e
my readers to settle after they shall have settled the previous
question, whether either of those considerable sums of money is really
earned by either body. But there can be no doubt, I think, that, under
the existing economical conditions of society in the two republics, the
aggregate number of professional politicians aiming at the 878 prizes of
the profession in France is likely to be considerably in excess of the
aggregate number of professional politicians aiming at the 414 prizes of
the profession in the United States. Of course, too, this increase in
the aggregate number of the competitors must necessarily be attended by
a decline in the average standard of character and capacity among them:
and as it is the settled policy of the French Republicans of the 'true
Republic,' who have been in power for the past decade, to exclude all
persons not of their party from any share in the general administration
of the Republic, it is obvious that this lowering of the level of
character and of capacity must be most marked among the professional
politicians of the Republican party. This is a matter of scientific
necessity, and not at all of sentiment; and it suffices to account for
the unquestionable average inferiority of the Government members of the
Senate and the Chamber to the Opposition members in point both of
character and of capacity.

The intense centralisation of power in France is another and a very
important force working in the same direction. Outside of the Federal
field of political ambition in the United States we have the State
governments. But there can be no more than forty-two State governors in
the United States, whereas in France there are eighty-six prefects, and
three in Algiers, without counting the administrative authorities in the
Regency of Tunis and in the French colonies. The governorships of the
American States are elective offices, to be won only by local services
and local combinations. But the administrative prizes of French politics
can only be secured through the central administration at Paris, under
pressure from the all-powerful cliques and combinations in the National
Legislature. Briefly, therefore, it seems to me quite clear that under
the Third Republic in France the profession of politics is rapidly
becoming, if it has not already become, much more easy of access, and,
in proportion to the capital of character and of ability required for
entering upon it, much more remunerative,