Part 14 (2/2)

THE GOOD OF THE GOVERNED

In Paris, soo, I was for a time a resident in a cultivated French family, where the father was non-committal in politics, the hter was a Bonapartist Asking thelady thus held to a different creed from the rest, I was told that she had made up her mind that the streets of Paris were kept cleaner under the empire than since its disappearance: hence her imperialism

I have heard American men advocate the French eood as those of the lively French maiden But I always think of her remark when the question is seriously asked, as Mr

Parkravely put it in ”The North Aoverneneral sense, there is probably no disposition to discuss this conundrum, for the simple reason that nobody dissents frooverned”new in the distinction Ever since De Tocqueville wrote his ”Deo, this precise point has been under active discussion That acute writer hiovernood of the people, and rests on their will at last But there is this difference: A anizes better, does its work better, cleans the streets better

Nevertheless De Tocqueville, a e in a republic, that when all this is done by the people for theh the work done htened, better satisfied, and, in the end, their good is better served Thus in one place he quotes ”a writer of talent” who complains of the want of administrative perfection in the United States, and says, ”We are indebted to centralization, that adreat man, for the uniform order and ets (of France) froest town to the humblest commune” But, says De Tocqueville,--

”Whatever may be my admiration of this result, when I see the communes (municipalities) of France, with their excellent systenorance of their true interests, and abandoned to so incorrigible an apathy that they seeetate rather than to live; when, on the other hand, I observe the activity, the information, and the spirit of enterprise which keeps society in perpetual labor, in these Aets are drawn up with small method and with still less uniformity,--I aood government is to insure the welfare of a people_, and not to establish order and regularity in the midst of its misery and its distress”[1]

The italics are my own; but it will be seen that he uses a phrase almost identical with Mr Park to be looked at beyond good laws,--naovernain:--

”It is incontestable that the people frequently conducts public business very ill; but it is impossible that the lower order should take a part in public business without extending the circle of their ideas, and without quitting the ordinary routine of their mental acquirements; the huovernree of self-respect; and, as he possesses authority, he can cohtened than his own He is canvassed by a multitude of applicants, who seek to deceive him in a thousand different ways, but who instruct him by their deceit

Deovernment upon the people; but it produces that which the overnments are frequently unable to awaken, na and restless activity, a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable froet the es of dees and others like them are worth careful study They clearly point out the two different standards by which we may criticise all political systems One class of thinkers, of whoood of the people” ood administration, and that, if these are only provided, it makes no sort of difference whether they themselves make the laws, or whether some Caesar or Louis Napoleon provides them All the traditions of the early and later Federalists point this way But it has always seeovernment essentially incoet our people saturated with it, they would soon be at the mercy of some Louis Napoleon of their own

When President Lincoln claiovernment for the people, but of the people, and by the people as well, he recognized the other side of the matter,--that it is not only important what lae have, but who overnment is to insure the welfare of a people,” in this far wider sense That advantage which the French writer ady, and self-respect, is as essentially a part of ”the good of the governed” as is any perfection in the details of governes which we expect that women, sooner or later, are to share For theenuine unless it is that kind of good which belongs to the self-governed

[Footnote 1: Sparks's _Franklin_, ii 372]

[Footnote 2: De Tocqueville, vol ii pp 74, 75]

RULING AT SECONDHAND

In the last century the bitter satirist, Charles Churchill, wrote a verse which will do so to keep alive his name It is as follows:--

”Women ruled all; and ministers of state Were at the doors of woraced the land, But never governed well at second-hand”

He touches the very kernel of the matter, and all history is on his side

The Salic Law excluded wo too noble to be governed by a woly the history of France shows one long line of royalin secret for ns of Elizabeth and Anne and Victoria, to sho usefully a woman aret Fuller Ossoli, that she always pointed out this distinction ”Any woman can have influence,” she said, ”in soood scold, to secure that Woman should not merely have a share in the power of man,--for of that omnipotent Nature will not suffer her to be defrauded,--but it should be a _chartered_ power, too fully recognized to be abused” We have got to meet, at any rate, this fact of feminine influence in the world Demosthenes said that the ht be overturned in a day by a woman How infinitely more sensible then, to train the woive her open responsibility as well as concealed power!

The sah the whole position of women Many a husband ives or withholds hs or frowns if she asks any questions about his business If only a petted slave, she naturally develops the vices of a slave; and when she wants more money for more fine clothes, and finds her husband out of humor, she coaxes, cheats, and lies Many a woance, simply because he has never told her frankly what his inco Bankruptcy, perhaps, brings both to their senses; and thenceforward the husband discovers that his wife is a woenerations of women are trained to deception I knew an instance where a fashi+onable dressirl, about to beoutfit

”But I have not the money,” said the maiden ”No matter,” said the complaisant tempter: ”I ait four years, and send in the bill to your husband by degrees Many ladies do it” Fancy the position of a pure young girl, wishi+ng innocently to make herself beautiful in the eyes of her husband, and persuaded to go into his house with a trick like this upon her conscience! Yet it grows directly out of the whole theory of life which is preached to many women,--that all they seek htforward living

It is a nize woman as born to be the equal, not inferior, of ht her share of the family income, of political power, and of all else that is capable of distribution As it is, we are in danger of forgetting that woht The wo in a straight line where it is possible to find a crooked one--are distorted women; and Nature is no ht lacing and by high-heeled boots These physical deformities acquire a charm, when the taste adjusts itself to them; and so do those pretty tricks and those interminable lies

But after all, to