have tended to become more
corrupt, more debased, and to soil the hands of those who
take part in them and the men who get their living by them.
Political battles have become too bitter and too vulgar not
to have inspired aversion in the noblest and most upright
natures by their violence and their intrigues. The elite of
the nation in more than one country are showing a tendency
to have nothing to do with them. Politics is an industry in
which a man, to prosper, requires less intelligence and
knowledge than boldness and capacity for intrigue. It has
already become in some states the most ignominious of
careers. Parties are syndicates for exploitation, and its
forms become ever more shameless.

A later account of French politics, drawn from inside knowledge and
experience, is the remarkable novel, 'Les Morts qui parlent,' by the
Vicomte Le Vogue. Readers of this book will not forget the description
of the _bain de haine_ in which a new deputy at once finds himself
plunged, and the canker of corruption which eats into the whole system.
It is no wonder that the majority of Frenchmen do not care to record
their votes. In 1906, 5,209,606 votes were given, 6,383,852 electors did
not go to the poll. The record of democracy in the new countries is no
better. We must regretfully admit that Louis Simond was right when he
said, 'Few people take the trouble to persuade the people, except those
who see their interest in deceiving them.'

2. The democracy is a ready victim to shibboleths and catchwords, as all
demagogues know too well. 'The abstract idea,' as Scherer says, 'is the
national aliment of popular rhetoric, the fatal form of thought which,
for want of solid knowledge, operates in a vacuum.' The politician has
only to find a fascinating formula; facts and arguments are powerless
against it. The art of the demagogue is the art of the parrot; he must
utter some senseless catchword again and again, working on the
suggestibility of the crowd. Archbishop Trench, 'On the Study of Words,'
notices this fact of psychology and the use which is commonly made of
it.

If I wanted any further evidence of the moral atmosphere
which words diffuse, I would ask you to observe how the
first thing men do, when engaged in controversy with others,
is ever to assume some honourable name to themselves, such
as, if possible, shall beg the whole subject in disp