Are We A "gentle " Nation?

Loyal and level-lïeaded Auierieans may find opportunity for lionest and wholesome reflectjon in the jurnpingjack politica] displays of the last ten or twelve years. It was a man commonly regarded as nioderately wise who said 'as in uotbing is a gentleman better to ue discerned from a vulgar person, so in nothing is a gentle nation better to be discerned from a mob than in this, - Iliat tlieii' feelings are constant and just, restilts of (hie contemplation, and of equal thonght." Nów, irrespective of the tnith of either republican or cratic principies, it may be trutlifully said that the American nation has of late years been forniing ami changing its opinions in a marmer that would th'row tiiis uatiiin out of the category of "rrentle" nationa as proposed by Mr. Raskin. AVhile tlioughtfulnesa and studioushess in public affaire are eminently desirable in any nation they are not necessarily synonymous with repeated, sudden and violent politica! chances. These recent, revolutions in pulilical sentiment in this country do not result froni '"due contemplation and equal thoiight." They Beem on the other hand to be the result of spasmodic and unreaaonable thinking. Intact, by ils numerous pólitical deraonstrations, the American people has praticallv acknowledged that it has made a miatake. And the most discouraging feature of the matter is that there ia no warrant against future sudden oscillationa of the public brain. What is to lic done to ateady the pólitical cerebrura? Tlie diseased matter of the brain must be discarded. There should be some regulation or rostriction of the contemplativo organs. In other words j the causes of our pólitical lunacy must be eliminated. There are doubtless niany can-es. One of the chief ones is the too rapid aesimihttion by us of the I foreign "element. Trhough ournaturalization and electoral franchise laws we make room in thenational mind for the thought that is utterly rejected by the best nationsand governments of Europe. Tt is partly, at least, by this means that the American people bas of late years become visionary and uncertain in its pólitical thought. It should go no farther. The national brain ought at once tobe cleared up. To this end two policies should be instituted. Our legisI a tors should tighten the immigration laws, and we should at the same time increase the requirements for exercising the electoral privilege. Therein lies American freedom f rom the reign of mob ideas - ideas that are founded on the momentary feelings of the unintelligent masses, not on the calm and meditale 1. reasoned and reasonabie, conclusions of the competent and politically educated people.