It is amusing to hear this plan of suffrage for all who pay direct taxes recommended as consonant to the genius and spirit of the British Constitution, when, in fact, though sufficiently rash and hazardous, it is no better than a timid plagiarism from the doctrine of the Rights of Man.

Upon the model of that system, it begins with flagrant injustice to _chartered_ rights; for if it were adopted, the elective Franchises that now exist would be depreciated accordingly; an invidious process for those who would lose by the alteration; and still more invidious for those to whom the privilege would not be suffered to descend.

Alas! I am trifling with the subject! If the spirit of a People, composed as that of England now is, were once put into a ferment, by organizing a democracy on this scheme, and to this extent, with a Press as free and licentious as our's has long been, what a flimsy barrier would remain to check the impetus of the excluded! When, in thousands, they bore down upon the newly constituted House of Assembly, demanding to be placed upon a level with their fellow-subjects, it would avail little to send a Peace-officer to enquire--where are your vouchers?
Shew us that the Tax-gatherer has been among you! As soon as the petty Artizans, Shop-keepers, and Pot-house Keepers, of our over-grown Manufacturing Towns and our enormous Cities, had each and all been invested with the right of voting, the infection would spread like a plague .-- Our neighbours on the Continent tried this plan of direct taxation; and, in the beginning of the third year of _their_ Reform, Universal Suffrage, which had long ruled in spirit, lorded it in form also, from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, and from the Straits of Calais to the Shores of the Mediterranean.

Down went the throne of France! and, if we should take the same guide, the Throne of England must submit a second time to a like destiny.

Most of us would deem this a considerable evil--the greatest political evil that could befal the Land! Not so, however, our new Candidate! unless his opinion, if, indeed, he ever _held_ what may be called an opinion upon any thing, has undergone important changes since the time when he expressed himself in the following words:--'When trade and the arts of civilized life have been carried to a certain length, war is the greatest calamity that can befal a community.