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Synopsis
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This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
THE PEOPLE IN RELATION TO POLITICAL POWER AND OPINION. " Patriots are grown too shrewd to be sincere, And we too wise to trust them . He that takes Deep in his soft credulity the stamp Designed by loud declaimers on the part Of liberty, themselves the slaves of lust, Incurs derision for his easy faith And lack of knowledge, and with cause enough." Cowper. TiROM the frequency, and still more from the tone, with which the name of " The People " — the phrase being used as a synonym for the working classes — is brought into the discussion of all kinds of political questions, it might readily be supposed that they are politically powerful ; but those who know them best are aware that such is not the case. As they come before the' rest of the world politically, they are chiefly represented by about a dozen men of the agitator species, and two or three associations professing political creeds that are generally held to be extreme, if not altogether impracticable or Utopian. These men, in their public speeches, and the societies in their resolutions, allege that they do represent the working classes, and by many who have no personal knowledge of those classes they are taken at their word. They speak with all the confidence of assured knowledge of the desires of" the great heart of the people," the measures for which and against which the voice of the people is cast, and the statesmen or political parties upon which, its eyes are watchfully, approvingly, or threateningly fixed. Now, that these men mean well to the people, that the opinions they expound are sometimes those held by the people, and at other times such as perhaps ought to be held by them, may be admitted; but they are not, in any legitimate or reliable sense, the representatives of the people. They are not infalli...