the American. The American of the present day puts a ballot-box
into the hands of every citizen, and takes his stand upon that and
that only. It is the duty of an American citizen to vote; and when
he has voted, he need trouble himself no further till the time for
voting shall come round again. The candidate for whom he has voted
represents his will, if he have voted with the majority; and in
that case he has no right to look for further influence. If he
have voted with the minority, he has no right to look for any
influence at all. In either case he has done his political work,
and may go about his business till the next year, or the next two
or four years, shall have come round. The Englishman, on the other
hand, will have no ballot-box, and is by no means inclined to
depend exclusively upon voters or upon voting. As far as voting
can show it, he desires to get the sense of the country; but he
does not think that that sense will be shown by universal suffrage.
He thinks that property amounting to a thousand pounds will show
more of that sense than property amounting to a hundred; but he
will not, on that account, go to work and apportion votes to
wealth. He thinks that the educated can show more of that sense
than the uneducated; but he does not therefore lay down any rule
about reading, writing, and arithmetic, or apportion votes to
learning. He prefers that all these opinions of his shall bring
themselves out and operate by their own intrinsic weight. Nor does
he at all confine himself to voting, in his anxiety to get the
sense of the country. He takes it in any way that it will show
itself, uses it for what it is worth, or perhaps far more than it
is worth, and welds it into that gigantic lever by which the
political action of the country is moved. Every man in Great
Britain, whether he possesses any actual vote or no, can do that
which is tantamount to voting every day of his life by the mere