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A Third Letter to Ambrose Lisle Phillipps From John, Earl of Shrewsbury, Chiefly in Reference to His Former Letter 'on the Present Posture of
A Third Letter to Ambrose Lisle Phillipps From John Earl of Shrewsbury Chiefly in Reference to His Former Letter 'on the Present Posture of Author:John Talbot Title: A Third Letter to Ambrose Lisle Phillipps ... From John, Earl of Shrewsbury, Chiefly in Reference to His Former Letter 'on the Present Posture of Affairs'. General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1842 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or ... more »missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: To risk the derangement of such a system as that by which we are now governed, after the re- especially if they be also rich. They, on their part, have still less inclination to seek any such employment. Public offices are little lucrative, confer little power, and offer no guarantee of permanency : almost any other career holds out better pecuniary prospects to a man of ability and enterprise; nor will instructed men stoop to those mean arts, and those compromises of their private opinions, to which their less distinguished competitors willingly resort. The depositories of power, after being chosen with little regard to merit, are, partly perhaps for that very reason, frequently changed. The rapid return of elections, and even a taste for variety, M. de Tocqueville thinks, on the part of electors (a taste not unnatural wherever little regard is paid to qualifications), produces a rapid succession of new men in the legislatures, and in all public posts. Hence, on the one hand, great instability in the laws -- every new comer desiring to do something in the short time which he has; while, on the other hand, there is no political carriere -- statesmanship is not a profession. There is no body of persons educated for public business, pursuing it as their occupation, and who transmit from one to another the results of their experience. There are no traditions, no science or art of public affairs. A functionary knows little, and cares less, about ...« less