2-350 (Text)

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This age has witnessed the misery and destruction arising from giving political power to men unfit to exercise it. From these considerations we may derive an instructive lesson. The present circumstances of this country point to some form of government in which the aristocratic element should form a large ingredient - and Some such form it would no doubt assume were it an independent state. The investment of the capital of the country in pastoral pursuits, the physical necessities which have led to that result, and the mode in which these pursuits are carried on - this system being also the consequence of physical aptitudes - all these lead to this conclusion. The pastoral proprietor - a man of education and leisure, the possessor of large capital, the employer of much labour, habituated to the daily control of his numerous dependents, influencing by his example a large circle of acquaintances - naturally occupies a position of social and political importance. The merchant carrying on extensive operations, having much capital invested, from the very nature of his occupation necessarily a man of education, and acquainted with the commercial and political relations of the different parts of the earth - forms a fitting associate. To these may be added the more respectable inhabitants of the towns, including the men eminent in the different professions. When we remember that these classes are placed amongst a population of mixed character, a large portion of whom are without any fixed habitation, wandering from Station to station as they find employment, without having any natural ties to restrain them, or giving to society any security for the stability of their character - that amongst these are to be found many emancipated felons fresh from the pollution of the hulks, or the hypocrisy of the penitentiary, - taking this into consideration, it is to be hoped that the form of our new constitution will give a political expression to the natural weight which these classes must undoubtedly possess.