increase the difficulty of establishing any form of moderate and honest self-government. Nothing, indeed, is more certain than that the elements of good government must be sought for in Ireland in a higher electoral plane than in England. The men who introduced and carried the degradation of the Irish suffrage were perfectly aware of what they were doing. They acted with their eyes open; they justified themselves, in the true spirit of the Contrat Social, on the plea that they would not allow a political inequality to continue, and they probably believed that they were playing a good card in the party game.1

A reference only is needed to Mr. Lecky's "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," narrating the different treatment which has been applied to Ireland and Scotland, to explain the actual condition of the Irish people. That they are what they are is the direct result of government by a privileged class, both at home and in England. We have constantly maintained that the character of government depends less upon that of the people than that of a people does upon its government, but Mr. Lecky's own testimony will be in point.

Invectives against nations and classes are usually very shallow. The original basis of national character differs much less than is supposed. The character of large bodies of men depends in the main upon the circumstances in which they have been placed, the laws by which they have been governed, the principles which they have been taught. When these are changed the character will alter too, and the alteration, though it is slow, may in the end be very deep. To trace the causes, whether for good or ill, that have made nations what they are is the true philosophy of history. It is mainly in proportion as this is done that history becomes a study of real value, and assuredly no historical school is more mischievous or misleading than that which evades the problem by treating all differences of national character as innate and inexplicable, and national crimes and virtues as the materials for mere party eulogy or party invective. Mill justly says: "Of all vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences on the human mind the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent national differences." ("Political Economy," I., p. 390.) 2

1 Ibid., p. 23.

266 History of England in the Eighteenth Century," Vol. II., Chap. V.,

If the history of government for three centuries is sufficient to explain any amount of degradation in the Irish people, then the reverse process of recovery may well begin with the infusion of manhood and independence, and the sense of moral responsibility which comes from having a voice in the government under which one lives. We hold the extension of the suffrage in Ireland to be justified on the same grounds upon which it was given to the negroes after our Civil War. If it had been left to the Southern States to determine the political relations of the white and colored races, we should have had a conflict on our hands which the war would not have settled at all. Notwithstanding all the manifest drawbacks which have made themselves felt, we believe the condition of the South, both for itself and the Union, to be far better than if the suffrage had been restricted to the whites. When the masses of the people have votes the well-to-do and educated are compelled, for their own interest and safety, to look after them, which no other process of government in history has ever insured that they would do. It is the instrument for discovering what these masses are thinking and feeling, what is the character and tendency of the immense force of public opinion and how it may be brought to bear. Endless time and patience are given by science to research after minute facts, apparently of no practical value, because behind such facts have lain hidden the secrets of those material forces which have changed the face of the world. Can there be a more important study for science than the depths of human thought and passion, desire and aversion, justice, humanity, morality, and their opposites, which universal suffrage more than any other test can reveal? The highest mountains, with all their grandeur, are no more than pimples upon the earth's surface, and the highest manifestations of genius show hardly more difference from the average workings of the human

mind. How the results thus obtained may be transmuted into government is a separate question of machinery, just as the force of electricity is wholly apart from the mechanical appliances which have achieved such immense results.

In his "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," Mr. Lecky gives an interesting account of the development of the public press, and weighs its advantages and disadvantages, with a balance in favor of the former. It may well be doubted whether a free press could be permanently maintained without universal suffrage either as cause or effect, and whether there is any class to which the control of it could be safely trusted. What has been said of the effect of government upon the character of the people is almost equally true with regard to the public press. It would not be difficult to show that the defects of the newspapers in the United States correspond very closely with those of the government.

Mr. Lecky admits that the evils he dreads are mainly prospective.

The reader will, I hope, understand that in the foregoing remarks I am describing tendencies which appear to me to be in operation, and not fully accomplished facts. It would take a long time and many disastrous revolutions to break down the firm texture of English political life. The deliberate judgment of the constituencies on a great question which strongly arouses national feeling will, I believe, seldom be wrong, though there is an increased danger that they may be for a time misled, and that such influences as I have described may obtain a temporary ascendency in the House of Commons.1

Not less conspicuous is the improvement that has taken place in the decorum, civilization, and humanity of the bulk of the poor; in the character of their tastes and pleasures; in their enlarged circle of interests; in the spirit of providence which, under the influence of savings banks and kindred institutions, has arisen among them. The skilled artisans in our great towns, within the memory of living men,

1 "Democracy and Liberty," p. 200.

have become, not only the most energetic, but also one of the most intelligent and orderly, elements in English life. No one who has come into close contact with their political organizations, or trade unions, or mechanics' institutes, or free libraries, or who has watched the working-class audience of some great scientific lecturer, will deem this an exaggeration. The spirit of humanity has immensely increased, both in the form that shrinks from the infliction of suffering and in the form that seeks out suffering in order to alleviate it. Churches and creeds will come and go; but the best index of the moral level of a community is to be found in the amount of unselfish action that is generated within it. I do not believe that there has ever been a period in England, or in any other country, when more time, thought, money, and labor were bestowed on the alleviation of suffering, or in which a larger number of men and women of all classes threw themselves more earnestly and habitually into unselfish causes.1

And after describing what has been done in India and England, and mentioning the names of Darwin and Gordon, he concludes:

A country which has produced such men and such works does not seem to be in a condition of general decadence, though its constitution is plainly worn out, though the balance of power within it has been destroyed, and though diseases of a serious character are fast growing in its political life. The future only can tell whether the energy of the English people can be sufficiently aroused to check these evils, and to do so before they have led to some great catastrophe."

If we are to judge a government by its effect on the character of the people the result so far is not bad. To us the most striking thing about the celebration of the sixtieth year of Queen Victoria's reign was the spirit of contentment and loyalty which made itself heard at home and abroad, the absence of class hostility, and the total want of any disposition to resort to violence, even in the great strikes and lockouts, which appear sometimes as if they would threaten the commercial supremacy of Great Britain.

We must remember again that thirty-eight millions of

1 Lecky, op. cit., p. 205.

2 p. 211.

inhabitants are supported in this state of well-being in a space of territory which one hundred years ago contained only fifteen millions under far worse conditions. No doubt this is owing in large part to the improvements of modern science, but also in a great measure to confidence in, and satisfaction with, a firm and just government, which, upon the whole, is administered in the interest of the mass of the people.

If no such favorable comparison can be drawn in the United States, it is because the people a hundred years ago were the most favorably situated in the world as regards material and moral welfare, because there has been a large proportionate infusion of foreign population, not always of the best kind, but most of all because there has been, for reasons which we have set forth, no such relative improvement of government as has taken place in Great Britain. We believe, however, that here also public opinion and universal suffrage are sound and available forces for improvement in the future.

I do not think that any one who seriously considers the force and the universality of the movement of our generation in the direction of democracy can doubt that this conception of government will necessarily, at least for a considerable time, dominate in all civilized countries, and the real question for politicians is the form it is likely to take, and the means by which its characteristic evils can be best mitigated.1

If that is so, and considering the tremendous forces involved, it is important to be very careful about generalizing from isolated facts, even if correctly stated, and not to assume premises too easily. Mr. Lecky states what has almost come to be considered as an axiom, that,

Equality is the idol of democracy, but with the infinitely various capacities and energies of men this can only be attained by a constant, systematic, stringent repression of their natural development.2