l82 AMERICAN' FARMS. 



advocates principles is a crank, a lunatic " ; that " the 

 first and main thing is victory, principles afterwards." 

 Victory or no victory, principles are shoved aside or 

 degraded into merely serving the objects of the hour. 

 These politicians, it is true, often go to the hustings 

 advocating changes of the most startling character for 

 the presumed welfare of the " sovereign people." But 

 when they get into secure positions themselves, they 

 coolly take effectual measures to shelve these reforms or 

 warp them into harmony with their own selfish interests. 

 And are they brought to book by the people, as they 

 should be ? O no ! Unforeseen circumstances require 

 a new programme, and the dissatisfied are silenced for 

 the time.' 



New schemes are being continually set afloat to mys- 

 tify and captivate, and for the purpose of using up taxa- 

 tion surpluses, and to furnish excuses for further drafts 

 on the people. For the onerous tax extracted from the 

 citizen through a vicious system one day, he is made to 

 laud and glorify his representatives the next for gaining 

 for him, in the most conspicuous and flattering manner, 

 a trifling service in return, the intrinsic value of which 

 may be most questionable. 



Our political schemes are decided, not by the inherent 

 value of the different planks in the platform agreed on — 

 not because those planks rest upon principles of high 

 and desirable order, but because their adoption offers, as 



' All thoughtful persons can bear testimony that the result of a 

 dependence upon expedients ends in barren result — sorrow and con- 

 fusion. Legislators are but human. Statecraft, however, is supposed 

 to be the work of ripe experience. Says Ruskin : " It is far better 

 to spend your thousand pounds in making a good gun, and then blow 

 it to pieces, than to pass a life of idleness. Only do not let it be 



