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60 or 70 can charge the government with extravagance in the face of his own controlling power! Others have not been slow to imitate their leaders by raising false issues. In the face of the fact that Messrs. Gladstone and Bright dictated to their followers at Carlton Terrace to throw out the Conservative Reform Bill on the second reading (a proceeding which led to the tea room party!)—in the face of the fact that these gentlemen strenuously advocated 'a hard and fast line,' totally opposed to household suffrage;—that these gentlemen with their special following were defeated in no less than 13 or 14 critical divisions, they have the hardihood to claim for themselves and their party the merit of passing the Reform bill!!
These are by no means isolated instances. Mr. Bright's Speeches generally when not occupied with [1]depreciation of his country, have been devoted to the misrepresentation of his adversaries.
- Its incentives to unprincipled ambition.
It is a bad thing when as in America every man is perpetually involved in political turmoil. This endless excitement nourishes a race of unscrupulous politicians, selfseekers, covetous of their own aggrandizement and possessing the two essential requisites of a ready tongue and great assurance. Such fellows talk themslves and their hearers into anything, and their fluency possesses an influence in direct proportion to the ignorance of their audience. Whether they talk
- ↑ 'The only thing we dislike in the attitude of some of the new electors is 'a disposition, fostered often by men of education, who should know better, 'to disparage their country, their ancestors, their old institutions and laws.' Times, Sept. 9th, 1868.
