Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-12
Lowell on Democracy.


Our learned Minister to England, Mr..
James Russell Lowell, delivered the open
ing address at the Midland Institute at
Birmingham, of which he is President, on
Monday. His subject was Democracy"
To the large audience which was present
he stated that he was by temperament
and education a conservative, He saw
the last years of the American Arcadia,
and watched the change from an agricul-
tural to proletarian population. and
said that the change was a sad one to
him. He spoke of the long list Of offenses
which has been charged against America,
and while he did not defend it, he remind
ed his hearers that the acorn from which
the American system Of government
sprang was ripened on the British oak.
He believed that the British constitution
was in all it's essentials democratic, and
that a clearer conception of human claims
and human duties was beginning to pre-
vail.
Mr.. Lowell has often been charged with
being an Anglomaniac, and it is perhaps
more than suspected that he Is greater
lover of English than of American insti-
buttons. He acknowledges himself
Conservative, and in England Conserva-
tives are aristocrats-the very strongest
believers in the existing order Of things,
with all its injustice and abuses. As the
representative of normally democratic
government, Mr.. Lowell must of course
be loyal to democracy, and hence it is
easy to see how he can consider the Eng
lish CONSTITUTE to be essentially demo
cratic. 1t can only be considered demo-
cratic when looked at through English
spectacles, which Mr., Lowell seems to
wear with distinguished grace.
Our Minister to England is not the only
American admirer of the English consti-
tuition. There are thousands of them.
The reason is not difficult to find out. The
first book that the American law student
reads is a series of commentaries on the
constitution and laws of England. These
commentaries were written by one of the
ablest and most conservative of English
jurists-not only an Englishman by birth
and education, but one who was thor
oughly imbued with the love of British
institutions, and who was blind to almost
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graceful writer and an acute reasoner, it
is not surprising that the American youth
who begins the study of law with such
teacher should have impressions made on
his mind that are extremely difficult to
eradicate. 1t has been impossible for
American commentators on our constitu-
ton and laws to emancipate themselves
from the influences of this book, and while
they have done much for the American
student, none of them seem to have pre-
scented the genius of our institutions in as
attractive form as that with which
Blackstone enveloped his subject.
1t is easy to see how Mr.. Lowell has be-
come an Anglomaniac. He belongs to
family that has long been proud to trace
its line back to an English ancestor, even
if he occupied no higher rank than that Of
a Bristol shop-keeper. He was student
of the law, and no doubt imbibed his first
ideas Of the English system from the cell
ebrated author mentioned. After that
Mr.. Lowell became an earnest student
and admirer of English literature. His
own graceful poems and his lectures on
British poets gained for him recognition
in England, which he has so improved
since his residence in that country that
he appears to be pretty well identified
with it in every respect.
If this estimate of Mr.. Lowell is correct
he cannot be regarded as a proper person
to represent IN England either American
ideas of democracy or the United States
Government. If our country is to be re-
spected abroad it should not only be rep
resented by our ablest statesmen and dip
lomats-and not mere literators-bUt by
men who are sincerely loyal to it and who
are thoroughly imbued with the genius Of
American democracy.