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[Letter of Francis William Newman to Dr. Chapman] 7 PVE. NW, Dear Sir, I have already drawn up my plan of my article on Reform, (which I think on the whole you will approve & agrees with your original suggestions,) and have got a little way in the writing of it. I previously read the pamphlets you sent, & I intend to make some use of Mr. J. Toulmin Smith's Parliamentary Remembrancer of the last year, as well as of the old pamphlets by Mr. Wickens. I think we agree that the public at large is so overpossessed with the question of the franchise, as unduly to overlook other parts of the subject, which are at least of coordinate importance, perhaps of greater: such as the power of Parliament itself to manage its own vast business, & not to be hoodwinked by ministers, or so overworked as to act at random: also, not to be simply neutralized by the House of Lords in matters on which the nation has long made up its mind. On these topics I think the common "Liberal" press insists far too little; and it is by dwelling on such things that an article might have some novelty as well as use. On Statistics I suppose I could with considerable labour learn something, but my inferences would be crude, nor should I at all trust them myself. To approximate them from an other article even of the same review would be hardly desirable. My idea is, to dwell chiefly on great principles of common sense, which have little to do with statistics;—except if it be a question, what proportion of men ostensibly intelligent and thoughtful, is excluded from the franchise. I confess I am unwilling now to deviate from the plan already formed, & to read afresh what others have written on the same subject in order to guide me. Your long letter adds little, if anything to my previous knowledge of facts concerning yourself. I have already told you it was your own letter of justification (I might say letters) which showed me that the principles from which we judged the facts were different. Your present letter does not alter that feeling. But I beg you to remember, that whatever I have recently written to pain you is elicited by your positive demand. You utterly misjudge me, in saying that I feared to have to differ from Martineau. On the contrary, I feared to have to assume a front of hostility against you in your troubles. But I have said this already, & you cannot believe it. Sincerely yours,
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