632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ion which divides the two parties from each other. Civil-service re- 

 form, the burning question of the hour, divides the Republicans into 

 two bitterly hostile sections, while it unites the reform Republicans 

 to the reform Democrats ; and free trade, the question next in im- 

 portance, though less burning, is equally regardless of the party lines, 

 the Republicans of the West being commonly free traders, while 

 among the Democrats of Pennsylvania there has always been a pro- 

 tectionist element strong enough to prevent the party as a whole from 

 moving effectively in favor of free trade. Thus in the United States 

 too, the death of party as a connection sustained by distinctive prin- 

 ciple, and the survival of mere faction, seem to be in sight. In Eng- 

 land, no doubt, there are still organic questions, such as the extension 

 of the franchise, the Established Church, and the House of Lords ; 

 yet even in England the symptoms of dissolution have begun to ap- 

 pear, and in the last century there was an interval of political stagna- 

 tion during which the party system degenerated into a struggle for 

 power carried on between unprincipled connections with the usual 

 accompaniments intrigue, calumny, and corruption. 



There are some, including grave historians, who fancy that party 

 has its everlasting source and justification in a natural line dividing 

 the political temperament of mankind. But can anybody seriously 

 maintain that a thing so multiplex, varied by such infinite shades, and 

 so mutable, even in the individual man, as temperament, is capable of 

 this sharp and permanent bisection ? Can any instance be named in 

 history of a party founded on temperament, not on interest or connec- 

 tion ? In politics, as in other things, age, no doubt, as a rule, is cau- 

 tious, and youth hopeful ; yet what reactionists are more violent than 

 the younger members of an aristocratic faction ? Is not this evidently 

 a theory of human nature constructed to underprop a falling system ? 

 And be it observed that, to make the system work, there must be two 

 parties, and two only. If parties multiply, as multiply they do, and 

 will do in increasing measure, parliamentary anarchy must ensue, and 

 the Government will be left without a sufficient basis. In France the 

 number of fractions, each of which is really a separate party, has for 

 some time past rendered ministries rickety and short-lived. In Italy, 

 to give Government a sufficiently broad foundation, a double ministry, 

 the Cairoli-Depretis, was formed, but with no satisfactory result. The 

 German Parliament is split into at least six parties, not one of which 

 has anything like a majority. In England the unity of what is called 

 the Liberal party, and with its unity its ability to sustain a govern- 

 ment, are now in great measure lost, as would appear at once if the 

 * commanding influence of its present chief were removed. The Tory 

 party preserves its solidity, but this is because it is a party of interest, 

 the tendency of which is always to unite, while the tendency of opinion 

 is to divide, and to divide in proportion to the activity of intelligence 

 and the amount of moral independence ; so that one necessary result 



