Such A Feeling Argues A Total Mistake As To The Nature Of
That Liberty And Equality For The Security Of Which The People Are
So Anxious, And That Mistake The Very One Which Has Made Shipwreck
So Many Attempts At Freedom In Other Countries.
It argues that
confusion between social and political equality which has led
astray multitudes who have longed for liberty fervently, but who
have not thought of it carefully.
If a first-class railway
carriage should be held as offensive, so should a first-class
house, or a first-class horse, or a first-class dinner. But first-
class houses, first-class horses, and first-class dinners are very
rife in America. Of course it may be said that the expenditure
shown in these last-named objects is private expenditure, and
cannot be controlled; and that railway traveling is of a public
nature, and can be made subject to public opinion. But the fault
is in that public opinion which desires to control matters of this
nature. Such an arrangement partakes of all the vice of a
sumptuary law, and sumptuary laws are in their very essence
mistakes. It is well that a man should always have all for which
he is willing to pay. If he desires and obtains more than is good
for him, the punishment, and thus also the preventive, will come
from other sources.
It will be said that the American cars are good enough for all
purposes. The seats are not very hard, and the room for sitting is
sufficient.
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