CONISTON

By Winston Churchill

"We have been compelled to see what was weak in democracy as well as
what was strong. We have begun obscurely to recognize that things
do not go of themselves, and that popular government is not in
itself a panacea, is no better than any other form except as the
virtue and wisdom of the people make it so, and that when men
undertake to do their own kingship, they enter upon, the dangers and
responsibilities as well as the privileges of the function. Above
all, it looks as if we were on the way to be persuaded that no
government can be carried on by declamation."

--JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.




BOOK I



CHAPTER I

First I am to write a love-story of long ago, of a time some little while
after General Jackson had got into the White House and had shown the
world what a real democracy was. The Era of the first six Presidents had
closed, and a new Era had begun. I am speaking of political Eras. Certain
gentlemen, with a pious belief in democracy, but with a firmer