An Addrefs Delivered in the Town Hall Birmingham By the Hon. James Russell Lowell American Minister in AL 2395. 697 Copyright 1886 and 1890 by James Russell Lowell HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY NOTE T HE address on Democracy was given by Mr. Lowell at Birmingham, England, 6 October, 1884, on assuming the presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Institute. It will be observed that this was near the close of Mr. Lowell's term as Minister to England; indeed, at a time when all the signs pointed to the election of Mr. Cleveland, an event which would quite certainly mean a change of ministers. Four years of friendly intercourse with Englishmen and Englishwomen, and of a somewhat more intimate acquaint ance with the springs of government than falls to the lot of the mere lookeron; not only that, but the advantage which an alienated American has of viewing his country from a new vantage-ground, for distance in space has some of the properties of distance in time, and an American in Europe has almost the point of view of an American of the next century—all this may well have led Lowell to reflect on the fundamentals of politics, and have served to give point to his reflections when he came to give this address. Moreover, the place where he was to speak reminded him of that great industrial factor which enters so powerfully into modern conceptions of the state. |