THE MACHINERY OF ELECTIVE GOVERNMENT. 6 33 



of the system is to give class-selfishness a great and ever-increasing 

 advantage over patriotism and conviction. The quicker the intellect 

 and the stronger the conscience of the nation become, the less prac- 

 ticable will be the mode of government which we are told is alone 

 possible, and destined by an inherent necessity of human nature to 

 endure to the end of time. 



Even in its best estate, when there are organic issues, issues which 

 create genuine enthusiasm and raise the combatants above the mean- 

 ness of faction, is party a good government ? Is not the possession 

 of power and place always present as a motive warping the conduct 

 of the leaders on national questions ? Does not sheer passion always 

 rage among the rank and file ? Is not corruption an almost in- 

 dispensable instrument of party organization ? The bribe may be 

 money, it may be patronage, it may, when the supj^ort of rich men 

 is to be gained, be titles and social grade ; but is not bribery in 

 some shape always there? Let the main object of association be 

 ever so imj>ortant, must there not be always, to preserve discipline 

 and beat the enemy, a terrible sacrifice of conscience and of freedom 

 of opinion ? Is not legislation, on the most vital subjects, apt to be 

 governed, not by regard for the public good, but by the exigencies 

 of the conflict and the necessity of keeping up the ministerial steam, 

 or raising an agitation to drive opponents from power ? It was not 

 an American adventurer, but a British nobleman of ancient lineage 

 and enormous wealth, the vaunted pattern at once of the Conserva- 

 tive sentiment and the personal honor which is supposed to go with 

 aristocracy, who was ready to take such a leap in the dark as house- 

 hold suffrage for the purpose of dishing the Whigs. At this moment 

 is not party trying to cut the sinews of a government which is strug- 

 gling against a great public peril ? It is scarcely possible for states- 

 men under such a system to- give their best energies to the work of 

 legislation and government ; their minds must be constantly occupied 

 with strategy, and they are now being called upon in this country, by 

 the increasingly demagogic character of their position, to spend their 

 parliamentary vacation, not in recruiting their working powers and 

 storing thought, but in the delivery of stump-speeches. Stump-ora- 

 tory is, indeed, in a fair way to supersede statesmanship, for the 

 masses who are now enfranchised care comparatively little about great 

 questions ; they want a leader who will fill their imaginations : this a 

 striking stump-orator does, and to him, therefore, though in every 

 essential respect he may be the worst of pilots, the helm of state is 

 likely to be consigned. Perhaps even his influence will be less pesti- 

 lent than that of the master of tactics and intrigue. Party has served 

 its purpose in history ; it has been the rough and questionable, yet 

 perhaps indispensable instrument of progress in England, the agency 

 by which, through a long and intermittent series of struggles, the 

 supreme power has been transferred from the Crown to Parliament } 



