n than that part of your
democratic institutions which I see developed in the mutual and
reciprocal relations between the people and the constituted public
authorities.

In that respect there is an immense difference between Europe and
America, for the understanding of which we have to take into account the
difference of the basis of the political organization, and together with
it what the public and social life has developed in both hemispheres.

The great misfortune of Europe is, that the present civilization was
born in those cursed days when Republicanism set and Royalty rose. It
was a gloomy change. Nearly twenty centuries have passed, and torrents
of blood have watered the red-hot chains, and still the fetters are not
broken; nay--it is our lot to have borne its burning heat--it is our lot
to grasp with iron hand the wheels of its crushing car. Destiny--no;
Providence--is holding the balance of decision; the tongue is wavering
yet; one slight weight more into the one, or into the other scale, will
again decide the fate of ages, of centuries.

Upon this mischievous basis of royalty was raised the building of
authority; not of that authority which commands spontaneous reverence by
merit and the value of its services, but of that authority which
oppresses liberty. Hence the authority of a public officer in
unfortunate Europe consists in the power to rule and to command, and not
in the power to serve his country well--it makes men oppressive
downwards, while it makes them creeping before those who are above. Law
is not obeyed out of respect, but out of fear. A man in public office
takes himself to be better than his countrymen, and becomes arrogant and
ambitious; and because to hold a public office is seldom a claim to
confidence, but commonly a reason to lose confidence; it is not a mark
of civic virtue and of patriotic devotion, but a stain of civic apostacy
and of venality; it is not a claim to be honoured, but a reason to be
distrusted; so much so, that in Europe the sad word of the poet is
indeed a still more sad fact.--

"When vice prevails and impious man bears sway
The post of honour is a private station."

So was it even in my own dear fatherland. Before our unfortunate but
glorious revolution of 1848, the principle of royalty had so much
spoiled the nature and envenomed the character of public office, that
(of course except those who derived their authority by election--which
we for our municipal