The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-15 00:00:00

THE DANGERS OF DEMOCRACI.

The Spring field Republican is severe on an article
in the Westminster Review for January, entitled
" The Dangers of Democracy," which it says " is the
wickedest article we ever read :"—" We have seen
some articles in the Round Table of late upon the
same subject, with a great deal more that was
false, and a great deal less that was true ; but the
extravagant eagerness of the Round Table to pro-
duce a sensation, by any means, must be taken as
lessening, in some degree, its moral accountability.
Of this effort to be strange and offensive, in some
way, there is no trace whatever in the English ar-
ticle. Besides, the possession of larger gifts brings
greater responsibility, and one cannot hesitate to
pronounce the Westminster writer far the more
guilty." Is the following passage from the article
in the Westminster Review 7—" It is not to be pre-
tended that the large body of new electors are
pugnaciously malicious, crafty, designing, or trai-
torous. It is merely alleged that they are ignorant,
selfish, and destitute of all sense of moral obligation."
The Republican thus replies :—" The heart of the
common people everywhere is simple and honest and
loving. Ignorant they may be, easily excited and
easily deceived, the prey of faction, the tools of de-
magogues, but whoever says they are not to the best
of their knowledge and of their advantages true
and loyal, slanders his God. It takes man's work,
his wretched fiction of a superior class, his denial of
original and perfect human rights, his structure of
legal inequalties and commercial fraud, to pervert
the gracious instincts of our nature, and turn to
gall and poison the sweet and wholesome juices of
the human heart." The Republican desires to kill
two birds with one stone, and has a right to accom-
plish this if possible. But so has the Round Table
to enunciate its views on the dangers of Demc.o.ach
however opposed ti tue feelings gene-
rally prevailing. It is a good thing to have free dis-
cussion, and there is no position in this world so
secure that it cannot be assailed. We believe Demo-
cracy in the United , States to be the great hope
of mankind for self-government. If it fails it
will be no less than the heaviest disaster that has
befallen the human race since Adam sinned. But
we hold that this is made all the more apparent by
a full discussion of the subject, for truth requires
no deception, nor silence, nor disguise. The chief
danger of Republican institutions lies in coups d'etat,
wherein men find themselves thrust into a position
before they have time to ascertain what that posi-
tion is, and the after struggle is to get out of it.
They cannot be thus caught if everything has been
fully argued and weighed beforehand, and this is
the advantage of free discussion. The rocks on which
Democracy may split are those on which beacons
should be built, and we think that the Round Table
does more good than harm in freely calling atten-
tion to the perils, and none the less, because it may
shock the prejudices of the nation. Oar opinions
coincideßepublican; we are strong
believers
oligarchy ; we have little
within
the
hthosee vic e
s o f
of the
an
less faith in the virtues of what are called the lower
classes; but we consider that the advocates of the
oligarchy have as much right to expose the short-
comings of the masses as the masses have to denounce
the " bloated aristocrats." We cannot, therefore,
agree with the Republican in thefollowing passage
" When a citizen proposed a law among the
Locrians, he stood forth in the assembly, with a
rope around his neck. If the law passed, well and
good. If- not, the innovator suffered the penalty
of his rashness. And in the same spirit, all true
men will agree that the writer who dares to stig-
matize his countrymen in such terms should be
required to substantiate his charges, or expiate
them by a moral banging, drawing and quartering
of the most relentless fashion." Nor does the
Republican consider itself in any way barred from
making very strong charges against the one class
while alleging that the man who makes these charges
against the other "slanders his God." "An aristo-
cracy," it says, " is always and everywhere selfish,
grasping, unscrupulous. From the days of Sparta
down, the rule of the few has been characterised
by meanness, jealousy, and greed. The most odi-
ous of all the features of humanity are those
which are certain to appear under an oligarchy."
It is singular to observe how unconsciously we are
betrayed into the very sin we may at the moment
be denouncing in others—if it be a crime, as the
Republican alleges. We call it free discussion, with a
strong spice of truth on each side. The real thing
to do is to keep your temper, and endeavour to be
as fair as human nature will permit.
Since the above was written the Round Table of
March 28 has reached us, and it comes down with
its lash ou the Springfield Republican. It declares
that the article in the Westminster Review was
written by the purest and most conscientious of
living thinkers, and in reply to the accusation that
its own articles were published for sensational pur-
poses, it very truthfully states that they running
counter tothe popular feelings obtained for the Round
Table mach and perhaps actual loss. The re-
plyof the Round Table is, however, based on the same
principle as that for which we contend; that is, a
fair and free discussion. " The Springfield Repub-
lican," it says, " does not take up the arguments
and refute them, but denounces them as wicked,
and issued from sinister motives." " Oat !" cries
the Round Table, " upon such canting, illiberal
rubbish." "We very much doubt whether all the
good that New England and New England ideas
have ever done the country at large can counter-
balance the mischief that the detestable spirit, of
which this is an instance, has occasioned."—Anglo-
American Times.

At the sheriff's sale of steamers of the New York
Mail Company, recently, the Guiding Star was sold for
$177,000 to H. Webb, for his California line; the Morning
Star for $25,000 to C. K. Garrison; the Monterey, with
coal on board, for $62,000 to C. K. Garrison ; the Mari -
posa for $50,000 to H. B. Vromwell.