Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-12
AN ADDRESS BY Mr.. BRYCE
BRITISH AMBASSADOR ORATOR
AT COLLEGE EXERCISES.
Talks on Value of History to Citizens
at University of Illinois Commence
ment at Urbana.

| URBANA, ILL.,, June 1.-THE commence
| ment exercises at the University of I'LL
| nos today were attended by many visitors.
| among them Ambassador Bryce, who deliv-
cred an address.
| In his address Ambassador Bryce con-
| sidered the relation of history to politics,
| and the value of history to the citizens and
| statesmen saying there were two general
| conclusions which public spirited citizens
| of the United States who wished to serve
! their city or state or country might draw
| from the political history of other coun-
| tries.
"One is" said he, that no one who see
| ing the faults that belong to popular gov
eminent and the difficulty of bringing 1t
up to the ideal which the theory of de-
! mocracy sets need be disheartened. no,
not even by repeated failures, 20 erect the
reforms which good citizens desire HIS
tory has comfort for him. 1t VIII snow that
other forms of government, autocracy and
oligarchy have their faults also, and graver
faults. You may find now and then wise
and high sOuled despot who will do his best
for his subjects, but there is no security,
there is not even a probability that he Will
be succeeded by other despots OF like vir,
tue. You may have prudent and skiilful
oligarcic government which will extend the
power of the nation in the world. But 1t
is certain to govern In its own class inter-
ests. not in that Of the people at large.
This was the fallacy that led eminent
a writer the late Sir Henry Maine.
He pointed out Its faults. He omitted TO
point out the faults of other governments.
All governments have their defects
''There Is None That Doeth Right"
LAS the Scripture says, There is none
that doeth right, not one 1t is only
question of which does less we'll than an
other. And the general lesson Of history
Is that the government of one or of class
is a far worse than the government of
the whole people.
THE other conclusion is that although the
best institutions and the best administra-
tive system are worth playing for and
striving for. although they make an i'm
menSe difference to the welfare OF the coun-
try, there Is another thing even more i'm
portant. That thing Is the participation
in the work of government of the whole
body of the people Leaders, honest, capa-
BILE, courageous men are necessary just as
necessary in a democracy as In any other
form Of government The people must
seek them out, must honor them, must give,
If their honesty is proved, it's confidence.
But the whole people must continue to
watch everything they do, and never sur
render its judgment or its votes into their
hands. 1t was said by them of old that
eternal vigilance Is the price of freedom.
II is the price of other things also.
Price of Pure Government.
1T Is the price of pure government and
efficient government. No citizen in free
country can escape OF ueCliHe Ills TeSpOHSi-
biity for the conduct of his government
He ought to respect the judgment of those
whom he knows to be wiser than himself
He must avoid the error of those cranks,'
you call them, who set the particular
question in which they are most interested
above the general lines of a sound national
policy. But the history Of free govern
ments show that when things go wrong 1t
Is not so often from errors Of judgment on
the part of the people as it is from an ex-
cess of party spirit which has led them to
follow blindly an INSCRIPTIONS leader or
from an Indifference and negligence which
has enabled INSCRIPTIONS and selfish men
to pursue their own advantage at the ex-
pense of the public good.
THE most successful of all democracies
that of Switzerland. has been that in which
the whole people have most constantly ex-
erted themselves to watch and to take part
In the conduct of their government, and the
result has been to produce in the mind Of
the Swiss people an intelligent comprehen-
sion of public affairs which it must be hard
to equal elsewhere"