destroying the sphere of common interest and co-operation which it established for them and in which the individual felt he had his being. Until this gap is filled if it can be filled -the equilibrium of the individual character remains disturbed at yet another point.

Lastly, the same effect is being produced by the political scepticism which the corruption of the Caucus régime does not fail to develop: confidence in the representatives of the people is diminishing, their integrity is too readily suspected, the view is gaining ground that it is all much of a muchness, and there is even creeping in a doubt as to the efficacy of republican institutions. The serene confidence of the citizen

in his power is no longer intact.

The material as well as the moral reserve represented by the territory, by the individual, and by the economy of the constitution being thus diminished, the passive resistance offered by these latent forces to the destructive action of the Caucus régime will be less effective than of yore. The favourite saying of the Americans, "It will right itself," is becoming. every day more untrue. Only an active resistance, a vigorous offensive will be able to check the mischief, and maybe even eradicate it.

XII

The task is a gigantic one: the citizen must be re-invested with his power over the commonwealth, and the commonwealth must revert to its proper objects; the separation between society and politics must be put an end to, and the divorce between politics and morality annulled; civic indifference must give place to an alert and vigilant public spirit; the conscience of the citizen must be set free from the formalism which has enslaved it; electors and supreme depositaries of power must be guided in their political conduct by the reason inherent in things, and not by the conventional meaning attached to words; superiority of character and of intelligence, that is to say the real leadership, dethroned by political machinism, must be reinstated in its right to direct the government of the Republic; authority as well as liberty, now usurped by the men who traffic in the public weal under the

party flag and in the name of democracy, must be rehabilitated in the body politic.

The immensity of the void to be filled and the obvious diffi-' culty of the undertaking, the complete realization of which seems to partake almost of a Utopia, would appear to carry inevitable failure with them, and to proclaim the condemnation of American democracy in its present and in its future. The passing of this sentence of condemnation, which would fill some with sadness and others with joy, is, however, deferred by the undeniable fact that a beginning has been made in the performance of the task, that a portion of what has to be done, small as it is, is already accomplished. The last few years, as we have seen, have been marked by an awakening of the civic conscience. The business community displays a much keener interest in local public affairs than formerly. The cultivated set and, in particular, the rising generation, descend into the political arena with an ardour which was unknown a quarter of a century ago. Public morality has advanced its behests are at least acknowledged, if not obeyed; the homage of platonic respect at any rate is paid to them; society has become more alive to right and wrong. Public opinion is beginning to extricate itself from the narrow and deadly groove of parties. The fetish-like cult of party has fewer fervent worshippers. Party ties are being relaxed in all the organizations, owing to the progress of enlightenment as well as to the feeling of uneasiness which has been working for some time past in American society, of social discontent, whether justified or not, which makes people turn over like sick persons from one side to the other. In the "Solid South" itself economic changes are tending to unsettle parties. Habits of independence, if not freedom of mind, are certainly gainers thereby. Intellectual progress however is incontestable throughout the community, and people unquestionably vote with more discrimination. The personal qualities of the candidate, his moral worth, are becoming more and more appreciated. The expert is gaining ground in public estimation; slowly and laboriously he is undermining the prejudice which is so widely entertained that the public interest can be intrusted to the first comer, to "a plain man like all the rest of us."

These results are not to be despised, but, in truth, they constitute only a small instalment of the whole debt. The further raising of the standard of American political society, the development of the tendencies toward amelioration, which we have just noted, will evidently depend upon the action of the two factors which determine the existence of every political community, that is to say, its culture, both intellectual and moral, and its political methods. The future of American democracy lies in the improvement of its general culture and of its political methods. These two factors, as I have already indicated, have not been foreign to the progress already made, during the last twenty or five-and-twenty years. Education, lavishly provided in the American Republic, I mean primary education, has no doubt powerfully contributed to raise the intellectual standard, although, as I have also pointed out, the mechanical character of the methods of instruction is not calculated to develop the judgment of the future citizens and hardly admits of the cultivation of moral emotions. The Universities, which have made a great start of late, have had a most happy effect on the formation of the public mind, and their beneficent activity will not fail to increase in this respect when it is clearly understood that the higher culture is not obtained by an excessive specialization of studies, recalling the remark of Mephistopheles in Faust, "Dann hat er die Theile in seiner Hand, fehlt, leider! nur das geistige Band; " nor by the cultivation of a vain scholastic erudition; nor even by the transplanting of German University seminaries. The influence of the Universities on the body politic will extend in proportion as the conviction takes shape that in a democracy more than anywhere else the first duty of Universities is not so much to reproduce their own species, as to make men and citizens. The new tendencies which are coming to the front in the most important American Universities warrant great hopes in this connection. The pulpit has perhaps contributed also to the reform of the public mind, but in any event its politico-social rôle was slight. That of letters and art and of "society " was nil. Far more important was the part taken in the liberal

