Note 70 — Chapter II · DEMOCRACY AND REPRESENTATION

At that time, under the full spell of the analogy which the age of Walpole presented, he believed that triennial parliaments and the ballot might redress the balance of constitutional power and foil the oligarchs who had baffled the people by espousing a popular cry. In 1852, however, he said, with regard to those proposals brought forward by Mr. Hume: “... He did not object to them, but he saw no necessity to adopt them. His objections to the latter were distinctly founded on the limits of the franchise which the settlement of 1832 had not sufficiently extended, but ... if they had universal suffrage they came to a new constitution—a constitution commonly called the ‘Sovereignty of the People,’ but that is not the Constitution of England; for, wisely modified as that monarchy may be, the Constitution of England is the sovereignty of Queen Victoria.”