intelligence and independence of people, tion that a still further extension would be of property will be deprived of their legit- equally innocent of the mischiefs attributimate influence, is imaginary. They added to it by the advocates for restriction. that, reasoning on probabilities, there would occasionally be cases, in which the extension of the right of suffrage would lessen the weight of the more intelligent classes; but that, in others it would be increased; and that thus the practical result in legislation would not materially vary from that produced by freehold elections. In confirmation of this, they assert, that on a careful examination of the characters of the representatives chosen by the states, where a general suffrage prevails, they do not seem to be different from those selected in Virginia by freeholders; men of small property and ultra-democratic principles being often chosen by the latter, while men of wealth and family, the natural aristocracy of the country, are as often chosen by the former; that you can, in a word, discover nothing in which the representatives from Virginia, differ generally from those of the Carolinas or Georgia; or in which the representatives of Connecticut, before the right of suffrage was extended there, differed from those of Massachusetts. They say, that some of the states afford us an opportunity of comparing the effects of freehold suffrage, and general suffrage. In North Carolina, for instance, the members of the Senate are chosen by freeholders, and those of the more numerous branch, (the House of Commons) by all freemen who pay taxes; and they confidently challenge their opponents to shew that the selection of representatives made by the last mentioned class is inferior to that made by the first, in talents or respectability. Our own state, too, furnishes them with the materials of making a similar comparison. In Williamsburg, the ancient metropolis of the state, and in the borough of Norfolk, according to their original charters, all housekeepers, or potboilers, as they are called, are entitled to vote; yet those corporations have always shewn themselves as capable of making proper selections of representatives, as the freeholders of any county whatever. Norfolk has, indeed, generally been unusually well represented in the state legislature. As an extension of the right of suffrage in these places, which is far from inconsiderable, has produced no visible effects; certainly none that are evil; the fact, they say, affords a fair presump Having thus shewn the apprehended dangers of extending the right of suffrage to be ideal, they say that the considerations that have been mentioned, in favor of its extension, remain in full force. To these they add some strong motives of public policy, as that the extension would remove a continual source of heart burning and civil dissension among ourselves; that the sense of injustice, already so great, may be expected to grow with the growth of our towns, and, consequently, with the increase of mechanics, manufacturers, and members of the learned professions, who will often find it more convenient, and sometimes prefer, to live in rented houses, rather than in houses of their own; and who will increase in intelligence as well as numbers; and besides the wisdom of making every class of citizens contented with the government, that it would be particularly impolitic to subject any class of productive labourers to civil disabilities; as it could not but have the effect of encouraging some of them to leave the state, and of preventing yet more from migrating to it; and that this injurious operation on a class so useful and so much wanted in Virginia, would be especially felt in the counties bordering on other states, where the contrast of their own insignificance with the political importance of their neighbours, would be so strikingly placed before the eyes of our citizens. They attribute the greater number of mechanics and useful artisans, who migrate to Maryland than to Virginia, and her advantage over us in wealth, and density of population, principally to the higher political privileges she confers on this class. And lastly, they appeal to our patriotic sympathies, and insist that if any thing is likely to cherish the love of country, and beget in the whole community, a spirit of devotion to its defence, it must be the circumstance, that the humblest individual in society feels himself to be an integral part of the state; that his voice is equal to that of the proudest and richest in choosing its highest officers; and that, in the exercise of this function of sovereign power, he can act without fear or restraint. Such a man must necessarily be proud of a state of which he is thus a constituent part; he must be grateful to a government which But to apply these general maxims : 1 should not think it prudent to extend the right of suffrage at