ntial to the
election of a candidate--that the vote in the country as a whole is
evidently so evenly divided that whichever candidate can win New York
must be elected the next President. Tammany Hall is a purely local
organisation of the Democratic party in New York City. New York State,
outside the city, is normally Republican, but many times the great
Democratic majority in the Metropolitan district has swamped a
Republican majority in the rest of the State. That Democratic vote in
the Metropolitan district can only be properly "brought out" and
controlled by Tammany; so that the cordial support of Tammany Hall,
though, as has been said, it is in reality a strictly local
organisation, and as such is probably the worst and most corrupt
organisation (as it is also the best managed) that has been built up in
the country, may be absolutely vital to the success of a Democratic
presidential candidate. Tammany is practically an autocracy, the power
of the Chief being almost absolute. England and English society have had
some acquaintance with one Chief, and do not like him. But, as Chief of
Tammany Hall, it is easy to see how even a coarse-grained Irishman may
become for a time influential in American national affairs--even to the
dictating of a nominee for the Presidency.

I am not prepared to say that under the same conditions the same things
could occur in England. What I am saying is that they do occur in the
United States under conditions which do not exist in England; and, while
it may be that British civic virtue would be proof against the manifold
temptations of a similar political system, we have no sufficient data to
justify us in being sure of it, nor is it wise or charitable to assume
that because a certain number of American politicians yield to
temptations which Englishmen have never experienced, therefore the
people are of a less rigid virtue. Mr. Bryce has recorded his opinion
that the mass of the public servants in America are no more corrupt than
those in England. I prefer not to agree with him for, if it was true
when he wrote it, the Americans to-day must be much the better, because
since then there has unquestionably been an enormous improvement in the
United States, while we have no evidence of a corresponding improvement
in England. I believe, not only that many more public men are corrupt in
America than in England, but that a larger proportion of the public men
are corrupt, which, however, need not i