68 PARTIES- 



snentofthe others. It is easy to see tliat the dif- 

 ference is nominal — that the whole controversy 

 is about oitice, and that the country is constantly 

 assailed by ambitious demagogues for the purpose 

 of gratifying their cupidity. It is a melancholy. 

 but true rejection on human nature, that the 

 smaller the dilierence the greater the animosity. 

 Mole hills and rivulets, become mountains and 

 rivers. The Greek empire was ruined by two most 

 inveterate factions, the Prasini and Vineti, which 

 originated from the colour of livery in equestrian 

 races. The parties of Guelphs and Gibbelines, 

 of Roundheads and Cavaliers, of Whigs and To- 

 ries, continued after all causes of difference were 

 merged, I have often asked some of the leading 

 politicians of this country, what constituted the 

 real points of discrimination between the Repub- 

 licans and Federalists, and I never could get a 

 satisfactory answer. An artful man v, ill lay hold 

 of ivords if he cannot of things, in order to pro- 

 mote his views. The Jansenists and the Jesuits, 

 the Nominalists and the Realists, the Sub-lapsa~ 

 rians, and the Supra-lapsarians, were in polemic* 

 what the party controversies of this people are in 

 politics. If you place an ass at an equal distance 

 between two bundles of hay, will he not remain 

 there to all eternity ? was a question solemnly 

 propounded and gravely debated by the school- 



