ; J claEsea without intelligence or property lor character to have the suffrage and 1 lo be predominant in society, will the elections of local or of more public !nafrr hn mafirt mnrn intellitentlv than it'thcy had been excluded? Is ' it iv. tt q iite conceivable that such an 'eh-ment among the voters would give riwo to ft class of demagogues,! whose means of gaining power wouid be to produce a division between o'twsca, and to array the poor against the lich?" "There is a great danger that those who pay nothing will outvote those who pay everything." "So, in choosing magistrates, if public judges and the members of a police are chosen by tho votes of those members of a com munity who have an interest in being Bcrnened from punishment, how can 1 1 - interests of society be etle in the ... i!t oi cuoh i-ffir ir?" r 1 1 . a ienni'-d .iLd uioughtail writer cuiubatu the p ililical thi-ory which clothes every adult male with a natural right to vote. Aa not every man has a claim to hold civil office, but only the class who arejudged competent, so there is reason for confining the business of j selecting this class in 6uch a way i as to exclude from the list ot voters those who are noi qualified to fulfill tnia function. In a trenchant article in the last numbcrof the Ko. th American Review, on "The Failure of Universal SuOrage,'' Mr. Franciu Parkman vigorously assails the current cur-rent American doctrine and practice on this eubject. It is the right ar.d duty of the stale, he asserts, "to pro vide good government fjr ".tslf, and the moment the vote of any person or class of persona becomes an ob.-lacle to its doing so, this person cr cIjss forfeits the right to vote; for where the rights of a part claeh with the riglitd of the whole, the former must Hive w;:y." Tim tUtL-mcnt is in full accord with the doctrine doc-trine which Burke lays down in his Reflections un Ihe French Retolution in opposition to the theory of the French theorists who con founded natural with political rihte. It was a legitimate cILhoot of the social compact theory of Eocieiy. ac cording to which no man is bound to obey the civil authority any further than he has promised to d j. Aftfr explaining that every individual has a right to justice, and to a share in the advantaged of society, Buike says: "As to the share of power, authority and discretion which each individual ought to have in the maasmect oi the Btate, that I must deny lo be among the direct original rights oi man in civil society; for I have in my contemplation the civil, social man, and no other. It is a thing to be settled by convention." Unquestionably, the lmbit of confounding con-founding rights which ire nauiral, and, therelora, universal, with politi-; eal rights, which are privileges con-! ferred or withheld by society at its pleasure, has bad a mischievous influence in-fluence upon the American mind.. It led many to suppose that (be right of a Blave to vote and lo be eligible toi otfice was wrapped up in his right to freedom and to the enjoyment of the fruits of his industry. The claim that women should have the ballot ih often based on a vague or explicit idea of tbe same nature. What is termed tho doctriua of rota lion in office is counecud in many miuda with that confused notion of equality which puts political privileges uud?r the category ot inborn prerogatives. It is lelt that if all cannot be clothed with official dignity, dig-nity, there must be the nearest practicable prac-ticable approximation to thu ideal. Hence it ia expected that magistrates, however meritorious and useful, should relire after a b:ief term ol service, in order that others may take their turn. It would be a great gain if our people could be made to understand un-derstand distinctly that the light to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness happi-ness involves, to be sure, the right to good government, but not the right to take part, either immediately or iudirectly, in the management of the state. |