The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-21 00:00:00

ARE DEMOCRACIES FICKLE?

The limes has hazarded the opinion that the two-
thirds majority of the Senate necessary for the con-
viction of ANDREW JOHNSON will not be secured,
and it quotes the speedy recantation of popular
judgment arising from delay in the trial, as the best
proof of the fickleness of Democracies. We wonder
if the writer is sensible of the contradiction under-
lying all the article so far as it referred to America.
He considers the most notable of American charac-
teristicsthepowerlessuess Of the individual politician,
who must go with the team or he is lost. Yet the
line which permits no straggling cannot stand
delay, a real difficulty causes a sudden wheel, coun-
selled by the same temper which crushes any one
who falls out because he can be crushed. " The
fickleness and readiness to change appear directly
due to the perfect organization of party which is
found in all ordinary forms of Democracy. The
completeness of party discipline makes individuals
powerless, and independent thought a disqualifica-
tion. The deduction is simple. Where there is
no independence there can be no fixed principles, and
political life becomes a struggle of opposing com-
binations for office, in the course of which each side
is ready to assume at a moment's notice a new
position if the accidents of au hour suggest that it
is a desirable base of attack or point of defence."
We would like the 7. imes to inform us where the
party get their ideas. Supposing the Times be cor-
rect they must work without fixed principle, and
without individual guidance—yet they area per-
fect organization from whom it is political death
to straggle. They are at the same time a highly-
finished machine, and a combination of chance,
turning out anything. Indeed, we scarcely could be
more surprised if informed that a brewer intend-
ing to make beer had produced whisky, or that
a spinning-jenny had manufactured steel wire. The
more complete the organization, and more defined
the principles upon which it stands, the more per-
fect is individual control. It is impossible for
any party to act as a unit not directed by
a unit, and it is the nature of such parties
to select for the lead the most tried and confirmed
holder of the principles upon which the party works.
The 7 bites has confounded parties with the public,
and to say that Democracies are fickle is simply to
say that the public is fickle. In a despotism that
fickleness may be controlled or not allowed expres-
sion; but we very much doubt the truth of the pro-
position that Democracies are fickle. the great
Republic was brought forward in proof of such
fickleness, though the article had reference to Eng-
land, whose national course the 2 irrtes says shows a
remarkable tendency to Democratic fickleness. We
consider that the Democratic tendency has shown
steadfastness, not change. Mr. DISRAELI and the
great party he leads may have been fickle, but that
was due to the aet national purpose which the party
could not control, and to which it therefore sur-
rendered. There is no fickleness in the ebb and
flow of the tide, although the spectator watching
the waves as they fall on the beach may be deceived
into the notion. From the period of the first Re-
form B:11 to the present time the tide has been
steadily flowing in one direction, and the changes
noted by the Times are merely the waves, one of
which may rush up further than its fellows and
surge back, sweeping with it the pebbles and sand.
In America the same is notably the case, and per-
haps in no. other part of the world is opinion
more led and guided by men of strong con-
victions. If American politicians are noted for
anything, it is for their obstinate, adherence to
principles. Can the Times give us an instance of
a more determined man than THADDEUS STEVENS,
who leads in the House? or SUMNER, who leads in
the Senate ? To what is the Impeachment of the
PRESIDENT due? Why, to the individual obsti-
nacy with which ANDREW JOHNSON adhered to
principles—an obstinacy only equalled by the
mulish stupidity of a JAMES 11., though in the
PRESIDENT'S case springing from far higher motives
than those which actuated the bigoted advocate of
Divine Right in his own person. Has there been
any fickleness in Massachusetts or in South Caro-
lina ? When did the Bay State swerve from its
principles, or the Palmetto State bow its haughty
head ? Was the resolution of the North shaken
by defeat ? or did the South shrink from the fiery
ordeal of subjugation? Where was the fickleness
in the American people from the day when mis-
sionaries went forth to denonece Slavery and to
uphold the rights of all to personal freedom, till
the nation split into the two great sections, main-
taining with arms the position, when argument
and legislation failed ? The Times is struck by the
speed with which great events are accomplished in
America—a speed rapidly extending to England.
But the cause is obvious. A change that suits a
people will be effected in a time directly in propor-
tion to the intelligence and means of communica-
By means of communication,
tion of that people.
we mean the power the nation possesses of sub-
mitting the question at once to each individual.
Change is quick in America, because vast
means exist there for disseminating opinion,
and that England is so rapidly running in the race
shows that penny papers are producing the effect
anticipated.' It does not follow at all because an
idea is instantly caught up by a population that that
population is fickle ; indeed it will be found that
change comes from above, not from below ; that the
people as a mass are far more steadfast to principle
and opinion than those who call themselves the
upper classes. What is fashion but fickle change,
and who are the fashionables ? Endear a name to
the people, and how soon will it be lost, or when
does it become hateful? We grant the power of
party organization in the United States. We are
aware that politicians enrolled therein often have

