He did not know what the masses really were; for although he worked
with his hands, printers were rather a superior set of fellows, and
his was an old-established shop which took the best of its class.
When brought actually into contact with swearers and drunkards as
patriots and reformers he was more than a little shocked.
"Not much," quoth he.
"Not worse than our virtuous substitute for a sovereign?"
"No, certainly."
"You object to giving them votes, but is not the opinion of the
silliest as good as that of Lord Sidmouth?"
"That's no reason for giving them votes."
"I should like to behold the experiment of a new form of
misgovernment. If we are to be eternally enslaved to fools and
swindlers, why not a change? We have had regal misrule and
aristocratic swindling long enough."
"Seriously, my friend," he continued, "study that immortal charter,
the Declaration of the Rights of Man."
He stopped in the street, and with an oratorical air repeated the
well-known lines, "Men are born and always continue free, and equal
in respect of their rights. . . . Every citizen has a right, either
by himself or by his representative, to a free voice in determining
the necessity of public contributions, the appropriation of them, and
their amount, mode of assessment, and duration.
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