, 1893-04-19

Ho~liSatIVn Oh Cuat ueSlSn. DOtn 1oucSs u
Congress are now pledged to his support
there 10 no Service in America strong enough
to extort its Irregular" demands; the Pension
List, though it cannot be abolished, can be
trimmed with slose-cutting shears; and all
grants whatsoever, outside necessary expsndi.
lures. can be constitution ally vetoed. The
Union ought by 1897 to be richer by at least o
third in direct savings, and perhaps another
sixth in the savings created by a moderate re-
duotion in the general standard Of expense,
Mr.Cleveland has only to psrsevsre in supreme
Indifference to comment, and he must win
and though as Englishmsn We have littls
liking for him, it 10 not through irresolution
or vacillation that we should expect him to
fail. His defect is an overplus of self-suff-
cheney. not of suppleness.
The main difficulties in his way now. as
always, will be the Federal Consultation
and the temper of the people. 1t lie very
difficult to deal with national abuses which
any one of fifty autonomous Governments, not
subordinate except on particularauestions, may
take it into it's head to protect, and nearly
impossible to restrain altogether q popular
tendency to extravaganza THAI is the great
light which this generation has received upon
the temper OF democracies. Half.a-century
ago every thinker predicted that the one
grand evil of democracy would be Laeannes
that it would display an ignorant impotence
Of taxation and that it would refuse supplies
necessary to the dignity, Or, at least, to the
visible greatness, of the State. That idea has
proved itself to be the exact contrary Of the
facts. The lower the suffrage, the higher the
Budget mounts. Democracy loves spending,
is devoted to dignity, and provided they are
indirect, or fall heaviest on the rich, will pay
any amount of taxes. The English dsmocra-
cy with household suffrage, though it has
reduced its debt, has increased it's budget, has
increased rates all over the country, and would
not be frightened tomorrow if great Social.
istic experiment. were to cost it a hundred mill.
lions. 1t hardly shoulders when it is asked to
support in comfort, at a cost of about 1000,
900 sterling, its whole aged poor. The French
democracy, with universal suffrage, has nearly
doubled its taxation and raised it's debt more
thar a fourth, apart from the tribute to Ger.
MANY besides. The German democracy, with
universal suffrage, a poor soil and nearly uni
vsrsal poverty, is always granting new de-
mands, whether for soldiers, ships, Colonies, or
centralised officials. And in America, with
univer al suffrage and a rich estate, extravs'
gance rises to a point IN which politicians
whom living men still remember, politicians
like Sir Robert Peel or David Hume, could not
have been persuaded to believe. Either of
them WOulu nave UoCInIOA oil IA RUh~
sion list Of thirty-one millions sterling a year
too absurd for credence, aud would have con-
demned the prophet who mad" the prediction
for poverty of invention. 1t is not yet certain
that Mr. Cleveland will not be- arrested by a
popular outcry, dictated partly by rage at in
dividual losses, partly by a feeling that some
thing Of colour and dignity has gone out of the
national life. The interests benefited by OK
travagance will fight with the energy of des-
pair; and we are not sure that many more,
though they are not benefited, will not declare
that they will bear their suffering rather than
part with the old freehanded regime, which
would grant anything because it wished so
much to prove that the Treasury must be filed.
fortunately for reform, the demoralising idea
which Mr., Cleveland denounces has had scarce.
ly q generation to grow, and more fortunately
still. the class which has felt extravagance
most severely is the powerful one of freehold
ers. With the farmers behind him, Presi.
dent Cleveland should win his campaign and
rsintroduos into America the spirit Of thrift,
the desire for low taxes, and a belief In the
saving commercial virtue of free composition.
He has certainly begun we'll with a lecture
which is as naughty, as free spoken, and 90
direct a. q good pastor ever addressed to Q
congregation of which he was totally indepen.
dent. Hhs had only left out the complement