conscientious allegiance an ill return for liberal laws. There is nothing more dangerous to a country than the dissension of its citizens on the score of national extraction. We have the case of Canada before us. The Athenians and Romans would hardly have hesitated to treat such combinations as treasonable, if indeed they would not have spurned the idea of suffering them, to grow into any sort of importance. The spirit of exclusiveness of the ancients, according to which all distant foreigners appeared as barbarians, would indeed have been sufficient to prevent the like affiliations on the basis of foreign nationality, together with the enjoyment of full citizenship; but though our religion as well as the diffusion of a common civilisation over many nations teaches us far different sentiments regarding foreigners, I still believe that every citizen of a free country should cherish his own citizenship with sufficient patriotism, pride and jealousy, to prevent him from associating the names of foreign countries, however noble or endeared to him they may be, however sacred he may keep their name in the inmost recess of his soul, with affairs peculiarly those of his country. There is no just middle term, that I can think of, between an alien and a bonâ fide citizen, joining heart and hand in the weal and woe of the country whose citizenship he has, by choice, and not by force, received. If these remarks are founded in truth, it is clear that it is equally offensive in native citizens to foment this improper spirit, to make use of national inclinations and dislikes for party purposes, and to call upon those adopted citizens as the natives of foreign countries, and according to their various nationalities. Is the citizenship of a free country so light a thing, that it can be changed like a vestment, and is

put on temporarily only for convenience sake, and under which the foreigner remains a foreigner, unchanged, unaltered by the new oath of allegiance? We ought to change the ancient saying: "the sea washes off all evil," into "let the sea wash off all difference." (2) But what shall we say of those native citizens who make use of the ignorance or criminal levity of the lowest portion of emigrants, to bring them to the polls long before the law permits it, or before they are citizens, and who make these poor beings begin their career in the new country, which they mean to adopt, with a flagrant breach of its sacred laws, a bribe and perjury-with crime? That they fully share in the guilt of this treble crime. If it is the fundamental law of a country, that the majority of the lawful votes, lawfully polled, shall be the last decision, the final supreme authority which decides and can be appealed to, it amounts to a contamination of the supreme authority, if we corrupt it by the induction of any foreign element. But, enough of this subject was said when we treated of bribery.

(1) The foreigner by birth, who has become citizen of the United States, is, in every way whatsoever equal to the native citizen, except that the constitution does not allow him to become president of the United States, unless he became a citizen at the time the constitution was adopted.

(2) θάλασσα κλύζει παντα τἀνθρώπων κακά. Eurip. Iphig.

CHAPTER IV.

Public Men. Leaders. - Self-examination before a Citizen embarks in Public Life.-Physical, Moral and Mental Qualities desirable in a Public Man.Necessary Knowledge for a Public Man. -Caution in entering upon Public Life.

XXIII. In all free countries there are citizens, who, according to the influence they exercise over a portion of their fellow-citizens, and in guiding or impelling the public mind, have left the sphere of the private citizen proper, and who may at times actually be charged with public offices, but need not be so, and still essentially influence the politics of their state. These men we call public men, and, according to their influence, leaders. Their influence depends upon themselves and upon circumstances. They may actually rule, and yet be not officers, but simply public men. The most remarkable instance is probably afforded in the case of Pericles, who swayed the destiny of Athens for upwards of forty years, and yet was but a public man, or leader. Where there is a real active political life, it is natural that there are public men, more or less influential, or important, according to the wider or narrower circle of the respective community in which they move. Every county, every village, even every ward in a large city, has its public men. From these, in the natural and salutary course of things, are generally taken those citizens whom the public of free states charges with offices, especially the representatives, and all elective officers.

Now whenever a man fails in his calling, mistakes his powers, and deceives himself as to wherein the proper strength and natural vocation of himself lies, bitter disappointment, perhaps an acrid temper, and, before all, the despairing consciousness of having failed in active usefulness, and what might have been the fruitful harvest of a well-guided life, on the one hand, and a more or less direct injury to the community are the infallible consequences. How many men have learned with sorrow, in the middle of life, that they had wholly mistaken their powers, inclinations, or peculiar strength! All writers upon the various professions have endeavored to exhibit those characteristics, necessary for a particular profession, and the difficulties and obstacles, unavoidably met with in its path, so that the aspirants might calmly examine themselves before they make so important a choice, which must very powerfully influence their peace and contentment through life. A proper self-examination of this sort, however, is more important, before a citizen fairly embarks, or suffers himself to be drawn into public life, than respecting other spheres of action. For of all the agents which may prompt a citizen to do this, a degree of ambition will always be among them, and bitter indeed is the darkness of chill neglect which follows the bright dreams of ambition. The acquisition of wealth is but very rarely, and by way of exception, connected with politics in a free and comparatively pure country; yet though the citizen, when young, may have no desire of wealth, the years may come, when he sees his former companions accumulating wealth, and amply providing for their offspring, and when he regrets having pursued what then perhaps appears to him a bauble. Success in politics requires a peculiar compound of temperament, which is the free gift of nature, and cannot be made at will; which does not, indeed, insure success, but without which success can rarely be calculated upon. Politics are exciting, and whoever is accustomed to excitement, finds an intolerable void without it, so that, once accustomed to it, the citizen will continually return to it, though he is conscious that he ought to give them up, that they are not his proper sphere. And finally, the freer a country the more frequently are chances offered for embarking in politics. Yet, a man who was not destined to be a public man, but continually, nevertheless, obtrudes, is a great annoyance to a free community, and may, if he chances to obtain an influential employment, become a very dangerous and injurious member, without even suspecting it himself, in his mistake of his own powers. We see then that a citizen owes it to himself, his family, and his community, not heedlessly to enter politics. Every man is a valuable member of the community if he is in his proper place, sphere, and utility; but a man who might have pursued the profession of medicine with real delight, may feel himself daily disgusted with the profession of the law, and may do much harm to his fellow-citizens; and vice versa. A man that meets with constant disappointment as a merchant, or misses his true aim of life as a clergyman, might have made a contented, useful, active farmer, contributing his essential share to the common stock of national success. Philip III. of Spain, it is reported, exclaimed in anguish, on his death-bed, "Oh that I had never ruled, that I had rather been the poorest man!"