excepted, has hitherto been considered at the disposal of any
minister. In America we make it matter of reproach that men are
dismissed from office on account of their political opinions, and it is
usual to cite England as an example of greater liberality. All this is
singularly unjust, because in its spirit, like nine-tenths of our
popular notions of England, it is singularly untrue. The changes of
ministry, which merely involve the changes incident on taking power from
one clique of the aristocracy to give it to another, have not hitherto
involved questions of sufficient importance to render it matter of
moment to purge all the lists of the disaffected; but since the recent
serious struggles we have seen changes that do not occur even in
America. Every Tory, for instance, is ousted from the legations, if we
except nameless subordinates. The same purification is going on
elsewhere, though the English system does not so much insist on the
changes of _employes_, as that the _employes_ themselves should change
their opinions. How long would an English tide-waiter, for instance,
keep his place should he vote against the ministerial candidate? I
apprehend these things depend on a common principle (_i. e_.
self-interest) everywhere, and that it makes little difference, in
substance, what the form of government may happen to be.

But of all the charges that have been brought against us, the
comparative instability of the public favour, supposed to be a
consequence of fluctuations in the popular will, is the most audacious,
for it is contradicted by the example of every royal government in
Christendom. Since the formation of the present American constitution,
there have been but two changes of administration, that have involved
changes of principles, or changes in popular will;--that which placed
Mr. Jefferson in the seat of Mr. Adams, senior, and that which placed
Mr. Jackson in the seat of Mr. Adams, junior: whereas, during the short
period of my visit to Europe, I have witnessed six or seven absolute
changes of the English ministry, and more than twenty in France, besides
one revolution. Liberty has been, hitherto, in the situation of the lion
whose picture was drawn by a man, but which there was reason to think
would receive more favourable touches, when the lion himself should take
up the pallet.

LETTER XVII.

Our Voiturier and his Horses.--A Swiss Diligence.--Morat.--Inconstancy
of feeling.--Our Route to Vevey.