Martin is laborious and conscientious, and does
not tell a story ill; but he is a partisan and is always biassed by his
own likings and dislikings. He belongs to the class of theorists,
unfortunately not a small one, whose political _beau ideal_ is the
absence of all control over the will of the people-who are opposed
therefore to an hereditary monarchy-to a permanent President--to a
permanent magistracy-to an established Church--in short, to all
privileged classes, bodies, or institutions. Equality, not liberty or
security, is their object. They are centralisers and absolutists. A
despotic Assembly elected by universal suffrage, sitting at most for a
year, governing, like the Convention, through its committees, or a single
despot, appointed for a week, and not re-eligible, is the sort of ruler
that they would prefer. The last five years have perhaps disgusted Martin
with his Asiatic democracy, but his earlier volumes are coloured
throughout by his prejudices against all systems implying a division of
power, and independent authorities controlling and balancing one
another.'
We talked of the Secret Police.
'It has lately,' said Tocqueville, 'been unusually troublesome, or rather
it has been troublesome to a class of persons whom it seldom ventures to
molest.
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