their posterity. It has been shown in the foregoing pages, and the proofs might have been multiplied indefinitely, that a great minority of the people chafe and fret under the yoke of a government which, in theory, affords perfect freedom and satisfaction to all. It is still common to find Americans writing of their country in terms like these:-"The career of the Republic has thus far consisted of two steps. It first became, in practice, a pure democracy, and then an oligarchy of demagogues; the worst of all possible forms of misgovernment." 41 "41 But, in addition o this kind of dissatisfaction, there are numberless Americans who have no sympathy with the wishes or designs of that class of their countrymen who maintain that the democratic theory can never be carried too far. They are far from believing that an unchecked democracy is the best and soundest form of government. They would place some limit upon the exercise of the franchise, and they insist upon the inexpediency of allowing incapable and inexperienced persons to vote. But what present hope is there for men who hold these opinions? The course of national "levelling" is swift and irresistible, and what is once yielded to clamour can never be withdrawn. Only in countries where a rule of Democracy has never been tried is it praised and coveted. The American is as much attached to class

41 Southern Review,' vol. i. p. 350. (Baltimore, 1867).

CHAP. XII. CONSERVATISM OF AMERICAN OPINION.

285

distinctions as the citizen of any other country. He does not consort by preference with those beneath him in station. He does not ask the ignorant to sit by his fireside, and he would not allow them to neutralise his influence in political life if he could avoid it. But he knows that one of the results of eighty years' trial of republican institutions is the transfer of power from men of the character of Washington to men of the character of Butler and Thaddeus Stevens; and this has been effected by the agency of the needy and illiterate orders. The great men of his country who have passed away were not those who filled the highest post in the government. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay were men too greatly gifted to be taken up by party intriguists, and supported by the numerous classes. The Americans do not pride themselves upon a democratic government, except when they are sometimes writing or speaking for foreign readers. They wished to keep many things which they have lost, but the tide of popular will quietly defied their control. We find American writers dwelling upon the "dangers of democracy" with an earnestness which ought to convince theorists elsewhere that there is, after all, some danger in intrusting the larger share of political power to the least educated classes. In America the truth has long been admitted that Democracy is insatiable. Its demands increase in volume and vehemence with every attempt to set them at rest.

In such a system, everything worth keeping by a community is dependent solely upon the self-restraint of that class which is under the least temptation to practice self-restraint. In times of tumult and agitation, the sober and correcting influence of experience and education is likely to be of benefit; but there are no means of bringing this influence into operation, unless the people themselves desire it. How often will they be willing to call in outer aid to restrain themselves? The moving forces of any community which once makes an approach to democracy must ever impel it towards great organic change. The nature of man is to be dissatisfied with that which he has. Whatever may be his condition, his instincts suggest to him that in some other condition he would be better off. Individuals seek for change, and nations thirst for it with a restless longing. When they are made aware that they can alter any part of their government at pleasure, permanence of construction is out of the question. As time passes on, the people of America will be brought to the knowledge of the truth, that a finished system of government is only to be arrived at, if mankind is ever destined to enjoy the blessing at all, after many failures, and by the exercise of forbearance and wisdom on a more general scale than has hitherto been common in the world. Every system promises perfection until it is put into action, and it is only in rare cases that those who watch its working agree to

CHAP. XII. AMERICA AND THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASSES. 287

shut their eyes to its inadequateness. In America a habit so fatal to the hope of improvement is fast disappearing. Americans care less for foreign criticism than ever they did, because they respect themselves more, and because they know their own strength. Their history is but now beginning, and their national character exhibits many unexpected modifications. Their former misjudged admiration for everything American, in political theory, has been transferred to a school of politicians in Europe, who have special purposes to serve in producing social disturbances, and who blindly praise what they have never seen, and ignorantly admire what they do not understand. By political men of a nobler type, no object ought to be sought after more earnestly than that of making the working men of these islands familiar with every detail of the American Government as it actually exists. The whole truth ought to be laid before them, stripped of the disguises of the doctrinaire, or the narrow and bigoted conceit of the spurious philosopher. Let the English working men see and understand the American Government as the men who are engaged in its administration see it, and they will soon be jealous of changes in their own. They will learn to prize a civil system which is essentially what the intelligence and spirit of the whole people, and not of any class, have made it, which has awakened from time to time the admiration of the world, and which is at this hour more

just and fair in its method of working than any other polity known to mankind. The future of England may not be so full of freshness and promise as that of America, but we have won an immortal past, and we still have much in our laws which Americans desire, and hitherto have desired in vain. That they may succeed in building up a government which will secure to them for all time to come the enjoyment of constitutional freedom, must be the hope of us all; and their efforts to consummate this glorious work ought not to be retarded by the undiscriminating adulation of men who invent wrongs for others in order that they may obtain influence of which they are unworthy, and use it afterwards to the disadvantage of an ancient Kingdom which has been assailed by many demagogues, and hitherto survived them all.

THE END.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,

AND CHARING CROSS.