Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-08-28
STARTLING PREDICTIONS.
How the Strikes and Riots Were
FOretOld by Lord MaCaulay.
" Your Fate Believe TO be CertaIn''
Where "Suiferers" are "Rulers."

The following extracts from the
letters of Lord Macaulay to Henry
5. Randall, shortly after the publ
cation by the latter of his i" Life of
Thomas Jefferson seem to be per-
tinent to the present hour. 1t is to
be hoped that the good sense of the
people will prevent the prediction
from proving true:
| have long been convinced that
institutions purely democratic
must, sooner or later, destroy liber-
ty or civilization, or both. In Eu-
rope, where the population is dense,
the effecto such institutions would
be almost instantaneous. What
happened lately in France is an ex-
ample. In 1S4S pure democracy
was established there. During a
short time there was reason to ex-
pect general spoliatiOn, a national
bankruptcy, new partition of the
soil, a maximum of prices, a ruin
GUS load of taxation laid upon the
rich for the purpose of supporting
the poor in idleness. Such sys-
tenn would, in twenty years, have
made France as poor and barbarous
as the France of the Carloyingians.
Happily the danger was averted !;
and now there is despotism, a
silent tribune, an enslaved press.
Liberty is gone, but civilization has
been saved. have not the smallest
doubt that, if we had purely
democratic government here the
effect would be the same. Either
the poor would plumber the rich,
and civilization would perish,
or order and prosperity would
be saved by a strong military
government, ard liberty would
perish. You may think that your
country enjoys an exemption from
these evils. | will frankly own to
you that l am Of a very different
opinion. Your fate / belive to be
certain, though it is deferred by a
physical cause. AS long as you
have a boundless extent Of fertile
and unoccupied land, your laboring
population will be far more at ease
than the laboring population of the
Old World, and, while that is the
case, the Jefferson politics may
continue to exist without causing
any calamity. But the time will
come when New England will be
as thickly peopled as old England.
Wages will be as low, and will fuc-
tuate as much with you as with us.
You will have your Manchesters
and Birmingbams, and in those
Manchesters aud Birminghams
hundreds OF thousands of artisans
will assuredly be sometimes out
Of work, Then your institutions
will be fairly brought to the test.
Distress everywhere makes the la
borer mutinous and discontepted,
and inclines him to listen with
eagerness to agitatorS who tell him
that it is u m0nstFous iniquity that
one man should have million while
another cannot get q full meal. In
bad years there is plenty of grum-
bling here, and sometimes 0 little
rioting. But it matters little. For
here the sufferers are not the rulers.
The supreme power is in the hands
of class, numerous Indeed, but
select: Of an educated class OF q
class which is, and knows itself to
be. deeply Interested in the security
of property and the maintenance Of
order. Accordingly, the malcop-
tents are firmly yet gently restrain
ed. The bad time is got over with
out robhing the wealthy to relieve
The INDECENT. The springs of
national prosperity soon begin
! to flow again; work is plentiful,