to hold to their party as their profession, their
means of existence, and such men fighting for
power, that is, for place, that is, for the loaves and
fishes, tolerate no divergence, nothing that lessens
their chance. Yet the instances of independent
action in those taking a leading part are numerous
and striking. It is held to be more than probable
that General GRANT will be the next President,
and to what political party does GRANT belong ?
ANDREW JOHNSON, with that singular faculty of
injuring whatever he touches, drove GRANT off the
platform that the General had erected without a
plank or prop of party in it. GRANT desired to be
the national candidate, elected spontaneously by
the people, uncommitted to principles. When in
office he proposed to remodel the civil service and
the whole national expenditure, and to give
the most liberal and humane construction to Con-
essional measures, bringing back the Southern
States with a fair measure of rights secured
to tile freedmen. In a word, he proposed
to banish politics. from his programme, and to set
heartily tJ work on reform. It was a pity to
dam !go this admirable' scheme, nor could any
opportunity have been better than thus to use a
great officer with a great name unconnected with
party. Ile may yet succeed in carrying it into
effect, though his chances have been injured by
ANDREW JOHNSON, who, in a measure, has suc-
ceeded iu driving him into the Radical ranks.
fiere, then, is an instance of au individual who
refused to commit himself to any party, 3et evi-
dently commanding a majority for the great prize
for which parties strive. Take the case of a
politician who has never ceased to advocate a
decided political line. Can the Times elsewhere
point to a man more prominent in his party, yet
acting more freely on his individual opinion, than
HORACE GREELEY. Whether secretly correspond-
ing with confederates in Canada, giving bail for
JEFFERSON DAVIS, or doing what the Times said
the advanced Republican wing desired but dared
not, that is, urging the claims of Chief Justice
CHASE for the Presidency, he acted on individual
opinion ; at the same time leading a party and
flying straight in its face. Take CHASE him Self.
Everybody knows that above all things he desired
the Presidential Chair. Long ago he laid down his
platform, and now while presiding over the
Senate as a High Court of Impeachment, he
is raising the obstacles in the way of his
party which the 7 imes declares will defeat the
party end, and carry ANDREW JOHNSON clear.
Every objection raised by the PRESIDENT'S counsel
has been sustained by CHASE, and backed by a
majority of the Senate, four-fifths of whom are
Republicans. It is true that the Senate is a Court
engaged in a criminal trial, but the Times says that
the movement is a party manoeuvre ; and although
ANDREW JOHNSON may have his term cut short by
a few months, personally no such injury can accrue
to him that would make it incumbent on a political
body like the Senate, casting politics aside, and
dealing in this political trial without any reference
to party, if auy one who falls out is, as the leading
journal states, to be crushed. Yet, in spite of the
loudest crack of the party whip, people are compelled
to acknowledge that at least so far, the Senate has
acted without reference to party. The truth is that
the American party whipper-in deals with a far
larger body than the English whipper-in, as the
party prizes embrace the whole civil service of the
country ; whereas those in England are, as we else-
where observe, confined to the heads of offices. But
though more extensive, more professional, and better
organized in America than in England, still the
party there as here is but the platform around which
the public rally, or against which they surge and
fret. If it has no fixed principles it cannot stand
--principles which must underlie every plank and
be distinctly heard from the stand, while the public
voice around is deceptive and uncertain in the
highest degree ; not because the public have no de-
fined ideas, but because it is no easy matter for all
to give them expression. A noisy clique in the crowd
actuated by interest will raise their cry so loudly
as to deceive the listener into the belief that it is the
public voice, but these are mistakes and deceptions
not of the public, but of those who profess to inter-
pret the public mind. Yet these very interpreters,
ourselves among the number, and notably the
7 tines, are ready to declare that it is not our mis-
take, but that of tile unstable public, whose fickle
nature is most seen in Democracies.—Anglo-Ameri-
can Times.

