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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: only argument against manhood suffrage, which would admit many--but
too many, alas!--who are still mere boys in mind. To a reasonable
household suffrage it cannot apply. The man who (being almost
certainly married, and having children) can afford to rent a 5 pound
tenement in a town, or in the country either, has seen quite enough
of life, and learnt quite enough of it, to form a very fair judgment
of the man who offers to represent him in Parliament; because he has
learnt, not merely something of his own interest, or that of his
class, but--what is infinitely more important--the difference
between the pretender and the honest man.
The causes of this state of society, which is peculiar to Britain,
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