ty as in purpose; and you have done, nay, I
trust may still be doing, imperishable work. If only you did not hate
democracy so bitterly as to be perpetually prostrated by the recoil of
your own gun! Right or wrong in its inception, this aversion has now
become a chronic ailment, which drains insatiably at the fountains of
your spiritual force. I offer you the suggestion; I can do no more.

To have lost, in the hour of our trial, the fellowship of yourself, and
of others in England whom we most delighted to honor, is a loss indeed.
Yet we grieve a thousand times more for you than for ourselves; and are
not absorbed in any grief. It is clear to us that the Eternal Providence
has assigned us our tasks, not by your advice, nor by vote of
Parliament,--astonishing to sundry as that may seem. Your opinion of the
matter we hold, therefore, to be quite beside the matter; and drivel,
like that of your nutshell-epic, by no means tends to make us wish that
Providence had acted upon European counsel rather than upon His Own!
Moreover, we are _very_ busy in these days, and can have small eye to
the by-standers. We are busy, and are likely to be so long; for the
peace that succeeds to such a war will be as dangerous and arduous as
the war itself. We have as little time, therefore, to grieve as to brag
or bluster; we must work. We neither solicit nor repel your sympathy; we
must work,--work straight on, and let all that be as it can be.

We seek not to conceal even from _you_ that our democracy has great
weaknesses, as well as great strength. Mean, mercenary, and stolid men
are not found in England alone; they are ominously abundant here also.
We have lunatic radicalisms as well as sane, idiotic conservatisms as
well as intelligent. Too much for safety, our politics are purulent, our
good men over-apt to forget the objects of government in a besotted
devotion to the form. It is possible we may yet discover that universal
suffrage can be a trifle too universal,--that it should pause a _little_
short of the state-prison. New York must see to it that the thief does
not patronize the judge, and sit in the prisoner's box as on the bench
of a higher court. Our democracy has somewhat to learn; it _knows_ that
it has somewhat to learn, and says cheerfully, "What is the use of
living without learning?"

What can we do but meet the future with an open intelligence and a stout
heart? And this I say,--I, who am almost an extreme dissenter from
e