We copy the following from the advertising
columns of a district journal :—" CONFECTIONERS. --To be
sold cheap, several cwt. of orange peel in good condition ;
the advertiser having the contract for the sweeping of all
the metropolitan theatres and places of amusement, is in a
position to treat for it on unusually advantageous terms-
Address----." Is it possible that any:confectioner will
gravely reply to this advertisement, and, what is of far
more importance, gravely buy the several cwt. of orange
peel, and work it up in marmalade and plum cako ?
What a strange notion of his fellow-men the advertiser
must have ! He must regard them as dirt-consuating
animals, much as the naturalists do some kinds of vermin.
The worst of it is the public have no remedy ; the adver-
tiser has doubtless by this time concluded his treaty, and
the sweepings of all the metropolitan theatres and places
of amusement are being potted and labelled, " Please to
observe our trade mark—Parity. None genuine taoss
signed with the maker's name." Perhaps the managers of
the metropolitan theatres might help up us by seeing that
their sweepings go into the proper place—namely, the dust-
bin.— Morning Star.

Mr. 'Thomas Payne, conductor of the Detroit
and Millwaukee Railroad, has invented an ingenious contriv-
ance to indicate to railway passengers the station which
they are approaching, its distance from the one last passed,
and from that point to each terminus of the road. It is placed
in the centre of the car, which, coming in contact with
posts placed for the purpose, turn the indicator immediateli
after leaving each station. The invention has been placed
upon one of the passenger coaches, and meets the approval
of the officers of the road.

The Springfield Republican says :—" A cow be"
longing to Calvin Norton, of Bennington, Vermont, 113"
cently gave birth to a calf with two distinct heads 50L
four eyes, and it is thought the thing will live and thrive•
But where's the use, since Barnum has no museum ?"

The Liberte having announced that several hun-
dred applications had boon sent in to the Legation of the
United States in Paris from Frenchmen for letters of natt'
ralization as American citizens in order to evade the nessr
military laws, the communique states that, for many monthg
past, only two applications had been made, and that one of
the two did not proceed from a French citizen.
MADAME RISTORI AND THE SPANISH BISHOP.
---
The &co d'ltalia, an Italian journal published at Nos/
York, has the following singular story :—" The celebrated
actress, Mdme. Ristori, was lately performing at Havani
nab. In one of her pieces she had to play the partc'h
Sister Theresa, an eminently moral character, but whie'
produced on the stage a person belonging to a religiotle
order. The Bishop of the diocese made a complaint to
General Lersundi, Governor of Cuba, on the subject, but
the latter paid no attention, and did not interdict the plsl
as the prelate requested. His Grace then ordered all the
cures not to allow the hells to be rung on the arrival et
the governor. According to the above-named journal the
latter responded by the immediate arrest of the bishait
whom he sent home to Spain on board a war vessel.
Madrid letter in the Independence Beige, in speaking of t"
incident, affirms that the Spanish Government has faill
approved of General Lersundi's conduct.

Births.
BOSANQUET —On the 19th inst., at Bourneside, Southgate'
tho wife of Percival Bosanquet, Esq., of a son.
HAYWARD—On the 18th inst., at 20, Montogue-streeti
Russell-square, the wife of Chas. F. Hayward, Esq., °
a son.
POWELL —On the 19th inst., at Carshalton, Surrey, the wife
of William Powell, Esq., of a daughter.

Marriages.
HATIRTSON—Froutn—On the IGth inst., at St. John's, 15:1
Region, Thomas B. Harrison, of her Majesty's Jul
Revenue, to Mary Ann, youngest daughter of Corueljt
1.1(nro, of Bromley, Middlesex. /s
RADCLIFFE —WRYGHTE On the 18th inst., at St. 311-'1;5'1.,
Church, West Brompton, Herbert Radcliffe, Esq., °.O
Carlton Villas, Chelsea Villas, Fulham-road, to
youngest daughter of the late \Vm. C. Wryghte, Esq'' -
Rich Lodge, Earl's Court.

Deaths.
DRYSDALE —On the 17th inst., at 17, Broad-grocn, Cror.

don, Miss Jane Drysdale, aged 91.
NAYLOIt On the 19th inst., at 8, Clifton Villas, Pcl3sel
Mrs. Mary Naylor, aged 85.
REEVE—On the 19th inst., Rear-Admiral John Ee&fe'
aged 84.
1%,1'
SimrsoN—Oti the 18th inst., at Horringer, Bury S'',,,,a .1
round's, General Sir James Simpson, Ci.C.B., C°-
29th Regiment, aged 77.

E 0
Loudon : Printed and Published by WILLIAM. ANDIt '
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tan Sub' Office, N.° lief
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the 001,2"/
Middlesex.—Tuesclay, April 21, 1868.