90 State Legislation 



their places in the Legislature. In the country the 

 case is different. Here the constituencies, who are 

 usually composed of honest though narrow-minded 

 and bigoted individuals, generally keep a pretty 

 sharp lookout on their members, and, as already 

 said, the latter are apt to be fairly honest men. 

 Even when they are not honest, they take good 

 care to act perfectly well as regards all district 

 matters, for most of the measures about which cor- 

 rupt influences are at work relate to city affairs. 

 The constituents of a country member know well 

 how to judge him for those of his acts which im- 

 mediately affect themselves; but as regards others 

 they often have no means of forming an opinion, 

 except through the newspapers, more especially 

 through the great metropolitan newspapers, and 

 they have gradually come to look upon all state- 

 ments made by the latter with reference to the 

 honesty or dishonesty of public men with extreme 

 distrust. This is because our newspapers, includ- 

 ing those who professedly stand as representatives 

 of the highest culture of the community, have been 

 in the habit of making such constant and reckless 

 assaults upon the characters of even very good 

 public men, as to greatly detract from their in- 

 fluence when they attack one who is really bad. 

 They paint every one with whom they disagree 

 black. As a consequence the average man, who 

 knows they are partly wrong, thinks they may also 

 be partly right; he concludes that no man is abso- 

 lutely white, and at the same time that no one 



