The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-01-24

~
Professor yBlackie, Of Edinburgh, re-
Gently delivered lecture In that city, 10
which he made some good points as against
democracies, or rather bogus republics like
ours. He said: =
Al, multitudes inspired by common =
ma ssion and a common idea are natuIany
inclined TO be tyrannical. That arises ISL, ne T.
VIVA, tbeolopians call original SIN. o,,
,ho case even with that respectap,o ,aS,
nc General Assembly [of tho iresus 's'i -,
Church.. Bring these men
ouu S ~ Tho idea of q horrible heresy, ana
| spIeo =! VI of the faith being in
Oh 'ne a wing before them a man whose
asns - admired by all the poets and phi
, ~oan and by many picus men in tho
nnnptry, and let piety, philosophy, and
.ioouencc plead for him. They won't lis
ten to them, and they will say, "Cast him
out he is the enemy of God and man ;
we will eject him." The ministers say,
=" You must all think according to the view
Of the majority" That is what they did
to Wright of Borthwick, and to Campbell
of Rowe, and that is what they would do
to my excellent friend, DR.. Lee, a man
who has the great and enormous heresy OF
being pleased with the grand volume swell
of an organ hymn, and who is fonder oil
speaking from a printed book or written
paper than suits my temperament. These
are matters on which liberty ought to be
allowed, and liberty ought to be allowed
on far more important matters than SER
mons and liturgies. Ecclesiastical assem-
blies are naturally tyrannical, and always
have been tyrannical. But they are ty-
rannical, not because they are eccleSiasti-
cal-as some Of you narrow fellows who
have no federation for clergyman may
imagine--but because they are democratic.
Our system of election is already too
democratic in many respects to afford any
rational guarantee for the return OF men,
bers to the great national council who pos
sesses the essential requisites OF large
views and independent character. l see
manifest signs in various places of the de-
mocratic habit of degrading national
councillor into local deputy; of sending
up partisan instead Of thinker; of pre-
ferring the spokesman of faction to the
advocate of people. | see men of high
character and intelligence rudcly called To
account, reproached, slandered, and dis
missed, merely because they did their duty
in the house of parliamentary deliberation
with more than common intelligence, indie
pendence, and courage and what is worse,
see men afraid to speak the truth, and
willing to set their names to measures OF
which they do not approve, merely to tide
over the moment, TO settle the question,
and to stop the mouth of dangerous de-
chalmers. Is this not democracy And
we are TO have more of it, forsooth fla
reform bill on American principles be car
ried in this country one result of it can
predict with perfect certainty-that it will
not improve the character of our national
councillors. We shall have fewer Of the
rare and useful class of cool thinkers, more
Of the speaking-trumpets of local faction,
the standard bearers of popular passion,
and the vendors of speculative crotchets.
But what | object to is the principle on
which it is proposed to give these classes
additional votes; the principle of repre-
senting numbers alone, and determining all
public questions in the last resort by the
votes of the majority. This is the. soul OF
the Democratic despotism, and the rule Of
unreason, the iniquity of which it has been
the object of the present lecture TO estab-
lish. Do not, while you claim political in
fuence for yourselves, insist on having 1t
in such q way as will virtually disfranchise
all other classes of the community, and
give us House of Commons dictated by
mere numbers. III one r0rd, SAGE US from
A,,oarip0 7