50 Latitude and Longitude 



byword of contempt to cool and shrewd men of 

 business." 



What he says of Scotland in the time of King 

 James and King William is true, word for word, of 

 civic life in New York two centuries later. We 

 see in New York sodden masses of voters manipu 

 lated by clever, unscrupulous, and utterly selfish 

 masters of machine politics. Against them we see, 

 it is true, masses of voters who both know how to, 

 and do, strive for righteousness; but we see also 

 very many others in whom the capacity for self- 

 government seems to have atrophied. They have 

 lost the power to do practical work by ceasing to 

 exercise it, by confining themselves to criticism 

 and theorizing, to intemperate abuse and intemper 

 ate championship of what they but imperfectly un 

 derstand. The analogues of the men whom Ma- 

 caulay condemns exist in numbers in New York, 

 and work evil in our public life for the very reason 

 that Macaulay gives. They do not do practical 

 work, and the extreme folly of their position makes 

 them not infrequently the allies of scoundrels who 

 cynically practice corruption. Too often, indeed, 

 they actually alienate from the cause of decency keen 

 and honest men, who grow to regard all movements 

 for reform with contemptuous dislike because of the 

 folly and vanity of the men who in the name of 

 righteousness preach unwisdom and practice un- 



