A MODERN "SYMPOSIUM." 



305 



"egret that some limitations have been for a mo- 

 ment forgotten, if the result has been to produce 

 a discussion, in which every contributor has 

 thrown new light upon the case. It is, perhaps, 

 natural that I should prefer to all others the very 

 able papers of Mr. Hutton and Mr. Harrison. To 

 these I am indebted for illustration and defense 

 much better than any I could myself have sup- 

 plied ; but I will give in few words my view of 

 the position, up to which competing but also 

 converging efforts have brought the general sub- 

 ject. 



It will now be clearly understood that we 

 are not debating whether government ought to 

 be carried on by the people rather than by the 

 leisured classes. In this country at least the 

 people themselves would be the very first to re- 

 ject such a proposal, if any one could be found 

 to make it. Neither has it been contended that 

 their powers of political action are superior to 

 those of the limited portions of society, which 

 possess such vast advantages in leisure, tradition, 

 wealth, hereditary aptitude, and every kind of 

 opportunity. Nor even, as might be hastily in- 

 ferred from the succinct title of this literary 

 eranos, that " the popular judgment in 'all kinds 

 of politics is more just than that of the higher 

 orders." The people are of necessity unfit for 

 the rapid, multifarious action of the administra- 

 tive mind ; unfurnished with the ready, elastic, 

 and extended, if superficial, knowledge which the 

 work of government, in this country beyond all 

 others, demands ; destitute of that acquaintance 

 with the world, with the minds and tempers of 

 men, with the arts of occasion and opportunity, 

 in fact, with the whole doctrine of circumstance, 

 which, lying outside the matter of political plans 

 and propositions, nevertheless frequently deter- 

 mines not the policy alone, but the duty of pro- 

 pounding them. No people of a magnitude to 

 be called a nation has ever, in strictness, gov- 

 erned itself; the utmost which appears to be 

 attainable, under the conditions of human life, is 

 that it should choose its governors, and that it 

 should on select occasions bear directly on their 

 action. History shows how rarely even this 

 point has in any considerable manner been at- 

 tained. It is written in legible characters, and 

 with a pen of iron, on the rock of human des- 

 tiny, that within the domain of practical politics 

 the people must in the main be passive. 



It would be well if this were all. But I must 

 make a further admission. That teachableness, 

 for which most of the writers in this series give 

 them credit, will on some occasions, and in some 



92 



persons on all occasions, degenerate into, or be 

 replaced by, a degree of subserviency. The great- 

 est, apparently, of all the difficulties in establish- 

 ing true popular government is the difficulty — it 

 should, perhaps, be said the impossibility — of 

 keeping the national pulse in a state of habitual 

 and healthy animation. At certain junctures it 

 may be raised even to a feverish heat. But these 

 accesses are in all countries short and rare ; they 

 come and go like the passing wave. The move- 

 ment is below par a hundred times, for once that 

 it is above. The conditions of life bear hard 

 upon the many, but lightly upon the few. To the 

 many, politics of an operative quality are in or- 

 dinary times an impossibility, in the most favor- 

 able times a burden ; but to the few, with their 

 wealth and leisure, they are an easy and health- 

 ful exercise, nay, often an entertainment and even 

 a luxui-y. At unexciting seasons, the member of 

 the upper or middle class will usually cleave to 

 his party. But I apprehend that the ties of par- 

 ty, as distinct from those of sympathy, opinion, 

 and personal confidence in leaders, are less felt 

 among the masses than among those in superior 

 circumstances. The present weighs more heav- 

 ily upon them, and they must have as a rule, other 

 circumstances being equal, less energy available 

 either for the anticipation of the future or the re- 

 tention of the past. Upon the whole, then, in the 

 absence of truly great and stirring subjects, the 

 working-man, or popolano, will very frequently 

 come to the poll with his mind in a rather nega- 

 tive state ; and though, setting aside the few baser 

 members of the class, he would not entertain the 

 offer of an undisguised bribe, there is a disguised 

 and standing bribe, which may be said commonly 

 to lie in the hand3 of superiors in station, es- 

 pecially if this superiority be combined with any 

 personal contact involving mutual interests. So 

 that we cannot be surprised if the mere desire to 

 please the employer or the landlord, as such, steps 

 into the vacant or lethargic mind, and, for the 

 purpose of directing the vote, stands instead of 

 the reason of the case. This, it will be observed, 

 is a mode of operation quite distinct from legiti- 

 mate influence, though it is far from being the 

 most illegitimate. 



Again, I allow it to be possible that in partic- 

 ular cases the mere possession of the suffrage 

 may be a cause of deterioration, and thus of rela- 

 tive unfitness, to the possessor. The superiority 

 of the popular judgment in politics, so far as it is 

 superior, is, according to my view, due mainly to 

 moral causes, to a greater mental integrity, which, 

 again, is greatly owing to the comparative ab- 



