Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/132

 were conceded, and the vessel of the state has been borne safely through a period which has seen the wreck of many other constitutions.

The picture unfortunately has another side. The powerful patron,—the guiding hand that ruled the election, and suppressed all other influences,—could form no part of a system in which the representation is to be personal. But with the indicating mind is gone all sense of responsibility for the choice which is made. There is no obligation on any voter to bow to the choice of another. Every man is as well entitled as another to be the leader; and where every man is equally entitled to be chief, there can be no usurpation and no rebellion. A community so situated is reduced to a state of natural society so far as relates to duty or function. They remain in a state of civil society in all other respects, for the laws are present to enforce its obligations; but, as to the right of voting for parliamentary representatives, the principle is,—that every man shall do what is right in his own eyes. Viewed on this side, the electoral principle is anarchic. In this diffusion of forces which were heretofore concentrated, it becomes of paramount importance to purify the sources from whence they derive their energy.

"Il ne faut pas beaucoup de probité pour qu'un gouvernement monarchique ou un gouvernement despotique se maintiennent ou se soutiennent. La force des lois dans l'un, le bras du prince toujours levé dans l'autre, règlent et contiennent tout. Mais, dans un État populaire, il faut un ressort de plus, qui est la.

"Les politiques grecs, qui vivoient dans le gouvernement populaire, ne recoinnoissoient d'autre force qui pût le soutenir, que celle de la vertu. Ceux d'aujourd'hui ne nous parlent plus que de manufactures, de commerce, de finances, de richesses, et de luxe même.

"Lorsque cette vertu cesse, l'ambition entre dans les cœurs qui peuvent a recevoir, et l'avarice entre dans tous. Les