of a democracy inspired with the spirit of Milton and restrained by the equity of Washington. These high hopes were visions which faded in the daylight of actual experience. The larger numbers who shared the desires of the people did not know how to make them acceptable to the educated classes by raising them above naked selfishness. It was a difficulty, too, that the propertied classes were deprived of that share of influence which would otherwise have been cheerfully conceded to them by their sympathy with the claims of the squatters to monopolise the public territory; which gave their policy the character of a greedy and sordid conspiracy. In one important respect the whole democratic party certainly exhibited a commendable unselfishness. To adopt the American system of disbanding the Civil Service when their patrons retired from office, would give the democracy, when their turn came, the whole patronage of the country. Hitherto they had nothing, and the existing officers were appointed by their opponents. But they resisted the temptation and agreed to maintain the officers in their position. After a time an Act was passed by a later Government, of which I was a member, giving this important class security and independence. The judges of the Supreme Court, by the Constitution Statute, were maintained in their position for life, with a retiring pension after fifteen years, and in the end the judges of the inferior courts were placed in a corresponding position. In the same spirit financial good faith has been preserved with a fidelity which has. known no exception. In later times even the teetotalers agreed to give compensation to publicans whose houses were closed. It was not conceded that they had any legal claim, but a liberal equity represented the sentiment of the country.
I was confident that before an organised party in opposition, having not only fixed convictions but disciplined to subordinate the whims and vanities of individuals to its common ends, the motley majority, with only interests at stake, must fall. But one thing a man is sure to learn speedily in a partnership of this kind—the impossibility of getting men to think alike, and the difficulty of getting them to accept cordially opinions which have been thought out by others. The plainest truth must wait its opportunity to get an audience.
