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Half a Century; Or, Changes in Men and Manners
Half a Century Or Changes in Men and Manners Author:Alexander Innes Shand General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1888 Original Publisher: W. Blackwood and sons Subjects: Great Britain History / Europe / Great Britain Social Science / Sociology / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When ... more »you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. FREE AND INDEPENDENT ELECTORS. country may have gained by electoral reform, but various interests have suffered severely. It is certain that we pay dearly for purity, and sundry sorts and conditions of men have sad reason to complain. Formerly the few contributed to the welfare of the many ; and a general election was a boon to all except the candidates who were to contest the seats. Money was set in free circulation from the highest down to the lowest. The nobles and great landowners who were branded as borough-mongers had an opportunity of replenishing the bankers' balances they had been draining for the benefit of trade. Bloated capitalists with a tendency to hoard were bled for the behoof of the needy community. The covetous were compelled to assume a virtue if they had it not; the grasping became generous, and misers turned spendthrifts. The barriers ofcaste and class were broken down for the time, and the haughty candidate went hat in hand and cash in pocket to solicit the suffrages of the free and very independent. For in that golden age the strictly limited franchise was a sure source of profit as well as a privilege; and healthy political interests were stimulated when each elector was entered for pecuniary stakes. In Hull, for example, which was a relatively extensive constituency, the regulation price of a vote was a couple of guineas, while twice as much was paid for a plumper. There was an honourable understanding that the debts should sta...« less