Page:A letter on "Uncle Tom's cabin" (1852).djvu/29

25, result occasionally in reducing constitutional governments to a dead lock in all the most useful purposes of government. Then, look at the men in power. I believe we British have been quite as well governed as we deserved, perhaps better; but we sometimes have men in high authority amongst us, perhaps even as cabinet ministers, to whom no prudent private person would give six-and-twenty shillings a week for any thing they could do. This is very humorous, possibly a shade too comic, when you think what a vast nation this is, flowing over with unused men of great ability. But life is full of such deep drollery.

Look at the way men rise to honor. You see a person whom Nature meant to be industriously obscure; and yet such a man will become the founder of a family; and his children will bear titles, and enjoy substantial power as long as the kingdom lasts. If you ask what were this man's public deserts, it is a matter which a few persons, well informed in political affairs, might be able to explain to you; but for the great mass of mankind it is perfectly unintelligible. They never heard of the man's name, or gave the least heed to it, before they hear of his ennoblement. This, too, is humorous.

Do not pretend, however, because you have no