The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-10-10
PROPHECIES MAY
YET BE FULFILLED
Lord Mocaulay's Letter of
1857 Predicts Present
Troublous Times.
DEMOCRACY CAN'T LAST
"The People" Should Not Be Rulers
is Opinion of One of Worlds
Greatest Writers.

Macaulay, the historian, wrote a
striking letter in 1857 to H. S. Ran
dali of New York, who had sent to the
author of the History of England"
Life OF Jefferson"
The occasion seemed to Macaulay
suitable for an expression of hts
| opinion of American institution and
there are those who say his prophecies
are about to be fulfilled If the people
and their representatives do not get
next" Accordingly he wrote at
length. The Boston Transcript" re-
Gently published the letter. which. in
its essential parts. is follows:
Il have long been convinced that
| institutions purely democratic must.
sooner or later, destroy liberty or civ
ilization, or both. Europe, where the
population is dense. the effect of such
institutions would be almost instan-
taneous.
What happened in France is an ex-
ample In 184s pure democracy was
| established there. During a short
time there was reason to expect a gen
eral spoilation, a national bankruptcy,
a new partition of the soil, a maximum
of prices, a ruinous load of taxation
laid on the rich for the purpose Of
Such a system would in twenty
years, have made France as poor and
barbarous as the France of the Car
lovingians. Happily the danger was
averted; and now there is a despotism,
a silent tribune. an enslaved press.
Liberty is gone. but civilization has
been saved.
You may think that our country
enjoys an exception from these evils;
will frankly own to you that I am
Of very different opinion.
Fate Certain.
Your fate I believe to be certain,
though it is deferred by a physical
cause. AS long as you have a bound
less extent of fertile and unoccupied
land. your Iaboring population will be
far more at ease than the laboring
population OF the old world; and while
that is the case the Jefferson politics
may continue to exist without caus-
ing any fatal calamity.
But the time will come when New
England will be as thickly settled as
Old England. Wages will be low, and
; will huctuate as much with you as
with us. You will have your Man
chesters and Birminghams; and in
, these Manchesters and Birminghams
. hundreds and thousands of artisans
will sometimes be out Of work.
Then your institutions will be fair
ly brought to the test. Distress ev-
; erywhere make the laborer mutinous
and disconnected, and incline him to
listen with eagerness to agitators, who
3 tell him that it is monstrous iniquity
l that one man should have a million
l while another cannot get full meal.
In bad years there is plenty of
: grumbling here. and sometimes a lit
. tie rioting; but 1t matters little, for
here the sufferers are not rulers. The
supreme power is in the hands of a
class, numerous indeed, but as select
of an educated class-of a class which
is and knows itself to be. deeply in
: terested in the security of property
and maintenance of order.
4 Accordingly the malcontents are
e gently but firmly restrained The bad
S time is got over without robbing the
f wealthy to relieve the INDECENT. The
G springs OF national prosperity soon be-
a gin to flow again: work is plentiful
= wages rise, and all IS tranquility and
: cheerfulness..
" FOrebOdes the Worst.
/ II have seen England pass, three oil
) four times, through such critical sea
G sons as 1 have described. Through
n such seasons the United States will
s have to pass in the course of the mex
G century. If not this. How will yo,
e pass through them I heartily wisl
a you good deliverance; but my reason
h and my wishes are at war and I can
: not help foreboding the worst.
Tt is quite plain your government
Il Will never be able to restrain a dis
4 tressed and disconnected majority. For
J with you, the majority is the govern
If ment, and has the rich, who are al
ways in the minority, absolutely at it
e mercy.
It The day will come when, in tn
If state of New York, multitude of PEG
r pie, none of whom has had more thai
:, half a breakfast. or expects to hav
:. more than half a dinner, will choos
= a legislature. Is it possible to doub
Il what kind of a legislature will
d chosen?
d "On one side is statesman preach
9 ing patience. respect for the veste
II rights, strict observance of publ
lie faith; on the other is a demagogut
"a ranting about the tyranny of the CAPT
talists and usurers, and asking VIII
r. anybody should be permitted to drin
- champagne and to ride in a carriag
: while thousands Of honest folk az
: in want OF necessities. Which OF tn
u two candidates IS likely TO be prefer
er red by a workman who hears his Chi
re dren cry for bread2
l 7 seriously apprehend you will.
e. some such season of adversely as
7. have described, do things that wi
prevent prosperity from returning; ths
II you will act like people who Shouts
in a season of scarcity, devour all til
., seed corn. and thus make the ne.
= year not only one OF scarcity. but (
absolute famine.
~ There viii be I fear. spoiiatio
y The spoilation will increase the dii
n tress. The distress will produce fres
L spoilation. There is nothing to ste
you. Your constitution is all sail ar