1 Cf. in this order of ideas the statements of the new President of the University of Yale, Mr. A. Hadley, in his inaugural address and in his lecture on 66 University Ideals," delivered at New York, in February, 1900.

education of the public mind by Mugwumpism, by the political action of the Independents, which they brought to bear from 1871 onward, in a whole series of contests, either in the field of the Union, or in that of the States and the cities. It was a highly practical lesson which bore fruit, although the majority forgot what it had learned very quickly, and the work had to be done over again each time. Mugwumpism, represented by the independent press and the combatants in the arena, battered down political formalism, party "regularity," and inclined people to judge men and things apart from all conventions.

The attempts at reform in political methods, while contributing to the awakening of public opinion by the agitation and propaganda which they set on foot, were too often characterized by an inadequate appreciation of the moral motive power which is the first condition of the proper working of all political systems. They fastened mostly not so much on the causes as on the apparent effects, and exhibited a constant tendency to resort to external remedies and mechanical expedients. The naïve belief in the efficacy of machinery and of the hallmark of the State paralyzed in the citizen the volition and initiative which so imperiously needed to be stimulated. The success of the various experiments in reform, which took shape either in militant action or in legislative measures, was in the direct ratio of the broadmindedness which the reformers showed with regard to party. Some adopted as basis and instrument the old groove of stereotyped party, and they failed in their undertaking; others placed themselves outside party, and they achieved a success that was more or less durable and more or less promising for the future. "Reform within party," which sought to purify party by persuasion, proved a fiasco; the measures which tended to regenerate it by force borrowed from the State fared no better; the placing of party under the supervision of the public authorities or even its transformation into a wheel of the State machinery, by the legal recognition of parties, by the institution of official nominations of candidates, and by the legalization of the primaries, ended in discomfiture. Being unattended by a clear perception of the nature of the evil which they sought to remedy, of the political formalism and machinism which had

caught the American community in their toils, these attempts only made it sink deeper into them. They tended to consolidate the monopoly of the party flag, increased the supply of political machinery, and only succeeded in giving the "good" citizens a fresh pretext for dispensing with personal efforts on behalf of the public weal, while enabling them to display a hypocritical public spirit.

On the other hand, "civil service reform," which put parties entirely on one side and tried to rid the public service of them, was attended with some measure of success. The leagues which set up free and independent associations, irrespective of all party convention and sectarian creed, and for the promotion of a special cause, which appealed to all co-operation and all honest convictions from whatever quarter they came, and united them in an alliance for the service of that cause only these leagues succeeded many and many a time in saving the Union from humiliations or grave mistakes, in expelling the public malefactors, or at least in blockading them by continually narrowing their field of action, and in purifying the political atmosphere, if only for a moment. Free nominations of candidates, outside parties, were also tried with encouraging results. Do these movements really point out the path in which the improvement of methods demanded by the political life of the United States must be sought? Or does our enquiry suggest other methods again for the best attainment of the ends of democratic government? Ought the new methods of political action to be completed by changes in the legal organization to produce their full effect?

These questions, brought before us by the political evolution. of America, which has just been reviewed, lead us back to the conclusions furnished by our study of England. The essence of the problem awaiting solution turns out to be exactly the same. The study of America has but enabled us to see a little more clearly and a little farther. In fact, the longer experience of American democracy has only given extraordinary distinctness to the political phenomena and tendencies which we have seen looming in the young democracy of England. What appeared to us in England as a germ, blossoms in the United States, thanks to conditions which are unfortunately too favourable, into a luxuriant plant. The present intensity