date

[Part in copyist's hand] 1818 July
[Part in copyist's hand]

1818 July 29

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons

II. Electors Who

Universality

Property bad qualifications

8

6

6

6

Now as to Householdership. In this we have another continuance /supposed security/ perhaps against universal spoliation perhaps against appropriate inaptitude on the part of Electors and thence on the part of Members or ag st both.

In this too we have perhaps another contrivance for laying holding of property. Compared with payment of Taxes it has Moreover the advantage of not placing the right of voting under so compleat a dependence on those who can never look at it for any other purpose than that of destroying it or producing a misuse of it.

But whichever and whatever be the design, its inefficiency with reference to that design is not less flagrant, nor less undeniable, in this than in those other cases. If it be independence that is the object, it excludes opulence to almost any degree while it fails of excluding indigence. If it be intellectual aptitude that is the object, it excludes intellectual aptitude to any degree, while it fails of excluding intellectual inaptitude.
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  • Title: [[Copyist's hand] 1818 July 30]
    Description: [Copyist's hand]

    1818 July 30

    Parl. Ref Bill

    Reasons

    II. Electors who

    Universality

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    Reading better

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    So much as to appropriate probity - now as to appropriate intellectual aptitude.

    That reading goes to this point and that in the most direct /immediate/ way is altogether Manifest. That if at all it is only in an unimmediate way that property tends to this same point is equally manifest.

    So likewise to Householdership this same observation will be seen to apply with equal truth.

    So likewise to payment of Taxes.

    What is more, only through the medium of reading can the tendency on question exert itself in the instance of any one of those supposed securities for appropriate intellectual aptitude.
  • Title: [[Copyist's hand] 1818 July 30]
    Description: [Copyist's hand]

    1818 July 30

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Reasons

    II. Electors who

    Universality

    Property bad qualification

    Reading better

    10

    8

    10

    10

    and that, unless the quantity required be so small the supposed security compleatly nugatory, that no more than a very small part of this whole number can ever be in possession of it is altogether certain.

    Apply this argument to the case of Householdership though quantities may be more or less different, the conclusion will be the same.

    So likewise in the case of qualification by payment of taxes: meaning always direct Taxes without which nothing is meant. If this qualification does not exactly coincide with that of Householdership the operation of it will be to give a still further extension to the operation of a cause, by which the content of the right is narrowed. Such will be the effect in so far as they are persons, who, though they are Householders pay nothing to the direct Taxes.
  • Title: [1818 Sept. 5. +.2. Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 Sept. 5. +.2.

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Reasons ult o

    '.2. Electors Who

    2 Householdership

    1

    1

    Question Why not {seek to} establish Householdership in the character of a necessary qualification.

    Answer 1. Because in addition to the security afforded as above under virtual universality and compleat secrecy of suffrage by the impossibility of giving effect to any particular and sinister interest no other security is needed.

    Answer 2: Because in the case in question on the part of a proposed Voter it is not in the nature of Householdership, any more than of possession, any more than of the possession of property to afford any security for appropriate aptitude in any shape on the part of the Voter nor therefore for the right direction of his vote.

    True it is that, supposing the faculty of reading established in the character of a necessary qualification, so far as regards the fact of a man's being in possession of this faculty, householdership is if not an indispensable, at any rate, a highly useful security for its existence. For if upon the bare assertion by which the fact of a man's possessing the faculty in question he were admitted whether he were or were not a householder a person who whether for want of the faculty or for want of being competent in respect of age and sex were admitted to vote the want of a fixt residence might in case of falshood suffice to render him unpunishable. But under the proposed system for the substantiating of this fact the written evidence of no fewer than three other persons, each of them a Householder is made requisite. Thus it is that under this system all the case[?] capable of being made of householdership is actually made of it.