The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-14

their mistake. So of our physical improvements
which are the reforms of Nature. We push these
to point beyond the ability of the country to
sustain-until recoil becomes inevitable and, in
the agony of disappointment, we exclaim against
the magnificent energy of our race, as danger
Gus, delusive, dishonest thing. Yet the time will
soon come, when all that we have done, and all
that we have now attempted and failed TO do, will
be so far submerged below the surface of the tide
OF progress, that men shall smoothly sail above
them, unconscious of the barriers they once pre-
sented to its waves.
In our institutions the same law of Guctuation
prevails. We have certainly of late, made no
political advance; on the contrary the best that
we can hope is, that we are approaching the end
OF period of decline. But, in fact-assuming
our fundamental proposition to be sound, that all
government ought to be derived from the people
there is no theoretical advance to be made. Our
idea OF governing by authority-frequently
delegated from, and as often resumed, by the peo-
pe-has been carried to its ultimate logical re-
suits All the arrangements necessary to enable the
Majority to do their sovereign will, are complete
and it rests only with the Majority to execute it.
We have still some discussion, to whether
women shall vote, or whether negroes shall be
made citizens and peers of the realm;-but PRES
IDENT, Judge and Constable, all derive-not only
their just powers, from the consent of the GOV
erned-but offices from their direct vote
Having thus made our institutions to turn on
single idea, and having perfected them on this
plan, we have left them pretty much to take
care of themselves and turnd to something more
exciting.
We have, indeed, been experimenting in the
science of government at our own expense,
but for the benefit of the world Eng
land especially, has been enabled to profit equal
ly, by our successes and our mistakes 1t would
not be difficult tu prove, that the very reforms.
ofwhch The Times so loudly boasts are the direct
results of our example. The well-nformed reader
will recall many things which JOHN BULL has
taken, directly, from our models. But the point
which we particularly mean to make is, that one
reform suggests another; and that the force of the
impulse derived from us, is none the less because
it has not manifested itself abroad precisely as
at home
England, at this time, is favored beyond exam
pie in matters entirely apart from its political
progress. Its government has been in the hands
of an irreproachable and sufficiently sensible
woman-whose purity of life has driven all pri-
vate scandal from her court and has even rendered
political intrgues less fashionable than perhaps at
any other period of British history. wise and
prudent conduct of affairs is capable of rendering
institutions much more Objectionable than those of
England-more acceptable than better abstract
form of government coupled with defective ad-
ministration. The universal tendency to hero
worship has often rendered the sway of an
absolute despot for the time being the most in
tensely popular form Of government. 1t is only
when people are misused that they begin to think
of their natural rights In the reign of VICTORIA
all the best instincts of the English people have
been appealed to and gratifed; but let son
succeed her-another GEORGE the FOURTH for ex-
ample-a spendthrift, a debauchee triher, sot-
and we have no doubt that the thought of the
uses to which the ballot-box has been applied here
in such cases. and might even be applied in old
England, will intrude itself even into some now
very conservative imaginations.
A written Constitution is at this disadvantage
when compared with an unwritten one-that it
tends to the narrowness of literal construction,
while the other exists in the spirit-and as rogues
may live and practise their villainy entirely within
the pale of the law, so it is possible for the whole
spirit of paper Constitution to be violated, while
the letter is satisfied. Our philosophical govern
ments intended to be as far as possible above
the contamination Of human agency, but unfortu-
nately they cannot absolutely execute themselves
Our most perfect machines require engineers and
these must be looked after. 1t is in this depart
ment of civil duty that we have failed, and it was
towards this point that Mr.. BUCHANAN probably
wished to direct public attention.
Our recent progress has been most obviously
physical, but The Times is in error when it asserts
that in morals and in intellect we have sunk to "a
lower level On the contrary, the country never
had so many highly educated men, and never were
pubc-dstinguis from political morals-more
pure and healthy than at present. But our efforts
to accumulate wealth, in every form, have over
Swallowed all things else. In every department
of human industry our toll and our success have
been unprecedented, and thus we have come, too
much to look at the paying side of every enter
prise, or line of life. Weighed in this balance,
the life of the honest politician is found sadly
wanting, u Sittlsly tie soaring views OF our most
able men; but the posts and the rewards, thus
by the best, are not without attrac-
tons to an inferior class, who press into places
which they disgrace, and appropriate salaries
which they are incapable of earning.
1t is spectacle curious even to US who are in
the secret, but wholly incomprehensble to foreign
observers, that really great, refined and power
full nation can sit down and see its government
conducted by ignorance and vnlgarity. Abroad,
our public functonaries regarded as the picked
men of the nation-whie here they are generally
looked upon as the mere scum on the top of the
political cauldron The pursuit of more interesting
and oetter-payng objects, together with the right
to 'despair of the Republic, predict 'dissoutions
of the UNION" and discourse on the 'failure of
Republican Institutions" as much as we please,
has hitherto been a full compensation for all the
political abuses under which we have labored.
Whenever it becomes less inconvenient to do with
out railroads and marble palaces than to submit to
the evils of mal-administration of public affairs,
we expect to see the practical mind of the
American people take up the subject in good
earnest and do full right in the premises.