affirm that no one has a right to power of any kind, unless he can be
trusted to forbear employing it to the injury of his fellow-creatures or
of himself. And the only safeguard and security for the proper exercise
of political power is sound and enlightened education. It is unnecessary
to dwell on this point, because our statesmen of both parties (to their
honor) give constant proof of their deep conviction of its importance.

But, in closing our remarks, it may be allowable to point out the
political lesson which, above all others, the teachers of the masses
should seek to inculcate on their pupils. The art of government, and
each measure of government, is, above all other things, the two-sided
shield. There are so many plausible arguments which may be advanced on
each side of almost every question of policy, that no candid man will
severely condemn him who in such disputable matters forms an opinion
different from his own. Age and experience are worse than valueless if
they do not teach a man to think better of his kind; and the history of
the period which we have been considering teaches no lesson more
forcibly than this, that the great majority of educated men, and
especially of our leading statesmen, are actuated by honest and
patriotic motives. And we would presume to urge that more important than
a correct estimate of any one transaction of the past, or even of any
one measure to influence the future, is the habit of putting a candid,
and therefore a favorable, construction on the characters and intentions
of those to whom from time to time the conduct of the affairs of the
nation is intrusted.

Notes:

[Footnote 276: "Life of Palmerston," vol. i., c. vii.]

[Footnote 277: "Life of the Prince Consort," ii, 303.]

[Footnote 278: _Ibid_., p. 412.]

[Footnote 279: Amos, "Fifty Years of the English Constitution," p. 289.]

[Footnote 280: "Past Gleanings," i., 242.]

[Footnote 281: "Life of the Prince Consort," iv., 458.]

[Footnote 282: 219 to 210.]

[Footnote 283: "Life of the Prince Consort," v., 100.]

[Footnote 284: _Ibid_., p. 148.]

[Footnote 285: "Life of Pitt," by Earl Stanhope, iii., 210.]

[Footnote 286: "Life of the Prince Consort," iv., 329.]

[Footnote 287: _Ibid._, p. 366.]

[Footnote 288: "Constitutional History," iii., 319, 3d edition.]

[Footnote 289: It should be added that, on a subsequent occasion, Mr.
Roundell Palmer, member for Plymouth (now Lord Chancellor Selborne, and
ev