The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-09-15

after they have reached middle life is
an essential factor in the case; and it
not infrequently happens that new
generation has to be trained up in the
reform principles before any outward
improvements can be effected.
Our purpose at this time, however, is
not to inquire into the causes which
render political changes difficult, but to
point out certain circumstances which,
in free country, go far to compensate
the evil, and which deserve to be &C
counted among the benefits of free gov
eminent. Some men, seeing the diff
Guilty of moving public opinion in a
democratic community, and eager to
effect Improvements in political affairs,
are led to doubt the wisdom of popular
government, and to say that a benevo-
lent despot and an enlightened aristoc-
racy is better depository of political
power than the people themselves.
But, besides the difficulty of securing
benevolence in despOt or enlighten-
ment in an aristocracy, history shows
that even if they possess these qualities,
they are less easily moved to effect re-
forms than the people themselves.
There have been benevolent despots
who effected nothing for the political
improvement of the nations they gov
erned. The Antonines, for instance,
tho hncf
the world ever saw; yet they did moth
ing of Importance in the way of polite
al reforms, but left the Roman empire
as they found it. AS for the aristoc-
racies, though they often administer
the government with much intelligence
so far as their own interests are con-
cerned, they are, nevertheless, the most
conservative, the most bigotedly OPP
posed to progress of all the species of
government that ever existed, as the
history of Sparta, Carthage, and Venice
abundantly proves. The states that
have been most largely and most uni
fOrmly progressive have been without
exception those of a popular character,
or those in which popular influence has
been powerfully. felt; and therefore the
Impotence that earnest reformers
sometimes feel at the sluggishness and
perversity of the popular mind ought
never to make them lose faith in the
benefits of free government.
But even if mOnarchS and aristOc-
racieS were as active friends of pro-
gress and as ready to effect improve
ments as popular governments are, yet
improvements made througNthe agency
of the people are far more beneficial
than those effected without them. For.
in the first place, reforms effected by
the people themselves, or in accordance
with their deliberate desires, are likely
to be permanent; while if not thus eff
fected, their permanence is uncertain.
A benevolent monarch may make great
improvements in laws and institutions,
and thereby largely promote the we'll
being of the people; but if his successor
happens to be a man of a different
stamp, as is quite likely to be the case,
all the improvements thus made may
be set aside, and the condition of the
people may become worse than before.
Besides, the government of a nation,
even under an absolute monarch is
largely influenced by public opinion;
and if public opinion has not been edu-
Gated to approve and support reform,
it may be set aside or rendered nugatory
by the opposition of the people them
selves. There are even instances in
history where a nation has surrendered
liberty itself. simply because the mass
of the people had not learned to appre-
ciate it's value. But, under popular
government, where no considerable
changes can be made without the con-
currence of the people, reform once
effected is very rarely reversed. So
well is this understood in England, that
when an important measure has been
carried there with the express approval
of the people, no statesman ever thinks