employment as an occasional servant, as a laundress, or a needle

woman.

Her hostess laughed, and went forth to her daily toil, having given Dorcas permission to remain a day or two in her lowly abode. This was the first day of hope, of peace, of liberty, of affection, that Dorcas had long known; and, notwithstanding limited resources and precarious prospects, her heart kept holiday. Her little companion appeared to be little more than two years old; he was able to tell her that his name was Arthur. She had made his toilet with all the care she could; had bestowed no small degree of attention on his curly hair; had about noon provided him with a bowl of bread and milk, with which she was feeding him with tender and expressive pleasure, when the door of the hovel opened, and a young, pale, graceful woman darted into the place, attended by the laundress. The child clamoured upon recognising his mother, and the dream which Dorcas had indulged was dissipated. But her heart was soon awakened to new feelings, as Mrs. Moreton, Arthur's mother, thanked her again and again for her tenderness to her child, which his appearance, and the manner in which Dorcas was found engaged, sufficiently attested.

The result of this event was that Dorcas was received as a servant into the family of Mrs. Moreton. She saw with intuitive penetration the poor girl's deficiencies, but she saw also her capabilities; besides which Mrs. Moreton was not one of those persons who expect perfection for ten pounds a year.'

Dorcas, to secure this desirable situation, deemed it necessary to tell a falsehood. She concealed the circumstance of her first servitude, and easily persuaded her family and the laundress to support her in her statements.

Mrs. Moreton was one of those women to whom a great and indescribable power is given: this power was analogous to the power of a fine climate, in which everything unconsciously grows fair and sweet; even the rough natives of rude climes, transplanted to the sphere of its influence, put forth leaves of a brighter bloom, a softer texture, and a sweeter fragrance. Mrs. Moreton's voice, her smile, her manner, her idiomatic, pregnant, yet unobtrusive eloquence, her very tread, everything in her and about her was an emanation of love in its divinest sense: it raised the low; it recalled the erring; it confirmed and animated every noble purpose. Much was effected before her agency was perceived, and with many it escaped observation altogether; it was a sort of moral magnetism, as unobtrusive as it was effective.

One day Mrs. Moreton said to Dorcas, soon after her admission to the family, I shall be alone this evening, Dorcas. Place a cup and saucer for yourself, when you bring the tea-things into the parlour, and take your tea with me.' Dorcas was surprised; she had gradually become accustomed to the kind, cordial, open, unaffected manner of Mrs. Moreton, or such a contrast to the poor

girl's previous experience would have overwhelmed her. As it was, the moment she was alone she lifted her apron to her eyes, and burst into tears. Oh, how she yearned to tell Mrs. Moreton the feelings which her kindness had inspired in the breast of one who had known the bitterness of contempt, the horror of isolation! Who may tell what beings placed and educated as Dorcas had been suffer from inability of expression-that safety-valve of the feelings? Nature has not restricted sensibility to the few; it is, more or less, the endowment of all. Children are frequently great sufferers in consequence of adult indifference, unthinkingness, or want of a present sense of the nature and condition of these little beings. They, like servants, require to have more attention paid to their feelings, more encouragement yielded for unfolding them. Many a sweet fountain of thought and emotion, which would have relieved and have awakened feeling, lies injuriously and unprofitably stagnant in bosoms often panting to give them forth. The unsleeping eye of sympathy must watch these indications, and heeding only them, disregard every circumstance of age or condition in those they agitate. If the earth heaved, and cried,' Here is gold,' should we fail to dig it forth?-and how much more precious is the moral ore of the human breast!

That evening Dorcas drank tea with her benevolent mistress; that evening she revealed her story-confessed all her faults to the gentlest, the most lenient of human judges. Mrs. Moreton wept at the recital made with such sincerity, such contrition; and when it was ended assured the penitent she had her forgiveness, nay, more, her confidence for the future, that all she asked of her was to sin no more.'

How felt Dorcas as she stood that night in her little chamber, in which, as in every other part of the house, order, cleanliness, and comfort reigned? Almost as when a little child she had wept and owned a transgression, and received a heart-healing kiss from the parent to whom she knelt. She sank down on her knees at her bedside, while all that was holy and happy came thronging to her thoughts, and she lifted her voice in prayer mingled with sobs. Soothed, though exhausted, she retired to rest, and the sleep of innocence, of, as she felt, innocence restored, came upon her.

When she awoke in the morning a new atmosphere seemed to encompass the world. Again she felt self-respect; nay, she felt its sustaining power as she had never yet felt it: a superior being had acknowledged her as a fellow-creature-as a friend; had taken her hand-had dried her eyes-had wept with her-had put confidence in her. New and happy purposes woke with spontaneous energy in her soul, and the once-degraded Dorcas lived and moved a renewed, regenerated being.

Through a long, useful, and in many respects fortunate life, Dorcas applied to others the moral she had drawn from her own experience; and now, in her old age, may be heard to say, or say

to this effect: This is the age of reform-of philanthropy-of diffused knowledge and liberal opinions. How is it proved? People talk largely, yet act narrowly. Much is said, but little done. Abstract charity or liberality is as useless as any other abstraction. One grain of good practice is worth a world of bright theory. To make the age really that which it calls itself, each individual must act in his own immediate circle in the spirit of the age-must be as willing to impart knowledge as to gain it; above all, he must hold out the cordial hand of kindness to all his fellow-creatures, look with the smiling eye of love upon them, and most especially must he do this as regards that portion which unjust and unwise institutions have placed at a disadvantage. Nor let the lowliest being breathing remain inactive from any impres sion that the power to soothe and serve his fellows be not allotted him. Each has his talent, and because some have ten talents that is no reason why he who has but one should not put it out to interest; nay, that he has but one is the strongest of all reasons, since the less we have the more it behoves us to use exertion to make something of it.

