more to be deprecated than making it the private interest of a number of active persons to urge the form of government in the direction of its natural perversion. The indications which either a multitude or an individual can give when merely left to their own weaknesses, afford but a faint idea of what those weaknesses would become when played upon by a thousand flatterers. If there were 658 places of certain, however moderate emolument, to be gained by persuading the multitude that ignorance is as good as knowledge, and better, it is terrible odds that they would believe and act upon the lesson."--(Article in _Fraser's Magazine_ for April, 1859, headed "Recent Writers on Reform.")]
[Footnote 8: Not always, however, the most recondite; for one of the latest denouncers of competitive examination in the House of Commons had the _näiveté_ to produce a set of almost elementary questions in algebra, history, and geography, as a proof of the exorbitant amount of high scientific attainment which the Commissioners were so wild as to exact.]
[Footnote 9: On Liberty, concluding chapter; and, at greater length, in the final chapter of "Principles of Political Economy."]
[Footnote 10: Mr. Calhoun.]
[Footnote 11: I am speaking here of the _adoption_ of this improved policy, not, of course, of its original suggestion. The honor of having been its earliest champion belongs unquestionably to Mr. Roebuck.]