Long Parliaments were the root of all social political evil, Cartwright argued.

War, national debt, distress, depopulation, land out of cultivation, Parliamentary debate itself become a mockery--these calamities were all due to long Parliaments; and would be cured if once a year--on June 1st--a fresh Parliament was elected by the votes of every man over eighteen--by ballot and without any plural voting--and a payment of two guineas a day was made to members on their attendance.

Of course, Cartwright could not help writing "all are by nature free, all are by nature equal"-- no political reformer in the eighteenth century could do otherwise--but, unlike his contemporaries, the Major was a stout Christian, and insisted that as the whole plan of Christianity was founded on the equality of all mankind, political rights must have the same foundation.

By the political axiom that "no man shall be taxed but with his own consent, given either by himself or his own representative in Parliament," Cartwright may be quoted as one who had some perception of what democracy meant in England; but he is off the track again in arguing that personality, and not the possession of property, was the sole foundation of the right of being represented in Parliament.

It was the possession of property that brought taxation, and with taxation the right to representation.