“My friends,” said Francis, “I wish to show no fear and no favour.  I would not say to you what I would not say to the earl, nor to the earl what I would be sorry or ashamed to let you hear.  I wish you to know, as clearly as I can explain them, my political principles, so that I may raise no unfounded expectations and disappoint no one wilfully or designedly.  I think with you that it is a great evil that the working man has no voice in the election of the members of the Legislature.  I hope to live to see the day—­and I will labour to advance it—­when every man shall feel his influence in greater or less measure in that most important part of the duty of a free people; but have any of you ever seriously considered the effect which would follow the adoption in Great Britain, at present, of manhood suffrage, or even of reducing the franchise to a five-pound vote?”

“There would be far mair economy in the public service,” said Sandy Pringle.

“There would be far less jobbery an’ corruption in government pawtronage,” said Jamie Howison, the Newtown weaver.

“They couldna swamp the consteetuencies by makin’ fictitious votes,” said Sandy.

“They micht bribe, if the franchise was limited,” said Jamie Howison, “but with manhood suffrage an’ the ballot, a man micht vote just as he liked, and huz working men hae oor richts, an’ oor feelins, an’ oor interests, just as dear to huz as pedigrees an’ acres to the aristocracy.  We want nae ten-hours bills—­what richt hae parliaments to dictate to huz, an’ keep huz frae sellin’ a’ we hae to sell, oor time an’ oor labour?  We want to be let alane to mind oor ain business, an no to be treated as if we was bairns that didna ken what was for their gude.  Na, na, Maister Hogarth, when ye gied thae allotments to your hinds, ye showed that ye kent what they were fit for, an’ ye maun see that the bigger a consteetuency is, the purer it is like to be.”

“My friends,” said Francis, “the effect of any great extension of the suffrage, as things are at present, would be to put the whole political power into the hands of the least educated classes of the community.”

“Not the whole with a five-pound vote,” said Sandy.

“Surely, not the whole, even wi’ manhood suffrage,” said Jamie.

“We dinna want it all, only oor fair share.”

“But it is in the nature of things,” said Francis, “that it must be so.  Your five-pound voters, Mr. Pringle, would outvote the ten-pound voters enormously.  Your non-propertied electors, Mr. Howison, would out-vote even the five-pound voters, and would, in every constituency, carry their candidate by an overwhelming majority.  This would not be good either for the country or for you.”

“But the rich have the House of Lords, where they are paramount,” said Sandy Pringle.

“A very feeble barrier that would be found against the abuses of democracy,” said Francis.  “You know well that in all emergencies the Lords must give way to the Commons.”