[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] • SIR,—As Signor
Mazzini will have too much to do just now to spare time for newspaper controversy, would you kindly allow space for a very small dose of Mazzini-and-water? I think that you leave out of sight, in your argument against Manhood Suffrage as swamping the minority, the fact that your doctrine of class re- presentation does the same thing in a far more arbitrary manner. Surely, Sir, you will acknowledge that many of the opinions advo- cated, for instance, by the Spectator, are opposed to those of the majority of your class. Then, surely, it is far more tyrannical to demand that you, and those who hold with you, shall be repre- sented merely by the majority of a class with which you do not sympathize, than by the majority of a nation to which you are necessarily bound to submit ; for that is really the point at issue between us. We believe that God has made nations, and that all improvements in representation must be merely to develop in a natural way the voice of that nation. You think that we can create a really representative institution by clever plans and arrangements, by determining at our own pleasure, " Here is a body of men that ought to be represented, here are people with ideas worth hearing ; and the rest must take their chance."
One word more. The doctrine of class representation fully carried out would merely intensify social evils and misunder- standings between class and class, which none, I feel sure, regret more than the Spectator. For instance, take the most per- fect outcome of this doctrine, the scheme suggested by Professor Blackie, that a certain number of men should be elected by universal suffrage, and be added to the present House of Commons. These men, returned avowedly to represent the work- ing classes solely (for otherwise the scheme does not accomplish its own object), would be bound to stand aloof from the other classes and fight for the interests and ideas of the working men, not merely as distinct from, but as opposed to men of the other classes, the deficiencies between class and class being thus crystallized into a permanent political institution. Trusting you will excuse, on the grounds I gave above, this rather feeble statement of the
arguments for our side, I am yours, &c., A ArszzorrAst.
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