once to so many as one half, or more than one half, the freemen of the state; for we cannot be sure that they would exercise the right with the same sobri has thus exalted him to a level with the highest; he must be ever ready to hazard his life for a country, thus dear to his affections, and thus flattering to his pride. Nor is this all; for his own self-respect, the source of so many meritorious actions, must be increased by the political import-ety and discretion, as if they had been preance thus conferred on him by the laws. We accordingly find that the yeomanry of a country have been no where more ready to fight its battles, or have fought them more gallantly, than where the elective franchise has been most extended, as we have seen, for example, in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky; and there are not a few who augur that the effect of adding to the personal importance of more than one half of our citizens, by conferring on them, the noble privilege of choosing and changing their own legislators, will be, to infuse a new spirit of enterprise into the people of the state, and a new energy into its councils. These are, however, as you know; some, and I confess to you that I am one of the number, who, while they acknowledge the force of the preceding arguments in favor of extension, would stop far short of the general suffrage which is permitted in most of the states. The advocates for political reform should always recollect that a people may become gradually adapted to a constitution, as well as a constitution be changed to suit a people; and that, in this way, an ancient constitution may often be ill-exchanged for one originally its superior. Even where the tastes and temper of the people have not completely moulded themselves to their constitution, it will nevertheless, be found, that long established laws and usages always have a tendency to remedy their own inconveniences; for you will agree, Sir, that there is a vis medicatrix in the body politic, as well as the body natural, which, by the beneficence of the creator, is always working out remedies for every evil. Now, whenever a cure is affected in another way, there is danger that the equipose in the system will be for a time destroyed, and that the natural remedy itself will become not only useless, but hurtful. If I mistake not, you will see this subject ably handled by Burke, the most philosophical of statesmen, on an occasion in which his philosophy was not tinctured with passion. viously accustomed io it. If, for example, the new voters, resenting the past opposition to their wishes, and bound together by the magic of a party name, such as conventionists, reformers, or radicals, were to act in concert, and to be influenced by a vindictive spirit, they would, in that case, not only exclude from the public councils some of our ablest and best men, who have honestly differed from them, but fill the country with civil discord, so unfriendly to wise legislation, and, in itself, an evil of no trifling character. While, then, some extension of the right of suffrage, and a considerable one, is due to public opinion, and to our sense of justice, which is shocked that a majority of the freemen, of the state, (the non-freeholders) should be excluded from all share in its government, some limit to that extension is also due to prudence, and the general policy of making political changes with moderation. The point at which it may be advisable to stop will depend greatly, as it seems to me, on the manner in which the convention shall dispose of the appointing power. If you give the election of the chief magistrate and other executive officers to the people, as is done in some of the states, then the evils apprehended from extending the elective franchise will be far more probable, and, consequently, greater restriction will be allowable. But if you leave the power of making these appointments with the legislature, where it now is, you may safely extend the right much farther. It is the popular election of governor, clerks, and sheriffs, in some of the states, which has occasioned their party intolerance, and tumultuous violence, and not in choosing their legislators; and the farther the right of suffrage is extended, the greater these evils will be. The inconvenience of multiplying popular elections will be more properly considered hereafter. V. I am respectfully, yours. ENGLISH PROVINCIALISMS.