Nor Does
He At All Confine Himself To Voting, In His Anxiety To Get The
Sense Of The Country.
He takes it in any way that it will show
itself, uses it for what it is worth, or perhaps far more than it
is worth, and welds it into that gigantic lever by which the
political action of the country is moved.
Every man in Great
Britain, whether he possesses any actual vote or no, can do that
which is tantamount to voting every day of his life by the mere
expression of his opinion. Public opinion in America has hitherto
been nothing, unless it has managed to express itself by a majority
of ballot-boxes. Public opinion in England is everything, let
votes go as they may. Let the people want a measure, and there is
no doubt of their obtaining it. Only the people must want it - as
they did want Catholic emancipation, reform, and corn-law repeal,
and as they would want war if it were brought home to them that
their country was insulted.
In attempting to describe this difference in the political action
of the two countries, I am very far from taking all praise for
England or throwing any reproach on the States. The political
action of the States is undoubtedly the more logical and the
clearer. That, indeed, of England is so illogical and so little
clear that it would be quite impossible for any other nation to
assume it, merely by resolving to do so.
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