'Small service is true service while it lasts;

Of friends, however humble, scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dew-drop from the sun.'

M. L. G.

THE RATIONALE OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION..

(Continued from page 328.)

HAVING treated of the representative body in the third chapter, Mr. Bailey proceeds in the fourth to discuss the electoral body. A consideration of the persons of whom it should be constituted occupies the first and second sections.

Fixing the attention of the reader on the object to be accomplished by the suffrage, viz. the selection of the persons best qualified for the duties of legislation from the candidates who are presented, the author inquires into the qualifications for its possession by which the wisest choice will be secured.

These qualifications he describes to be, first, the requisite intelligence; and secondly, freedom from partial interest, whether arising from a class interest at variance with that of the community, or a sinister individual interest created by the application of bribery or intimidation.

Supposing the great body of the population not to be suffi ciently enlightened for the useful exercise of electoral functions, the most obvious criterion of qualification is afforded by the possession of property.

But the property is merely the index, and not the claim. Government does not exist simply for the protection of property,

but equally for that of person, reputation, liberty, and life In virtue of these, if the degree of power is to be decided by the degree of interest, every human being is entitled to an equal share. The strength and skill of the labourer are property, in any sense in which property can be made the basis of representation without gross violation of justice. Its protection from spoliation is one of the most important functions of government. It might and should be made the electoral qualification, were toil shown to imply intelligence as certainly as property.

With what amount of property the requisite intelligence will generally be found connected, is a question which can only be answered by accurate investigation of the actual condition of a people. The minimum should always be taken, in order that by a numerous constituency protection may be afforded against the prevalence of class interests, and the influence of bribery and intimidation.

The author admits that property is a very inexact criterion; that nothing like proportion between its amount and the degree of intelligence can be supposed without manifest absurdity; that as it can often be no more directly ascertained than knowledge, it may itself require some criterion; that the purpose may have to be accomplished by reference to the amount of taxes which a man pays, or the value of the house which he occupies ; and that this, like all other limitations of the franchise, allows one class of the community to sit in judgment upon the competency of another class to exercise usefully the functions of which it arrogates for itself the exclusive possession. But for these evils and anomalies he sees no help until the great mass shall be better instructed.

No one, we apprehend, would admit more readily than the author, or more earnestly contend, that no class should be left destitute of the franchise but on the supposition of a clear case of disqualification being made out against it. We would rather that this principle had been made more prominent. We would assume qualification rather than disqualification, and have all constituted the guardians of their own interests, and the common interest which is their aggregate, until incompetency be demonstrated. Mr. Bailey has adverted to the effect of the possession and exercise of the franchise on the mind of the elector,' and it is a most important consideration. Were the machinery of elections properly managed, did their results depend solely upon opinion, there would not long be a lack of qualification in the very lowest classes, supposing them to be invested with the franchise. Political instruction would take the place of canvassing. The materials of opinion would be produced and brought home to every cottage door. A tolerably adequate degree of qualification would very speedily arise out of the right; and it would most likely advance so rapidly as to place the entire population on

higher ground than will ever be occupied while the franchise is a privilege. The old sophism has become somewhat musty, which tells us to wait till slaves possess the virtues of free men before they are emancipated. Free men are made by free institutions. Nor are there many evils worse than invidious distinctions in society. It were better to admit a considerable number of voters imperfectly qualified than to make all the poor below a certain standard a degraded political caste. If it be said that the good of the whole requires that only the instructed should be in a state of enfranchisement, it may be replied that their enfranchisement would, better than anything else, ensure their being instructed; and that the brief evil produced before the realization of that result, would less detract from the good of the whole than the prolongation of the broad distinction which must exist while any are deprived of a share in the representation. The disconnexion of voting from the opinion of the voter is the only real objection to universal suffrage. Remove that, as it may easily be removed, and there would be no harm (a cold phrase for so immense a good) if the apprehensions of the few from the political influence of the many led to that result of which their patriotism. has stopped short, namely, the admitted safeguard of national education, the comprehension of the rising and the present generation in one great scheme of universal instruction.

After adverting to age as an electoral qualification, (the author leans a little towards fixing a more mature age than that which constitutes legal majority,) the following remarks are introduced, which we quote at length, because, while they reflect honour on the moral courage of the writer, they constitute, to our apprehension, a most lucid, able, and conclusive discussion of a subject from even the mention of which the boldest reformers have usually flinched.

'The limitation of the elective franchise by sex is a more difficult subject, and surrounded with a host of prejudices; but it surely ought to be decided by the same principles as any other restriction, and not by blind prepossessions and tyrannical prescription. The legitimate object of all government-namely, the happiness of the communitycomprehends alike male and female, as alike susceptible of pain and pleasure; and the principle that power will be uniformly exercised for the good of the parties subject to it only when it is under their control, or the control of persons who have an identity of interests with themselves, is equally applicable in the case of both sexes. The exclusion of the female sex from the electoral privilege can, therefore, be con sistently contended for only by showing two things: first, that their interests are so closely allied with those of the male sex, and allied in such a manner, as to render the two nearly identical; secondly, that the female sex are incompetent, from want of intelligence, to make a choice for their own good, and that on this account it would be to the advantage of the community, on the whole, to leave the selection of representatives to the stronger part of the human race, the disadvantages