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be recognized, but as many qualifications as possible should be enumerated".25 But the landowners would not accept this, the hub of the matter being forcefully expressed by Mr. Hogg that a substantial enlargement of the voting qualifications "would in fact admit a class that now lived on the property holders and might then outvote them on every important question" and even if Mr. Winchester made any efforts to tempt his superior (the British minister Alcock) into liberalizing the franchise, he was unsuccessful. The final text of this article read: "Every foreigner, either individually or as a member of a firm, residing in the Settlement, having paid all taxes due and being an owner of land of not less than five hundred taels in value, whose annual payment of assessment on land and houses shall amount to the sum of ten taels or upwards, or who shall be a householder paying on an assessed rental of not less than five hundred taels per annum and upwards shall be entitled to vote in the election of the said members of the Council and the public meetings.
Although it should be borne in mind that over the years rentals increased substantially, whereas the figures in the Land Regulations were not altered, so that more tenants became eligible for the vote, great disappointment was voiced at the time in a rather harsh comment of the North China Herald in which it was stated that "the Municipal Government has hitherto been conducted on quasi-feudal principles... the extreme difference between the election qualifications (under discussion in Shanghai and those under discussion in Britain) is sufficiently striking. While we have with difficulty gained a £250 franchise (viz Taels 700, the minimum rent which gave a tenant the right to vote — JH), large numbers at home are dissatisfied with a £10 standard and are agitating for a reduction to £6, while we fix the payment of £6 per annum in taxes as necessary qualifications, at home the payment of a £6 rental is thought to be established as entitling the householder to a vote. We see no reason why the outer many should not enjoy a voice and vote as well as the fortunate few"20
But however valid the objections of the critics were, these remained the foundations upon which the franchise in the Shanghai International Settlement was based.