REFORM OR REVOLUTION.
AN ADDRESS
TO THE LORDS AND COMMONS OF ENGLAND IN
PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
My Lords and Gentlemen:
It is with the most profound respect, and with the deepest veneration, for the noble section of your most honourable Houses that I venture thus to address you, and if in the course of the few following pages I may sometimes appear lacking in true humility, you must remember that I am only one of the common people—one of those whom you not unjustifiably taunt with ignorance, one who lacks the polish of classical training, and who can only coin his thoughts into rough English phrases. I shall not in this brief address profess to discuss whether or not the great mass of the nation are or are not entitled to take part in the election of representatives to Parliament. I believe that in England the time for such discussion has passed, the people are convinced of their right, and for you I shall here assume that the consent of the majority, every citizen having the right to vote, is necessary to constitute a lawful government, that in truth the people are the only lawful source of governmental authority and that every man unconvicted of crime, of full age, and not in receipt of parochial relief, and whose residence has been registered in the electoral district in which his vote is to be exercised, has not only an indubitable right, but an imperative duty to vote in the election of the national assembly of legislators. The mass of the people being kept without votes, they are politically dead, they are servants not citizens, serfs not freemen. No man is justified in resigning any of the rights or neglecting any of the duties of his citizenship, much less are any privileged few justified in combining to prevent the mass of the nation from acquiring political rights or performing political duties. The will of the individual or the wishes of a petty class, however rich, have not, nor can they have any right to negate and destroy the national will. The few have no lawful authority or excuse for usurping to themselves, as a
