Year: 1878

W. Il. Lecky in the North American Review.


From these extreme evils a country
is for the most part saved by intrustine
the management Of its affairs chiefly to
the upper classes Of the community.
A government Of gentlemen may be
and often is extremely deficient in in
telllgence, IN energy, in sympathy with
the poor classes. 1t may be shamefully


biased by class interests, and guilty of
great corruption in the disposal of pat
rOnage, but the standard of honor com


mon to the class at least secures it from
the grosser forms of malversation, and


the interests of its members are indis-
solubly connected with the permanent
|eii-beifg OF the country. Such men
may be guilty of much misgovernment,
and they will certainly, if uncontrolled


by other classes, display much selfish
ness, but it is scarcely possible that
they should bewholly Indifferent to the
ultimate consequences of their acts, or
should divest themselves Of all sense of
responsibility or public duty When
other things are equal the class which
has most to lose and least to gain by
dishonesty will exhibit the highest level
of integrity. When other things are
equal, the class whose interests are
most permanently and seriously bound
up with those of the nation is likely to
be the most careful guardian of the
national welfare. When other things
are equal, the class which has the most
leisure and most means Of instruction
will, as a whole, be the most intelligent.
Besides this the tact, the refinement,
the reticence, the conciliatOry tone of
thought and manner characteristic of
gentlemen are all peculiarly valuable in
public men, whose chief task is to re-
concile conflicting pretensions, and to
harmonic jarring interests. Nor is it
a matter of slight importance to the
political life of a nation or to the esti-
mate in which a nation is held by its
neighbOrs that its government should be
in the hands of men on whom no class
can look down. Rightly or wrongly,
nations are judged mainly by the politi-
clans and by their political acts, and
when these have ceased to command
respect, the character ola nation in the
world is speedily lowered


These considerations may be carried
a step further All civic virtue, all the
heroism and selfsacrifce or patriot
ism, spring ultimately from the habit
men acquire or regarding their nation
as a great organic whole, identifying
themselves with its fortunes in the past
as in the present, and looking forward
anxiously to its future destinies. When
the members of any nation have come
toregard their country as nothing more
than the plot Of ground on which they
reside and their government as mere
organization for providing police or
contracting treaties; when they have
ceased to entertain any warmer feelings
for one another than those which pri-
vate interests or personal friendship or
a meer general philanthropy may pro-
duce, the moral dissolution of that ma
ton is at hand. Even in the order of
material interests the well-being of each
generation is in a great degree depen-
dent upon the forbearance,s ,self-sacrifce,
and providence of those who have pre-
ceeded it, and civic virtues can never
flourish in q generation which thinks
only of itself. Those will not look for
ward to their posterity who never look
backward to their ancestors" To
kindle and sustain the vital flame of
national sentiment is the chief moral
end of national institutions, and while
it cannot be denied that it has been at
tanned under the most various forms
of government, it is equally certain
that an aristocracy which is at once
popular and hereditary, which blends
and assimilates itself with the general
interests of the present, while it Derpet-
yates and honors the memories of the
past, is peculiarly fitted to foster it.


Another advantage which should not
be neglected in a review of the effects
of aristocratic institutions is their ten
dency to bring young men into active
political life. In politics, as in most
OTHER professions, early training is of
extreme Importance, and In country
whose government is conducted mainly
through the instrumentality of parlia-
ment this training, to be really efficient,
must include an early practice of par


duties. A young man Of
energy and industry, possessing the tact
and manners of good society, and en-
dowed with abilities slightly superior to
those of the average Of men, is likely,
if brought into parliamentary and Of
fetal life between twenty and thirty, to
acquire a skill in the conduct of public
business rarely attained even by men
of great genius whose minds and char
acters have been formed in other
spheres and who have come late into
the arena Of parliament. The presence
in parliament of a certain number of
young politicians, from whom the lower
offices of administration may be filled,
and who may gardually rise to the fore
most places. Is an essential condition
of the well-being of constitutional gov
eminent, and 1t Is one of the conditions
which, since the abolition of the nomi-
nation boroughs, it has become most
to attain. Popular election is
in this respect exceedingly worthless.
1t may be trusted to create, with a
rough but substantial justice, d repre-
sentation Of public opinion. 1t may be
but much less perfectly, to Sc
cure some recognition of old services
and Of matured genius, but an extended
has neither the capacity
nor the desire to discover undeveloped
talent, or to recognize the promise of
future excellence. Hardly any other
feature of our parliamentary system
appears SO ominous to thoughtful OBJ
server as the growing exclusion of
young men from the house of COM
mons, and, if certain number are still
found within It's walls, this is mainly
due to that aristocratic sentiment
which makes the younger members of
noble families the favorite candidates
with many constituencies.


There are other consequences which
il will be sufficient simn1y to enumer-