overnment, except one day in the
year, when they vote at the polls; we need, instead, a determination to
govern 365 days in the year, and nothing short of this perpetual
interest of the people will secure to them the rights of
self-government. Even then it is necessary that every citizen shall
vote at every election.

_Republicanism in Other Countries_.--The remarkable spread of forms of
republican government in the different nations of the world within the
present century has been unprecedented. {426} Every independent nation
in South America to-day has a republican form of government. The
Republic of Mexico has made some progress in the government of the
people, and the dependencies of Great Britain all over the world have
made rapid progress in local self-government. In Australia, New
Zealand, and Canada, we find many of the most advanced principles and
practices of free government.

It is true that many of these nations calling themselves republics have
not yet guaranteed the rights and privileges of a people to any greater
extent than they would have done had they been only constitutional
monarchies; for it must be maintained at all times that it depends more
upon the characteristics of the people--upon their intelligence, their
social conditions and classes, their ideas of government, and their
character--what the nature of their government shall be, than upon the
mere form of government, whether that be aristocracy, monarchy, or
democracy.

Many of the evils which have been attributed to monarchy ought more
truly to have been attributed to the vital conditions of society.
Vital social and political conditions are far more important to the
welfare of the people than any mere form of government. Among the
remarkable expressions of liberal government in modern times has been
the development of the Philippine Islands under the protecting care of
the United States, the establishment of republicanism in Porto Rico and
Hawaii, now parts of the territory of the United States, and the
development of an independent and democratic government in Cuba through
the assistance of the United States. These expressions of an extended
democracy have had far-reaching consequences on the democratic idealism
of the world.

_Influence of Democracy on Monarchy_.--But the evidences of the
progress of popular government are not all to be observed in republics.
It would be difficult to estimate the influence of the rise of popula