DEMOCRACY AND GREAT MEN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Surely when you try to prove that the faults which Mr. Lowell complains of in America are due to Federalism, you forget that he brackets France with America in his condemna- tion, the most centralised State in Europe with the Western Federal Republic. But is there not another answer to Mr. Lowell,—viz., that the falling-off in great statesmen, however disagreeable to those who take a bird's-eye view of mankind, may not be a sign of decadence in the real moral greatness of mankind ? The work of political leaders is to right the wrongs of the body politic by legislation or administration. Surely, where legislative grievances, or those grievances which can be redressed by legislation, become fewer, there must be less need for conspicuous statesmen ; and where more people have their eyes on the needs of the State, there must be less need of leaders to form the opinions of reformers. There is no lack in America of that kind of greatness which rests on positive con- siderations, and not on the need of destruction of political evils. Poets, philosophers, inventors can still be found there, and one hopes they are not dying out. Surely, then, both in America and Switzerland, the loss of conspicuous men in one department of action is a small price to pay for the happi- ness and self-respect of a nation.—I am, Sir, &c., C. E. MAnnicE.
[Is corn to be the only product? Must we cut down all the trees P—En. Spectator.]
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