y, the famous
French writer, M. de Tocqueville, in his Democracy in America,
observes:--

It is a well authenticated fact that, at the present day, the most
talented men in the United States are very rarely placed at the
head of affairs, and it must be acknowledged that such has been the
result in proportion as democracy has outstripped its former
limits. The race of American statesmen has evidently dwindled most
remarkably in the course of the last fifty years.

These remarks of M. de Tocqueville apply to some extent to Canada where
there has been a manifest decline in the standing and ability of our
public men. There are exceptions, but what instances have we now of the
representatives or equals of the Robinsons, the Macaulays, the Bidwells,
the Jones', the Lafontaines, the Hagermans, the Baldwins, the Drapers,
the Willsons, and many other political men of forty and twenty years
ago?[149] To what is this decline in public men, in an otherwise
advancing country, to be ascribed but to the unscrupulous partizanship
of the press and politics, which blacken character instead of discussing
principles, which fight for office instead of for the public good, and
that by a barbarous system of moral assassination, instead of public men
respecting and protecting each other's standing, and rivalling each
other's deeds of greatness and usefulness. In England, the character of
public men is regarded as the most precious property of the nation; and
if the personal character of any member of Parliament, or other public
man, is assailed by the public press or otherwise, you will see
opponents as well as friends rallying round the assailed, and sustaining
and shielding him by their testimony, as a matter of common or national
concern. When Sir Robert Peel, in the last great debate of his life,
objected to Lord Palmerston's Grecian policy, he referred to Lord
Palmerston's character and abilities--not to depreciate and calumniate
his great rival, but to exclaim, amid the applause of the House of
Commons, "We are proud of the man! And England is proud of the man!" But
in Canada, the language of a partizan press and politician is "down with
the man; execrate and execute the man as a corruptionist and traitor!"

It is with a view to the best interests of our whole country, that I
have thus addressed my fellow countrymen, contributing the results of my
best thoughts and experience to your beginning well, that y