should and will be,) Mr. Trollope degrades
by the epithet of 'free-and-easy.' This would better apply were ours the
toleration of indifference, instead of being a toleration founded upon
the unshaken belief that God has endowed every human being with a
conscience whose sufficiency unto itself, in matters of religious faith,
we have no right to question. And we are convinced that this experiment,
with which we started, has been good for our growth of mind and soul, as
well as for our growth as a nation. Even Mr. Trollope qualifies our
'rowdyism,' by saying that 'the nation is religious in its tendencies,
and prone to acknowledge the goodness of God in all things.'

And now we have done with fault-finding. For all that we hereafter quote
from Mr. Trollope's book, we at once express our thanks and _sympathy_.
He is '_strong_,' but he is also human, and likes sympathy.

More than true, if such a thing could be, is Mr. Trollope's comments
upon American politicians. 'The corruption of the venal politicians of
the nation stinks aloud in the nostrils of all men. It behoves the
country to look to this. It is time now that she should do so. The
people of the nation are educated and clever. The women are bright and
beautiful. Her charity is profuse; her philanthropy is eager and true;
her national ambition is noble and honest--honest in the cause of
civilization. But she has soiled herself with political corruption, and
has disgraced the cause of republican government by those whom she has
placed in her high places. Let her look to it NOW. She is nobly
ambitious of reputation throughout the earth; she desires to be called
good as well as great; to be regarded not only as powerful, but also as
beneficent She is creating an army; she is forging cannon, and preparing
to build impregnable ships of war. But all these will fail to satisfy
her pride, unless she can cleanse herself from that corruption by which
her political democracy has debased itself. A politician should be a man
worthy of all honor, in that he loves his country; and not one worthy of
contempt, in that he robs his country.' Can we plead other than guilty,
when even now a Senator of the United States stands convicted of a
miserable betrayal of his office? Will America heed the voice of Europe,
as well as of her best friends at home, before it is too late? Again
writes Mr. Trollope: ''It is better to have little governors than great
governors,' an American said to me onc