Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-12-06
No. 8.
FrOude on Government.
London Daily Telegraph.

The other night Mr. FrOude, President OF
the Birmingham and Midland Institute, de-
livered his inaugural address at the Bir-
mingham Town Hall. He had considered
what was the great common interest which
they could have together, and he found it
in the relations in which they all stood at
this time to their common country. 1t
had been governed by Kings, and it had
been governed by an aristocracy-it was
now governed by the people What the
people said should be done would be done.
What the people said should be the law
would be the law. The destinies of this
empire were now wholly in the hands of
the nation itself, and they all, collectively,
would have to answer to those who came
after them for the condition to which they
brought it. Nations, like individuals, sue
ceeded or failed as they managed their
affairs we'll or i'll. He pointed to the ex-
ample of Athens, Sparta, Thebes and other
commonwealth States, and they found in
their development all the phenomena with
which they were familiaI in their lager
stage There were reform bills and revo-
lutions; Kingships passing into constitu-
tions and democracies perishing by their
own exccesses, and turning into despot-
isms. Such phenomena occurring in in
Vulnerable instances and under all varieties
of circumstance, pointed to tendency in
human nature itself whenever men Of
vigorous temper were gathered into civil
society. It might be asked why in the
Greek States to which he had alluded the
large had not swallowed the small. The
answer was that it was against the inter-
ests of free race The Greeks, during
the period of their greatness, held that
liberty was the parent of everything that
was excellent in man. Another reason was
that they believed that a State which
aimed at empire would have to pay for it
by losing it's own liberties, but the breed
could not last forever. Not every Ulysses
had a Telemachus for son. To be born
to high places might make one man into
a hero, but it would make another into
blockhead or profigate. There were only
so many concrete rights in the world as
there were powers to enforce. They might
say that men had right to justice be-
cause they could not be governed without
some degree of it, but all had not a right
to share in the government until they were
strong enough to insist upon their share.
Warlike races whose business was in fight
ing preferfef to be under chief So did
people who had warlike neighbors and
were liable to invasion. 1t had been said
that good government must be OF kind
which should possess the confidence Of the
people. That law was but the
accumulated wisdom Of the ablest
men of many generations. 1t had
no force save what it derived from the
consent and respect of those who lived un-
der it, 1t might need amending, but real
improvement did more harm than good if
they shook the feeling of reverence with
which the law was regarded In politics,
when so much depended upon custom, the
changes ought to be as few as possible, and
always to be undertaken reluctantly. 1t
had been said that a dWeller IN a house
was better Judge of its merits than the
architect. That was quite true. In his
own profession the world was a better
judge of literary merit than authors or
critics. Shakespeare stood as high above
all his contemporaries as the oak in the
forest above the garden evergreen, but it
was the world which found it out. The
highest fame was the slowest growth, and
writers who had been ultimately recog-
nized as the wisest of their kind had been
received when they began life with indif
ference and contempt. In literature this
was of little consequence, but in politics
time was Just what could not be granted.
In the Greek Republic, as in modern
Europe and America, majority OF the
people were presumed to be strongest The
balance of force was assumed to be with
the greatest number When any great
question arose, even in the most advanced
community, the same difference was pro-
duced by superior constancy, by superior
courage, by readiness to die rather than
submit to what was false and uni ust, as
the differences which existed between the
Greeks and the Asiatics. In such cases
minorities of brave men had carried their
point against the majority by force, trust
ing to time to acquit them, and so he be-
lieved they would continue to do as long
as there was any worth in human nature.
The army which made Oliver Cromwell
Protector represented but a small fraction
of the English nation counted by heads.
If the vote could be taken now the Eng
lish nation would still perhaps be found
unfavorable to him; yet Cromwell was
slowly taking his place in the estimate of
the better part of mankind as one OF the
very greatest and best Englishmen that
ever lived. The government of nation
by itself had it's dangers, and might de-
generate into MOB will and anarchy. Ma
jorites might 60 wrong, being composed of
fallible human beings, but, taking things
all in all, the national spirit was likely to
rise higher, the laws were likely to be
more impartial and to be more impartially
executed when the people were their own
legislators and chose their own officers.
Decidedly that State ought to be in its
happiest condition when all citizens had
equal rights, when there was no privilege
either of birth or wealth, and each man
could rise to any position which nature and