Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1871-04-06

ting into Parliament as one OF the
sweetest rewards OF his renown in
letters. Thackeray and Dickens con-
fessed that they had been smitten by
this ambition. It is an ambition which
was felt by Gibbon, DR.. Johnson,
Burke, Horne Tooke, Lord Byron,
Southey, Sir Walter Scott, Praed,
Talfourd, and Macaulay; while among
the English literary men Of to-day
many, like Kinglake, Mill, Dixie, aud
Hughes have got into the House, and
many more, like Anthony Trollope
and Hepworth Dixon, have tried to
do 50.
Can any one doubt that the Eng
lish system is altogether tho whole
somer one-wholesomer both for the
nation and for the cultivated men IN it?
In the first place. 1t secures to the
nation for its service the choice of its
most competent sons. That is an er-
ror at once vulgar and fatal, which
implies that. though to steer ship or
run . railway tram requires trained
men, to conduct IN empire needs no
training. Moreover, there is con-
nection between mental culture and
the development OF the moral scnsi-
bilities-personal honor, magnanim-
Iity, courtesy, purity, manliness.-
Wherever the most civil men abjure
politics, politics become base, filthy,
and q trade tor blacklegs, pugilists,
and war-horses. Above all things
what IS the function OF politics? !? 1t
is to protect and nourish the most
precious results of all human endeav
or, as now garnerei in the arc OF hu
man society, aud to make sure the
still higher growth and the still more
perfect felicity of mankind. And, in
Gods name, to whom on earth, in any
community, should this sacred and
awful function be trusted, if not to
those members Of the community who
are the most thoughtful, the most
logical, the most conscientious. aud
the most pure =,
Finally, for educated men them
selves, it is far more wholesome to
connect politics with contemplative
pursuits than TO sever the latter from
the former. The proper union OF the
two breeds q more robust race even
OF scholars, and q broa9er type even
OF gentlemen. But this is that"
says Lord Bacon, (which will indeed
dignity anu exalt knowledge, it con-
temptation and action may be more
nearly and straitIy conjoined and
united together than they have been;
conjunction like unto that OF the
two highest p!anets-Saturn, the plan.
ct of rest aud contemplation, and ia.
piter, the planet OF :ivil society and
action"
OF course. to this comparison be.
tween cultivated men in England and
in Amerlca, as to political activity, it
may be replied that the conditions OF
English political life are far less disa-
greeable to men Of self-respecttul
minds and OF good taste than is the
case il America. That is most true
And yet why is it 50? In large part
for the very reason that for many
generations decent men in England
have kept political life decent BY res
olulely participating in it. If the same
class of men would show the same
vigorous resolution here, they might
in time regenerate our own political
life likewlse-purging away its abom-
nations, ana multiplying its attract.
i've features.
Instead of this, however, for many
years our literary men have boasted
OF their not being politicians; and
many Of our best politicians have la
mented that they were politicians st
all. The young men of the country,
in college and in the eally stages of
aeal life, have been met by exhorta-
lions to consult their own happiness
BY forming such. schemes OF lite as
would compel the state to look to
Others for its servants. More than
forty years ago, one Of our noblest
public men, Mr.. Justice Story, wrote
Of public lite in these words: "Never
have l telt SO forcibly the emptiness
OF public honors and public favor; it
is too transitory and too conspicuous
a glory to justify any ambition to
seek it. In our country political EN-
inence, If it can be obtained without
stain, can rarely be held without the
most painful sac, ifices of feeling. and
tho silent endurance OF the grosscst
injustice, no. to say calumny" And
this was but the keynote to tho strain
of warning against political life with
which this great man instructed all
the generations Of young lawyers who
felt his influence At the Harvard Law
School. What he said about the an
noyances, and even the sufferings, OF
public lite in America may be quite
true; but is it the patriotic inference
that, therefore, our hest men should
avoid public lite? And is tha. the
conclusion that would be expressed
by q robust roman or even British
statesman?
And this, We suspect, is precisely
the lack of our cultivated men OF to.
day-namely, robustness. They are
q somewhat kii.gloved, q velvet.
tongued, and squeamish race. They
are eo happy in their lettered ease
90 proud in their personal independ.
ence, and 80 much inclined to spe.
cies OF weak fasti1iousncss, that they
would shudder at even such rough.
and-tumble work in politics as manly
English scholars like Macaulay, Glad
stone, and Thomas Hughes have
plunged into with hearty aud mascu
line glee. In systematically stunning
politics, our scholars not only accuse
politics, but they accuse themselves
Let us reform the civil service, by
all means And let us reform oul
scholars, too.-(The Indepe ndent.