EDITOR'S TABLE. 



411 



rise to this kind of talk, occasionally 

 seems to afford a certain justification of 

 it, is that, from time to time, " the peo- 

 ple " defeat the expectations of the poli- 

 ticians by refusing to carry out the plans 

 and arrangements which the latter have 

 made; so that a "ticket" which, con- 

 sidering the party organization behind 

 it, might have been supposed sure of 

 victory, meets with ignominious defeat. 

 It is much better to be wise sometimes 

 than to be wise never; but it is not 

 very satisfactory to reflect that an elect- 

 orate which is capable of exercising 

 wisdom and properly branding political 

 immorality should require the stimulus 

 or shock of some great scandal to bring 

 its virtue to the front. The reason why 

 politicians are encouraged to proceed 

 every now and then to some unusual 

 length in defiance of political principle 

 is that, in general, they can reckon on 

 the partisanship of their followers to 

 support whatever they may propose. 

 What the public have to do, therefore, 

 when by a tardy or fitful exercise of 

 political conscience they have escaped 

 some disgrace, is not so much to con- 

 gratulate themselves on a remarkable 

 achievement as to wonder, with some 

 little humiliation, why the achievement 

 was necessary why their political lead- 

 ers ever came to propose to them any- 

 thing so disgraceful. It is rare that a 

 man is approached with a disgraceful 

 proposition unless he has in some way 

 created the impression that the proposi- 

 tion might be well received ; and there- 

 fore, mixed with any lofty indignation 

 with which he repels it, should be some 

 heart-searching as to how the whole 

 thing came about. Applying this to a 

 case which is fresh in the recollection 

 of all, how much of moral inertness, 

 how much of blind partisanship, how 

 much of indifference to higher consid- 

 erations of national welfare must have 

 been shown on many occasions by re- 

 spectable voters, before the managers 

 of a great party could venture to place 

 on their ticket a name which the most 



elementary considerations of political 

 or moral principle should have sufficed 

 to exclude from it ! 



It is, of course, satisfactory to think 

 that there are bounds which can not be 

 passed that there is a point at which 

 the better sense of the community re- 

 bels but it is impossible not to think 

 at the same time that this better sense 

 might be kept in more regular exercise. 

 Instead of descending like a deus ex ma- 

 china into the political arena on critical 

 occasions to safeguard the state against 

 some signal danger, why should it not 

 be the daily providence and bulwark of 

 the state? The modern state depends 

 for its prosperity and security on the 

 faithful performance by citizens of their 

 political duties ; and it therefore behoves 

 every citizen to inform himself as to the 

 issues of the day, to consider carefully 

 which side he should take, looking to the 

 greatest interest of the country, and to 

 vote and otherwise shape his course ac- 

 cordingly. If this were done as a rule by 

 all voters capable of forming an intelli- 

 gent and honest judgment, there would 

 be very little encouragement given to dis- 

 honest political machinations ; and those 

 elements in the country that count on po- 

 litical corruption in one form or another 

 for liberty to pursue fraudulent and im- 

 moral ends would find their action so 

 circumscribed that all the profits of 

 their several nefarious trades would be 

 gone. There is reason to hope, we are 

 very glad to say, that the sounder ele- 

 ments in the community are becoming 

 more conscious of their strength and 

 more disposed to use it for the purifica- 

 tion of politics. Not one recent election 

 only, but many, have turned more or 

 less on moral issues, and have turned 

 in the right direction. Let there be 

 no pause in the good work; above all, 

 let there be no reaction. The effect 

 upon the administration of the govern- 

 ment in any country of a decided ex- 

 pression of public opinion in favor of 

 what is right, rather than of what is ex- 

 pedient in a party sense, can not but be 



