Mr. Lowell delighted Birmingham on Monday with an address at
the Midland Institute, on Democracy, which he called throughout "a great experiment," though one that must be made. The "only argument against an east wind is an overcoat." Democracy had been advancing for ages, and always accom- panied with predictions of ruin which had never come true. "it is only by instigation of the wrongs of men that the rights of men become turbulent and dangerous." The force "of De- mocracy is the natural wish of the people to have a hand, it may be a controlling hand, in the management of their own affairs." "Democracy is not a danger, or if it were, it would only be a nobler school of manhood." Of course, it has its imperfections as every other government has, and is singularly open to logical ridicule. "Government by dis- cussion" is easily defined as "government by gabble," and the people as a mob. The vote may seem to be over-valued, but if so, it should not be refined, lest desire for it become for- midable. Democracy has a fine instinct in choosing men. "I have seen also the wisest statesman and most pregnant speaker of our generation, a man of humble birth and ungainly manners, of little culture beyond what his own genius supplied, beeeme more absolute in power than any monarch of modern times, through the reverence of his countrymen for his honesty, his wisdom, his sincerity, his faith in God and man." Mr. Lowell, after stating that he feared socialism unless it were met by a nearer approach to equality of conditions, added that he had little fear of violent changes. "Things in possession have a very firm grip." "In the scales of the destinies, brawn will never weigh so much as brain," a remark with which it will be remembered Frederick the Great did not coincide. The whole lecture, which we cannot condense, is full of pungent sayings, and we have tried elsewhere to point out its weak place.
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