3535. GOVERNMENT, The people and.—[continued].
The influence over government
must be shared among all the people.
If every individual which composes their mass
participates of the ultimate authority, the government
will be safe; because the corrupting
the whole mass will exceed any private resources
of wealth; and public ones cannot
be provided but by levies on the people. In
this case, every man would have to pay his
own price. The government of Great Britain
has been corrupted, because but one man in
ten has a right to vote for members of Parliament.
The sellers of the government, therefore,
get nine-tenths of their price clear.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 390.
Ford ed., iii, 254.
(1782)
