ined of such poor quality and the
task so hard, both the election of local powers and the division of the
central power had to be abandoned.

IV. Motives for suppressing the election of local powers.

Motives for suppressing the election of local powers.--The
Electors.--Their egoism and partiality.--The Elected.--Their
inertia, corruption, and disobedience.

All were agreed on the first point. If any still doubted, they had only
to open their eyes, fix them on the local authorities, watch them
as soon as born, and follow them throughout the exercise of their
functions.--Naturally, in filling each office, the electors had chosen
a man of their own species and caliber; their fixed and dominant
disposition was accordingly well known; they were indifferent to public
matters and therefore their candidate was as indifferent as themselves.
Had they shown too great a concern for the nation this would have
prevented their election; the State to them was a troublesome moralist
and remote creditor. Their candidate must choose between them and this
intruder, side with them against it, and not act as a pedagogue in its
name or as bailiff on its behalf. When power is born on the spot and
conferred to-day by constituents who are to submit to it to-morrow as
subordinates, they do not put the whip in the hands of one who will
flog them; they demand sentiments of him in conformity with their
inclinations; in any event they will not tolerate in him the opposite
ones. From the beginning, this resemblance between them and him is
great, and it goes on increasing from day to day because the creature is
always in the hands of his creators; subject to their daily pressure, he
at last becomes as they are; after a certain period they have shaped him
in their image.--Thus the candidate-elect, from the start or very soon
after, became a confederate with his electors. At one time, and this
occurred frequently, especially in the towns, he had been elected by a
violent sectarian minority; he then subordinated general interests
to the interests of a clique. At another, and especially in the rural
districts, he had been elected by an ignorant and brutal majority, when
he accordingly subordinated general interests to those of a village.--If
he chanced to be conscientious and somewhat intelligent and was anxious
to do his duty, he could not; he felt himself weak and was felt to be
weak;[2105] both authority and the means for exercis