Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/120

 may well be pardoned. It is a repetition of the sad story which foretold that—

It is possible that since war has originated in cabinets and been sustained by loans, its true causes would often appear more deserving of contempt and reprobation from having lost that glow of heroism shed upon the deeds of those who personally executed what they planned, and shared in the sufferings and privations caused by the struggle. It cannot be doubted that low and selfish motives have entered into the business of government, and led to great calamities. Parties in this country hare not been backward in exposing the faults of each other, but to regard such mean objects as the especial inheritance of any particular class is unjust. The proportions of good and evil existing in one class differ probably very little from those of all the rest. The class in which the government of this country has been chiefly vested may point with some confidence to records proving that if they have not been superior, they have at least been equal to the rulers of any other land, and that they have never been wanting in the full measure of the virtues of their race and age.

Where, however, in history, where in modern experience, is there ground for the belief that if the kingdom were parcelled into equal electoral divisions, and the majority in every division called upon to pronounce for peace or war—that it would follow that peace would be more certainly preserved ? Let us recall the latest impressions, which, as individuals, we have all gathered of the opinions of the more numerous classes in recent times, and reflect whether war with Russia or war with