activity of mind, in literature, in art, in good works of charity. It is,
therefore, pretty sure that they only predict the opinions of the rest, who
will follow them in time. And even while waiting it is a fair question
whether the "governed" have not the right to give their votes when they
wish, even if the majority of them prefer to stay away from the polls. We
do not repeal our naturalization laws, although only the minority of our
foreign-born inhabitants as yet take the pains to become naturalized.

THE GOOD OF THE GOVERNED

In Paris, some years ago, I was for a time a resident in a cultivated
French family, where the father was non-committal in politics, the mother
and son were republicans, and the daughter was a Bonapartist. Asking the
mother why the young lady thus held to a different creed from the rest, I
was told that she had made up her mind that the streets of Paris were kept
cleaner under the empire than since its disappearance: hence her
imperialism.

I have heard American men advocate the French empire at home and abroad,
without offering reasons so good as those of the lively French maiden. But
I always think of her remark when the question is seriously asked, as Mr.
Parkman, for instance, once gravely put it in "The North American
Review,"--"The real issue is this: Is the object of government the good of
the governed, or is it not?" Taken in a general sense, there is probably no
disposition to discuss this conundrum, for the simple reason that nobody
dissents from it. But the important point is: What does "the good of the
governed" mean? Does it merely mean better street cleaning, or something
more essential?

There is nothing new in the distinction. Ever since De Tocqueville wrote
his "Democracy in America," forty years ago, this precise point has been
under active discussion. That acute writer himself recurs to it again and
again. Every government, he points out, nominally seeks the good of the
people, and rests on their will at last. But there is this difference: A
monarchy organizes better, does its work better, cleans the streets better.
Nevertheless De Tocqueville, a monarchist, sees this advantage in a
republic, that when all this is done by the people for themselves, although
the work done may be less perfect, yet the people themselves are more
enlightened, better satisfied, and, in the end, their good is better
served. Thus in one place he quotes "a writer of talent" who complains