e wrongfulness of which I hope we are all agreed upon;
and I come to the intellectual part of the business. Extreme opinions
are put forth by the candidates, often in violent and injurious language.
Each strives to keep studiously in the background any points of
difference between himself and the electing body. Electors are not
treated as rational beings; their prejudices and their antipathies are
petted as if they belonged to some despot whom it was treason to
contradict. Whereas, if ever there is a time in his life when a man
should weigh his words well, and when he should gird himself up to speak
with truth and courage, it is when he is soliciting the suffrages of an
electoral body. That is the way to anticipate inconsistency; the crime
of which is more often in the hastiness of the first-formed opinion, than
in the change from it. What is called the inconsistency, may be the
redeeming part of the transaction. The candidate is naturally tempted to
fall in with the exact opinions that are likely to ensure success, and to
express them without modification--in fact, for the sake of his present
purpose, to leave as little room for the exercise of his discretion as
possible. It is easy for him to make unconditional assertions, when
nothing is to be done upon them, but it is another thing when he has to
bring them into action. The direction which he may wish to give to
public affairs is likely to be met by many other impulses; and then he
may have to remain consistent and useless, or to link himself to some
friendly impulse which brings him, however, into opposition to some of
his former broad and careless declarations. He has left himself no room
for using his judgment. Indeed, one does not see very clearly why he
takes his seat amongst men who are met to deliberate. The evils that
must arise from rash promises at elections are so great, that it is
fortunate when the topics mooted on those occasions, form but a small
part of those which ultimately come under the consideration of the person
elected; and, as often happens, that important public matters come to be
discussed, which were not seen on the political horizon at the election
time.

In addition to the distrust of individual legislators, which is,
probably, frequent amongst the poorer classes, there is also, I suspect,
a great distrust amongst them of the leading parties in the state. They
perceive the evils of party, and see nothing on the other side. Th