NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 285
problem; it is not the only principle. The development of the press has created a public whose influence cannot fail to be felt, but it is not a part of the despotic regime under which it acts. It is more curious, perhaps, that today, when the influence of democracy appears unlimited, when in principle its rule is absolute, its sentiments and desires are less respected than a hundred and fifty years ago. For democratic government has a philosophical program, some ambitions of progress which it forces itself to realize, and the smallest article of which the good people are incapable of comprehending. It is just under the rule of opinion that they avoid the exact opinion of electors, and that the referendum is held in suspicion, when logically it ought to be the first institution of democracy. But when the government sees a squall, when opmion scrutinizes, asserts itself, accumulates and precipitates itself like a torrent, then it abandons itself to the current, anxious only to retain its place, waits to learn what will happen and how things will turn out, at the risk of shipwrecking the countr)'. The last year we saw this same public opinion recall the envoy of Admiral Camara and his squadron, without any strategic reason and contrary to all the inten- tions of government. In truth a singular neglect of the interests of the state is neces- sary to applaud democracy as a government of opinion.
3. Fmally, democratic government is no better organized than any other govern- ment for the safeguarding of individual rights; and, what is worse, it is by its institutions less organized to effectively protect them. The democratic regime, especialJv when it is parliamentary, rests on a series of antinomies which tend to crush the individual, and even to negative the advantages which are the raison d'etre of any system. We know how majorities insolently suppress the rights of minorities. In Canada, e. g., the English had to admit that if the privy council of the queen had not interv'ened to render justice to the Catholics in the matter of the schools of Manitoba, the majority parliament of Ottawa would never have recognized their wrongs. If, therefore, par- liaments, to be honest, must see themselves subjected to paramount tutelage, we have a right to ask: Of what use is democracy, and what is really democratic in the matter? However, what we desire to emphasize is not that the caprice of the majority can do wrong to the minority, for when even the caprices multiply and succeed each other indefinitely, democracy can always hope and maintain that some day the progress of education will bring about the end. No, that which is striking in democracy is that it neither allows nor can allow the redress of wrongs of the government toward the individual. We believe, firmly, that with only a little study of popular government under its various phases, and with perfect disinterestedness, one will always conclude that it is a vast mystification; that it rests on a series of misunderstandings, deceits, antinomies, hypocrisies, childish vanities. That it has not already fallen under public contempt is due to the fact that politics has not the importance in the life of the people which politicians and men of letters, who are directly concerned, pretend. No one can predict the destiny of democracy. It gains ground every day. The more it commits faults within, the more it seems to obtain adherence without in the coun- tries where it rules ; as if it was unwilling to look at the delusive side of these deeds and heroic achievements. The kings and emperors who still rule seem to retain a precarious authority, and are only playing with a power whose hours are numbered. It is possible that democracy will prevail in all the territories of our civilization. In France, notably, the cycle of the old monarchies, of the kind that neither the royalty of the Bourbons nor the empire of the Bonapartes can resuscitate, seems closed. But we need not grant that democracy ought to be established in the world. We do not admit that in the perpetual changes in the eternal growth of things, the one only definitive, immutable institution should be the most irrational, the most unskillful of all ; that which subsists only by force of pretentious sophisms and artful expedients, contrary to its very principle. We are forcibly persuaded that demo- cracy will have its end ; that it will terrify all living interests and all respectable rights, if it pushes its doctrines to their limit, or if it disengages the greater part of its energies bv indifference ; if it rests secure in a happv satisfaction or only occupies itself in vainly playing with power. Everything has its normal end in this world, and it is infinitely probable that we shall one day see flourishing again new dynasties which will begin with Csesarism or tyranny, such as we see in antiquity and revived in the fifteenth century. The peoples will then have a new period of monarchy, which will probably be followed by a new awakening of democratic aspirations ; or they will
