Political Life is for Wealthy Men of Property Only

In England, representative institutions and responsible government work smoothly. And why? Because of the notoriously aristocratic and plutocratic character of the legislature of Great Britain. Political life is a sealed book to any but the wealthy classes. Every member of parliament is a man of property... the cream of all legislation is taxation, and my solid conviction is that representative institutions and responsible government will fail whenever the working majority is in the hands of an unsubstantial class of representatives or of electors.

--Janet Ajzenstat et al., eds., Canada's Founding Debates (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 49.