between the two extremes. Only ſuch are entirely excluded, as can have no will of their own: there is hardly a free agent to be found, but what is entitled to a vote in ſome place or other in the kingdom. Nor is comparative wealth, or property, entirely diſregarded in elections; for though the richeſt man has only one vote at one place, yet, if his property be at all diffuſed, he has probably a right to vote at more places than one, and therefore has many repreſentatives. This is the ſpirit of our conſtitution: not that I aſſert it is in fact quite ſo perfect as I have here endeavoured to deſcribe it; for, if any alteration might be wiſhed or ſuggeſted in the preſent frame of parliaments, it ſhould be in favour of a more complete repreſentation of the people.
But to return to our qualifications; and firſt thoſe of electors for knights of the ſhire. 1. By ſtatute 8 Hen. VI. c. 7. and 10 Hen. VI. c. 2. the knights of the ſhires ſhall be choſen of people dwelling in the ſame counties; whereof every man ſhall have freehold to the value of forty ſhillings by the year within the county; which by ſubſequent ſtatutes is to be clear of all charges and deductions, except parliamentary and parochial taxes. The knights of ſhires are the repreſentatives of the landholders, or landed intereſt, of the kingdom: their electors muſt therefore have eſtates in lands or tenements, within the county repreſented: theſe eſtates muſt be freehold, that is, for term of life at leaſt; becauſe beneficial leaſes for long terms of years were not in uſe at the making of theſe ſtatutes, and copyholders were then little better than villeins, abſolutely dependent upon their lord: this freehold muſt be of forty ſhillings annual value; becauſe that ſum would then, with proper induſtry, furniſh all the neceſſaries of life, and render the freeholder, if he pleaſed, an independent man. For biſhop Fleetwood, in his chronicon precioſum written about ſixty years ſince, has fully proved forty ſhillings in the reign of Henry VI to have been equal to twelve pounds per annum in the reign of queen Anne; and, as the value of money is very conſiderably lowered ſince the biſhop wrote, I think we may fairly conclude, from this and other circumſtances,
