MONARCHY AND ITS DRAWBACKS. 547 



its evil effects. The over-estimate of the republican form of gov- 

 ernment based on classical commonplace has, among other things, pre- 

 vented our knowing what may be said for or against its establishment 

 in the older parts of the world. French republics have up to this 

 time chiefly failed because too much was expected from them. If we 

 look to facts for our guidance, we have few to rely upon except those 

 furnished by the comparatively short history of the group of States 

 making up the American Union. Now, the spectacle of the United 

 States suggests not that a republican government is what it was 

 deemed to be by most Englishmen in 1793, but that it is a govern- 

 ment hardly worth the trouble of adopting in 1879. It is neither a 

 Utopia of bliss nor a den of assassins and thieves, but simply a set of 

 institutions like another, with advantages and drawbacks keeping the 

 scales nearly evenly poised. The attractions which it had for think- 

 ers of the once famous Utilitarian school plainly arose from miscalcu- 

 lation. They argued that the interests of a community were the in- 

 terests of the greatest number of men in it ; and that therefore every 

 government which rested on the votes of this greatest number, and 

 did not disturb their verdict by collateral influences, would be sure 

 by the nature of the case to promote the true interest of the nation. 

 It has turned out in practice that few men out of a community will 

 give attention to the interests of the community, and that fewer still 

 can see or understand them. Thus the experience of republican gov- 

 ei'nment in America has ended in a great deal of disillusion. It is not 

 that men may not be happy and prosperous under republics, but that 

 they are not happier or more prosperous than under many of the forms 

 of monarchy. A people living under republican institutions is plainly 

 not wiser, nor more virtuous, nor more peaceable for its government ; 

 nor is this government cheaper or less clumsy in its practical working 

 than others. A certain amount of social ease and independence is 

 attributed to American society by those who have observed it ; but it 

 does not appear to have any greater respect or regard for cultivation 

 than the ordinary society of older countries. On the whole, if mon- 

 archy and republicanism come into competition, and the victory be 

 decided by the results of experience, there is no particular reason why 

 republicanism should prevail. The probability is, however, that, if the 

 throne were to give place to the presidential chair in a country like 

 ours, the substitution would not be caused by any deliberate prefer- 

 ence for republican institutions, but by the aggregation of some or all 

 of those drawbacks on monarchy which we have noticed until they 

 have become intolerable. Pall Mall Budget. 