-No 2. but they are not worthy of enumeration. To afford a specimen of the cockney "Collections of provincial dialects would often dialect, we will suppose an inhabitant of have been extremely useful; many words es- Tooley street; the neighbourhood generally teemed peculiar to certain counties being rem-selected for the most perfect examples of nants of the language formerly in general use." COCKNEY DIALECT. NARES. The daily dialect of London, we shall see, is by no means of recent origin; many of its peculiarities are as old as the word cockney, the derivation of which, chronologically and etymologically, is involved in impenetrable obscurity: notwithstanding it has engaged the attention of every lexicographer. cockneyisms,-a Jimmy Green from Tom Although I have riz, 2 much debiliated, 3 having been attackted 4 by the palaretick, 5 I could no hows 6 have set 7 quietly, or suffered the wulgularity, 8 vich 9 has fell 10 from the gemman 11 in the black gownd 12-despisable 13 as it is, to pass unnoticed. He seems to me, sir, to be disgruntled, 14 and obstrepolous 15 to a have been more worser 27 than his'n. 28 I am degree vich is perdigious: 16 his stupendious 17 The vagaries indulged on this subject imperance 17* is to me a progidy 18; it has kivare hardly worthy of enumeration. Ca-ered 19 me with confusion. My curosity 20 has been excited but I have more scrupulosity 21 saubon derives it from the Geeek Oxoyeves than to be a partender 22 either in his wemon 23 "Oicogenes"-born and bred at home. or that of the bacheldor, 24 contagious 25 to him, Others from the French Coquin, a rogue. in the corner of the Chimley 26: whose remarks All have heard of the absurd story of its being compounded of cock and neighnot, sir, aggravated, 29 that's unpossible, 30 tho' that, once upon a time, a thorough bred. Londoner went into the country, and, on first hearing a horse neigh, cried out "how the horse laughs!" Being informed that the noise made by the horse was called neighing and having, on the following morning, heard the cock crow, he exclaimed that the cock neighed! This story is in the mouth of every one, but it is probably as devoid of reality as it is common. Cockney is clearly used, by the older writers, to signify a fellow devoid of wit and has probably, either primarily or secondarily been applied to citizens of London, who may be supposed to be ignorant, as many of them doubtless are, of every thing else in the world besides London. "Vir urbanus, rerum rusticarum prorsus ignarus"-a citizen completely ignorant of rural affairs," as Skinner has defined the word. In Chaucer it has such a signification. "I shall be held a daffe or a cockney." And in King Lear : “Cry to it, Nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them into the pasty alive :she rapped them o'th' coxcombs with a stick, and cried, down, wantons, down! It was her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse, but tered his hay." Pegge in his "Anecdotes of the English Language" has adduced other etymologies, I'm duberous 31 vether in my present sittiation 32 I can speak on the whole tote, 33 successfully. 34 Having been in eminent 35 danger, from having cotched 36 cold and nearly gone dead, 37 my pottecary 38 has perwented 39 me from engaging in any skrimidge; 40 even now the scrowdge 41 and squeedge 42 around me, from such a conquest 43 of people, mislests 44 me considerably. Ven the gemman, charges me with collogu ing, 45 he has unbethought himself;" not have vent 71 so far. (Vaiter! I'm a dry 72 5. Palaretick, a mere metathesis for paralytic. 6. No hows, every wheres, any hows, any wheres, and somehows are very common in the south of England as they are in the state of New York &c. 7. Sot, from set (for the cockneys like the Virginians have no verb to sit) like got from get. 8. Wulgularity, to harmonize with singularity, &c. 9. Vich. The substitution of the letters v and w is one of the most prevalent orthoepical errors of the cockney. It is not confined, however, to London in Kent it is even more offensively common than in the metropolis. "Please your vorship" said an offender, recently, who was carried before the lord Mayor of London. "I vas just a vaulking through that 'ere place vere these here people sells the toggery, and I had a vaistcoat vat I bought in the t'other end of the town. Vell, your Lordship, this here man (the officer) comed up to me and say's I'll buy that 'ere vaistcoat.' No,' says I, for it a'nt lawful (your Vorship I knowed it wa'nt the law) for to sell this here vaiscoat in this here place.' Vith that, your Vorship, he says to me, I'll pull you afore the Lord Mayor,' and so I comed to tell your Lordship the rights on it, S'elp me G-d [great laughter]." Another offensive mispronunciation is placing the h aspirate before a vowel, or what the cockney would call "exasperating the h" and omitting its sound where necessary. "An orse is a hanimal of vonderful docity." 10. Fell has been already noticed. 11. Gemman. A common abbreviation of gentleman. 12. Gownd. The final d seems to have been added, as suggested by Mr. Pegge, to finish the word, analogous to sound, pound, ground &c. Drownd is served in the same manner, whence drownded. Even the verb to foal has its participle in Virginia made foalded. A gentleman, having remarked, that his mare had just foalded, a facetious individual who was present, observed that it would be more correct to say " she had unfolded." 