uo 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



just began to move in, glittering like the morning- 

 star full of life and splendor and joy," failed to 

 dazzle the Virginian democrat. In the summer 

 of 1789 he declared that this fair and brilliant 

 creature was prepared to do " whatever rage, 

 pride, and fear, can dictate in a breast which never 

 knew the presence of one moral restraint. . . . 

 The queen cries," he says, " and sins on." Even 

 after the tragedy of her execution, which, how- 

 ever, he did not approve, thinking it would have 

 been better to have shut her up in a convent, he 

 did not shrink ftom writing that her " inordinate 

 gambling and dissipations " had been one of the 

 causes which led to the financial crisis that pre- 

 cipitated the revolution, and that it was her in- 

 flexible opposition to reform which " led herself 

 to the guillotine, drew the king on with her, and 

 plunged the world into crimes and calamities 

 which will forever stain the page of modern his- 

 tory." » 



He returned from France long before there 

 were any signs of the excesses of the Reign of 

 Terror, and his whole heart was glowing with en- 

 thusiasm for the revolution. To his dismay and 

 indignation he discovered that the most powerful 

 classes among his own countrymen regarded his 

 political friends in France with bitter hostility. 

 He entered Washington's cabinet, and found that 

 the political sympathies and principles of his 

 colleagues were wholly antagonistic to his own. 

 He records part of a conversation on the British 

 Constitution which took place at a cabinet dinner 

 about the year 1*790, just after his return. 



"Mr. Adams observed, 'Purge that constitu- 

 tion of its corruption, and give to the popular 

 branch equality of representation, and it would be 

 the most perfect constitution ever devised by the 

 art of man.' Hamilton paused and said : ' Purge 

 it of its corruption and give its popular branch 

 equality of representation, and it would become 

 an impracticable government ; as it stands at pres- 

 ent, with all its supposed defects, it is the most per- 

 fect government which ever existed." 



And this was more than forty years before the 

 first Reform Bill. 



Adams and Hamilton are among the greatest 

 names in the early history of the republic, and 

 the political temper which is illustrated in this 

 conversation still survives. Some of the Ameri- 

 cans with whom I came into contact were so in- 

 tensely conservative that if they were English- 

 men they would regard the democratic achieve- 

 ments of Lord Beaconsfield with dismay, and 

 would sigh over the disappearance of genuine 



1 Parton , s "Life of Thomas JeffersoD," pp. 328, 329. 



Tory statesmanship. One gentleman expressed 

 the hope that in fifty years America might cease 

 to be a republic — not remembering that between 

 monarchy and conservatism there is no indis- 

 soluble alliance. Men of this extreme type gen- 

 erally belong to the class that has wealth enough 

 and leisure enough to travel in Europe. When 

 they are on this side of the Atlantic, there are 

 many Americans whose imagination appears to 

 be very easily excited by the pomp and splen- 

 dor of thrones, and by whatever is venerable and 

 romantic in ancient institutions. In all parts of 

 the country I found a kind of sentiment toward 

 the queen and the members of her family which 

 it was not very easy to distinguish from loyalty. 



Though there are very few persons who se- 

 riously desire to see a monarchical form of gov- 

 ernment established in America, and fewer still 

 who expect it, a distrust of popular institutions 

 is far from uncommon among the wealthier and 

 educated classes. In America as in England 

 there are many who believe that a country will 

 never be well governed unless a preponderating 

 power is conferred by the constitution on wealth 

 and culture. Unhappily, most of the persons, in 

 America as well as in England, who hold this 

 theory refuse to exert the authority which is 

 actually within their reach. They would be per- 

 fectly happy if the political affairs of the country 

 could be transacted quietly in carpeted rooms lit 

 with wax-candles, and with walls covered with 

 " engravings after the best masters," or with 

 water-color sketches from Italy and Spain and 

 Algiers ; but if they must go into heated halls 

 lit with flaring gas, and defend their opinions in 

 the presence of a crowd of noisy electors, their 

 patriotism fails them. There is a still larger 

 class — a class including thousands and tens of 

 thousands of the best men in the country — who 

 think it possible to enjoy the fruits of good gov- 

 ernment without working for them. 



To an Englishman, especially to a Birmingham 

 radical, the little interest which many Americans 

 seem to feel in politics is one of the worst and 

 most ominous characteristics of American life. 

 They go to the poll when there is an election, 

 but at other times they seem to feel no respon- 

 sibility for the maintenance and diffusion of 

 their political convictions. The reasons for this 

 neglect of political duty are not far to seek. The 

 action of Government does not effect the life and 

 interests of the great masses of the people so di- 

 rectly and so powerfully as among ourselves. The 

 material prosperity of the country has been so 

 great that there has been no reason for engaging in 



