East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1865-05-03
Democracy.
wnAr LoRp RussRLL rHINKs ON IT.

Lord Russell has Just published a
new edition of his essay on the His
tory of the English government and
constitution" with an Introductory
dissertation on the history of the last
fifty years, in which he says:
"In considering whether the peo-
ple of these islands would increase
their political freedom and social hap
piness by deliberately adopting or un-
consciously gliding into more demo-
cratic form Of government, We should
take care not 10 be misled by the no
ton that we should thereby be placing
ourselves under tho sway of pure
re lson. In North America; after the
separation from England, monarchy,
ar:stocracy and church establishments
were impossible, but the wisest of the
founders of the great republic-such
men as Washington and Hamilton
beheld with anxiety the absence of
those barriers by which the stream of
democracy might DO somewhat re-
strained They knew we'll that an
attempt to form government on pure
reason was a pure delusion. Man
nav be rendered more humane by
civilization, better informed by educa-
ton. but to extirpate his passions, to
prevent the alterations of his will, is
impossible. The man Of railways and
iron-clads; the man of the electric
telegraph and the steam press the
man who can weigh the attraction Of
the planets TO each other, and divide
an inch into 10000 parts; the man
whose telescope can bring the moon
within q few hundred miles of the
earth, and whose power of analysis
can ascertain the compound metals of
the sun--this man in capacity SO like
a gods, in his appetites and his
passions, in his love and in his hatred,
in his capacity and in his ambition,
different only in degree from Achilles
and Agamemnon. Was it pure reason
which induced the men of 1861 to
rush in arms against each other, and
meet in mortal combat, both in Europe
and American 1t is because man is a
creature of passion and imagination,
as we'll as of reason, that, in the con-
stitution of government by which
he is to be ruled and directed, it is the
concern of wisdom and of foresight to
avail ourselves Of all the influences
which may give moderation, force and
sancity to the supreme authority =
Such NAV be, in a monarchy, the rev.
erence paid TO loyalty, the awe in
spred by religion, the respect which
grows around an ancient aristocracy,
the attachment to long established
laws, the refinement of polished man
ners, and the social kindness which
adorns and animates the domestic re-
lations of cultivated people. Let
no one imagine that without such in
huence, or some of them at least, a
political constitution can reach its
highest perfection. In like manner,
also, it is clear that, in republic, by
wise provisions, by giving reasonable
duration to a well-constituted senate,
and by placing in the hands of learned
and upright judges the administration
of fixed and impartial laws, tho chief
ends of government may be obtained.
For what are the chief ends of gov
eminent? 1t is now known
that the proper objects of government
are to secure order within, and indie
pendenee from any enemy without,
These are tasks heavy enough, noble
enough, to require the energies of the
highest political talent for their fulfill
mont. As for the rest, the utmost
liberty of thought and expression, the
utmost latitude Of domestic industry,
and foreign trade should neither be
watched with jealousy nor be ham
pered with restrictions but protected
as the flirest fruits of free constitu-
ton. The task of English legislation
for half century has been to break
the chains which fettered civil, COM
mercial and religious freedom"