New-York tribune., 1876-06-03
THE PEOPLES CANVASS.

HERBERT SPENCER TO THE RESCUE.
IRON CORRESPONDENT WHO HAS NO FAITH IN
REFORM, BUT WHO BELIEVES IN COMMON
sENsR AND KNOWLEDGE.
TO the EditOr OF The Trfbuhe.
SIR: | am quiet professional man, who
finds enough do In mindng his own bnsne-s WITHOUT
feeling called occasionally 30 enghten fellow TRIBUNE
readers in your correspondents cClumn. But begyouto
believe that this enGsiOn is compelled by your editorial
:, to-,ay's paper on Mr. Eatons resolutions, and on
"Jnredeemed PIcdgosp confess am out of patience
with our instructors tho editors when they 20 on again
and again repeating the same old two ana sxpehce
about reform bewaling party errors and LOOKING for an
immediate millennium when nominees OF good character
are elected Surely sir, you must have forgotten Mr.
Herbert spcncers chapters the study OF sociology,
else Won youd cease to expect anything good to come
ont OF such machinery that by which ths Tree and en-
UgbepeA Government is carried To the trainers OF
our Government t doubtless appeared very good ana
periect machinery; time only has shown bow
very rotten and worthless 1t fs IL i7, as
Mr. Spencer says the idea that the divine
right OF kings has been succeeded by belief
In the divine right OF the majority and OF
a parliamentary lssemblage; it is the ever-recurrng
difference between the devised to overcome an
immediate eyil Of sysem and the means necessary
to that end-these are rocks which public opinion
splits but learns the lesson of the inhIte rea
tions OF any social fact and of the everproved made
ouaey OF patent modes relief for existing nalsdies in
tho body polite.
Is not this belief IN the universal panaeea OF good
mnn in office OF pioce with similar pIausbie remedies
the use of which bring hat bitter Disappointment
grant that great good king will administer wisely
md well but this not monarchy, and IL IL was where
should we find our great good nabob What chance
yvoud the very best nan in the Presidential chair have
when his best ntoutons coud be thwarted by the col
lection OF Bapwell sotes and Dworthys in Congress
Put good men in Congress- you say. Very we but does
srfta HANG N
nomination and election . What, appeal to the
sIotes and Dilworthys TO give ways to re-
elect them vet how otherwise, under our present
institutions Is there provision possibility
OF altering cleo machinery than by appeal to those
sinks Of coYruption-legsIatve assembliesi IL Is the
tyranny of the majority in another FORM The majority
elects itself and says how shall be elected, for in this
mucoverned country it is the majority which directly
or Indirectly profits by ofce and are so constituted
that in question between money and conscience, con-
science always goes to the wall Theros nothing strange
in fhs As Won say the ference promise and
performance melancholy contrast the former being
made hen party of oice the latter being done
when il in How many Of the most virtuous soters
for pure government would have Fitzhug4s If they
could
have no patent specific to propose for this state OF
things hold that the state Of things is nlcnabe as
You do VIZ differ, in that have faith in reform
even with the conGeament and appearance Wnlch de
cent gurehead gives The only reform possible IS tat
which reforms altogether. and ts will be attained not
by party victory election of the best IN n D"1 py
common sense and kuowledse-wbch is another desiGha
tion for Mir. Speneer's philosophy Yours &c,
THOMAS N. CRUISE, NJ ID.
Da.tehsSs County, n y. May y, 1876.