Litchfield enquirer., 1876-07-13

country. We believe that the average intellectual ability of our national House of Representatives is fully equal to that of the British House of Commons. There are not as many men of high culture in our legislature. but they are better speak. CTS, and men of greater natural talents
 The difficulty is that they average too near alike. The Commons generally have a few rare speakers like Gladstone, Bright or Disraeli; few thinkers and scholars, like Mill, Grote or Macauley; now and then an agitator like O'Connell; and great mass of intelligent gentlemen and men of property, not takers, and, above all. not ] politicians. The fact is that the Com mons represent many classes; Congress, ordinarily, but one. Long ago De Toe queville noted the fact that the lawyers of America are it's legislators. That re- mains the case to 'this day. We are gov erned by caste. Now and then very rich man; now and then distinguished soldier; now and then political adventu- Ter takes his seat in Senate or House; but the staple legislator, in large numerical majority in both Houses, is the lawyer.
 In many respects lawyers make excel lent legislators. They are familiar. in the first place, with the practical working of existing statutes; they are not inclined to crude or nasty legislation; their prac- tice in the courts is of great value to them in the legislature. making them ready of speech, fertile in expedient, and obedient to authority. But with these great ad- vantages come very serious defects. The lawyer gives the cream of his life to a most exacting profession; If successful, Q term or two in Congress is considered a fitting close of useful career; or, term in Congress, while young, gives him a reputation that ensures success in his pro. 1 fession. In neither case does Ile look to public life as more than temporary en- ployment. Consequently he never stu dies, or learns, statesmanship. In Con- gross he is the mere lawyer, with keen but narrow mind, and little knowledge of that wider field of history, political econ- omy and letters, without which there can be no thorough statesmanship. Worse yet. he is a partisan by habit. Accus- toned to advocate causes without refer ence to their real merits, he becomes cal- lous to the right or wrong of questions. and learns to travel the road to success, rather than the road to truth. It is the fact that this lawyers control of legisla- tion has become almost a monopoly that affords the only excuse for the action oi such men as Wm. H. Barnum in using their money to force recognition which would be otherwise denied to the greatest business talents. .....
 Two other causes tend to the lowering of our standard of legislative ability. In Parliament is centered executive as vel
 as legislative power. An English Cabinet are necessarily members of parliament and are obliged to render account of theil administration to parliament; whereas oul administration is outside, and independ. ent of. Congress. Another occasion of tho prevalent mediocrity in Congress is the requirement that members shall be actu
 al residents in the districts they represent.
 Hence the hateful subserviency of tho Amerlcan Congressman to the local preju
 dices and selfish interests of his constit
 uency. These he can never safely disre
 gard. Moreover he is always at the mer
 cy of any political revolution at home
 whereas the able debater in the Common
 is almost always sure of a constituenc,
 somewhere, if he deserves one.
 Turning from the mediocrity of ou
 legislatures to the mediocrity of our liter
 ature and the worse than mediocrity ol our art. we must frankly confess the raw
 ness of our civilization. As nation W,
 worship Mammon. not the Muses
 Though no Englishman can now repea
 the sheer, "Who ever reads an America,
 book?" it is probably true that ten Eng
 fish contemporary works are read il
 America to one contemporary Americal work that is read in England. Boston with the country near Boston, has indee, . done worthily. It has had s'cultus that has won respect abroad and envy a home. New York has been too greedy o
 gain to do anything worthy of herself o . of the country. She has heaps of money sesond.rate poets, second.rate writer , of prose, second-rate artlsts, and scarcel { second-rate musicians.
 q That literature is at low ebb anon us. is owing chiefly to our dishonest deal ing with the question of copyright. S
 long as we steal Englishmen's books a preference to paying our own writers fo
 equally good work, so long will our litert
 ture be a comparatively poor one. The again, the lawyers monopoly of legislatio denies the writer the recognition he rt ceives in the legislatures of England an France. Could such men as Macaula, Jeffrey, Mill, Grote, Macintosh, Gu : got, Lamartine, or Thiers, have gaine B admission to Congress had they bee + born in America? It never occurs l. the Republicans of the Second Congre! l. sional District of Connecticut to nom }, nate ex-President Woolsey for Congress '- as against MT. Stephen W. Kellogg? l y short we give the maker of fabrics all th e protection" he asks. while we deny u
 maker of books the recognition his talen