order to mulct society, and whose intelligence and prudence are superior to those of the proletariat.” (Hyslop on _Democracy_, pp. 248, 249.) The reader now understands that there was no exaggeration in the statement heretofore made and repeated in this book that the government of this country is entirely in the hands of a political oligarchy. This being the case, what is the vote worth to a fair-minded independent American citizen, living in New York, Chicago or Boston, or in any one of the hundreds of cities in the land? What is the actual value to the unpropertied American of the yearly privilege of voting, which the twaddlers and the politicians keep saying is “inestimable”? Absolutely nothing except for purposes of sale to the politicians. This statement may be sweeping, but it is true. The boasted gift of the ballot has become a mockery to every honest man by being made the mere vehicle or form by which are registered the decrees and appointments of venal and corrupt political cliques. The only remedy lies in the destruction of the oligarchy of politicians, and of this there is no hope or prospect while the system of manhood suffrage continues to produce the controllable vote. “Experience (says Bagehot) proved what our theories suggest, that the enfranchisement of the corruptible is in truth the establishment of corruption. The lesson of the whole history indubitably is, that it is in vain to lower the level of political representation beneath the level of political capacity; that below that level you may easily give nominal power, but cannot possibly give real power; that at best you can give the vague voice to an unreasoning instinct; that in general you only give the corruptible an opportunity to become corrupt.” (_History of the Unreformed Parliament_, 1860.)