those whom they serve for nothing. Perhaps 5007. per annum would be sufficient to cover the actual expense of living in London during the session, but not sufficient to form a pecuniary inducement to seek the place of a representative for the sake of its income. In all such cases, however, the amount should be paid out of the funds of the county or borough represented by such members, and not out of the national exchequer.*

Perfect Secresy of Voting.

The seventh advantage would be, the perfect secresy of voting, so long aimed at in the various plans for the ballot; and the consequent security against all the complicated evils of bribery, intimidation, exclusive dealing, loss of custom, and other modes of punishment, to which the present system of open voting is unavoidably liable. It may be added, that, by this system of sending a written vote by the post from the private dwelling of the voter, women of mature age and of the requisite qualification might vote as well as men; and surely, they have as great an interest in good laws and in the protection of person and property as men have. To admit them to the suffrage while the present mode of voting is retained, would be a privilege that no modest or decorous woman would exercise in the face of mobs and revilers. But, as women continually vote for East India and other Directors of public companies, in which they hold stock, as well as for orphan asylums and benevolent institutions to which they are contributors, because the mode of voting has nothing in it revolting to feminine delicacy, so might they equally vote for

* This amount of 5007. a year is the sum fixed by Parliament for the salary of an East India Director, whose labour is not a fifth of that of a Member of Parliament who really does his duty, while the Chairman and his Deputy have 1,000l. a year each, and the President of the India Board has 5000 a year.

representatives in Parliament, to which their possession of property and intelligence gives them as much right as men, if their votes were to be given in writing, and sent from their own dwellings through the post.

It is too late to say that women should not exercise political power. They have ever done so from the beginning of civilization, and they will ever continue to do so to the end of time. God and nature have given them an influence over man, which they exercise in spite of all laws to the contrary, and they often move even cabinets, as well as determine the fate of elections. Is it not, therefore, wiser to give them the open and legal power of exercising this influence directly in their own persons, than through under-currents and secret channels? We have a virtuous, intelligent, and liberal Queen upon the throne, and long may she be spared to sit on it; and there are many wealthy female members of the nobility and gentry, who, by their property-influence alone, can return members to Parliament for boroughs belonging to their families; so that there is precedent sufficient to justify the admission of women, properly qualified, to exercise the franchise openly and lawfully for the public good. And those who know the virtues of the sex most intimately will be most confident in the purity, disinterestedness, and judgment, with which their suffrages will be exercised.

While some of the most distinguished sovereigns that ever reigned have been females, from Semiramis, Nitocris, Sheba, and Zenobia in ancient times, to Isabella of Spain, and Elizabeth and Victoria of England in modern days; and while some of the loftiest intellects that have left their traces in history have been females also, from Aspasia, Corinna, and others among the ancients, to a host of splendid examples in the women of Germany, France, and England in our own age, it would seem monstrous that any one should now con

tend for the exclusion of female intellect and female virtue from the direct exercise of political power, in the choice of their legislators, at least; seeing that, of their capacity to exercise this power as well as men, there can be no doubt; and seeing also that, whether regarding the protection of their persons or their property, by good legislators and good laws, they have as just a claim as men can possibly have.

Increasing Standard of Qualification.

The last advantage that may be mentioned of this proposed system is not unimportant—namely, that as the community increased generally in intelligence by the more extensive diffusion of education, the standard of qualification might be raised, by adding, after a given period- say seven yearsa knowledge of the higher branches of arithmetic, and at a further period of seven years a knowledge of the outlines of geography, or of any other branch of exact and useful information equally acceptable to persons of all shades of opinion. And for this purpose-while the elections might be made triennial, and the registrations triennial also a septennial period might be fixed by law for such periodical revisions and improvements in the whole Code on this subject, as the lapse of time and the experience of society might render necessary.

Benefits of Periodical Revision.

One of the greatest defects of our present political system is, that having no written Constitution, and no fixed periods for its re-enactment, an attack is made upon it in some shape or another every session; and, with the timid, the stability of the Constitution is always supposed to be in danger. The argument that "the present is not the proper time" for considering any amendments proposed, is therefore always at hand; for since no period is fixed, every time is an "im

proper time" in the view of those who choose to assert it; so that reforms of every kind are, therefore, continually put off until they can be no longer withheld; and, then, what ought to have been at first conceded with grace, is wrested from the Government of the day by force.

In cases, however, where periodical revision of any legislative measure is provided for by law, as in the case of the Bank and East India Charters at the end of twenty years, or the Mutiny Bill at the end of every year, no sort of inconvenience is felt; no one can pretend to resist the change, on the ground that it is "not the proper time;" so that the revision and discussion of the subject comes on with universal assent, as a matter of course, for which every one is prepared, and where no one can affect to be taken by surprise. So ought it to be with the British Constitution. So might it certainly be with any New Bill for improving the Representation of the People; and this septennial safety-valve would be waited for with patience, and calm all the effervescence which, for want of such a channel of escape, now too often bursts out in sudden explosions, impossible to be restrained.

The Author having now, therefore, discharged his duty to his fellow-countrymen, by laying before them the results of his reflections, not hastily formed, but progressively strengthened and confirmed by a practical experience of several years in the actual business of legislation, as a member of the House of Commons, he leaves the further agitation of the subject to the public and the press; and committing it with confidence to their future guidance, he will watch, with an anxiety not unmixed with hope, the progress of the question, and shall rejoice if his already somewhat protracted age should be still further extended to witness and assist in its legal consummation.

No. II.

Will contain a Third, Revised, and Enlarged Edition of a Plan for the

Future Government of India;

Which, in addition to all its former heads, will contain the following:

1. Report of the Proceedings of a Public Meeting of upwards of 4,000 Natives of India, in the Town Hall of Calcutta, summoned by the Sheriff, with their Speeches and Protest against the present India Bill.

2. Copious Extracts from a recent Work of the late General Sir Charles Napier, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, and Member of the Supreme Council of Bengal, in condemnation of the present System of Rule in India.

3. Copious Extracts from a still more recent Work, entitled, "What good may come out of the India Bill; or, Notes of what has been, is, and may be the Government of India." By Francis Horsley Robinson, for thirty years in office in the Civil Service, late Member of the Board of Revenue in India.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

FROM such only of the public Journals as have been forwarded to the Publishers, which comprise, no doubt, but a very small fraction of those in which this Plan has been noticed, the following extracts are selected, and they will be sufficient, perhaps, to give some idea of the opinions entertained of it by perfectly disinterested parties.

FROM THE BRITISH BANNER.

"Among the many pamphlets and publications, of various magnitude, on this subject, one of the last, and certainly the best, has just been issued by Mr. Buckingham, entitled, 'A Plan for the Future Government of India. Mr. Buckingham's knowledge of the subject is all but unrivalled. That knowledge has not been derived merely from books, but from long personal residence, and a constant intercourse with India and its rulers for very many years. Mr. Buckingham has, moreover, had occasion to look very closely into the question, from the heavy and remorseless wrongs of which he has been the subject. Had it been his lot to constitute one of the Government, he would have been, beyond any of its members, a fit and proper