13. Despisable. A short formation from despise. 14. Disgruntled, offended. A strange word, but, according to Pegge, used in Sir Philip Warwick's memoirs, where, speaking of the Earl of Winchester's being made a prisoner in the house of his daughter, the Countess of Rutland, he says, the lady was much disgruntled at it. 15. Obstropolous, obstreperous, vociferous, turbulent. This misnomer is almost universal over England. "Then rough hewn tar, "You can't agree, 16. Perdigious for prodigious. 17. Stupendious, needs no comment. 17*. Imperance for impudence. "Who's going to stand any o'your imperance." 18. Progidy, a mere metathesis or change of letters. 19. Kivered for covered is common all over the southern part of England as it is in the southern states. "I've kivered my head with green baize." COCKNEY SONG. 20. Curosity for curiosity and curous for curious-common cockneyisms. 21. Scrupulosity for scruple, formed from scrupulous as curosity from curous. 22. Partender for partner. 23. Wemon for venom and wemonous for venomous are instances of metathesis. 24. Bacheldor for bachelor. 25. Contagious for contiguous, a very common error. 26. Chimley for chimney is a universal mtstake over England as it is in this coun- | meeting of the worshipful society of apo try. 27. More worser. Double comparatives are great favorites with the cockneys, as they were with many of the older poets. "Nor that I am more better "Than Prospero."-TEMPEST. In the year 1575, Master R. Laneham, who seems to have been a keeper of the Council Chamber, and a travelled man, writes to his friend Master Humfrey Martin, a Mercer, an account of Queen Elizaabeth's reception at Kenilworth Castle, wherein he describes some person, who, after praying for her majesty's perpetual felicity, finishes with the humblest subjection both of "him and hizzen." Pegge, p. 197. 29. Aggravated for irritated. 30. Unpossible for impossible an old word not in Johnson, but admitted by Todd: though used only by the vulgar, both in the south and north of England. 31. Duberous for dubious. 33. Whole-tote. The whole, a pleon asm. 34. Successfully for successively. A common error, but not so much so as respectively for respectfully, which is a vulgarism over all England, although formerly employed by the best writers. "You are very respectively welcome, sir, TIMON OF ATHENS. "I'm bound to pledge it respectively." JONSON'S "Every man out of his humour." 35. Eminent danger for imminent dan ger. 36. Cotched for caught. "I cotch cold" is a common expression both in London and in this state. "Cotch" arises from their infinitive being "ketch" as fotch is their preterite from fetch. 37. Gone dead and went dead are common Londonisms; the word gone has, however, had a similar application for a long time. "He is gone happy and has left me rich." TIMON OF ATHENS. We say also, gone blind. 38. Pottecarry. This word is sometimes also pronounced pottercarrier. At a thecaries of London, a cockney toastmaster, in repeating the toast, gave-success to the worshipful society of pottercarriers. Pottecary is not merely a Londonism: it extends throughout England, with slight modifications: in Yorkshire and the other northern counties it is Potticar and also pothecary. This spelling is probably nearer the original than apothecary. Chaucer wrote the word potecary which probably came from the Greek through the Romanic languages-Boticario being an apothecary in Spanish. In Scotland he is called a Pottingar. "For harms of body, hands or heid, "The Potting as will purge the pains." 39. Perwent for prevent by metathesis, like waps for wasps, thurst for thrust, &c. 40. Skrimidge for skirmish: the termination idge is a favorite with the cockney, hence radiges for radishes, rubbidge for rubbish, &c. 41. Scrowdge for crowd, this is not confined to London. Scrudge is common in the north of England. 42. Squeedge to squeeze like scrowdge. 43. Conquest for concourse. 44. Mislest for molest. 45. Colloguing for colleaguing, common over England and in Scotland. "But it was hardly possible two such rascals should collogue together without mischief to honest people."-ROB ROY. 46. Unbethought for recollected. This word, as Mr. Pegge has properly remarked, does not convey the meaning intended, Unbethought evidently meaning forgot. He suggests that it may have been originally onbethought, by a close pronunciation corrupted to unbethought. 47. Stagnated for staggered. 49. Contra'ry. The cockney universally places the accent on the second syllable of the word contrary, and it was probably pronounced so formerly, "And with contra'ry blasts proclaims most deeds."-MILTON. 50. Chara'cter is similarly accented by some of the poets. "Are visibly chara'cterd, and engrav'd" 51. Throw'd for thrown. The propensity of the cockney as of every careless and uneducated speaker is to make all ir |