We may pardon it some faults, indeed, on the ground of Irish obstruction--a bitter trial, which it supports with notable good humour.

But the excuse is merely local; it cannot apply to similar bodies in America and France; and what are we to say of these?
President Cleveland's letter may serve as a picture of the one; a glance at almost any paper will convince us of the weakness of the other.

Decay appears to have seized on the organ of popular government in every land; and this just at the moment when we begin to bring to it, as to an oracle of justice, the whole skein of our private affairs to be unravelled, and ask it, like a new Messiah, to take upon itself our frailties and play for us the part that should be played by our own virtues.

For that, in few words, is the case.

We cannot trust ourselves to behave with decency; we cannot trust our consciences; and the remedy proposed is to elect a round number of our neighbours, pretty much at random, and say to these: 'Be ye our conscience; make laws so wise, and continue from year to year to administer them so wisely, that they shall save us from ourselves and make us righteous and happy, world without end.