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stables, sheriffs, or bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the realm." All the great subsequent uprisings of English history were directed in part against certain other abuses of the corrupt patronage system. The Tyler and Cade Rebellions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the great Civil War, the expulsion of James II., the overthrow of Walpole, the failure of George III.'s attempt at personal government, each marked a higher standard of public sentiment on the question. Between 1820 and 1870, the great modern civil service reform orders were passed, resulting in the final establishment of open competition for over 80,000 positions under the English government. Opportunities for corrupt practices in connection with appointment to office are, of course, not entirely excluded even by so thoroughgoing a system as that which now exists in England, but they are few and unimportant indeed compared to the possibilities of selfish abuses under former régimes.

It is by no means necessary to review the whole sweep of a nation's history in order to observe the discarding of old, and the evolution of newer and usually less dangerous forms of corruption. Such a career as that of Tweed would be impossible in any American city to-day. The crude methods he employed, raising bills, throwing contracts to members of the Ring, keeping false books, delaying financial reports, would certainly and

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promptly send any one who attempted them at the present time to the penitentiary. Indeed no small part of existing municipal legislation can be traced back to the specific misdeeds of Tweed and others of his ilk. On the other hand it must be admitted. that the ablest corruptionists sometimes show skill little short of genius in devising new schemes to avoid the pitfalls of existing law and in keeping always just beyond the grasp of new enactments. Mr. Steffens tells a story of Chris Magee, former boss of Pittsburgh, to the effect that he visited and made a most careful study of the machines of Philadelphia and New York and particularly of their defects, finally returning to his own city with the conviction that a "ring could be made as safe as a bank." In this field, as in the ethics of business management and elsewhere, there will probably always be a running duel between anti-social action and legislation designed to check it. Novel methods of corruption will constantly require novel methods of correction. In the nature of the case. the law will usually be slightly behind the artifices of the most skilful corruptionists: abuses must exist and be felt as such before the government can successfully define and punish them. On the other hand this constant development of the law should make corrupt practices increasingly difficult for the less gifted rascals who must always constitute the great majority of would-be offenders. As things 1"The Shame of the Cities," p. 152.

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are now the ignorant heeler, and even the crooked tool who has received an ordinary education, realise that they cannot play the game alone. Their only hope of escaping the penitentiary is in the service of the machine whose leaders understand the legal requirements of the situation, and possess the skill or influence necessary to circumvent them. While the consequences of corruption must in general be weakening and disintegrating, their full import may be concealed or postponed owing to the limitation of the evil condition to certain branches or spheres of government which for the time being are not called upon to function to their full capacity. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, but it may serve very well so long as no great tensile strain is applied to it. The military arm of a government otherwise honest and efficient might conceivably become well nigh paralysed by corruption without any particular evil consequences so long as hostilities were avoided. All the more terrible, on the other hand, would be the awakening in case of the advent of war. The reverse case is suggested by Tennyson:

"Let your reforms for a moment go!

Look to your butts and take good aims!
Better a rotten borough or so

Than a rotten fleet and a city in flames!"

Here the point is that a corrupt local government need occasion little or no disadvantage during a

state of war provided the army can be relied upon thoroughly. Further the poet warns against agitation for the reform of internal abuses lest it might weaken the country in the presence of a foreign foe. Doubtless both points are well taken so far as an immediate emergency is concerned. If war is not imminent, however, that government would certainly be making the best preparation against future trouble which sought to establish the highest standard of honesty in both its civil and military services. Thus the Freiherr vom Stein immeasurably strengthened Prussia for the final conflict with Napoleon by reforming the rotten boroughs of his country and appealing on the basis of this reform to the patriotism of the liberal classes of his fellow citizens. Moreover there would seem to be little real danger of urging internal reforms so violently during periods of warfare as to cripple military strength. Of course if a government has been reduced to the last extremity of unpopularity by past mismanagement, revolutionists might take advantage of a declaration of war to tear it to pieces, hailing foreign troops as allies rather than opponents. In the more advanced countries of the modern world, however, the spirit of nationality and patriotism is so highly developed that internal reforms are instantly relegated to the background at the least threat of foreign embroilment. To such peoples the poet's adjuration to

Let reforms for a moment go "

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is hardly needed.

Definite instances of corruption affecting certain spheres or departments of government particularly may readily be suggested. There is much that is significant in the corruption of the judicial officials of China. Ultimately they became so rapacious that merchants feared to come before them, preferring to leave commercial differences to be settled by the arbitration of officers of guilds of which the business men themselves were members. Thus corruption of one social organ may lead to its atrophy and the corresponding strengthening of another social organ which takes over the functions of the former. Assuming that the function is as well performed in the second case, the internal life of the whole structure in which the transition

takes place may be very little affected except while the change is going on. If, however, the state is continually weakened by such transfers while at the same time the functions remaining to it become rotten with corruption it may finally reach the condition of abject defencelessness which China has shown in its relations with other nations.

Another very curious case of corruption limited to certain spheres of government is furnished by Japan. In his authoritative work on that country,'

1"Japan, Its History, Arts, and Literature," by Captain F. Brinkley, vol. iv, p. 250 et seq.

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