We need no candid, sympathetic, and enlightened critic like James Br>xe, to tell us where our republic is weak, in spite of our Titanic power, immense prosperity, roaring trade, restless energy, chartered freedom. We know that, in many respects, " the times are out of joint." The sordid and incapable governments of many of our large cities ; the venality among those to whom great public trusts have been committed; the recrudescence of race prejudice; the colossal fortunes heaped up by shrewd manipulations of laws.

148 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,

which have been twisted from their original intent, and by un-ethical methods ; mob-violence, lynch law, the ever-widening hostility between the employers of labor and the wage-earner ; so much of what Jeremy Taylor called " prosperous iniquity ;" the blare of jingoism, the coarser and grosser forms which athletics have assumed, even among young men who are students at our universities-- in the sublime words of Milton, " beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies ;" the hatred felt by the poor towards the rich, and the disdain felt by the rich for the poor; all these and many other evils, indeed, exist. Yes, the times are out of joint. But they have always been out of joint. These evils are not the result of popular government ; they are incident to our transitional civilization. They have always existed, probably in a grosser form than to-day. Would a return to monarchical government better things? Possibly we have anticipated too much of organized democracy. It is still aiming for its ideal. As we have said of liberty, democracy is not a finality ; it is only a status by which public opinion for the time being can be most effectively expressed in government.