142 
Kinley — The Direction of Social Reform. 
the people. Our forefathers showed their character in their 
refusal to submit to taxation without representation. £< Our 
Indian subjects,” said Macaulay, “submit patiently to a salt 
monopoly. We tried a stamp duty—a tax so light as scarcely 
to be felt—on the fierce breed of the old puritans, and we lost 
an Empire.” Bagehot had this same truth in mind when, 
after pointing out certain faults in our political system, he 
explained its working success by remarking that the American 
people could run any system. There are not many peoples of 
whom this would be true. For example, an attempt to govern 
Turkey by. the American Constitutional system would invite 
only ridiculous failure. There are races which, at least so far 
in their development, seem incapable of self-government. Cer¬ 
tainly no other people shows such a capacity for it as the Anglo- 
Saxons. The frequent convulsions which have taken place 
among the Latin peoples suggest the inquiry whether they have 
the faculty in any eminent degree. The legislators of even 
republican France-come dangerously near making government a 
farce. 
But even if we grant that all people have, or may develop, 
a sufficient character for self-government, tlieir stage of develop¬ 
ment may render them incapable of it at the selected time. 
This suggests the second condition which schemes of reform 
must observe: They must be adapted to the stage of develop¬ 
ment reached by the people. This lack of "equality of develop¬ 
ment was doubtless the cause of the hardships produced in 
India by the introduction of the English legal system, as noted 
above. To the same cause was probably due, in part, the ruin 
and distress, “for which no parallel can be found in the annals 
of commerce, ”* that followed the introduction of the English 
system of manufacturers into India. The necessity of observing 
this condition of reform is also the explanation of the ill-success 
of attempts at revolution in Russia. The mass of the people is 
not yet educated up to the plane of self-government and the 
existing tyranny will endure until the majority of the Russian 
people are sufficiently developed to appreciate a better system; 
and the successful introduction of any better system will be 
* Bentinck. 
