[The Transference of an Elective Franchise]

First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 19 April 1828, p. 396. Reprinted Tave, pp. 346–7. For the attribution, see Tave, pp. 347–8. A short horizontal line separates this article from the preceding one, ‘Rumours from Paris’ (above, pp. 313–14), which is the leader for this date. In this present piece, the use of ideas and terms borrowed from Edmund Burke about ‘the equilibrium … of our constitution’, strongly suggests De Quincey, in the context of Edinburgh’s Post. As the final sentence confirms, this article is by a regular political commentator for the paper, and by someone with an editorial or quasi-editorial position. It cannot be attributed to Crichton, because it has the word ‘between’. Supporting evidence includes the subject-matter, the dash, and a classical phrase, all of which tend to confirm that this article was by the same English contributor who had been responsible for writing on London politics in the Post for many months – in other words, De Quincey.