mix, and whose wishes, however narrow, it is evidently more his interest to meet, than those of the community at large. Thus the public service must become a secondary consideration, under any view of the case.

It is needless to enlarge upon the absence of true freedom, involved in thus limiting what may be called the Representative Franchise to a particular spot, and that spot the very one where, from the nature of society, independence of political character is least likely to be found, or, if found, least likely to be valued by the constituents. If the country at large is open to men of talents and genuine public spirit, those prime qualities in a statesman will be sure to be appreciated somewhere; but nothing seems more probable than the unpopularity of such men in their own narrow circle. 'It seems, indeed, very idle to talk of universal suffrage, and yet to circumscribe the limits beyond which no candidate shall be eligible. There is a double drawback here on liberty. The electors cannot choose any man they wish, and the candidate cannot solicit the suffrage of any but one set of constituents.

.

In Congress the members are chosen for a period twice as long as that of the State legislatures, or for two years; but even this is much too short a time to enable any man to acquire an adequate

knowledge of public business, or to establish a character which shall gain the permanent confidence of his constituents. There are, indeed, some men in public life in America whose talents are of such an order, and whose general tenour of conduct is so popular, that they have contrived to hold on somewhat longer than their companions. It would, indeed, be monstrous to suppose, that out of such numbers there should not be found many men above suspicion, even where the rule is to suspect every body.

The following table shows how long the members of the House of Representatives in Congress for 1827-28, had held seats in the House. The total number being 213.

Of these 1 member had sat for 27 years.

48

3

And 87 were new members.

Thus were new;

32

nearly, or between a half and a third, nearly, had sat for from 5 to 2 years; nearly, had sat from 10 to 6 years; and, from 27 to 11 years. The average time of the old members sitting was about 5 years, and the new members were to the old as 2 to 3 nearly.

The number of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress of the United States, from the commencement of the present government in 1789, to 1827, a period of 38 years, was 1464; and the average time of each member sitting was 3 years and 8 months and a half. *

I shall insert here, as a matter of curious comparison, a Table similar in its nature to the above, showing how long the members of the British House of Commons of the same session, that of 1827-28, had sat in the legislature.

Total number in the House of Commons 658.

Of these 134 had sat upwards of 20 years.

* Deduced from the tables in the National Calendar, published at Washington in 1828.

Thus nearly of the whole were new members; } nearly had sat from 6 to 1 years;, or between

and, had sat from 14 to 7 years; from 19 to 15 years; and of the whole number for 20 years and upwards. The average time of the old members sitting is about 11 years, on the supposition that the 134 members at the top of the preceding list had sat only 20 years; but as many of them had been in Parliament for upwards of 30 years, the average period must be considerably

greater. The new members were to the old as 1 to 3.

The average duration of the 17 Parliaments, which sat from the Revolution in 1688, to the accession of George III. in 1761, is 4 years and about one week. That of the 12 Parliaments which sat during the 59 years of George III.'s reign, was 4 years and one month.*

I have often been told, that the Representatives to Congress, and to the State legislatures, are not actually instructed how to speak and vote; but in spite of this, they know perfectly well that unless they manage to discover and conform to the wishes of their constituents, right or wrong, they will be put out in a very short time. This, if I mistake not, is bringing matters as near to pure democracy as can be,-a conclusion to which, I am confident, the numerical majority of the American nation would say-Amen! Those, however, who are not quite so much in love with that system, come in at this stage of the argument and say, "All this has some truth and force in it as applied to the most numerous branch of the legislature; but look at the Senate, especially the Senate of the United States; observe the beautiful check which the constitution of that

• Royal Calendar for 1827.