Page:Americanisation - a letter to John Stuart Mill.djvu/19

 hanker after Utopian visions of a perfect political system, have been no doubt indoctrinated with the same opinions as Mr. Bright. From the revolutionary era when Paine wrote his "Rights of Man," down to the present day, the democratic press has been constantly instilling the doctrines of American perfectibility into the minds of our artisans and labouring classes. No member of the House of Commons, either on the Conservative or the Liberal side, knows better than you do how false those doctrines are, and therefore you ought to take advantage of the prominent position you now hold to assert your independent convictions on that head.

You have told us that "the natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilization, is towards collective mediocrity;" and that "this tendency is increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their tendency being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more and more below the highest level of instruction in the community." Now, if this be the "natural tendency" of all reductions of the franchise, you ought seriously to consider whether you are acting wisely in assisting Ministers to hurry a franchise extension bill, founded on democratic principles, through Parliament, when you know that that measure was advisedly framed to give "leverage" for effecting greater changes in the same direction. I am, yours faithfully, AN OLD WHIG.