THE FIRST DUTY OF THE CITIZEN. If free institutions confer advantages, they also entail responsibilities. The bourgeois of Paris can devote himself exclusively to his private business or pleasure, for all his interests are under the control of a strongly centralized government, to which he looks for the regulation of the minutest concerns of his political existence ; and he knows that a change in the administration of public affairs is only to be accomplished by barricades and bayonets. The Austrian subject, under the paternal despotism of the Hapsburgs, pays his taxes, performs his allotted term of military duty, and then can give his undivided energies to securing the bodily or mental necessities of existence. We, who boast that our mission is to demonstrate the capacity of man for self-government, have a larger and a nobler sphere of action. Have we fully understood the nature of the task which we have undertaken, and are we properly discharging the duties connected with it ? “ The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” The saying has become so trite as to have lost its significance to the ear, yet it is none the less a truth of the deepest import. In a republic, no man, however engrossing may be his business, and however ardent his pursuit of gain or pleasure, can afford to neglect the duty of active participation in public affairs. We have proved ourselves recreant to the trusts confided to us, and the result is to be seen around us. For years the intelligent, the educated, the disinterested portion of the community has been withdrawning itself more and more completely from the details and management of politics. Most men have felt a qualified interest in elections, have voted with one party or the other,
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