These
considerations, and many others that might be mentioned prove, and
experience confirms it, that artisans and manufacturers will commonly be
disposed to bestow their votes upon merchants and those whom they
recommend. We must therefore consider merchants as the natural
representatives of all these classes of the community.
With regard to the learned professions, little need be observed; they
truly form no distinct interest in society, and according to their
situation and talents, will be indiscriminately the objects of the
confidence and choice of each other, and of other parts of the
community.
Nothing remains but the landed interest; and this, in a political view,
and particularly in relation to taxes, I take to be perfectly united,
from the wealthiest landlord down to the poorest tenant. No tax can be
laid on land which will not affect the proprietor of millions of acres
as well as the proprietor of a single acre. Every landholder will
therefore have a common interest to keep the taxes on land as low as
possible; and common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest
bond of sympathy. But if we even could suppose a distinction of interest
between the opulent landholder and the middling farmer, what reason is
there to conclude, that the first would stand a better chance of being
deputed to the national legislature than the last? If we take fact as
our guide, and look into our own senate and assembly, we shall find that
moderate proprietors of land prevail in both; nor is this less the case
in the senate, which consists of a smaller number, than in the assembly,
which is composed of a greater number.
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