EDITOR'S TABLE. 



271 



been confined to that portion of the 

 French Canadians who were unvacci- 

 nated ; but such has been the passion of 

 religious fanaticism, and the intensity 

 of race-hatred, that this small minority 

 made a fight stubborn enough to defeat 

 all effectual public action. There have 

 been defiance of authority and constant 

 danger of mob violence which have in- 

 timidated the controlling oflScials and 

 so diminished their effectiveness. The 

 authorities in charge of the leading 

 hospital of St. Roche are said to have 

 favored neither vaccination nor sani- 

 tation, and such was the ineflScient and 

 horrible condition of that old estab- 

 lishment that many advocated burning 

 it down. The efforts to isolate cases 

 of small-pox have been also desperately 

 resisted, and, worst of all, the oflicials 

 have misled the people as to the prog- 

 ress of the malady, and by inducing a 

 false security have prevented that en- 

 ergetic private action which must be 

 the main reliance in the last resort. A 

 writer in a Montreal newspaper puts 

 this feature of the case very forcibly. 

 He says: "In the prevailing murmur- 

 ing and complaint by people with their 

 faces turned toward the City Hall, let 

 us say that, had every man and woman 

 in this city done his or her plain duty 

 about small-pox, there would be no 

 small-pox. It is one of the vices of our 

 age, which Montreal manifests in a 

 marked degree, that 'authorities' are 

 expected to do for individuals what in- 

 dividuals should do for themselves. So 

 far as laws or by-laws lead people to 

 imagine that they can properly or safely 

 divest themselves of any part of their 

 personal responsibility, just so far are 

 laws or by-laws only evU. There is a 

 disastrous superstition abroad which 

 leads people to believe in enactments 

 and legislation. These things can not 

 execute themselves, they can only be 

 put into effect by deputies, often listless 

 or ignorant, and nearly always much 

 less interested in the execution of their 

 work than the men who have thought- 



lessly handed to them tasks which 

 should never have been deputed. Who- 

 ever may be chargeable with the dire 

 calamity upon us, grumbling will do no 

 good now, and, if the reader wishes to 

 aid the officials and other citizens who 

 are busy fighting the plague, let him 

 add himself to the Citizens' Committee. 

 Work will be given him, and in its diffi- 

 culty and importance he wiU have little 

 leisure for complaint." 



PARTY GOVERyMEXT. 



A ^^:wsPAPER brings us the fragment 

 of a speech by Senator Hawley, in which 

 he ventures for a moment upon the 

 tickhsh ground of defending partisan- 

 ship, or the necessity of two parties. 

 He had been previously glorifying one 

 party — his own — with, of course, the 

 due condemnation of the opposite party. 

 One would suppose that he could spare 

 the utterly wrong political party, and 

 rejoice in its annihilation, so that the 

 right party could have its perfect way ; 

 but he says we must have both, and iu 

 enforcing this idea he gives expression 

 to the following curious bit of political 

 philosophy : " It would be a lamentable 

 day indeed for this country, or any other 

 enjoying a free government, when it 

 could be said that there were no parties 

 — that lovely time that some long for, 

 when there should not be enough of 

 moral or intellectual life among the 

 people to get up a single difference of 

 opinion upon political affairs." 



Senator Hawley seems here to think 

 that the evidence and the measure of 

 "moral or intellectual life" are seen in 

 the power of "getting up differences"; 

 while we have always supposed they 

 were shown rather in the power of 

 reaching agreement. Differences of 

 views and opinions are certainly indica- 

 tive of want of intelligence on the mat- 

 ters of disagreement ; while " moral 

 and intellectual life" is displayed in 

 that activity of inquiry which leads to 

 the attainment and acceptance of truth, 



